Normally, my blogs are filled with the tales of our trips and journeys. This last year turned out very different.
With that being said, that meant that I had to put my house up for sale. At the end of February, after almost 20 years of living in Holland, I put my house up for sale. After 3 weeks, 4 open houses, and 15 couples viewing my house, I got an offer! Things were moving forward quicker than I thought and I was excited.
Around the same time, we had been planning on doing a big Europe trip in June. I was going to run a marathon in Norway on my birthday! We had planned on going on a 2-week trip, visiting Prague, Czech Republic; Budapest, Hungary; and Tromso, Norway. I got the plane tickets and had all of our rooms booked.
Then Covid hit. And it seemed like everything in my life came crumbling down.
This isn't actually the fault of Covid, but it's just another crappy thing that happened this year. A fun hobby I like to do in early spring is make syrup. I have done it for 3 years now and it's easy and fun and just when you're sick and tired of doing it, it's over for the year and you are left with some amazingly yummy and natural maple syrup. Anyway, I was boiling sap on the stove one day and I shut the stove off before I went to bed...or so I thought. Around 2am I was awakened by the fire alarm going off in the house. My eyes were watering and I was coughing violently. I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen. It looked like the exhaust of a jet engine was shooting smoke out of the top of the pot on my stove. Only then did I realize that I had not turned the burner to the 'OFF' position, but just slightly beyond to the "High" position. The burner was glowing red! I turned the burner off and pulled the pot off the stove and ran it into the garage. I then ran around the entire house opening all the windows and turning on fans to get the fire alarm to stop. After about 20 minutes of running around and clearing out the house, I went back into the garage to see what the inside of the pot looked like. All my hard work was gone. All the sap was gone and all that was left was a 1/4 inch of gooey burned sugar along the sides and the bottom of the pot. I was so devastated! The only good thing that came out of that, is that my house did not smell bad at all. For the next several days, my house, my clothes, me and the kitties all smelled like burnt marshmallow. I guess if your going to smell like something, burnt marshmallow isn't that bad, right?
Then in the beginning of March, things with my job went in the crapper. First of all, the CEO of my company 100% did not believe in Covid. No one was allowed to work from home. We all just stayed working with no safety provisions and no concern for anyone's well-being. There were several office workers that complained to HR and management, begging to be able to work from home because their spouse was compromised or their spouse worked at a hospital. The response from my CEO was this in a nutshell: No one will be allowed to work from home so stop complaining and by the way you are all laid off....except for management. Mid-March, about 80% of the entire company in Michigan was laid-off. The initial layoff we were told was for 2 weeks. We got our layoff papers and we were told that we could take our computers home to do work if we wanted. Gee, thanks.
Two weeks came and went. Then 2 more. By the end of April I was really worried that I was going to get let go permanently. so I started updating my resume and LinkedIn and I started aggressively looking for a job.
To make matters worse, things on my house slowed way down. The people who bought my house had to schedule an appraisal and an inspection. Both took a couple of weeks to complete. We signed papers and the tentative closing date was the end of April. As the end of April approached, we were not getting any kind of feedback from the buyers. Are you still interested in the house? Are we still closing on April 28th? No answer. Finally, I just told my realtor that I was done waiting and to have them sign a release to put the house back on the market. They did with no explanation. And on top of it, almost all of my belongings were packed up and ready for storage because I thought I was going to be moving out of my house at the end of April.
It was also around this time that we ended up calling off our European Trip. I know that seems like first world problems, but when you have thousands of dollars wrapped up into a trip, it's a pretty big deal to try and recoup that money. I had to fill out paperwork and beg and plead to get as much money back as possible from the airlines. We ended up getting vouchers and some money back. I just hope we can use the vouchers before they expire.
