Two years ago we made a big migration to the southeast. , leaving our adopted home town after twenty-five years for the bucolic splendor of the town next door. Living in the “Land of Steady Habits”* we continue to use the same stores and facilities even though they are not in our “new town”.
When you move there are a lot of last minute decisions that are often made based on “Gut Feelings” rather than logic or metrics. We took the outdoor faucet dog watering device. We have never had a dog – it was there when we bought the house and we took it. A major branch fell shortly before we left, so I hand cut the wood and tossed it into a rented dumpster. There was an old, cheap laminate bookcase in Stu’s room. It was either the dumpster or the new house. I chose the new house (where it holds picture albums in the basement).
Turns out that the new owners wanted both the bookcase and the wood. I wish they had told me before I used a handsaw to effectively break up a small tree and then haul it from the back of the yard to the front where the dumpster was (it was a BIG branch). Never mind that I paid for a dumpster.
But, the morning of the closing was a disaster. Pat told me to take pictures of the basement because in twenty five years it was never this clean. So I went down with the camera and didn’t notice I was standing in water as I took the picture. It turns out that a valve had broken on the heater and we had two inches of water in the basement. As look would have it we had left the wetvac for any final cleanup and we were able to get our old oil company over one last time for the fix.
Despite all the hectic activity, we had one last walk through the back yard. During this Pat walked down the walk along the side of the house and admitted that she’d miss the bricks.
Miss the bricks?
OK, they are special bricks. When we bought the house we had a sinking walkway made of white bricks. A year or two later I picked up all the bricks to reset the walk and discovered the “downside” of the bricks where emblazoned with either “Husky” or “80”. Coincidently, Pat graduated from the “UConn Husky’s” in 1980. I cleaned the bricks and set them face up in our new Husky walk.
Over the years the walk was reset a number of times. It was moved to the right a couple of inches to accommodate a widened flower bed and widened and red bricks were integrated. As a result we had a stash of surplus Husky and 80 bricks lining the old shed base. I took sixteen of the spare bricks.
After sitting under the porch for a year the bricks have been laid again. Pat has her little Husky walk – OK, garden edging. They will border her herb garden.
Of course we found that we didn’t have enough bricks to go all the way to the corner. We are, in fact, four bricks shy of a load.
When you move there are a lot of last minute decisions that are often made based on “Gut Feelings” rather than logic or metrics. We took the outdoor faucet dog watering device. We have never had a dog – it was there when we bought the house and we took it. A major branch fell shortly before we left, so I hand cut the wood and tossed it into a rented dumpster. There was an old, cheap laminate bookcase in Stu’s room. It was either the dumpster or the new house. I chose the new house (where it holds picture albums in the basement).
Turns out that the new owners wanted both the bookcase and the wood. I wish they had told me before I used a handsaw to effectively break up a small tree and then haul it from the back of the yard to the front where the dumpster was (it was a BIG branch). Never mind that I paid for a dumpster.
But, the morning of the closing was a disaster. Pat told me to take pictures of the basement because in twenty five years it was never this clean. So I went down with the camera and didn’t notice I was standing in water as I took the picture. It turns out that a valve had broken on the heater and we had two inches of water in the basement. As look would have it we had left the wetvac for any final cleanup and we were able to get our old oil company over one last time for the fix.
Despite all the hectic activity, we had one last walk through the back yard. During this Pat walked down the walk along the side of the house and admitted that she’d miss the bricks.
Miss the bricks?
OK, they are special bricks. When we bought the house we had a sinking walkway made of white bricks. A year or two later I picked up all the bricks to reset the walk and discovered the “downside” of the bricks where emblazoned with either “Husky” or “80”. Coincidently, Pat graduated from the “UConn Husky’s” in 1980. I cleaned the bricks and set them face up in our new Husky walk.
Over the years the walk was reset a number of times. It was moved to the right a couple of inches to accommodate a widened flower bed and widened and red bricks were integrated. As a result we had a stash of surplus Husky and 80 bricks lining the old shed base. I took sixteen of the spare bricks.
After sitting under the porch for a year the bricks have been laid again. Pat has her little Husky walk – OK, garden edging. They will border her herb garden.
Of course we found that we didn’t have enough bricks to go all the way to the corner. We are, in fact, four bricks shy of a load.
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