Random Shots: Explaining The Hiatus

• When I announced in my last post that Bullet Points was going dark for a while, I dropped a lot of news that I had previously only shared in limited ways. Since I can never remember who I've told what to, I figured I might as well explain what is going on.


• Having A Baby - Let's lead off with the best news because it colors all of the rest. My wife and I are having a baby girl. She is due here around March 8. Which means she could be here any time. We are really looking forward to seeing her for the first time and have been spending a lot of time (and money!) on preparations. On its own, this news would be enough to make me step back from blogging for a while. Life, though, had other plans.


• The City Is Taking My House - We live about five houses down from a railroad crossing on a fairly high traffic street. Because emergency services use our street a lot, having a railroad crossing that is closed several times a day is a problem. So a couple years ago the city announced a plan to build a grade separation so that the street can pass under the railroad. And in order to do so, they need to take twenty-one houses. One of those is ours. We actually look at this as a good thing because we have been wanting a new house. But the city has left us waiting for a long time. Right until this January in fact. Their timing was impeccable.


• Buying A New House - Of course, that leaves us in a position where we need to shop for a new home while my wife is 38 weeks pregnant. Awesome. We're actually in a position to find a nice house and plan for it with the baby in mind. But working with the city, relocation consultant, realtor, and lender is a headache we don't need right now.


• The Break In - About a month ago, the same week the city made its offer for our house, someone broke in during the day and stole our television and my wife's laptop computer. The animals were all safe and still inside, but the frame of our front door was a mess. They didn't take much, but it was enough to shake us both up considerably. As if we needed any more excuse to want out of our house.


• The Break In, Part Two - Since the hiatus started, someone tried to break in again this last Monday. Lucky or unlucky as you look at it, my wife was home and was able to scare them off by calling 911. My nine month pregnant wife. You know, it just gets old after a while. Wherever we move, I suspect we will be hardening the portals like it was a fortress.


• Many Hospital Trips - Not going into this much other than to say having various illnesses and injuries in the middle of all the rest of this mess has not helped.


• This all feels like that long November that lasted well into 2010 where so many things went wrong for us. I hope it passes soon and our life, even with a new baby, calms down a little bit.


• The hiatus continues.