Things seemed to be pretty bleak for a while. Because I was supposed to move out at the end of April, I had canceled garbage, cable and had scheduled the POD to be picked up. Then the shut-down was extended. So, I had to move out my move-out date. Then the shut-down was extended again. Finally, I just gave up and decided that I was going to have to move in the middle of a pandemic. On Mother's Day, I texted my whole family to say Happy Mother's Day and to tell my sister that she would have to come and get the stuff I was storing for her for the last 8 years. She was mad I texted her on Mother's day and she was mad that I didn't give her enough time to plan to get their stuff. She told me to leave a key for Ryan to come into my house on Wednesday so he could get their things. I was like, "I will be here and can help Ryan load it up". Anyway, on that Wednesday, Ryan came to pick up their stuff. Gary and I had moved it all to the garage, so Ryan and I just had to move it to his truck. That's when I found out that Ryan had Friday off from work. Why all the drama about picking up their stuff on a weekday instead of the weekend, I'll never know.
That scenario rolls right into the next thing...My sister has decided to cut my mom and I out of her and her family's life. My dad and Sue are allowed in, Ryan's dad and I think most of Ryan's family are, but I'm not sure. At this point, I have no clue what her issues are anymore. All I know, is she has a lot of anger, resentment, rage and jealousy to unpack. A therapist told me there is nothing you can do until she decides to do something. If she want to cut me out fine, but I really feel bad for my mom. She is missing all this time with her only grandkids and she's going on 71 years old.
Anyway, The very next day after that unnecessary drama, I got the call that I was let go permanently from my job. On May 14th, I (along with around 30% of the office team), was let go because of Covid. I got a call that morning from my boss's boss and I knew it was bad news. The only good thing to come out of that, was that I was fully vested in the company's ESOP and I got 7 weeks of severance pay.
In addition, Because of Covid, now the condo was in jeopardy. All building had stopped and we didn't even know if the builder was going to be able to complete it. Also, because I was now newly unemployed, Gary and I didn't know if we would be able to qualify for a loan so we could purchase the condo. Plus, my house was now back on the market in the middle of a pandemic. I wouldn't have the down payment I needed towards the condo.
At this point, I couldn't take being in a 1/2 empty house any longer. I filled up what I could in my jeep, grabbed the kitties and went to Gary's house. That was the last time I slept at my house.
Then there's the extended family drama I just found out about. During all this time of being laid-off, I would frequently lose myself in a podcast called "So Dead". It's put on by a lady named Jen out of Lansing who talks about a lot of unsolved murders in Michigan or just weird happenings around Michigan. I started listening to one episode and she started talking about a small town called Middleton, Michigan where a guy went missing back in February of 2001. I thought, 'wow, that's weird, my whole family is from around that area'. She went on to talk about how this young, mentally challenged kid named Lenny rode his bike to work one day at the local gas station/truck stop and he never came home. There was some rumors about how he got in a tiff with his landlord over not paying rent or something....and something about his guns being taken illegally by his landlord. The landlord was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Lenny and they never found a body or seen this kid again. Then she mentions the landlords name: Roger Brown. At that time, I was driving and I pulled over as soon as I could to call my dad immediately. The guy she had just mentioned was my dad's cousin!
I called my dad and told him what I had just heard. This podcast blatantly calls my dad's cousin the murderer and it's out on the internet for everyone to listen to. The most shocking part was that for the last 20 years not a single, solitary person in my family had ever mentioned this event! I saw this guy many times over the years at family reunions! My dad's response was 'Yeah, I kind of remember something about it, but he was cleared by the police and nothing ever came of it'.
After peppering my mom, dad and my Aunt for anything that they could possibly remember, I really didn't have any further information then what Jen had said on the podcast. It was like I was living in the Twilight Zone or something.
Things are looking up....maybe?
I can't remember exactly what day it was now, but sometime after my home sale fell through and before I got permanently let go from my job I was getting ready to go for a run from my house. As I was getting ready to walk out the door, I saw what looked to be a girl and her parents walking around my house. At first I thought it was a home walk-through appointment that I had somehow missed or got the time wrong on. As I stood there in the kitchen, I thought...maybe I should just open the door.
