I guess it's a milestone to say that I no longer enjoy looking at pictures of my mother's house the way it was before the auctioneers came to rape the place. I'm just focused on moving ahead. But I needed this picture to tell an amusing story.
One of the things I rescued from the block was a hand-carved, primitive wooden Donald Duck marionette. You can barely see him in the picture, just under the orange plastic bucket with the Halloween cat on it. He's partially concealed by a similar Mickey Mouse marionette.
He used to hang in front of the stove, to one side. On Saturday, I moved him into the new house and hung him in the kitchen, from the rack that's built in to the ceiling.
I hadn't been planning on going in that day, but the old owner wanted to meet me there to go over some things. It turned out to be nothing and really kind of pointless, although I did get a full load of stuff in, so the trip wasn't wasted.
He saw the duck marionette hanging in the kitchen and looked kind of puzzled. He asked me, "Is that where he's going to stay?"
I thought, You betcha, but I said "Oh, I don't know, I'm just throwing stuff in here for now."
And then he said: "Because that's for pots and pans, you know..."
I thought: Noooooo! Really? Oh my god! Call out the marines!
My mother did things differently from most people and let's just say that's a tradition I intend to keep up.
*
Meanwhile, I have in mind a plan that could have me living in the new house by the close of the weekend, albeit without much in the way of furniture. I'll let you know the details if it pans out. Like all plans, it has pluses and minuses.
On the side of the minuses:
- Things will be pretty austere at first until I can get my furniture moved out, hopefully late next week.
- I'll still have to make a trip out to the old house every night, load up the car and head back into town.
- It'll be tough to get out there to meet with movers so that they can give me an estimate.
- Did I mention it was going to be austere? I'll be living out of a suitcase, and the quats will have to make do with just rugs and towels and their one little quat bed.
- The quats will have their major transition behind them, and instead of having the old house get sadder and emptier around them, the new house will be getting happier and fuller as the days go by.
- I'll be able to unpack some of the boxes and re-use them.
- If we get a storm and the driving becomes horrendous, I wouldn't absolutely have to get out to the old house. We'd be snug and warm and safe right here in town.
I'll find out if it's going to be possible tonight.
-- Freder.
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