A very strange thing

There are many new developments in our lives. I have wanted to move to a small town ever since I lived in Fallbrook, CA during my Navy days. Well, recently, Jill and I decided it's now or never to make our move. We were in Monmouth, visiting Pat and Katie a couple of weeks ago. They took us to Dallas (no, not that Dallas...I mean the real Dallas...Oregon...population 14,000) for breakfast.

Jill found a house on line that looked intriguing, and the kids took us by to see what it looked like in person. It has the shop/RV garage that we have been wanting. The house is a 1950s ranch style that has been updated a good deal. The downside is that it sits on the main road into Dallas...way too much traffic.

The seed was planted, though. On our way home from our visit with the kids, we talked the whole way (an hour and 15 minutes' drive) about the fact that we are not getting any younger and that we would like to be closer to at least one of our kids (and eventual grand kids). I recalled my Mom telling me that she regrets she and Dad never moved to Joseph, a small town in eastern Oregon near where Dad grew up. That was Dad's dream, but he never got to live it.

The die was cast. We came home and began cleaning up the house so that it would be marketable. We made a trip back to Dallas to cruise by a bunch of homes we found for sale on the internet. We made an appointment with Sylvia, a realtor in Dallas, to see the inside of several of them. We called our "realtor for life," who has sold three prior homes for us and a few before that for Jill, in her pre-Tom existence. Last Friday we sat down with him and went over the listing process.

On Monday our house was listed for sale, a foolish move, indeed, given that the real estate market has been depressed for a couple of years now. Nevertheless, on the market it went. On Tuesday morning, Steve (read "realtor for life") called to see if it would be OK to show the house that evening. "Of course," I said.

Fast forward 24 hours. Steve called again. (Now this is the very strange thing.)
"Hello," says I.
"It's Steve," says he.
"Hi, Steve, what's up?"
"How about a full price offer?"
"That would be nice."
"You got one!"

We were five minutes from leaving the house to fly to San Diego for a visit with our grandsons (and their parents, too). So, Steve and I agreed that we would have him fax the paperwork, and we would fax it back with our signatures appended. And so we did.

Now, the pressure is on. Find a house or be homeless as of June 19th! Now where did I leave Sylvia's phone number?