I opened the door and introduced myself. I found out that the 'girl's' name was Amy and she had just moved back to the Holland area from Chicago to be closer to her parents. They were just randomly driving around the area looking for homes for sale. They saw my house for sale and since they saw the PODS container in the driveway they figured that no one was there and they would just walk around the house looking at it to see if it was something they would be interested in. I asked them if they wanted to just have a look at the house. They said sure and I took them around the house. Amy and her mom really thought the house was cute. Amy's dad asked me a lot of 'dad' questions, but since I had lived there for almost 20 years I knew everything about the house and I could talk to whatever he asked about. How old is the roof? How old is the furnace? Do you have city water and sewer? Not only was I able to answer all of his questions about the house, but for the 20 years I had lived there, I kept a 'house journal' with everything that I had ever had replaced or repaired on the house and how much it cost. I showed the family this notebook as well and told them that I was planning on giving it to the person who ended up buying my house.
At some point, the mom asked me where I worked and what I did. I told her I was currently laid off from my job. She told me that her other daughter was a technical recruiter and she would give her my information. She also told me straight up that they loved the house and I could expect an offer really soon. I was so appreciative for her kind words and the prospect of selling my house!
After we parted ways and I finally started my run, I got a call from her daughter! The mom had called her daughter right away and told her to contact me because she could tell I was 'good people' and that I would be a good engineering candidate! I couldn't believe it! We had a great conversation and once I got back, I emailed her my resume.
After just 2 weeks of my house being back on the market, I got 3 new offers. The highest offer was 2k over my asking price! It was from the family that I had let into my house and had showed them around. They told my realtor that what really clinched the deal was the fact that I knew everything about the house and had it all organized and recorded! I was so happy to sell the house to them as well! I ended up closing on June 12th.
Before closing on my house, I decided to sell my my Ms. Pac-Man arcade game. A friend of mine had given me the name of a guy who bought and fixed arcade games. He said that he would purchase the game from me. The day he came to pick it up, he backed into my driveway. As he was backing up, the lamp post along my driveway was in his blind spot. All of a sudden, I heard a crash. He had ran over the light pole! The metal had torn and it was completely laying on the ground. The funny thing is, I was so broken by Covid at this point that all I did was shrug and say, "oh well". My heart didn't beat fast...I didn't get upset....it was like I was dead. He got out of his car and was so apologetic. He offered to fix and pay for the light pole. I told him no worries at all. He got the game with no further incidents and paid me for the game and a new light pole. That weekend, Gary and I had to fix the pole, but it didn't take that long and it was good as new.
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| The last picture of my Ms. Pac-man and Sega game. |
Lucky for me, I had had the foresight to update my resume and my LinkedIn profile and I had started looking for a job and interviewing before I was permanently let go from my job at Royal.
A week before I closed on my house, I had had an online interview for a Product and Development Engineering position at Trendway in Holland. They made office furniture. Everyone seemed really great in the interview, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up because by this point I had already had a TON of rejections. After my interview, the HR manager said that the CEO of the company wanted to interview me as well. I was suppose to speak with him on Monday, June 15th. That morning I was all prepared to speak with him when I got a call from the HR manager. My heart was pumping out of my chest, I thought she was going to tell me "Thanks, but no thanks. We have decided to go with someone else". Instead, she said, "Mark needs to cancel your meeting today. But it doesn't matter because he looked over your resume and said that he doesn't need to talk to you anyway and to just hire you". I was so shocked and happy that I finally landed a job!!
The real crazy thing is that a couple of days prior to accepting the job at Trendway, I had interviewed and gotten an offer as a contract designer in Oregon working with Boeing. It was the only offer I had gotten in a month of looking. So, I started looking for apartments and trying to figure out how my life would be here and in Oregon. The contract was going to start out as remote, so I could be working in Michigan and only going to Oregon for training and maybe meetings once in a while. Gary wasn't too thrilled about it, but I told him I have to be willing to do what it takes to make money and keep from having a gap in my resume. There were tons of people looking for job at the same time I was, so I had to take what I could get. BUT, a couple of days later is when I got the offer from Trendway and I turned down the Boeing job.
