Additional Adjustments

The minor shifts continue.

Getting up early isn’t exactly a happy adjustment, but a job is. We’re getting accustomed to D. having to leave the house no later than 7:15 to get to work by 8:00 (if he’s lucky – the traffic across 37 is atrocious) and to spend nearly an hour (if he’s lucky) on the return journey. After not driving for 5 years, the idea of spending a few hours every day having to concentrate on obstacles instead of reading a book on the train – it’s been an unexpected stress. But, we adjust.

We’re adjusting to weekend chores: mowing the back lawn, raking leaves and the interminable needles from the myriad pine trees, cleaning rain-gutters from all the woodsy detritus. Living in flats suddenly seems like a lot less work. But, for the joy of not sharing a wall with anyone, wandering around in just a t-shirt for midnight snack runs, and singing as loudly in the shower as one wants to — well. We adjust.

Wildlife is an additional adjustment. We were forcibly reminded that we had an unsecured pet door in the sliding door in the breakfast nook when we found a pear on the counter top with tiny, perfect teeth marks in it. You can bet that pet door is sealed shut now. We’re adjusting to having wild turkeys stroll through our neighborhood. Apparently they’re pests (our neighbor asked us to “take them!” when she noticed us photographing). We’re waiting for Van to snare one and dress it. D’s promised he’d do the cooking (and T. has asked him “In what house, because it won’t be this one, gross.”) You see how these adjustments go…

We’re also adjusting to music (No, your monitor hasn’t gone crazy – those are the keys from the piano, removed for cleaning – and man, were they filthy) – and soon, T. banging scales, as D. stealth signed her up for piano lessons, much to her delight/horror/terror/delight. Since T’s mum gave us her old upright, which we had cleaned and tuned, there is now piano music heard all over the house. It is truly loud — but maybe we just need more furniture to suck up the echo. Speaking of which….

No. Our belongings have still not arrived. We do believe that they’re in the state, they’ve finally made their way onto a truck (the truck abandoned them, last time, as it was apparently over-weight) and left Florida some time last week. We’re hopeful that we’ll see the arrival of such things as clothes, kitchen items, and books (well – they’ll stay boxed for awhile) tomorrow morning between 9 a.m. and 10, but we are no longer believers until we see. This has been RIDICULOUSLY slow going.

We’ve finally had our first real rain of the season, and here in Northern California, snow-chains are required for anyone trying to cross the Sierra Nevada. Some areas up here received nearly an inch of rain, and a cloudburst turned the end of our drive into our own personal lake. It almost felt like Scotland for a few hours!

The adjustments continue. There’s an internal balance that shifts – a grain of something familiar and happy on one side lightens the side which finds things slightly not right. Through further spending time with family and our community, going through the motions of living, celebrating tradition and holiday, and finally having our things (pots! pans! bread pans! cookbooks!) around us (God haste the day), we’ll make our way toward normalcy, or at least what passes for it in the Hobbiton.

-D & T