Am I Moved YET?

Holy cow. No, that's not it. HOLY COW! That's better. I've had three reschedules from my mover, followed by an incomplete removal of the last few items from my house. The trunk of my car (a rapidly aging Volvo sedan) contains ten cans of paint+kitty litter (don't ask). There is only a two-foot wide path through my new garage from the door to the driveway. My piano is in the garage. I've checked here on HGTV but there is no "how to" that will fix this.

On the bright side, this is the end. The End. Closing is this week. I will take a break before closing on the new house, which I have leased til now. I have no deadline for hanging pictures, unpacking winter clothes, getting the remainder of the books onto bookshelves. There is only what my sensibilities will tolerate, and I am feeling pretty darn flexible. I won't cry if I can't get Ringgold and Joysmith and Ali on the walls today. No, I am not hallucinating. I have a Mohammad Ali limited edition print from his art period. He hadn't moved much past keeping it in the lines, but the idea that he attempted it charms me.

Oops, relaxed too soon. I went back to the new house this afternoon to deal with a pile of stuff shoved in the attic by unnamed young people staying in the guest room. It includes enough hangars for the Russian army and some used sheets which were "stored" there instead of washed. 'Nuff said. There is nothing in Spock about this.

So...I'm on a first name basis with the receiver at my favorite center to donate unwanteds. He saw me coming today, waved and almost smiled. An almost smile is the max for him. When you see him collecting things from your car one bag at a time, you know that he doesn't waste any muscle movement. We're starting to get very real about the things that can go. I had a carload today and I'm sure I'll have another tomorrow. I am all about knowing that the memory will be with me always. I don't need any more physical reminders of anything.

Mary Z reminded me the other day about using professional shredders. They'll be here tomorrow. I see 10 more cubic feet of space becoming available!

I met my buyers today. That ordinarily doesn't happen until closing, but I've let them out of motel hell with their young baby to live in the house a few days beforehand. I think the baby likes me. He was all red hair and smiles. Me and mom talked about knitting.

I did a good bit of knitting in the drive-through pharmacy line just now. I've never seen the lines so long, wondered if it is an H1N1 epidemic thing. Glad I started a hat from my pink Therapi (the yarn with merino, silk and jadeite fiber). I managed to do all the increases that will go from the head band to the start of the flare for the kind of beret shape (knit 1, yarn over, knit into the front and back) and repeat all the way around. Turn on the car, move one spot, pick up your needles.

Keeping up the surviving. Peace.

Getting Buff

I am on the craziest exercise program. I didn't sign up, it just caught up with me. It's free, and a good thing, as I'd never pay for such torture. It goes something like this:

Hmm. Today I'm going to sort all the stuff in my daughter's old room. I know she already sorted it, but I'm sure her heart and her short attention span got in the way. Okay, here we go, up 14 stairs. Oh my God, there are forty-seven or sixty items left here. That's okay, we've nothing but time. Closing is a week away, after all. Just sit down and calmly go through them. Oops, need a couple of boxes. Get up, fetch boxes, come back. And a trash bag. Get up, fetch trash bag, come back. Lord, what is in this tote? Lead? Lift it up, empty the lead ten pounds at a time. Oh yeah, this is the rock collection from kindergarten. I think it can go now. Repeat forty-seven times. Now let's check the closet. I'm sure she emptied...oops, two prom dresses, hiking boots (complete with dried mud), a plastic drawer set with long-forgotten junior high school clothes, a bin of books from-oh yeah, that pharm tech program. Let's just haul everything out of this closet. Bend down three more times for tiny stuffed animals. They are falling out of every crack. Where is the donation box? Over there-that's okay, we'll get some jump shots in. Donate. Donate. Donate. Wonder if they care if I put clothes in with a cow-head vaporizer? Now just lift the boxes and separate donate from deliver to house. All those trash bags of donated linens can be tossed over the rail down into the living room. Heave-smack! Heave-smack! Heave-smack! Whew, the fun part.

Next, I'll finish the guest room...

