House-Sitter for Hire

Well, ok not for hire… I’ll do it for free!

You see, my house in San Carlos is rented through September 2019, and possibly beyond that. So I continue to be homeless, even when I’m “home” in the Bay Area.

Upon returning from New Zealand, I was grateful that my friends (who happened to be in New Zealand traveling for a month) offered to let me house-sit for them at their house in Orinda.

While some folks in the Bay Area frown at “East Bay,” but I don’t mind the location at all. In some ways, I prefer it, since that’s where my sailing club and part-time employer, OSCS Sailing, is located. I have more and more friends moving to East Bay because of its affordability. Well, at least more affordable than many City or Silicon Valley neighborhoods.

While house-sitting, I mostly took care of long-overdue administrative tasks, like transferring photos and videos from camera to computer, and then backing up my computer to both online and external hard drive storage.

I had a stack of mail to go through, having been gone for 7 weeks, but as usual about 95% of it was junk mail. What a waste of paper and human resources.

I also did a few things for my friends who own the house. I climbed on top of the roof and cleaned out the rain gutters, which were full of leaves and dirt. Dirt, you ask? Yes, I think so. But it also could have been ash from the recent California wildfires.

I also played Santa, wrapping a few last-minute Amazon orders from the parents so that, upon return at the end of December, the kids would see the real Santa hadn’t forgotten to visit their house.

Lastly, I took care of the mail and garbage, too, like any good house-sitter.

The family (as well as my parents) read this journal, so I’ll leave out the details of the wild parties I hosted at the East Bay estate… :-)

In any event, it was great to have a house to call home for a few weeks. Thanks to A, M, B, and J!

I don’t have housing lined up yet for any of 2019. I’ll be in the Bay Area for Jan-Feb and Apr-Sep, so if anyone needs a house-sitter during those times, please let me know! (Unfortunately, with my Sailing Instructor schedule, I can’t offer to do daytime dog-walking.) Thanks!

Although I didn’t teach any sailing classes, I did take the J24 sailboat out a few times for some winter sailing.

Sailing gear came in handy while cleaning gutters. Gloves to protect my hands from sharp metal edges. Safety line to prevent the trowel from falling off the roof. Unfortunately, no safety line for me…

A lot of dirt, and ash (?), in the gutters.