Nightlife

I think it started with the recycling box. I saw it in the kitchen and wanted to find a new home for it. It's been kept on the back porch all the time we've been living here, but the back porch is no longer. Right now it's a floor with just the remains of the walls, but no windows, and definitely no ceiling. I always wanted a skylight...haha. I was out there earlier and I have to say that I have never liked the back porch more than I do at this moment. And what a perfect night to have no roof. It is almost officially December and the weather is so warm. I love it.

Well the recycling box needed a new home, and actually, I got rid of my sister's crappy stroller last week so there happened to be room in the one closet in our house. Incase you're wondering why I had my sister's stroller, I'll tell you: We had a nice one, one that was actually new when we got it - most of the stuff here just fits the description 'new to us', so it is a noteworthy fact when you consider that Zach ran it over with the van late last spring. I like to emphasize that Zach ran it over before I list the mitigating factors. It was 3am, Ginger was coughing up blood from her heartworm treatments, Zach was rushing her to the 24 hour doggie doctor, and I am the one who put the stroller there to begin with. See, you just knew I had to be involved in some way. I am like a bad luck charm. Trouble follows me. I just wish it could have been something that was not so new. Until my hat met its maker last week, the stroller was probably the item I was most upset over the loss of.

Come to think of it, a lot of things in my life have been run over by a car. Either by me, or by someone else, but belonging to me. For instance, my brother backed over my bike with his Trans Am when I was 7. I won't say what happened to the family dog one night in the driveway, poor Peachy. And I have run over quite a many curbs before becoming the good driver I am today. No, I am a good driver.

Anyway, I had to move a broom to get the bin into the closet. With broom in hand I thought, "Well why don't I just sweep a little..." My plan had been to get down to the basement with the laptop to give the bunnies some attention and catch up on this blog. "Catch up on what?" you say...I just like to write a lot. I have 4 other posts that are waiting in the draft file to be finished. But I'm pretty sure that there are at least 2 people reading this consistently, and so I guess you guys are the reason I am falling asleep in bed at 3am with the laptop perched atop the pillow, just trying to finish at least one train of thought.

For some reason I decided to sweep something in the 'dining room'. I moved something else to sweep under it, and I guess I thought that if I moved one thing, why not go ahead and move all the other things in the room. Our dining room table has been pushed up against the wall for at least a year. Since then it has been Jacob's stage (I will eventually get around the writing about that because it's such a cute story). Cramming up the room is the 3'X5'X2' box (from the new bathtub) that Jakie and I turned into a little house a couple months ago, along with the 'addition' we put on it after his birthday when he had that nice tall box from his new wooden kitchen. I also have a little end table that holds all the photo albums crammed in the corner. There is the hutch that's got china and some other stuff on it which stays in place. That reminds me of the time when Jacob was not even 2 yet and he climbed the hutch, picked up a fine bone china tea cup that had belonged to someone very old and threw it against the opposite wall when I came around the corner and gasped in shock. In his defense I don't think he was trying to be malicious, I just really scared him and instinct told him to get rid of the evidence as fast as he could.

Oh yeah, and the backseat to our van is in the dining room. Has been for I'd say 9 months. Stella has so graciously offered to let us house some of this stuff in her garage as she is headed to a warmer place for the duration of the winter. By the way, when she was over here last, she told me that she came over on Sunday. "You did?" I asked with my head cocked to the side. "Yeah, I saw you sitting there," she motioned to the place where I indeed was with the computer that day, "But you looked busy so I just left." You see? It's not my imagination, someone has been watching me.

Well the dogs must think I'm crazy because they watched me the whole time, moved when I was coming too close, got back on the couch when they thought I was done, and then jumped back down again. Now their couch is in the dining room, not just blocking it off. In a risky move, I pushed it up against the wall, placing the curtains in prime territory . The credenza is about a foot away from the end of the couch, and at one point I saw Mango put her paws up on the armrest to explore the possibilities, but I don't give her enough credit to make a gutsy flying leap so I think I'm safe from catastrophic photo album/china damage. I am knocking on wood right now. And because that technique has failed me before, I am actually saying the words aloud.

The table and van seat are waiting by the front door to be moved out of here. I think Jacob will be happy to have more access to this room as a play area, although the 'secret hideout' aspect of it will be gone because he no longer will have to go under the couch to get to the room. I'm really sad about that. Also, we're not just moving the table to Stella's garage, we're getting rid of it and when the addition is complete we'll have a nicer hand-me-down table. I feel a great sense of loss for Jacob that we are taking away his stage. He plays with Bob and all the machines (the *imaginary* ones) up there. He likes to act out scenes from the videos up there. The place he keeps his secret stash of screws is up there. For about half an hour I was trying to think up ways that we could hold onto the old table purely for sentimental reasons.

I was getting the stuff to go out in order by the front door when I saw the growing pile of mail that mistakenly comes to our house day after day. About a piece a day belonging to our neighbors gets put in our mailbox. I meant to deliver it sooner, but I can tell it's all just junk mail anyway. It was clogging up the energy so even though it was as late as it was, I had to get it out right then. All this cleaning and rearranging is about clearing out the energy, getting things moving. I really do believe in that aspect of Feng Shui, I can feel the difference in our lives already with the changes that have been happening.

A scene plays out at midnight on my front yard: A girl walks across the empty road and tries to make out the numbers on the mailboxes. She puts a stack of letters into one of them and returns to the lawn she came from. The girl turns around for a look and then, taking a deep breath, crosses the lawn in another direction. She finds a dry spot, and like a dog settling into a lush carpet, she makes herself at home on the soft ground. The girl, barefoot, dressed only in a t-shirt and jeans, doesn't look one bit cold from the breezy night air. Instead she appears comfortable and more at home in this fleeting moment of experience than she has been in a long time. 10 minutes pass. With no leaves left to fall, autumn saying its goodbyes, the girl slowly stands up, as if reluctant to return to what lies within the 4 walls. She takes another deep breath - absorbing this perfect moment? Preparing for the harsh reality of the coming months? She makes her way to the door, hesitates, reaches out and then quickly disappears. I thought I saw her face, but tomorrow I won't remember.