12-31-19, 11:00 PM at home –
Looks like we’re going to make it to the Year of Perfect Vision, Loop. 2020 in another hour.
Oddly, that actually did sound like some sort of accomplishment.
Lupe snuggled closer, staring at SPHP with worried, mournful eyes. SPHP petted her. For 2 hours, she had been able to hear fireworks now and then. Ever since a terrifying experience with fireworks when Loop was a puppy, even distant gunfire, or any sort of bang or explosion made her want to hide.
The early New Year’s fireworks were making the Carolina Dog nervous, but they weren’t why she was mournful. Life had become dreadfully dull. SPHP didn’t do anything with her anymore. Maybe it was time for a new SPHP? Apparently the old one was about shot.
It had all started a few days before Lupe’s birthday. Nothing much, just a tickle in SPHP’s throat. By the time Lupe turned 9 on December 14th, the tickle was a “chest cold”. Some days SPHP seemed to get better, but the overall trend was worse. More and more coughing, choking up more and more ghastly phlegm.
Even so, until recently SPHP had been up and about almost like normal. The only real difference was that Lupe hadn’t been on a single Black Hills Expedition since November. On Christmas Day there had been a short trip to visit Felix and Asher, but the next day SPHP felt chilled and had taken to bed.
Could barely eat or drink anything at all. Everything sounded terrible, or made more phlegm. For days now, SPHP had just slept or laid there coughing. Meanwhile, Lupe suffered almost completely ignored, waiting endlessly for SPHP to get better.
Surely SPHP would get better! SPHP was hardly ever sick. Confidence had been at least slightly shaken, though. Ever since the 26th, SPHP had been coughing up more and more blood.
Made it to 2020, but the Year of Perfect Vision was about to get off to a rough start.
1-2-20, Urgent Care – Everyone had been wrong. Doctor said both lungs clear. SPHP didn’t have pneumonia. Merely “acute bronchitis”. No big deal. Zithromax was going to do the trick. 6 pills over 5 days. Easy!
1-7-20 – Lo and behold, the Zithromax actually did work! Nowhere near 100% yet, but definitely much improved. Not coughing so much. Far less blood. Still some pretty dull days for the American Dingo, but SPHP was up and about at least part of the time now. Everyone had been wrong about the pneumonia thing, but they’d been right about going to see the doctor.
Lesson learned! Eh, maybe.
1-25-20 – Still no new adventures in the Black Hills, even though SPHP was almost completely well now. The Carolina Dog never did get to visit New Year’s Eve Peak (6,046 ft.) this year. At least today was going to be better. SPHP said she was going to get to go to Grandma’s house. Lupe hadn’t been there in more than a month. She was all excited!
Mush and David were at Grandma’s house when Lupe arrived. Christy, a friend of theirs was, too! The more, the merrier! Except it wasn’t. Strange things had been happening out at Grandma’s house ever since 2018. Now that 2020 was here, something was definitely wrong.
Mush and David’s pickup and big horse trailer were in the driveway. Hours of commotion. Lots of Grandma’s things were being loaded into the trailer. Even SPHP was in on it. Two trips. By the end of the day, Grandma wasn’t at home anymore. She had moved to a big building where Dingoes weren’t allowed in, a “senior living center”. No fun at all!
The only good things today were riding in the truck, and a trip with SPHP to the cul-de-sac.
1-27-20 – Guess we better get at it, Looper. Pretty much up to us now.
What did that mean? Turned out it meant a trip to Grandma’s old house every single day. Suddenly Lupe was getting to go out there 7 days a week, unless there was a big snow. Sadly, Grandma was never there. No one was. It was adventures in getting Grandma’s house ready for sale! Cleaning, painting, various projects and repairs, new carpets, disposing of everything still in the house or garage – all of Grandma’s treasures that she no longer had room for and couldn’t keep any more.
Dullsville! Most of the time literally adventures in watching paint dry.
