Echoey Feeling

Do you know the feeling when you're in an empty room, and you know from the feel of it that there is no one there, has been no one there for some time? That is how I feel now about my parents. Somehow, as long as I had some of their stuff to go through, it felt as if they were somehow still there. Now I have gone through and arranged everything except the painting of my grandfather my uncle still has, the one done by my great-uncle Isaac Rosenberg. It was a very early effort, certainly not proficient, but I feel affection for it. Once I get it, I will have to have it professionally cleaned. I'm not sure when that will happen, but my uncle said he would come out some time to California, maybe in the winter. Perhaps then we will be in a new house. He is waiting for that to come.
We are getting announcements for condos in our complex below $300,000. It is hard to believe because two years ago, they were running in the $500,000, almost $600,000. ! Of course, that was ridiculous. It will make it easier for us to buy a place, though it probably will not be in this neighborhood, depending on what we find. We want a townhouse, and this was not a townhouse.