On June 29th, I started my first day at Trendway. Everyone was really nice and friendly. I had a lot to learn, since I had never worked in furniture before. One thing that I did find out about the job was that I was replacing a girl named Meagan Elizabeth Farrish who had passed away in a horrible car accident just on May 12th outside of Holland. (The irony of her name is not lost on me). For the first few weeks, I had to have access to her work folders so I could understand where she left off on things. It really bothered me that I was going through her work stuff to take over her job. It almost seemed like if she hadn't had died, I wouldn't even have a job because Trendway was the only place that had given me an offer at that time.
The drama continues...
At the beginning of June, we had to get Gary's house on the market and sold so we could still plan on moving into the condo at some point. We were supposed to move in in June, but that obviously didn't happen. The new move-in date was hopefully the end of August now. When Gary's house went up for sale, it was by far the worse 2 weeks of my life. The realtor does nothing now, it's all through an app on your phone. People can schedule whenever they want to look at your house. Gary asked the realtor if we could reject some of the request times, but our realtor was all like "you need to be accommodating to sell your house".
To make matters worse(or better I guess), Gary lived in Hudsonville where the housing market was exploding. People were clamoring to look at his house. It's kind of a blur now, but for 2 weeks it was solid from 8am until 9pm at night. One day was so jam packed with people, that we just grabbed our stuff and went to his dad's for the day to work. We had to be out of the house all hours of the day. I was doing interviews in his dad's basement and even from my car because we had to be out so much. People were always late or they ran over their time...sometimes by an hour. And people would sign up for a viewing, sometimes only giving us 30 minutes to clean up, herd the cats and get out before they showed up. It got to the point that when the notification 'bing' on his phone went off when someone requested a viewing time, it would just about send us into a swearing frenzy. BING BING BING BING BING BING....allll day long. I think in total there were 80 groups that went through his house...not 80 people.....80 GROUPS in 2 weeks.
At the end of the 2 weeks, Gary got no offers. I could not flipping believe it after all the people that looked at his house. Our realtor suggested then to drop the price by 30k. We were both floored! What the heck are you thinking? Are you kidding me? That's not right! Our realtor assured us this was the way to get an offer. Oh, and we would have to take viewing requests again for 2 more weeks. So, the hell started over. We dropped the price and had to be out of the house at all hours for people to view it.
This time, at the end of 2 weeks, Gary got 18 offers. It became a bidding war and the top offer was 15 grand above the original listing price. Gary accepted the top offer and the plan was to close and give us 2 weeks to move into our condo. The big day was going to be August 28th.
We should have known that the offer was too good to be true. First of all, the people that said they would pay 15k over the listing price, did not have the extra money to pay. Not sure how the hell you can just say you're going to pay 15k over and then not follow through. Secondly, their ability to pay 15k over was based on what they could get a loan for. The loan was dependent upon the appraisal. Because of Covid, no one actually came to the house to do an appraisal. They 'appraised' it from Lansing by looking at comps that we over a year old. The appraisal came back at 250,000, which meant that that's what the buyers could get a loan for which meant they just couldn't pay the 15k over asking price.
Gary was livid. He was pissed at our realtor for not being aggressive enough with the buying agent. He was pissed that our realtor wasted time dinking around and let too much time pass before finding out that these people weren't going to be able to pay the amount they said. And he was pissed at the buyers for basically lying. The buyers were supposed to pay closing costs and it seemed like they were trying to scam their way out of that as well! They gave our realtor some kind of sob story about how they didn't have 5k and they would have to pull it from their retirement account and it was going to take some time to get the money. Gary was at his wits end, but he ended up selling his house for 250k and the buyers had to pay 5k in closing costs. It was all finally over!!
I tried to say "hey, look at the bright side! You're not selling your house for 30k less, you are getting exactly what you originally asked for". That didn't really help the situation though! After the sale was final, Gary went on a rampage selling all of the things he WAS going to leave for the new homeowners. He was like, "F-it, they saved 15k on this house, so they can go buy their own stuff". He sold the outdoor deck tables and chairs, pool lounge chairs, tools, saws, trimmers, etc. What he couldn't sell, he threw in the garbage! I think the only thing he left was his 20 year old mower. Meh, serves them right..