I am not joking. This particular exercise regimen is building muscle where prednisone had stolen it. Some of the challenges are unexpected. One of my helpers brought his 66 year-old mother and 8 year-old son. Son is a whirlwind, and I move more just keeping up with his antics and making sure he doesn't unpack all the "interesting" stuff that I packed. If I stay one step ahead, I can keep him busy carrying things up and down stairs. The mother is a smoker and not in great health, but she takes the stairs faster than me and insists on making three trips up and down and I... will... not... be... outdone.

I can do things now that I wouldn't attempt six months ago. It is hard training this way, but the results are evident. When this little adventure ends (you know, after I unpack the pod and get all the yarn on shelves and hang all my art) I'll be ready to head to the rec center and lift some weights.

Peace.

Singing the House Sold Song

I am singing a song. It goes something like this:

I sold my house.

I sold my house.

Dee dee dee dee you heard me baby

I sold my house.

Oh yes, I sold it,

I sold the house.

Dee dee dee dee I know they'll love it

I sold the house.

I promise you I was not waiting for an acceptable offer to post here. I've just been totally, daily, happily involved in moving. The movers made their official trip from old house to new exactly two weeks ago. My daughter and I made an immediate scramble, putting away enough items to get the boxes and bags out of walkways and keep us functioning with daily necessities. Since then, I have struggled to continue cleaning out the old house. If you remember, new house is less than half the size of old house, so we couldn't have the movers pick up all the old contents and dump them over here. Instead I am sorting, selling, donating, discarding at warp speed, managing the leftovers and spillovers and other overages.

During that process I decided to hire painters and make the entire inside of the old house an indisputably neutral color, something that would make the most white-bread buyer comfortable. I chose something that would erase that black/Hispanic zest for color that injects such life into our dwellings-vanilla brandy, the paint company calls it. The smooth, creamy cafe au lait color is nice, but the only way I could live with it would be to plaster the walls with my colorful art collection.

Speaking of art, I have not hung one painting in the new place. It also has contractor walls - a creamy beige with a hint of green undertones. Lovely and calm, and desperately in need of my art. Unfortunately, there are things that take priority, like getting curtains hung so that I am not parading in front of my neighbors in ugly pajamas. It will feel like a party when I finally select the spot for each piece and start hammering nails and slinging those frames up where they can be seen.

You might think that I've been too busy to knit, but something has to happen when I hit the wall and can't pack or unpack boxes any more. Most days I spend a few hours on moving, an hour or two on administration (schedule appointments, pay bills, change utilities, maintain my store) and several hours on knitting and crochet. I've finished two baby blankets for a special order. The red and gray stripe (sorry for the washed out colors in the photo) is for Ohio State U for a baby boy who isn't at all brainwashed, and the pink is a crochet piece for a baby girl, equally brain-washed but in a different mode altogether. The other pieces are for the store: First a blue and cream crochet cotton baby blanket, then a striped hat in Noro Silk Garden. Finally, a multicolored, hand-dyed cashmere/wool scarf and mitts, crocheted in a ring pattern. There are more items that haven't been photographed yet, including a pale pink cashmere bumblebee hat that I must get my model to show off. Nothing else would do it justice.

I have a whole set of hand towels to make for a special order. They are six holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and 4th of July) and one college emblem. I'm having a ball duplicate knitting symbols on them - you should see my turkey! Don't worry, photos coming. I'm making most of these in Knitpicks.com's Cotlin - a 50/50 mix of linen and cotton that is lovely to knit with. It comes in lots of colors and handles well, and I really like how my towels look. I haven't learned how to put my photos where I want them on Blogger, so scoot back up to the top and look at the unblocked Halloween towel. If you must ask which it is, we need to have a serious talk.

I think it might be evident that I'm enjoying myself. Just in case you can't tell, let me say it. I am enjoying myself. It's a good space here, sharing digs with my daughter, working on the new house, reveling in the down-size project (hmm, maybe becoming a little self-righteous about it). It's one of those times when my life seems to fit just right with no awkward bulges.

Peace.