Get your own
 diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

Cast of Characters

Mid-January, Rain - January 13, 2012
Almost Midwinter - December 14, 2011
Saturday, Noonish, Sunny - November 05, 2011
October, White - October 31, 2011
October, 2011 - October 04, 2011


April 05, 2009

9:16 p.m.

Bornearly the Intrepid

I knew Rose and Marc had to go to a birthday party at noon, and would be back at some point to resume yard work. I went over around 1:30 to start laundry. Pearl was home, and the unfamiliar car in the driveway told me that her newish beau, Skip, was also there. I tried to make noise as I came in, in case they were making out somewhere. It turned out they were in Pearl's room with the door closed, so I wasn't likely to interrupt anything.

(Ah, young Love.)

Laundry in, I went outside to enjoy the sun. I sat on a rock and gazed at the barn and watched birds at the feeder and a cat came over for a scritch. It was SO BEAUTIFUL to sit and do nothing but enjoy the day. I never do that here at home. Well, I don't have a yard. But I imagined living next door and having times like this, where I sit outside and feel the sun and contemplate whatever is around me. YES.

I was aware that the Cymbalta Rose put me on is making me feel better. I'm also aware that it makes me very sleepy, even though now I'm taking it at night. Sitting there, I tried to compare how I felt in that moment to how I'd been feeling the months prior. Is it better? Is it worth it? It's definitely better, but the sleepiness makes me less functional so maybe that's not a good trade.

After mulling this over a while, and switching laundry, I went upstairs to lie down in the spare room.

(period of zoning out)

Got up finally, which was hard. Pearl and Skip had emerged and she said R&M were on their way back. I went out and took the laundry off the line. While there I was visited by Linus, and on a whim I picked him up and placed him on a low branch of the dogwood that was right next to me. It instantly became his new favorite place. He'd never been up a tree before. (Remember, he's only been allowed outside for a week or two!) This is a great tree for him, as there are many low, horizontal branches. He padded back and forth, scratching the bark and purring like crazy. Little orange kitty! It made me happy to see him.

R&M drove up shortly and then the fun began.

They needed to pull out a couple of volunteer saplings that had grown near the edge of the rock wall by the street. Doing this required moving the tractor out of the driveway, so Rose gave me a first lesson on driving it. It's easy but there are more controls than in a car. The gas is a handle; there's a clutch and a brake, but you set the gas to a certain place and leave it there and operate it just with the clutch. Then there are two gear shifts. She backed it up into the yard and then let me go forward and back a little. It was cool. We didn't get into using the bucket because it was time to head down to the street.

Marc drove the Dynahoe down the driveway and backed it up a little to where the saplings were. Rose and I brought a shovel, a pick and a steel rake. Here's how the Dynahoe works: you drop the wide, grabby bucket (technical term) as a sort of brake. Then there are hydraulic "stabs," or stabilizers, on each side that go down and actually lift the vehicle up. The tires get raised off the ground. Now it's standing on the bucket and the two stabs. This means it won't move when the digging arm (on the opposite side from the bucket) goes down and pries things out of the ground. Rose and I climbed up into the cab to watch. The cab rocks and rolls a little when the earth is being moved. Swoosh -- tree gone. Yank -- roots out. Swoosh and stomp -- earth back more or less in place. Meanwhile Mark is in the cab pulling levers ever so subtly, avoiding hitting the wall, getting the toothy scooper (technical term) just so. It was great fun and SO much faster than trying to dig it up with a shovel.

We were able to replant some of the bulbs that were entwined in the roots. They're probably daffs but maybe lilies or something else. We didn't hold up traffic too much. That done, Marc got the saplings into the grabby bucket and drove them back up to the house. Rose and I got the other tools and followed.

I went inside for a water break (take a little on, let a little off, as my dad used to say) and when I got back outside they were talking to their next door neighbors, Ed and Donna. They live in the house on the little lot that is embraced by My Property. They also have, for years, minded the pump that provides water to My House, because the pump house is directly behind their house, and not anywhere near My House. It was put there because Old Man was going to build his commercial biulding down at street level, which never got built -- a story I've told in an earlier entry. Anyway, Ed mans a light bulb in the winter that keeps the pump from freezing. Apparently, Son either had the electricity turned off at My House, or didn't pay the bill and it got turned off, because now the pump isn't running and the well thingy that it's in has filled up with water. This is very bad. Son apparently had no knowledge that there was a pump there, or that it would fill up with water if the electricity were turned off. We think he's probably gone back to Kentucky by now. Meanwhile Ed figured out a way to hook up the pump to his own electrical supply (thank goodness) and is getting it straightened out -- but they need to get in touch with Son. Marc said he'd give them Son's cell number and they'd both call.

Meanwhile Donna talked a little more about the family's history, the other son's suicide, the way the old man was. The wife hadn't wanted to move the house. Old Man didn't care what she wanted. The wife's name was Anna -- the same as my great-grandmother who was a pioneer in Oklahoma in the late 1800s. Donna said she'd really like to see the inside of the house. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been in it.

In the end, we convinced them to come up with us to the House for a recon. Son wasn't there, of course -- no one was there, same as usual. They got to look in all the windows, and we even got a glimpse of the basement through one of those ground-level windows. We talked and talked about everything, and while everyone was on the far end of the house I went to look at the Witness Tree.

I stood beneath it and said hello, and wondered if it remembered me. After a couple of minutes my eye caught something on the ground. A hole. A hole, just about where I'd buried the St. Christopher medal. There, a foot away, was the baggie with the tissue-wrapped medal -- on top of the ground.

It was soaked, and a little puctured. I tried to remember when it had rained last. A few days ago. Something or someone had dug it up!! It hadn't been buried very deeply at all -- I couldn't get through the root system that was close to the surface. I concluded that it wasn't Son, but an animal. Son would have opened the bag, probably. I pocketed it silently and told Marc about it later when we had some privacy.

Meanwhile everyone was still talking away, and we walked more around the house until we came to the dumpster, which was even more full than it had been the other day. Curiosity won out and four of us hoisted ourselves up the sides to peer in. We ended up combing through the top layer of that dumpster and retrieving a number of things he'd thrown out -- I mean, he threw EVERYTHING out, whether it was usable, salable, functional or not. I found the grate and two andirons from the fireplace and salvaged those, and a tall green bottle that could be a vase. Donna found many unbroken dishes, a small tv with a power cord, a cane, and a rusty saw. Marc found a key on a ring and wondered whether it was a house key. He also found a pile of envelopes with uncancelled 32 cent stamps, so tore all the corners off and kept the stamps. (I love the Yankee in him!) Rose found a cool painted urn. And I found a beautiful little cameo brooch that must have belonged to Anna. I wondered why he'd kept it. Anyway I couldn't see that going into a dump, so into my pocket it went.

At one point I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if he drove up and found half the neighborhood going through his dumpster?"

There was much laughing and making fun of ourselves, and speculating on this and that. Finally we carted our treasures through the woods and over the stone wall onto familiar territory.

Ed and Donna were so nice, and so funny, and I felt like they were allies to the cause. She might know better things to ask or ways to draw Son out. She also told a story of sitting for a friend's dog last Thanksgiving -- this was when Old Man was already in the nursing home -- and trying to walk the dog up the long driveway to the white House. The dog would not go near the house. Something about the house's energy spooked it.

I don't feel spooky energy there; just sadness and neglect. I can't wait to infuse it with happiness, music, and care. And I'm going back in a few days to rebury St. Christopher.


|

previous - next


free hit counter

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!