Oh, there were some good things about it. Better than acute bronchitis, that was for sure. Riding in the G6 was fun! Every day Lupe got to bark at the gas pipeline, cows, and deer on the way out there and back. Sometimes there were trips to stores for supplies.
Every morning Loop got to go around the house to sniff the air and see the canyon out back. Usually at least a couple more times during the day, too, just as a break from the paint drying drudgery. Sometimes SPHP threw the squeaker ball for her.
SPHP worked on the rooms one at a time. The first one done was the big family room in the basement.
Some of Grandma’s things had to be sold. SPHP washed her car. Lanis helped by placing the ad for it. Lupe got to star as Adventure Used Cars sales representative. On Valentine’s Day, two men came to look at it. They bought it the next day.
Sometimes it snowed. The canyon looked especially beautiful then.
Whenever the weather turned nice, SPHP switched to outdoor projects. Those were more fun! Loopster could roam around.
Gradually rooms were getting done. In early March, men came to install new carpets in the 2 N bedrooms. Most other rooms had already gotten new floor coverings in 2019. Grandma had known all along that sooner or later she would be moving. She just hadn’t known exactly when.
The house still wasn’t done, though. 2 more weeks went by. The living and dining rooms were the last ones SPHP painted.
For nearly 2 months now, the grand highlight of every day had been at least one walk up to the cul-de-sac at the end of the road. Lupe had been up to the cul-de-sac almost every time she’d visited Grandma ever since she’d been a tiny puppy.
Naturally, when the last of the painting was done on 3-19-20, she went up to the cul-de-sac yet again.
The house still wasn’t done. A few more days, though, and it would be.
The next to the last day was dark and snowy. As Lupe headed up to the cul-de-sac again near the end of the day, the frozen scene fit in with the general mood. Nearly 2 months spent on this house project. Perhaps it had all been for naught?
In those 2 months, the world had changed. The coronavirus had come to America. People were getting sick and dying. Millions more were losing their jobs as states deliberately started shutting down their economies. The stock market was plunging. Talk of not only a recession, but maybe a depression. Grandma might have been better off sticking a for sale sign in the yard the day after she moved while the market was still strong.
Or maybe never moving away at all. A month after she’d made the move, the senior living center clamped down. Precautions against the virus. No outside visitors allowed. Only staff and residents. Lately the residents had been confined to their apartments. No more socializing in the big dining room, which had been one of the reasons to move in the first place. Once a day, someone brought Grandma a big meal. Other than that, she was a virtual prisoner of the coronavirus.
Of course, Looper didn’t know any of this. This dark trip to the cul-de-sac was just a fun walk at the end of another otherwise dull day!
The next day was sunny and bright. The snow was melting fast. Beneath the pines, it felt like it was raining. By noon, Grandma’s house was all done. That afternoon, SPHP obtained permission from the senior living center to take Grandma back to see the house she’d lived in for more than a third of a century for the last time.
Grandma thought the house had never been so beautiful! At least that was something good.
The preparation was done. Now to sell the home! A Realtor had been in touch with SPHP. She said she had clients who were very interested in Grandma’s house. Over the course of several days, a market analysis was prepared. A fair price was set. Permission was granted to show the property. The Realtor got her buyer clients out there the very next day.
A day later, the Realtor emailed SPHP. Her clients loved the view, but the house was dated. They didn’t want to remodel it. No offer.
Well, it was true. It was an old lady’s house. It did need remodeling. Grandma was too old to want to do it.
4-1-20 – The Year of Perfect Vision, and everything was crazy! Should have been the perfect time of year to put a home on the market, yet this year maybe it was the worst? No one really knew what was going to happen. Most of the nation, but not South Dakota, was enduring mandatory shutdowns and stay at home orders. As the economy got worse, the Federal Reserve was spending trillions of dollars. Congress and the President, too. More people dying, millions more losing their jobs every week. The stock market, which had just collapsed, was now soaring.
