Month: March 2007

There it was, sitting just as he said, mostly out of site, at the top of the steps- a welcome sight after a long day. Its contents had been emptied, so I went inside to see what it had contained. I opened the door, and inside I found four cold precious wonderful containers, full to the brim. I pulled the open one out, and tipped it- its contents spilling into the glass I held. A sip reaffirmed the truth- fresh cold milk straight from a glass bottle straight from the local dairy, is a wealth of riches and we are indeed truly blessed to once again, have this simple pleasure at our finger tips. Ah, another hidden beauty of owning a home- milk delivery to a milk box on the deck. Yep, yuppy milk box- the new millennium version- a cooler- with the dairy’s name on it. Could anything be better?

“I fixed it!”

I heard the triumphant holler through the house, so I went to go see what was previously broken. He was in the laundry room, kneeling at the drier.

“Was it broken?” I didn’t know that the drier was off-kilter.

“Nope. But it was really ticking me off.” He swung the drier door to and fro. “I reversed it- it was bugging me.”

It is true- the drier door was previously on the wrong side, and this would make doing laundry so much easier. It is one of many things he has done since we moved in about a week ago to make our lives there much easier and better. New light switches, new outlets, new GFIs, new electrical plate covers, a new plug in the sink, fixing the hinge on the laundry room door, fixing the hinge on the garage door, and so many many more things. I am very proud of him.

Thank you to everyone who helped us move over the weekend. Sara for helping keep me on task and calm and helping me pack, David, Greg, Brett, Lee for moving boxes, Joan, Aimee, Monica, Aurora, Nathaniel for working on the kitchen, and Brian, Gary, and Ron for moving large furniture. Doug was completely exhausted- 50+ boxes, 15+ pieces of furniture not counting the small stuff, 3rd story apartment, and the drive to and from old and new, and the stairs and banisters in the new. Good job everyone! And thank you!

We now have the fun task of getting anything left behind, cleaning the apartment so it is spotless to get the deposit back, and if we can find our kitchen stuff in the new place, I think that will make things easier. We spend about a half an hour on Sunday morning just looking out the windows from under the covers at the blue sky, gorgeous spruce trees, and yellow walls. Hopefully, by the end of the day, we can let our kittens explore the whole house, which means we have to have a lot of the little things put away, and tools and screws and nails from replacing outlets in a closed door room.

Another part of the adventure begins- it is never boring.

Doug and I are doing a lot of home improvement projects in the house in Fort Collins. Amidst the dust and cleaning, we are painting the bedrooms in Fort Collins a pale yellow with white trim and white ceilings. It is beautiful. For those of you who have seen the exterior of the Lee Mansion or the interior of one of the rooms in Monticello, it is close to that yellow. We had a free weekend that no one had put into our schedules anything, so we painted together, and both learned about the other person’s painting methods- both have hints of madness. The best part is when we pull the last tape strip and put the hardware and doors back on, how stunning and beautiful it looks, compared to the whitish-grey that was there before. 15 years of college kids are slowly being covered by Behr Whisper Yellow and Lismore Cream White.

He speeds by, boosted every half a lap by the spinning wheels squeezing his side and accelerating him forward for another pass. The noise of the crowd and the world is a blur beyond the next turn of the figure eight track. The darkening of the sky over half the track worries him only if it threatens his performance and endangers his timed race, but he thinks only of the track and reaching the finish. Suddenly, a black object on the track blocks the entire width of the track, and before he can even try to steer around it or brake, he slams into it, sending him spiraling through the air, hood over foil, landing upside down and skidding across the tan landscape. Before he can catch his breath and assess what has happened, he is slammed against a huge post and bounces off and rolls several times. The back thing that was on the track bats him around, until he is dizzy. Suddenly, he is lifted into the air, but this time by pinkish pinchers, and set back on the track, and is racing along again, like it was all a bad dream. Perhaps it was…

But for Sprite, she was bound and determined to destroy Lightning McQueen, if it hadn’t been for Joshua rescuing his favorite car.