[Jan. 14] It takes awhile to vacuum the little pieces of paper in the office left over from the shredder. I try to get some joy out of using the leaf-blower on the deck, but individual leaf stems and bird seed are stuck between the floorboards. In this last cleaning of the rental house, I’m … read more Harvest moon
Month: January 2017
Lay of the land
Driving up and down the mountain to our house, I forget what 2,000 feet of elevation really means. The way to know the land is to walk. When I look at a topographical map, I can situate myself in the larger environment. Imagine what it was like for the pioneers. They knew to follow rivers, … read more Lay of the land
Azalea restored
I pull into the driveway at 9 a.m. – no dumpster filling half of it, no portaJohn on the car pad. I have a lot of cleaning yet to do before the movers arrive. Many hours ahead of directing the crew, unpacking boxes and putting things away. Before the day begins, I want to just look … read more Azalea restored
Late-night cleansing
It’s the day before Moving Day, when all our belongings will be moved back into our rebuilt house. The last interior work is being completed; the workers were delayed by snow, which made it impossible to drive to our house for four days. The empty house is filthy. When I walked in, the hired cleaner, David, … read more Late-night cleansing
Bits of my life
As I continued today to sort paperwork, I fought a particular sadness that always fills me when I dredge through the past. Whether it’s reading old journals, shredding financial records, or just trawling through a pile of memorabilia that I’ve collected, I end up feeling a bit nauseated and sometimes depressed. It isn’t that the memories are bad, … read more Bits of my life
Attention to details
I’d put it off as long as I could, but today I had to face the file folders in my office. I hadn’t done a thorough sorting of office paperwork in maybe four years – not the superficial kind of sorting where you are only stuffing more paper into existing files and tossing the junk … read more Attention to details
Lost in the snow
Nothing around me is familiar. Only one house is visible, far in the distance. The street I crossed a few minutes before was unmarked. I followed an old road bed up into the woods until it stopped dead. Nothing now but snow, trees, shadows, and silence. A perfect afternoon to be lost. Though the temperature was … read more Lost in the snow
Snow prep
As I finished my workout around noon today, Tina came into the locker room to clean up. “We’re closing. We won’t open again until Tuesday,” she said. That’s how it goes in the mountains. When we get a forecast of snow followed by three days of freezing temperatures, we know that we’ll be stranded at … read more Snow prep
Unframed
I detest frames, and they detest me. Whenever I try to frame my art, the universe pushes back, hard. This morning I wasted more than half an hour trying to convert a frame with a sawtooth hanger into one with eye screws and wire. I must do this because it is a rule of display for … read more Unframed
So much forgotten
Box after box. In the warehouse again today. I must have opened three dozen boxes, trying to weed out the stuff we don’t need and take it to Goodwill. I used the box cutter and tape gun so much that my wrist hurt. There was a prize, though: We got a fancy new Krups espresso … read more So much forgotten