Grandma wanted the house sold, not just “for sale”. Cut the price 10% and get rid of it. April 1st, but she wasn’t fooling. It was cold, windy and tiny snowflakes were flying when Lupe and SPHP met with Realtor Walt out at Grandma’s house this afternoon. First sign of the approaching blizzard. The paperwork blizzard! Walt soon left, and Lupe insisted on going to the cul-de-sac.
4-10-20 – Grandma’s house had been entered into MLS on April 6th at the new lower price. Tons of showings! Feedback all the same. Everyone loved the canyon view, big yard, size of the home, and 3 car garage. Everyone hated the old cabinets, countertops and fixtures. “Potential”, but too much work. No interest.
Until today. An offer! Even lower than Grandma’s new price, but a cash offer. Grandma said yes. 4 days on the market! That was fast!
Of course, the sale still wasn’t done. Another paperwork blizzard. Inspections, more repairs, title insurance, a deed, questions about this and that, but gradually it was all falling into place. Still trips out to Grandma’s house and the cul-de-sac, but fewer and fewer of them. SPHP started working on The (Mostly) True Adventures of Lupe again. The American Dingo finally had new posts coming out for the first time many weeks.
4-29-20 – The closing date had been moved up to May 1st. Lupe and SPHP returned to mow the lawn.
4-30-20 – Almost the end! SPHP had to read a gauge on the propane tank. Of course, that meant another trip to Grandma’s house and the cul-de-sac.
Once back at Grandma’s house, Lupe went to see the canyon again.
5-1-20 – Last chance to see it all again! In a few more hours, Grandma’s house would belong to someone else. Lupe arrived very early in the morning. No work or projects to do this time. For the last time, Loop and SPHP walked up to the cul-de-sac. Hard to believe this was it.
Today a special adventure was waiting for Lupe back at Grandma’s house. Over the years, she had occasionally ventured down into Spring Creek Canyon all the way to Spring Creek. Not every year, maybe half a dozen times in all.
Going down to Spring Creek and back wasn’t a long adventure. An hour would be enough.
Usually Spring Creek is underground in this part of the canyon. It only flows for a few weeks in the spring in wet years. Some years it never surfaces at all. However, Lupe found it running this morning. In fact, Spring Creek was looking great!
Lupe spent 10 minutes down by the creek. Fun to be here one last time! Soon the American Dingo was on her way back to Grandma’s house.
Back at Grandma’s, it was once around the yard, before a final inside tour. Lupe went briefly to every room. Everything was clean. It all still looked as good as SPHP had been able to make it.
Lupe had spent so many happy times here! Yet Grandma had moved on. Everything was gone. The moment had come. It was time for Lupe and SPHP to go, too.
By noon, Grandma didn’t own a house any more. SPHP stopped by the title company to pick up her check from the sale. Grandma was allowed out of the senior living center to go deposit the check at the bank, so Lupe got to see her for a little while.
Already the merry month of May! SPHP was well. Grandma’s house was sold. The world was still going nuts, and Lupe hadn’t been on a Black Hills Expedition in more than 5 months now. Yet SPHP said she probably wouldn’t get to resume her adventures until sometime in June. With all that had happened, SPHP was way too far behind on writing up her 2019 adventures!
5-24-20 – The grass was green! The air was sweet! New leaves on the trees. The world was as beautiful as ever. Summer was coming soon, but day after radiant day had drifted by. Six months now since the American Dingo’s last Black Hills Expedition. Grandma’s house and the cul-de-sac were but a memory. Lupe’s sole consolation was a daily trip to the park.
Adventures in watching paint dry really hadn’t cut it. Lupe was missing her old life of adventure, yet the Carolina Dog’s problems were nothing compared to the rest of the world.
Disease! Death! Shutdowns! Poverty! Murder! Protests! Riots! Arson! Looting!
2020 – The Year of Perfect Vision, and no one had seen what was coming.
Social distancing! Hah! Finally something we’re good at Loopster! Don’t you worry, if they open Canada and Alaska up again, you’ll soon be showing them some world class anti-social distancing! Even if they don’t open, there’s always Montana and Wyoming! Summer is upon us, Sweet Dingo!
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