As moving day got closer, we started to notice that the parents of the buyers of the house would drive by multiple times a day staring at us and at the house. It got to be very creepy and pissed Gary off even more. We had until Saturday, August 29th to be out, but they were pushing us to be out sooner.
The Thursday prior to closing, Gary had arranged 2 men and a truck to come and move all the furniture and big items. 3 guys showed up to move the stuff. Not 15 minutes into moving, one of the guys tripped and fell down the front porch steps. He was wearing shorts and he ended up cutting up his knee pretty good. I found a first aid kit that hadn't been packed yet and tried my best to help him clean the blood and bandage him up. They emptied Gary's house pretty fast and were headed to Saugatuck to unpack it all.
I arrived at the condo before Gary did with the movers. The place was packed with people doing last minute things to have the condo move-in ready for us. There was a guy installing the blinds, a guy installing the TV and speaker and the builder was spraying down the front porch and garage door. It was absolute chaos. Then the movers showed to empty the truck and my POD that had been delivered. As they were unloading, the guy that had fallen at Gary's house fell again trying to move something out of the truck. After that, he stopped trying to move anything and just hung out in the moving truck.
We closed on the Condo on Friday, August 28th and decided that we were not going to be around at Gary's house on Saturday because the buyers were just annoying. We made several trips with the last of our things Friday night and we just left the key for them out on the back deck.
We were finally moved! However, because of Covid, our appliances were not going to be delivered for 2 weeks. Again, I know it's first world problems, but not having a refrigerator or stove for 2 weeks really sucks. We ended up going to Lowe's and purchasing a tiny fridge that we could at least put some stuff in.
Moving forward with my career....
Things at Trendway were ok. I was doing more design stuff then I had anticipated, which wasn't exactly where I wanted to be since I had scraped and clawed my way to a project engineer status at Royal. And, it was a 30% pay cut from where I had been at Royal. The people were great, but starting a new job during a pandemic when most people are working from home is really difficult. I was alone in the office a lot and It was hard to get to know people, since so many office people weren't there.
At the time, I was sort of still half-looking online for other jobs. One day, I came across this job opening on Indeed for a project engineer position at a place in Holland. I applied not thinking much of it. I got a call back for an interview. I interviewed with the HR lady over the phone and I thought it went pretty well, but I wasn't getting my hopes up that's for sure. After the call, they wanted me to come in for an on-site interview. I came in and interviewed with a a few of the engineers, the CEO and I took a tour of the facility. The position would be a project engineer working mostly with Gentex and Ford and reporting directly to the CEO. The company was much smaller, but it was familiar territory for me again...Automotive, project engineering and more money(hopefully).
After the interview, I got a call a few days later saying that they wanted to make me an offer. I was really excited! However, it was still for a lot less then what I had been making at Royal and only a little more then what I was currently making at Trendway. I figured that I would be brave and negotiate for more. What's the worse that could happen? So, I wrote an email back to the HR lady and explained how much I appreciated their offer, but I was hoping for more money and here are the reasons why I should be commanding more money and more vacation. I was really happy when she came back and offered me 'most' of what I asked for. At the very least, I was back to what my base pay was at Royal! Now, I still wouldn't be getting the 15% bonuses that Royal had each quarter, but I didn't care. I thought about it over the weekend and on Monday I had to have one of those really awkward conversations with my boss. It was like I was breaking up with him or something. I explained my situation and he understood. I told him that IF Trendway could offer me XXXX, I would stay.
That evening, he reached out to his boss, but they had to stay firm. They just could not offer me what I could get paid in the automotive world.
So, on October 23, I finished my last day at Trendway and on October 26th I started my new career at EssTec as a project engineer working with Gentex again.
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| My office!! With a door! |
Virtual Riverbank Run Oct 24, 2020
I have been running the Grand Rapids River Bank run for a few years now. We were supposed to run it in early May of 2020. The race got rescheduled for late October. However, because of the ongoing pandemic, they ended up making the race virtual instead. I know, first world problems, but just another bummer during the entire year.
