Nothing but brains in there!

By Heng Swee Lim, a Kuala Lampur, Malaysia-based illustrator.

My first week in my new home has been a busy one.  I am very happy to be here and I like it.  But, I still have to go pick up a few things and clean the kitchen in the benighted apartment.  I am dreading it.  Now that I don't live there any longer I can say I really disliked it.  Four months of saying to myself "it's OK, it's only temporary."  I spent as much time out of it I possibly could.  Act in haste, repent in leisure.  I had to move out of my house swiftly and I chose poorly.  It had bad juju if you believe in that sort of thing, and I do.  Wednesday is the day for cutting the last strings.

Sunday afternoon my back got wonky and my legs got prickly and numb.  (You know you are getting old when your back goes out more than you do.)  I went to Urgent Care hoping they could help, oops, "facial numbness" the nurse said and they sent me across the street to ER.  It's my back I said to the handsome young doctor.  He said, "Your back can't make your face numb, we need to check your head out."  Duh, why didn't I think of that? It turned out OK.  Blood tests and a CT scan and it was not a stroke, or tumor, or anything photogenic.   Turns out I'm not the pond of tranquility I always thought I was.  I'm a little stressed, very stressed.  Young doctor came back smiling and he said "There is nothing but brains in there."  Ha, he said I have brains, and now I have a picture to prove it.  OK, I am a lot stressed and was having a major anxiety spell.  Now, I'm supposed to walk everyday and I'm signing up for a meditation class at the community college.  Om, everyone.

Soft Landing

Thanks to my kids, Chris, Heather, Dave, eight grandchildren and a rental truck I am planted in my new home.  Saturday night was my first night here.  I found the clean sheets, toilet paper, and the coffee pot, all the necessities of home.  We all went out to lunch to celebrate.  Day 2 I found the flatware.

Boxes are stacked like blocks in the living room or big gifts, it is my birthday.  Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all, and happy birthday to me.  I am half Irish, one year older, and how lucky to get a safe, comfy place to live for my birthday!  I am off to play guess what is really in this box besides what the label says.

Sláinte

Art

Ghent_Altarpiece - Jan van Eyck

I went to see "Monuments Men" with my eldest son.  I loved it and I don't understand why it got such poor reviews, 34% on the Tomatometer for instance.  But then my opinions and the reviewers are often at odds.  Found this little article in the online Smithsonian about the real people who tackled this huge task.  Then I sallied forth and ordered myself a copy of Robert Edsel's book "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History."  One of the opening scenes in the film shows the citizens of Bruges are frantically shoring up the last remaining cathedral wall carrying DaVinci's "Last Supper" mural after the cathedral was took a bomb. It brought me to tears.  So did the scenes about the theft of the Ghent Alterpiece.  Art has always been one of my loves, and was my major in school.  I was going to write something pithy about civilization and art but I seem to have no pithiness.


I did get on with my annual long distance tracking of the Iditarod.  Dallas Seavey won with an amazing push at the end breaking the Iditarod speed record; Aily Zirkle, my pick came in second with a super run as well.  I read that the lack of snow actually contributed to the speed as ice is easier to travel over than snow, news to me.  Caused some accidents though.


My internet goes off today as the move begins.  Back sometime next week.  In between will be just more back and forth, back and forth.  Then Saturday sleeping in my own bed in my new home.   See you when I can.








 

The old gray mare. (Photo credit Wikipedia)

Chris and I got together yesterday and moved a ton of stuff into the condo.  I carried small packages, clothing, and prints and paintings.  He carried the boxes and small pieces of furniture.  It's the kind of stuff you worry about sliding around in a moving van.  I moved those oddities like my large stoneware pizza pan and my giant mixing bowl that I formerly whipped up 8 loaves of bread at time.  Very formerly, like 35 years ago.  I still use the pizza stone, I have a great but simple dough recipe I got when my 40+ sons made it for a grade school project.  I love making a nice thin crust and putting just the right (for me) fresh veggies and my favorite cheese on it.  Tomatoes, no tomato sauce.  Maybe I should have moved the bread bowl on to somewhere else.  At some point it gets hard to give up more "things." I may have to wait a bit and then scrape the next layer off for re-use. Fortunately my condo comes with its own 12'x12' storage space until I am ready for that.

After two days of good work my knees are making that disturbing grinding sound they like to make after repeated trips up and down stairs (to storage) and my feet hurt!? Dang. I'm tired!  I went to bed at 9 PM, two hours early for me, then I woke up at 5:30 AM.  Since daylight savings time is looming Sunday, I decided to just get up and go with it.  I will just do light stuff today and skip the stairs to storage for a bit.

I've met several people already at my new home.  They've introduced themselves, offered help, showed me where they live, and continue to greet me.  It's mostly an older population though not age restricted, 45 and up I'd guess, and several single women near my own age or older.  It has promise.

This is not my building but one near it.  The lower left hand unit is identical to mine with patio doors opening out to a completely fenced area.  The woman who sold her unit to me gave me her lovely patio table with four chairs.  I plan to sit there on the good weather mornings and drink my coffee.


I just realized my younger sister is 70 today.  Happy birthday Grace.

It Begins

The big move has started.  My son Chris came over yesterday and moved all my boxes out of the apartment storage and some from the spare bedroom into the living room of the condo.  I've been moving kitchen stuff over there all last week. Perfect timing, the weather was lovely.  Today it's 28 and snowed lightly.  My DIL Heather fetched primed baseboards from the lumber store and we set up to paint and install them in the bedrooms.  Last night she and grandgirl #1 finished painting the hallway.  Afternoon came and all the family elder women, that includes me, grandmas and aunties from 68 to 90 came over to see the new digs.  When I'm moved in we'll have a little wine and munchy party to celebrate but that's a ways off.

Today I'm over to Heather's for a big cookie bake, their family is 'hosting' the church coffee hour.  We are making zillions of cookies.  Each grandgirl has picked a recipe to make, there's five old enough to bake.  I'm making a soft ginger cookies.  Fortunately she has two ovens, handy when you feed a household of eight.

Chris had a job interview this week.  His unemployment ended last week.  He's put in many applications and but gotten few interviews.  Often there are over 100 applicants for each one.  I'm praying for success. Jobs are scarce here in this part of Eastern Washington.  He's supposed to find out today.