Van Life, Without the Van in Everyday Ramblings

The tulip here has special meaning. My oldest sister, who is no longer with us, sent the bulbs to my middle sister, Kes, a number of years ago and it is still blooming. Today we have sun and it opened into this gorgeous deep red.

I have been on dandelion patrol and yesterday it was, finally, finally warm enough with hazy sun to get out in the garden here where I am staying and weed and it turned into a group work party and we got a lot done.

I don’t expect anyone to be paying close attention to the crazy saga of my displacement because of repairs on the building I live in, having nothing to do with me creating the need for them but affecting me profoundly.

As Monday was the target date for me to return home, expecting a major part of the work to be done, I wasn’t surprised but was traumatized by the email I received in the late afternoon on Saturday saying, nope, sorry, once they got the wall open, bad news.

I had been on my own for four days while Kes and Most Honorable were at the beach, Jack one of their cat’s had just thrown up on the dining room table and I was eating ice cream out of a carton. That is when I got the email. Oh, lest I forget I had strained my left thumb earlier in the day attempting cartwheels in my handstand class. Rueful chagrin at that.

This kind of psychosis occurred. I didn’t want to bother anyone, and my mind started racing a million miles an hour, what am I going to do, what am I going to do??? I managed to calm down eventually, listened to a funny episode of 99% Invisible and then read a little in the Maisie Dobbs book I have from the library.

All the yoga tools helped me get grounded enough to sleep.

When Kes and Most Honorable got home I kept apologizing about the disruption of having us here, but they were half expecting this. Still, I am grateful, full of gratitude for their generosity, forbearance, and kindness.

Today, Most Honorable and I went up to Portland and the project manager had left me a key, to a newly vacated and cleaned two bedroom and bathroom apartment that I can use for the duration. I am going to move in there with Carlo on Saturday.

I still have no idea how long this is all going to go on. The technical issues involved in getting me fully operational to teach on Monday from the interim apartment are mind boggling. We figured some of them out today. We moved the microwave and some chairs. On Saturday we are going to move the pad from my futon over so I can sleep on the floor on something that Carlo will recognize and feel comfortable with. Wish my back adaptability.

Because I did not get a time frame or specific instructions other than to take all the stuff out of my kitchen cabinets, I left staples and things like cups of pudding and grains in my refrigerator. They apparently turned off the power in the full kitchen the day after I left. Today we threw away everything. Everything. They have the heat on blast because of the dampness inside the wall they opened. Nope, not taking a chance on anything except a bag of fresh almonds that were in the freezer.

Well, I guess it was time to defrost and deep clean the thing.

My purple basil plant is still alive in the cold frame as are my tiny tomato starts.

At the interim place there is lots of light and windows and Carlo is going to love it once he feels secure. He will even have his own bathroom. Luxury!

The Shakespeare birthday party Zoom thing was fun. One just wants to roll around in that rich language after being exposed to it. I acquitted my assigned speech fairly. There were five professional male actors on the call, and five guys that were previously in prison who acted in plays there, who are out now. The interaction between them all was touching, and the ex-prisoner who recited bits of Hamlet was quite good. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sherlock joined in to watch and enjoyed it.

What an adventure this all is being. I can’t wait until it is over, and I can laugh about the funny bits. There have been some… to be continued… parachuting beavers deep into the Idaho wilderness for one.

Last updated April 26, 2023