More craziness. Over the weekend we had a packed program with going to the PU's for Rosh Hashanah and then celebrating Radio Junkie's one year anniversary of going sober. Through it all, Little One managed to pick up a bug at school that had her in and out of fevers during the weekend, while Better Half was nearly crushed by huge 92" high wardrobe with mirrored doors that fell over when she opened one of the doors. It was in the laundry room where most of the boxes still are and had not yet been secured to the wall because I wanted to be sure first of where to put it. Very scary. Luckily, BH managed to not get hurt, though she was definitely scared. The wardrobe itself was damaged, though it may be salvageable.
We also went back to the vintage stove shop together and agreed to purchase the stove they had on special. It arrived today and I gotta say it looks mighty sweet. Very classic look. Fits exactly in our space. I'm way happier with this appliance than any modern stove we could have gotten, none of which would have fit properly. While we were in the shop, another couple was in and they mentioned how much they loved their vintage stove. They recently moved and the old stove didn't fit, so they bought a pricey Thermador, which they said has been nothing but headaches for them. So, now they were in the market for another vintage.
On Monday, I stayed home with LO since she had been sick over the weekend and we figured she needed the rest. We had a very mellow day together and it actually gave me time to get a lot of stuff done, since she slept late. Had to cancel class for that day, but not too sussed about that as I'm not really digging the class anyway. Met LOs teacher in the afternoon when we went to pick up the homework for the week. Apparently of the six kids at LOs table, four were out sick that day. Clearly something was going around.
No sign of Boo-boo since the day I brought her back. Hope she's okay. Guessing we won't be seeing her again.
Took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening heading east on Colorado. Saw lots more restaurants and shops worth checking out. It really is great to just be able to walk places again.
Of course, the downside is the commute. This morning when I got to campus I ran into another guy who bikes there. He comes from Torrance and it takes him 90 mins. I was envious, for sure. I need to get some good lights on my Brompton, and then I can try the bus/bike combo. Meanwhile, the morning drive is usually pretty smooth, but I try to hit the road by 6 - 6:15. Takes me just under 50 minutes driving around 60mph on the freeway portion of the journey. The return journey is the kicker, but so far it hasn't be too horrendous. Averaging about 1 hr to 1 hr and 15 mins. If I could find a way to circumvent downtown, that'd help, but I'm sure I'm not the first to have had this thought.
Was good to see folks at Rosh Hashana, including Little Sis coming up from SD. The celebration for Radio Junkie was nice. I think he appreciated that we marked the occassion. Schmaz had brought a cake and when were about to serve it, seemed like everyone felt like we ought to say something or sing. So, I sang "Happy sobriety to you." Gotta plenty of yuks out of that.
Just received Dr. B's new book in the mail yesterday. What a great first piece of real mail to get in the new home! This has been a long time coming and I'm really looking forward to reading it. I'm always very impressed by people's abilities to see these sorts of mult-year projects through to the end. Topically, this book couldn't be more timely and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.
Yesterday I made my last trip to the old pad to return the keys and clean out some remaining junk on the deck. Boo-boo was there. Last time I went by I succeeded in getting her into a cardboard pet carrier, but she managed to claw her way out of that, fortunately before I had her in the car. This time I had a proper pet carrier borrowed from Middle Sis. Got her in again (she was obviously hungry). Cried a lot on the way to ER. Little One was excited to see her. Let her out of carrier, she wandered around to explore new yard and then promptly scuttled up over a fence and into a neighbors yard with a dog. She fled up a tree. Haven't seen her since. Put out food this morning, so I'm hoping she'll find her way back and get used to the new surroundings.
We have a dishwasher! After nearly three years of spending way too much time hand washing, we finally have a dishwasher. Yay! What we don't have, unfortunately, is a stove. We ordered this on 8/22 to be delivered 9/12, but now Sears says it won't be available until 9/30. They claim the one they were going to deliver turned out to be damaged. I'm truly pissed off, but don't have the energy to go deal with them at the moment. Little One and I looked at some restored vintage stoves that would actually fit our non-standard 40" space. That is apparently what used to be in there. They are nice and they even had one at a reasonable price, but I don't know yet how BH feels about them, as it is quite a different look. Supposedly they last forever. Looks basically like this:
Today was Hamid's funeral. I just spoke with BH on the phone. She said it was really hard to leave him at the cemetery. She said there were about 200 people there. I sure wish Little One and I could have gone, both to say our goodbyes and to support BH. She sent some pix of him from the hospital on the day he died. He looked very much at peace, but also very sick.
Most of you probably already know that Better Half's brother died on Friday. Given what I knew about the form of cancer he had, I knew it was coming sooner rather than later. And, yet when it actually happened, it sucked the air out of me. Better Half came home Friday afternoon and just broke down sobbing as she told me the news. A few days earlier, a large tumor had been discovered in his kidney and doctors had told him there was nothing more they could do for him. We had heard they said it was now just a matter of days, but I didn't want to believe that and I don't think BH did either. BH's younger sister was with him in the hospital when he died and it happened in his sleep. Apparently just hours before he asked her, "Is this what it means to die?" (or something to that effect). It's not clear why his wife and two sons were not present and he apparently was asking to see them. I'm guessing they couldn't face it, but if that's true, they're likely to regret it later that they did not come. BH is really upset and wishes she had had a chance to say goodbye. Her last convo with him was after we had heard about the kidney tumor, but I guess it still didn't seem imminent at that point, so there was no formal goodbye. Lots of crying. Thanks to those who have called/emailed/stopped-by; it means a lot.
Not surprisingly, the move has been overshadowed by events and has not been joyous. I was in a packing frenzy on Friday before BH came home. Kept on packing well into the night, but it was tough going. The movers came the next day. The first picked up a bedroom set at the PUs and then hit our place round 10:30. Took 'em till 4 pm to get it all in the truck. Problem was the shitty narrow access we had made it really difficult to get larger items out. Then they made it to ER around 5:30 and spent the next 4 hrs unloading and re-assembling some furniture. Very expensive move (about 75% more than I had estimated it would cost!), but we could not have done it on our own. Regrettably, the contractors are also not finished, so we're going to be living with some crap for awhile. But it's manageable.
On the upside, Little One (who has really had to put up with a lot because of our preoccupation with packing) enjoyed spending the late afternoon at our neighbor's across the street. They have two boy (6 and 3) and a pool! The kids got on great and the parents are very friendly.
I'd better get some sleep. Tomorrow more unpacking, cleaning and prepping for classes. A true Day of Labor.
