Travels with The Rayman

 

 

We are on day 4 or 5 of partially moving in to the new digs.  Here I lounge in the guest bedroom because there’s not many places to roost in this place, at this time.

The floor is finished in the great room and down one half of the hall.  The master bedroom and closet are about 2/3 done but unusable for anything…a compressor, a saw, various hard looking tools loiter in the space not yet finished.  And the other half of the hall has plywood showing.  So there is the kitchen 75% complete and the guest bedroom.  Everything else is in a state of disarray.  Additionally, the area rugs are piled up in the garage waiting for the work to finish so that they may be laid where needed…just about everywhere.  Dust floats in the air like smog.  Even the bushes outside in the front yard are covered with a thin veil of dust.  Nothing goes unscathed.

I must say that I completely admire my cousin, Susie, because she went through a complete remodel of her entire house a few years back. How she did it will remain a mystery to me.  Edit that remark.  How she did it without a nervous breakdown is to be admired.  What a job.  And we are only doing the floors.

So, tonight we barbecued in the front yard some fresh, local king salmon over hardwood.  What a treat after yet another day of opening boxes, putting things away, cramming things in small places, relegating more items to the Goodwill trailer because there is just no space to house that olive dish, the glass serving tray, that crystal bowl that I have honestly never used.  In honor of Turkey, I bought some local cucumbers from the man at farmer’s market and made a yogurt dish with garlic, mint, grated cucumber, salt to taste.  Fabulous.  Easy.  Healthy.  Also tossed a salad of mixed greens, nicoise olives, avocado from the farm up the road, tomatoes from Templeton (another farmer’s market purchase), feta cheese and fabulous EVOO and basalmic vinegar from Italy, aged 10 years.  Sweet and thick.  All with with a bagette from Richard, baked today in Los Osos.  Oh, we are so lucky.

Tomorrow is golf for me.  Golf meeting for the Rayman.  A day off while the bang, bang, banging continues.  Then Wednesday, we pick up the freezer from winced it is stored, take possession of our repaired couch, pick up a change of address form from DMV, travel to San Luis just in time to meet a bunch of friends and take a train to Paso, taste wine, eat dinner and come back in a van.  Fun day in the works.  Then we pay big time on Thursday for the prior two days of frivality.  The movers and the truck come on Thursday and they gather up all that is left to be moved from Uncle Ralph’s and the storage locker.  That will end this long journey of moving for good.

The most interesting thing about all this is our life without television.  We have not watched TV since this process was started back in July…about the 29th.  On our trip to OR, we did not bother.  Our only source of news has been the internet.  Rayman reads the headlines on Yahoo.  He keeps up with sports on ESPN.  I do NYTimes when I have the time.  And I must say, we are very happy to not have TV.  It is a time killer.  And it keeps you all upset reporting on things you cannot control.

The fog is thick tonight.  And it is very cool.  Great sleeping weather.  We have not brought our lights over and there are very few lights here…it’s an older house and outlets are few and far between.  No ceiling lights except down the hall and kitchen.  So, that is why I write from the comfort of the bed.  That plus it seems so civilized.  Didn’t many great minds of the ages compose in bed?

My new kitchen is going to take some getting use to.  It’s not the best design for me.  The kitchen sink is across the room from the stove top…with an island in the middle.  Don’t know how I’m going to adjust to that configuration yet.  And I don’t like the brand new dishwasher.  Not enough choices and the racks don’t move smoothly.  Oh, dear.  Such a kitchen diva, I am.  I’m sure I’ll need to write about it in my book which I haven’t spent one minute on since mid-July.  Must get back to it.  That will require that I get back in the kitchen to create some havoc that I can write about.  Shouldn’t be a problem!!  I feel dinner parties in my near future.