Saturday, February 26, 2011

My life on the mountain

It's hard to believe we have been in our house for three weeks already.  Things are pretty much where they are supposed to be and we have a real life going.  There are still things being done on the house. Yesterday the garage doors got painted and the landscaper came around for his first look-see.  Today the cabinet people worked on a few hinges and we got our water pressure adjusted a bit.  Tomorrow the screens should be installed and the propane tank is scheduled to be filled to capacity.  It is generally one or two little things that get worked on everyday, but they don't interfere with life as we know it.

We had our first weekend of company.  It was so good to see Lynn and Kenny.  We joked that since they hadn't been to see us in California in 22 years, we had to move closer if we wanted to see them.  Becky, Scott, and Julia came to spend the long weekend.  Becky was sick for much of the time, but Scott was so sweet to help us out around the house doing things that one-handed Gary had difficulty with.  He cut some firewood for us and even taught me how to use the chain saw so that I can fill up the wood box if we run out of logs before winter ends.  Julia had a great time both in our yard and with the toys from the closet in the spare bedroom. We loved having her around but couldn't talk her parents into leaving her with us until our trip to Ohio next month.  Becky and Scott brought down a jigsaw puzzle of "another house in the woods" Neuschwanstein.  Come on guys - 2000 pieces???  The puzzle is still in pieces on the card table in the bonus room but the edge around is almost complete and the red brick front of the castle is put together.

I do manage to keep myself very busy.  For example, yesterday we spent several hours at a library meeting to set a schedule and discuss goals for the library, I worked on recipes to distribute to the egg co op members, met with the landscaper, took my walk (this time up the hill instead of on our level street), spent several hours on my writing assignments, organized the pantry since a bottle of red wine had fallen off the wine rack and shattered, causing the pantry to need repainting, FAXed more change of address forms,  and spent the evening with a Maeve Binchy book.  Today I've already been to the recycling center, and children's consignment fair, taken my walk, planned out the next big shopping trip off the mountain (if I'm going 40 minutes away for shopping I don't want to forget anything!), and helped Gary struggle with the XM radio antenna.  This afternoon is more writing, including reworking my personal mission statement for the class.

On the horizon for next week:  a visit from my sister and brother-in-law as they move from Boulder CO to the Tampa area, lunch with my writing teacher to explore the possibility of teaching conversational French to the Alexian Brothers seniors, a field trip to the local nursery and lunch with the gardeners of our development,  more library stuff... all quite retiree-ish, but strangely fulfilling.

I'm looking forward to a Skype call with my CA book group.  I hope it works.

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