Yesterday’s monsoon like weather
conditions dovetailed nicely with my planned activities which involved making
some sort of order out of our chaotic new basement. We lost 1000 square feet of
living space with the move to our new abode which was a very good thing. The
only problem being - the old Army axiom surrounding household moves – “you
always expand to fill whatever space you occupy”. We certainly did that with
our ten year sojourn in Charlton. Despite a month’s worth of repeated trips to
various charities and an overworked rubbish man we still had way, way too much “stuff”.
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| The Basement Before I started |
The initial plan was to rent a storage
space but that was before seeing the pristine and empty basement of the new
house. The only dissenting vote was Buddy since this was going to serve as new
cave. His dissention received the same amount of credence as my input to my
wife’s decorating ideas. He grudgingly agreed to provide his usual level of supervision
during my efforts.
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| And After |
I’ve written before that our earlier
moves and the accompanying unpacking seemed much easier during the many times
we did this during the military career. Far be it from me to suggest this may
be due to the much younger versions of ourselves that performed these earlier
moves. My wife has been after me to sleep in on the weekends to recharge our
red lining personal batteries but I seem to have lost the ability to sleep
beyond 7am (damned Army). It was thus
with not a little bit of awe when I awoke yesterday and found the bedside clock
reading 10am!
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| We Have Too Much Christmas "Stuff" |
I immediately reported this to my wife
and we both professed to feel completely overhauled from the additional rest. I
went downstairs and was vexed to see the Sunday paper had not been delivered. I
was in the middle of a strident call to the newspaper to report my indignation
when the computer I was talking to mildly reminded me that it was well before the
guaranteed delivery time. For the first time I looked at another clock to discover
it was only 7:05am. We later worked out that my wife had unplugged my bedside
clock during one of her decorating forays and forgot to reset it. It’s funny
how the mind works – we both convinced ourselves we felt substantially better
after the mythical three hours of additional rest. The recovered hours were
spent checking our new church and grocery store – tasks I thought I would dodge
with the late rise.
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| Buddy's New Cave and Carpet |
I ended up spending more than nine
hours in the basement as I worked through the flotsam and jetsam of our move.
Anything we didn’t immediately assign to a new room during the move ended up in
the basement. The week long unpacking consigned even more to the growing pile
of debris that severely constricted Buddy’s dog cave. I kind of liked the work
though, as it permitted a predictable amount of success as I slowly progressed
across the basement. My wife purchased a new, small carpet for Buddy’s space
(we do spoil him) and I eventually cleared enough space to spread it out for
him. He regally deigned to enter his kennel at this point and supervised the rest
of my work from there. I think he liked the surrounding mass of stored
furniture as it will provide more of a bolt hole when those dastardly
thunderstorms attack.
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| The Birthday Girl |
Today is a special day outside of the
mundane stricture of my recent move. It also marks the day of birth of my baby
sister! She was born a few years later than the rest of us so she immediately
became a family favorite, the sweetest kid imaginable. She retained her blond
hair while the rest of us converted to brown and had/has the most devastating
dimples in the Western Hemisphere.
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| Dimples Still There |
She’s had some tough breaks thrown her
way in life, including being basically alone at home with our mother in the
aftermath of a devastating family tragedy. She’s emerged from these challenges and
defined herself as a fantastic mother and grandmother. I could not be prouder
of what’s she’s done with her life. A couple years ago she finally found the
love of her life and I’m so happy she’s found a man who truly appreciates how special
a person she is. She had a tough winter where she learned firsthand the dangers
of diving off a porch onto a driveway while leading with her face. It’s
instructive as to her character that she’s recovered and didn’t let her
devastating injury modify who she is. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIMPLE GIRL – LOVE YOU
IMMENSELY!
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| She Deserves Her Happiness |
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