Shifting

6:00 a.m.

Last night was Attila’s first night at work. We had a great evening together, he was able to begin sorting out the garage, which is full to the rafters. The garage is Attila’s domain. He took his time planning and preparing for his first night at work, making sure he had his meal and snacks ready, his layered clothing laid out. Then he was off to work. I had a wee snack, and headed for bed after he left.

For the last five years Attila and I have had two properties; two mortgages, hydro bills, internet bills, two property taxes to pay. But even more challenging, is that we have had two loyalties, two places that we cared about and cared for. Always, with every project at either property, we were weighing the priorities, deciding what to ignore for the moment, how to invest our limited resources of time and money. The five hour distance was no small thing to be reckoned with, adding ten hours of commitment to every project. Eventually we did not need to think about the details like travel time, factoring in all these things became habitual.

Now we have one mortgage, hydro bill, internet bill, one property tax to pay. We have one home to focus on, to pour our energies into, to prioritize. We have but one big commute left to make, back to the North, five hours there and five hours back, to fetch our belongings from the storage locker. Our habitual assumptions about how things work do not work anymore, the universe is shifting. This is a good thing.

Attila is not preoccupied with getting firewood in for the winter; the fuel oil has been ordered and will be delivered sometime next week. The autumn seems like a very different season indeed, just for the that one change.

Attila’s temporary job offers weekends off work, with some exceptions for mandatory overtime. This is a complete reversal, as until this week Attila was allowed a rare weekend off. We have not yet experienced one of these new weekends off yet, but are very much looking forward to it.

The washer and dryer are to be delivered today. My last experience with a Home Depot delivery, the refrigerator, was not a completely positive experience, maybe it will be different delivery men this time, I hope so.

5:30 p.m.

Attila is sleeping. The curtains in the bedroom are an accidental bonus for him. The curtains are of a heavy material, and are lined with heavy a heavy cotton lining. They are vintage 1978 curtains. During my first marriage, which was to an affluent civil servant, these curtains were custom made for a downstairs recreation room. I don’t throw serviceable items away just because they are out of fashion, as my children are only to happy to point out, so these curtains have followed me around since 1978, and have been used in various incarnations of domestic habitation. They ended up in the bedroom here, and are very good at blocking out all light. Attila sleeps in a darkened room, despite the sunny, warm day on the other side of the window. The universe takes care of these things.

The washer and dryer were delivered today. Well, just the washer really. The dryer was damaged, so I refused the delivery of the dryer. A call to the Home Depot store was made, and a new dryer is scheduled to be delivered next week. Since the washing machine is the more vital element of the set, this is will present no hardship. The weather is to be sunny all weekend, so that if Attila gets the necessary plumbing fixes done, the washing machine can be installed, so that the we can spend the weekend washing clothes, and hanging them on the clothesline that Attila installed in the back yard today. The clothesline is one we brought with us, a rectangular affair that works very well.

Our oil delivery did not go as planned. The “whistle” wasn’t happening, and apparently they won’t deliver oil to tanks that do not “whistle”. You learn something new every day. So, I asked Lares, who is a certified repair/installation guy for HVAC. He told me to take apart the venting pipes to look for insects. Late in the afternoon, while Attila was still sound asleep, Lares knocked on the door. He brought out his huge wrench and went to work. He found several dead wasps in the “whistle” and removed them. Then he took parts of the vent pipe off, and found a wasps nest, and more dead wasps. He cleaned that out, and recommended that we put wire screening over the end of the vent pipe to prevent the little beasts from getting in again. The whistle whistles now, so I will call the oil delivery people and give it another go.

When Lares came into the house, the look on his face was priceless! He looked at the towers of boxes, and said, “Has Terra seen this?!” I told him she had, and that is was much improved since she had seen it. Attila has only lived here for one day, and he started a new job that same day. We are doing very well with the purging and unpacking, in my opinion. It is slow but sure. Every empty box is a victory!

There was only one box emptied today, because I was busy with online change of address (COA) necessities. With a lot of things you only have so many days to get the address changed, so I continue to spend a lot of time getting that sorted out. The box I unpacked contained the binders with all the reference numbers I needed to make the changes online. The box was pretty far down in the pile of boxes, but with Attila here now, I was able to get it out and proceed with my COA duties. After getting what I needed from the binders, I stored them in the filing system, where I can get at them with ease.

Worldly Distractions

Weather

13°C
Date: 7:00 AM EDT Thursday 24 September 2015
Condition: Fog
Pressure: 102.8 kPa
Tendency: rising
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 12.9°C
Dewpoint: 12.9°C
Humidity: 100%
Wind: NNE 12 km/h

Quote

“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”
Steven Wright
1955 –