Gratz Industries Has Relocated!

At long last, our corporate offices have moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Bakersville, North Carolina, near Penland School of Crafts. It's been an exasperating experience to say the least - on TOP of the usual pressures of moving.

First, well, how to put it? We couldn't get everything we owned on the dang truck. If I hadn't been so mad and so completely dog-tired, I would have pulled out the camera to document it for you. But I was, and I didn't. We ended up stacking a bunch of our seasonal stuff and our four metal deck chairs outside under the cover of the metal roof that shields the deck on our old home, and now I'm going to have to return for the stuff when I'm back in Georgia to do a library visit next week.

Here in North Carolina we had a beautiful day for unpacking. We were able to pull the truck right up to the front door and load right into the house too, so we had no up and down the ramp. Check it out:


See that big empty front yard? That's where we're going to build our new house. SOON. And here's Jo on the moving bridge:

So while we were unloading the truck, we accidentally broke a huge round mirror that goes to a bureau in Jo's room. And I mean we SMASHED it. It completely blew up.

Now, if we were superstitious folks, we would say we just bought ourselves seven years of bad luck at our new home. But we're not superstitious folks.

It took all day, and it wore us out . . .

But we finally got everything into the house. Thankfully, the owners had emptied out all the junk that had been sitting in the house. UNfortunately, they just dumped it in the yard:

Thanks. Thanks very much. *I* could have done that. But at least I didn't have to do it while we were moving in, I guess.

So, remember, we're not superstitious folks. So when we were returning the truck to Johnson City, Tennessee, (an hour and a half drive!) and we got a call from our mortgage lender and were told that we would not be able to close the next day, as we had once planned, we didn't chalk it up to a completely unrelated broken mirror.

Nor did we get suspicious when our new electric oven from Lowe's caught on fire and had to be replaced.

Or when a pipe burst under the house and we had no water for a day.

Or when the fuel oil started to leak and we had to turn off the heat the day after that. And when we had it repaired, we learned the tank was almost empty.

Or Wendi's sudden dental emergency, with the nearest dentist on our plan in Johnson City, and the earliest they can see her May 1st.

And we've been here exactly one week.

Then yesterday, perhaps tempting fate, I attempted to have a fire in our fireplace . . .

And it worked just fine.

Seriously, we don't blame all these things on a broken mirror. I blame instead the renters who lived in this place before we did. They abused the heck out of the place, and we're just cleaning up their mess.

I suppose the renters can't be blamed for the oven catching on fire. Or for Wendi's toothache. But there is such a thing as coincidence.

We'd just prefer that the odd coincidences stop now, thank you.