Boring stuff unless you're trying to sell a house

A thousand varieties of green.  The subtropics in summer after rain.  In winter it's a dozen shades of bleh, but once the rains come, one could gather together all the green varieties of paint, coloured pencils, pastels and inks, use them alone or in a thousand combinations and still not record every green nuance seen from this one window. 

Next day:  We've done it.  Dropped the price on the house.  Suppose many people have an inflated idea of what their house is worth.  I was certain this would sell for $419,000.  Heck, I thought it'd sell for $475,000.  Wrong wrong wrong.  So now it is $399,000 or will be when the realtors get around to changing the price.  Now it had better sell.  In April it will have been two years on the market.  That long and prospective buyers wonder what's wrong with the place.   Not a thing.  It's a little piece of paradise and everyone who has been here comments on how beautiful it is, inside and out.  Even people who came and didn't buy it. 

Have to admit I've been stubborn about it.  We could've sold it for $395,000 (the value of hindsight) but I was certain of it's worth.  Now I have to come off my high horse and admit I was wrong (something I'm no good at).  The property, as much as I love it, needs to go so we may go.  And to do that we may have to take substantially less than planned. 

Richard is also a sticking point.  "Four hundred thousand no less" was his mantra.  Had to convince him that we would still be okay financially if less money is accepted.  We do need money in the bank and we do need money for perhaps a dog fence around the house, a shed perhaps, tank replacement, who knows?  We'll just have to  play it by ear.

I'm going this weekend to Currumbin to catch up with Helen and have a mini-break.  Am trying to organize an inspection of the Cobaki house (http://www.realestate.com.au/property-acreage+semi-rural-nsw-cobaki-120545057 ).  Wasn't going to look at any more houses until we had a solid offer/contract on this one but why waste a trip?  Am so SO looking forward to seeing the sea.  Tried to explain this need to Kathy but as she has an aversio to water, I may as well try to be convinced of the cuddliness of spiders by an arachnophile. 

'Alone, alone, all all alone', so says the Ancient Mariner and so says me.  At least for today.  R has gone to Toowoomba to catch up with a friend.  Don't often have a chance to be on my own so am
enjoying the freedom of time squandered just as I please.  I have pleased with a ride, reading (The Good German by Joseph Kanon, a whodunnit set in postwar Berlin), yoga, lunch (leftover vegan caesar salad followed by five! homemade - by moi - almond meal cookies), while listening to the Swoon Countdown of the Top 100 on ABC. 

Coleridge's quotation from the Ancient Mariner.  Am more than a third of the way through memorizing it.  And it's true, the brain is a muscle.  Still difficult to learn each new stanza but not nearly as hard as before.  Every day or so I recite it from the beginning.  Do omit the occasional quatrain or put them in the wrong order but generally not too bad.

Began this as an exercise in memory but it has had unlooked for benefits in that I am daily transported to the horror and beauty of the Ancient Mariner.  Because I have to buckle down and really think about it I am getting much more from the poem than I did from the first casual reading. 

American education, at least the education I had in public schools in Michigan and Florida, is not heavy on the classics.  Remember being envious of a boy in my homeroom class who was taking Latin.  Girls weren't allowed.   Now I very much doubt Latin is taught at all in public.  Am Australian friend of mine  said each semester they studied a different Shakespeare play.  I never studied Shakespeare.  We learned about the man, touched upon some sonnets and moved on.   Never ever cracked a book on Coleridge.  Or Wordsworth or Byron or Shelley or Donne.  Guess it's never too late.

Just danced (because I can) to the Flower Song from Lakme.  It amazes me that we are capable of such beauty, beauty bordering on the divine, at the same time as we seem to prefer and seek out the ugly and profane (and by profane, not being Christian or religious I don't mean it in a religious sense, but as an affront to Life and the Living Force which animates us).  Wonder what the Cults of Hatred would do if they thought about their Breath, and the cessation of such.  Anyway.  Not going to dwell on that here.  Was just nice to let the music fill me with Life and Love and dance like no one was watching.  And no one was, except for Matisse and he didn't care one way or another.

Had two lots of people view the house in less than a week.  First couple totally unsuited.  The less said about them the better.  The second couple, very suitable.  Best of all they are interested.  The usual thing however, their house has to sell before they are in a position to buy ours - somewhat similar to the position we're in! 

Happily however, I've stopped stressing so much about it.  Went through a period (or several periods) of wanting the house to sell too much.  Was even going to write a post about it; is it better to just Let Go knowing all will work out as it should be, or should one utilize quantum mechanics and think (knowing thoughts are things) one's future into being.  A question for another time.