Firm and Fully Packed

If you don't count the basement, the attic (a few MORE chairs), and the barn (Oh, no!), we're packed.

On the market; everything is looking great; who knew the house was this big and you could walk around in EVERY room!

Some more painting to do, but pretty minor.

• The Left Front Bedroom has a chair, a mattress and board, and an office floor protector.
• The Right Front Bedroom has a bed, a tall chest, a side table with lamp, a sewing chest with radio and lamp, and three pictures.
• The Yellow Bedroom has a bed, a desk, a chair, a chest, a portrait of Queen Victoria, two prints from Bermuda, and a small mirror.
• The Library has a computer table and an end table.
• The Master Bedroom has a bed, side tables, a wardrobe, a long chest, a desk, a slipper chair and footstool, a blanket chest, and two pictures from the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair.
• The Shedde Bathroom has an Eastlake dresser/desk with marble top and mirror.
• The Studio has Grandpa's drafting table, a rowing machine, a model of 1363 Old North Main Street, an easel, an antique folding chair, and a set of shelves.
• The Post Office has one chair, one small table, and a picture.
• The Parlor has a Wurlitzer, two small tables, two chairs, a potted plant, and a picture.
• The Dining Room has a table, two chairs, a small bench, and a picture.
• The Office has two chairs, two desks (one folded up), and a computer station. The printer is in the closet (who knew?).
• The Shedde/Family Room has two wingback chairs (one with footstool), a rented love seat, a coffee table, a TV, a game table and four chairs (Scrabble in progress), a (roll-top) desk, and a rolling chair.
• The Kitchen has a rented table and six chairs, a maple drop-leaf table, a maple work counter, a WideBySide refrigerator, a Mexican hall table, a metal cabinet, and a child's chair that was Great Grandma Lange's.

Sounds like a lot, but it is not. The rest is gone or packed or in the barn.

Mistaken Identity

Jenn: (in Boston) Where in Norway are you from?

Ren: (in Germany...Frankfurt?) You don't speak German? But you look just like us!

Margaret: (in Portuguese) We don't believe that you're not Brazilian!

Mom & Dad: (in Rochester) Are you English?

Phil & Beth: (in England) So what part of Canada are you from?

It's official! It's on the calendar to go on the market...

Well, we are not staged yet...nor are we packed, fully. Seems like there's always more to do, and great reluctance to plow ahead on it...life events intervene...Memorial services, Mother's Day, Weddings...

But surely there's an end to it! There must be!

The Grey Smoke Twins

The grey-smoke twins are rewriting their script. Quokka no longer rears up with paws on the cupboard, meowing, trying to help me dish out his dinner more quickly, and Aquila is content to be cajoled and sometimes carried in to dinner.

The new blocking has been evident for a while; the doctor confirmed that Quokka’s kidneys were probably failing. The bigger, darker of the twins showed less coordination in the catbox…a previously fastidious if uncovered practice. Now he spends much time playing the Sphynx in one of his two box-lids. In fact, the most Quokka says is a heavy purr while I stroke him. I carried him off to the back room to sit in the arm chair the other day, held him in my lap, talked to him and petted him. Further lap sessions were curtailed by Quokka, who insisted on being put down on the floor, where he wobbled gamely back to his box lid, or sat tummy to floor on the cool tiles.

Under the old book, the twins both joined us when we went up to bed. Quokka took his place on the bathroom rug. Aquila waited outside the bedroom door until Phil came up, then climbed the graduated boxes and chest to the bed itself, where she took her command post on the MIT sweatshirt square in Phil’s footspace. After a week of Quokka staying downstairs at night, he surprised me two mornings ago, lolling on the bathroom rug again.

But lately, Quokka has drowsed in his box lid, happy to have dinner brought to him, though not so interested really in the water or the milk. Though his tummy is full, his spine bony, and his spare haunches showing his bright white undercoat, he goes at his wet food with purpose. Aquila finishes it up for him, and I refill the plate…we don’t dole out the food in measured portions anymore…and give him a new bowl of water.

Aquila, friskier mainly in comparison, curls up on Herman the pillow in the back room or sits on the step looking out into the back yard.

But vocal Quokka has not said a word in a while, and I miss his voice.

Word

Redolent,

meaning

and import

drench

every syllable,

chewed off

and

spat

or unctuously

caressing the mouth.

ritornello

nag

chorus

argument

Dripping

situations,

stinking of sweat,

muscling its meaning,

stringing my

tendencies

along,

resembling something

mother said,

once.

I hold my tongue,

evoke my father’s,

sister’s.

Pendulant,

words

hang

in

my

breath.

I turn, expecting

them to

be there,

lip-synching

my thoughts

to

you.

Slowly, Very Slowly

If I have to reduce my household at the rate I have been doing the last several months, the household will have grown 5-fold at the end of the period. We have taken Jenn her bicycle and gave a drawing table to Molly McK, but gosh, we still have a house full.

Phil is in the back room, mending the webbing on the wing chair.

That chair started out as brown fuzzy horsehair. Mom had it reupholstered in a white and floral nylon in the 60s. Then I got it slipcovered in cotton in the 80s. I suppose it is time for another covering, but I'll just trim the threads where the cats have shredded it, and carry on. It's pretty comfortable when the webbing holds. Not when it doesn't.

Had a modicum of (mostly pro bono) work today; back to the packing tomorrow.

And then there were audio books

A great joy while driving long distances (besides the great feel for the country that you get by moving through it) is listening to audio books. We seem to have quite a collection, many of which we have listened to multiple times.

We highly recommend them.