Upper Window

July 5, 2010 at 1:28 am (Earth, Home, Light on Thrush Hill)

At last, after a year, I finally got the upper hallway cleared out.  There was a bureau left behind which I finally convinced Rose and Karl to take, a plain plywood table with a drawer containing Anna’s unopened Max Factor cake makeup from maybe 1960 and lots of corroded plastic jewelry, a huge “NO TRESPASSING” sign on a very tall pole, a broken crib, parts of a broken bamboo blind, rabbit ears from some ancient TV set, and various other dirty and bug-infested items.  We brought the lot down to the trash pile.  I was going to throw out the table (oh, that powdery smell of ladies’ makeup from the past!) and Rose said let’s see if K. wants it for the shop or something, and then later she happened to back into it with the truck anyway.  The leg can be mended if they still want to keep it; it could be useful somewhere.  But it has no real aesthetic value and I thought it was sad to keep it in the house.  She died in the mid ’80s and Mr. K. lived here twenty-three years by himself — and never cleaned out her stuff.  There was an old, tarnished St. Christopher medal from when they made them out of lead.  I found a few of her clothes in the attic.  But then, he never really sought closure in things.  He just ignored what was no longer useful to him.  His suicidal son’s golf trophies were dumped into a bin in the basement.  And that, until I moved in, was that.

So here I am at the top of the stairs for the first time.  I cleaned the floors with Murphy’s Oil Soap, the landing and the back bedroom which will soon become my sewing center.  The front bedroom is a wreck, of course, with falling paster and dead bugs.  Next month, I’m hoping, my team will get together and REDO that room, top to bottom.  It’s kind of exciting now.  We have to take it down to the lath, ceiling and all, redo the electric and check the insulation.  I might put in central air ducts for future hookup.  I am going to paint the floor.  It would have to be sanded and refinished anyway, and I have always wanted one painted-floored room.  So that particular nice oak floor will be the chosen one.  It gets the best light, that room, with four excellent windows facing southeast and southwest.  The full moon is always visible from that side of the house, and one can look down on the front lawn and see fireflies.  When it’s done I’ll make it my bedroom, until the back one is redone along with the adjoining bathroom.  Then the front room can be my sewing and bookmaking room.

It’s so unusual to have a light up here.  This window has always been dark.

The two windows on this landing are puttied shut like most of those in the house.  Unfortunately I can’t open either one at this time.  I have a two-way fan in one of the bedrooms and am trying to suck some cooler air in here and fan it into the hall.  It’s just going to be hot up here for a while.

Because of the debit card snafu, I am having to be rather careful with spending cash for a bit.  The illegal charge still had not gone through by Friday, so now we have to wait until Tuesday to begin the resolution process.  But today was market day, and I spent much of what I had on fresh food for the week.  The strawberries have gone by, but suddenly farmers have blueberries and peaches.  We found the best price for both at a stand down Rte. 44, and got hothouse tomatoes at our favorite general store on the fringes of our town.  He wasn’t open today but had all his produce out with an honesty box.  If you have correct change, leave it in the box, or take the change you need; if you can’t make the right change, just leave him a note and he’ll settle with you next time you come in.  I just love that.  I love that my village will do this.

I also scored a darling little chair for $8 at the flea market.  I have this drop-leaf little farmhouse table, and one cool chair that was left in my house that goes nicely with it.  Oldish, you know, not old antique but like they don’t make any more.  Well, this chair I found is a perfect companion chair for the other one, and now two could sit at this table and have breakfast.  It needs a bit of shoring up — it wobbles a little, but could easily be fixed — and it needs painting.  No big deal.

Even as I wonder where to put the table long-term, I’m noting that it could actually come up here on the landing, with its two little chairs.  I could have tea on the landing.  That would help me move myself into this space, and get the table out of the parlor where it’s rather in the way.  I get wireless signal up here, so it could still be my computer table.  Maybe that would relieve the temptation to be at the computer downstairs so much.

Damn; I just wish I could open one of these windows.  Believe me, we’ve tried to cut through the putty.  Someone suggested heating it.  Maybe I’ll ask K. if he has something that might soften it.

The fireworks have started over at Patriot’s Park.  For the first year in a long time I’m not watching them.  It seemed more important to be here, at home.  After all the marketing I got a bit done outside, and sweltered through the cleaning in here.  I have a new perennial called Gooseneck Loosestrife.  It’s just lovely and will spread until I want to yank it out.  As for tomorrow, there is still the garden gate to make, and the new back door to get primed, and more mowing to be done.  I’m hopeful that I can get on top of some of that before the heat gets too high.  Last day of vacation.  I’m trying not to be sad.

I watched some of “The Cur$e of the Were-Ra66it” earlier. You know that says rabbit, of course.  I have some fantasy that someone googling the movie won’t end up here.  Anyway I hadn’t seen it in a few years.  I just love W&G.

That “Ra66it” thing reminds me of a story I heard on NPR once.  Archeologists were excavating ancient garbage dumps in Egypt, looking at bits of papyrus and whatnot, and they found texts indicating that the number of the beast was 616.  Not triple six.  Somehow there has been a typo along the way, and all this time people have been going around fearing six sixty-six, when all the time it’s six sixteen.   Just think of all those interpretations, all wrong and stuff.  All that time spent doing the wrong math.  Me, I think we should just tend our gardens.