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6
Jul 23

Let’s go ride bikes!

House work continues. It’s slow, but progressive. We have arrived to the point where it feels that it may never be over. Of course it will get finished. The magical sprites of the woods aren’t getting the job done, though. That’s disappointing, but we’ll get it all finished. We’ll hire an excavator if that’s what it takes. Or maybe we could turn this into a reality show or something: The Unpackening.

The garage is more-or-less in order. I’ve turned a bit of attention to my office and learning what all the light switches do.

Today, though, we took our first bike ride at our new home. My first bike ride in two-and-a-half weeks, and boy did it feel like it. But how about that new bike banner, eh? Similar to the old graphic, changed the colors, put in an easter egg and added a cyclist, It was an inspired decision to put her ahead of me in the graphic, since I’m always trying to chase her.

There are a few, but I did not take a lot of photos. I found myself having to get used to the whole process again. Riding a bike is just like riding a bike; it was everything else that felt a tiny bit off.

Out working among the crops.

We are surrounded by beautiful farmlands. (Look out produce stands and farmers’ markets, here we come!)

The Yankee’s form was just fine. It was a warm day, and we’re riding from map cues, but she still looks pro.

My shadow selfie looked pretty decent, much better than I did today.

We made a big circle, which, hey, is the goal. It gets you back to where you started.

Where the boxes and the bins are waiting.


5
Jul 23

My desk is heavy, FYI

Today I had a helper, and he was helpful all afternoon.

So now my desk has been reassembled, and I just have to make my home office space work. But! I have a concept, almost an idea, if you will, in mind.

In my last home office I think I rearranged everything three or four times. I kind of want to get it right from the start this time.

Otherwise, I am still very much in the mode of trying to remember which box I put that one thing into (Nah, I told myself 138 times while packing this up last week. I’ll remember which box and bin those things went in and why. It’s only a few days after all …)

As ever, The Yankee has been a total champ.

By next week I am hopeful we’ll have moved beyond taming chaos and into doing something more productive, or not at all productive.

I vote for the latter.


4
Jul 23

Happy Fourth

We spent the day doing little things around the house, because those little things add up. Eventually. Also, we did a little of this.

The local community had a fireworks show, of course. So we made our way down to the park and sports fields for the show. Took a guess on the spot, pulled out the lawn chairs and settled in for the extravaganza. The appointed time, 9:15 p.m., came and went. We looked in one direction, nothing.

We faced another way, no dice.

In a third direction, and at some distance, you could see some fireworks that were probably an enthusiastic front yard show, but nothing that felt coordinated. And then, after having consulted several websites that promised us pyrotechnics at this time in this place, The Yankee found a Facebook post that had a graphic showing that the Fourth of July fireworks were on … the second of July.

We had a good laugh about that.

And so we headed back to the house to enjoy cheesecake and watched the Philadelphia fireworks on TV, but not before a really flat Demi Lovato concert that seemed to run long. (But her fans liked it.) It was an easy Fourth. Not ideal, but ideal. Not perfect, but perfect. And we saw fireworks exploding above Independence Hall. That was quite something.


3
Jul 23

Grupo compacto

All of the stuff is in the new house. About 39 percent of it has been sorted and settled. The living room and kitchen are basically opened for business, but still a bit cluttered. The bedroom is unboxed. The basement has come together nicely. The home offices, the dining room and the library are still to come. But, at least, there are some parts of the floor plan where you don’t have to shuffle sideways, trip or take comically big steps over things. That’s a nice change of pace after the last week.

So, naturally, with that sort of progress under our belt, we went to pick up the cats on Sunday. They’ve been staying with The Yankee’s parents the last few weeks, and that, in retrospect, was a great move for everyone. She’d also taken a load of things we wouldn’t want to put on a moving truck. So we took care of that yesterday. Rented an over-sized car (for the stuff) and drove the three hours north for the reunion. That trip is now much shorter than it used to be.

We had a short visit and had an early dinner. We loaded up the rental with everything we’d sent ahead. We had room for almost everything, except the cats. Aside from a half hour of complaining about it, though, they handled the trip like champs.

It was dark when they got to their new home, their third place in the last few weeks, but despite Phoebe’s judgmental look here, they’ll adjust quickly.

Poseidon is going to be very interested, aggressively interested, in everything. Here he is, trying to figure out the basement.

(Yes, I need to get a door sweep there.)

And they are already enjoying their new views.

It is always a bit unnerving when they do the same thing at the same time.

This made us feel better. We found a nearby grocery store on Friday evening, and it was hopping. This place just opened, it turns out, and it is pretty amazing. But more on that, I’m sure, later.

So we’ll continue the process of putting the house together when we’re not enjoying the summer.

And you’re more than welcome to come help me unpack books in the coming days.


30
Jun 23

Status: lol

We unpacked stuff today. Moved boxes from one room to the other. Organized tubs. Started figuring out how to store things in the basement. And then we unpacked a few more things. We did all of this until we decided we didn’t want to do it anymore.

And then we stopped.