I told Gary that we should just go ahead with our original plans and I will run the course anyway, even if it's not an official race that day. So, Friday night we went to Grand Rapids and stayed in a hotel downtown. We walked around hoping to get in at a restaurant for dinner. However, because every place was at minimum capacity, there was about a 3 hour wait anywhere we went. We ended up finding a brewery that could seat us. We ate dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning I got up just like I would have if it was the real race day. I dressed and walked over to the Devos Center to start my run. Since I'm not a fast runner, I told him I would see him in about 2.5hrs over at Calder Plaza.
At 8am I started my run virtual River Bank Run! It was the perfect day for a race too! It was sunny and very cool. I had planned on running the course almost how I would if it were the actual race. It was kind nice because there were a handful of other racers doing the same thing, so it didn't feel like I was totally alone. I saw a few racers congregating at the Devos Center when I started running. When I got out by the pedestrian bridge on Indian Mounds Drive, there was a guy who had set up a table with water for runners and was cheering people on. There were a few runners that had someone biking riding along side for moral support. When I crossed the river at 28th street and started heading back to town, I saw a ton of people getting ready to run at Johnson Park. But, as I got farther away from the park and closer to town, I started to see fewer and fewer runners. Just as I was approaching John Ball park zoo around the 13 mile mark, the dreaded 'runner's gut' hit me. I could tell that I would not be able to make it over 2 miles without a pit stop. I figured, 'Good thing I'm close to the zoo, because there has to be a bathroom available around here somewhere!'.
As I got closer to the zoo, it became quickly apparent that this was becoming an emergency situation. I saw a grey, cinder block building near some swings and thought, "Thank God, that has to be a bathroom!" I didn't even have time to walk around the building, I just ran for the nearest door to the building and pulled. To my surprise, it opened! I walked inside to find myself inside what looked to be some kind of maintenance building. There were cones, orange snow fences, road signs and other maintenance tools. I quickly scanned the room and saw a sink, which made me think that there may be toilet in the building. At the back of the room were 2 doors. I scurried across the room and pulled the closest door. It felt like when Dorthey pulls open her black and white door and on the other side is colorful OZ. I opened the door and there were a row of bathroom stalls! I must have came through the back door of the bathroom! I ran to a stall and took care of business just in time before there was a full blown accident.
Well....not exactly just in time....there had been a slight accident. So, I did what any crazy runner would do. I took my underwear off, shoved them into a pocket of my camelback, and planned on running the remaining 2 miles commando. After I cleaned up and pulled myself together, I went to flush the toilet and made a horrible discovery. This bathroom had been winterized! What I thought had been pink cleaner in the toilet was actually anti-freeze! When I bolted out of the stall, I realized that the actual front door of the bathroom was locked from the inside! I had now just left an atomic bomb in a toilet which would not be attended to for potentially 8 months! My first thought was 'I HAVE TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!' I quickly gathered up all my stuff and ran out the back door of the building where I had originally entered. There was not a single soul in sight, so I took off running as if nothing had happened.
I finished up the remaining 2 miles without incident. When I finally got to Calder plaza, Gary was waiting for me. I saw a few other runners celebrating their accomplishments with shots. When I finished they congratulated me and Gary asked me how the run was. Boy, did I have a story for him!
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| Almost at the finish! |
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| Alone at Calder Plaza! |
End of the year...
That pretty much sums up all of the drama from 2020. We ended the year on kind of a good note. We had our first Christmas Dinner in our new place. We only had 9 people present, so it was not some kind of super covid spreader. We made a ton of food and it was nice showing people where we lived now. We have been working on furnishing our condo as well and it's finally starting to feel like a home.
2021 still hasn't been going that great. Races and trips are still canceled. I am training for a couple of marathons, but I won't sign up until right before the race because I don't know if it will get canceled or not. We can't really plan anything, but we may do a few little trips within the States this summer. Hopefully, we will be able to enjoy our condo, finish decorating it and getting in the rest of the furniture, enjoy living in Saugatuck and enjoy a few trips this year. Here's to things looking up!
Christmas dinner at our new condo. Don't worry, there were only 9 people there.
Dining Room and Sun Room - I removed the GEOtagging from all pictures, so don't bother.
Master bedroom is really coming along!
