The Last Time I Moved

SUMMARY: Reminding myself why I don't want to do that again

Backfill: Photos from 20 years ago.

This is *after* I have already started unpacking and putting things in better places. Then I realized that I'd regret not taking photos. So here's some.

Back porch/deck/whatev

The back porch was a good place to put everything that needed to go into the kitchen (so I could walk around in the kitchen) and anything else I didn't have a good place for. It was summer; it was covered and enclosed.  

Wide view:

Then, camera in hand, look left:

Standing at one end and photo left...

Jake is stunned.
...rotate a bit to the right...

...rotate a bit right more...

...rotate a bit more...

...rotate a bit and aim downward...

...and end rotation.

Living room

Left

Right My original comment on this photo from back then: "The movers have just departed after their 2nd day of unloading trucks. I wander around the house, in dull shock, thinking "Whose is all this stuff anyway?" Remington's thought balloon: "If only I could find a clear spot of carpeting to lie down on..."

Dining Room

Picture, if you will: Dining/Living area is L-shaped, so living room would be base of the L and dining would be the upright.

xxxxx

Looking along the back wall of the living room

Rotate slightly right

[[[I f***ing hate blogger and its supposed photo inclusion capability. I don't know how people do this if they don't know f**** HTML. I mean, *I* know it and I can't make things work correctly!
I have got to find a way to transfer it all somewhere else. ]]]

Step into the living room and look back into the dining room.
Many of the boxes (maybe all) are books.

Office

Office corner next to iron railing of breakfast nook/kitchen.
You can see that I've already done tons of unpacking at this point. 
So you don't get the full impact. Bummer.

Opposite corner of the office. 
All the electronics are already unpacked and mostly set up so I can function.

I had so much material in the desk drawers that it was imperative that I photograph them *before* unloading them so that I could easily fit them back in.  Is this a lot????
A few years ago, I went through and pulled out more than half, maybe 2/3 of everything and gave it away. 

Shelves on desk, left to right:

All those CD and other removable media storage things became obsolete in a few years
and are now almost all gone.

Kitchen/Breakfast Nook

Actual kitchen is to the right.  
Office is half a level down, behind the black iron railing--
you can see the tops of piles and the ceiling fan.

Yard

Many things have already been removed from this area;
movers just put almost everything for the yard here.
They also moved a few larger items out farther into the yard.

Master bedroom

Apparently I took no photos of the closet and all of its boxes and clothing.

Bedroom #1

Stuff to go into the attic room up the pull-down ladder. Later. Mostly.

Bedroom #2

Hmm, no photos. Nothing really to go there.

Bedroom #3

Did I seriously not take photos of the guest room with all of its furniture and boxes?!

Garage

I *know* that I took photos of the garage even though it was difficult. It was literally up to the level of the garage door opener, and packed nearly wall to wall, just barely space for me to get by on two sides. Terrifying.  Welllll I'll have to find that later.

Nothing says "I love you" like interrupted sleep

SUMMARY: Morning Brain. From K-TMH, only the finest in hijacked lyrics.

Beware of nocturnal dogs

True story. In music from K-TMH. 
(Tune of Morning Train; see below.)

… … 

He barks all day
And begs to play
But still wakes up at night

My doggie wakes me up at three;
He has to go outside to pee.
He searches for a friendly tree
While I sit waiting for him...

This has become a frequent issue in the last three months. 

We are not amused.

You must watch the original official Sheena Easton video (also below) to see state-of-the-art music videos and trains from 1980. 

I'm not thinking about my age. I'm not.

That poor guy--works 9 to 5 and then takes her out for the evening and then they play all night? When does he sleep??

Nothing Tastes Better Than--

SUMMARY: [Almost] Wordless Wednesday

Nothing tastes better than [only 2nd visit to an actual movie theater after 16 months of "lockdown"] served with [movie popcorn].

African Queen 70th anniversary

But the pandemic remains--

Pandemic addition: Order ahead instead of standing in line.

No more touching shared things! All gone--

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. << 

Tuesday TShirt Tales: Doing The Best I Can

T-shirt tales—Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Tell me more. or Read all t-shirt tales

SUMMARY: And sometimes just hanging out.

This is one of my two (so far) pandemic-specific shirts. Summarizes a world in which you're more or less isolated from everyone and everything.  And everything you do must be done with caution. 

My sister and her husb don't go out much*, either, and when they do, they also wear masks. Even though the restrictions were removed in California back in June. Because, at the same time, concern was growing about the rapidly increasing number of cases of the Delta Variant--much more contagious.  And since then, holyyyy moleyyy, getting worse. 

So caution is still critical. Wear masks. Keep distanced. Wash hands. Avoid crowds (particularly if filled with Unvaccinated idiots ... oops,sorry..).

And, in fact, this caution is multipurpose! Sister noted that, although she usually gets colds a few times a  year, she hasn't had any since March of last year.

This is at their house two weeks back. We agreed to be in the same place (that is, their place or mine) without masks, after months upon months of masked and outdoor-only caution, assuming it's low risk.  And glaring at each other suspiciously each time. Just to let each other know that we've got an eye on 'em.

Lounging on their Comfy Couch. Watching their television! How weird is that?!** Only because: Marvel Cinematic Universe. Loki, 6 episodes. Wanda Vision, 9 episodes. Specifically, Disney+ channel.

Enjoyed the series. Liked visiting. Enjoyed snuggling with their dog Abby. Took turns providing dinner. Still mostly staying home except for occasional errands or walks or hikes (short ones). And doing the best I can.***

-----

Footnotes:

* He and I both work from home. She is practicing being retired.

** I don't watch things on television. Normally maybe once or twice a year. But, not even movies mostly on my TV. So UnAmerican!

*** T-shirt from the Holderness Family. I particularly like Finn's (the husband's) music video parodies. But their other skits and activities can be rousingly funny, too. And you'll often see them wearing their various t-shirts, which you, too, could buy from their site!  

[I don't know them; no reward will come my way. But I have had so much pleasure from their videos over the last nearly 1 1/2 years that I'm happy to point them out to you.]

Living On The Edge of Agility and Memories

SUMMARY: Those were the days, my friend!

My Facebook post on Wed, July 22, 2021

Watching a day of agility (Steeplechase plus Masters Gamblers and Standard (?))* and watching so many people's videos** from these two local*** USDAA trials this month, I'm taken back-- 

I started competing in agility the week I turned 40. Wish I could've started years sooner, but dang agility had barely even been invented back then, local clubs barely started.

Ah, yes, I remember being able to run, pre-knee-and-particularly-spine arthritis! A blast! Loved living on the edge when my dog burned jet fuel almost on autopilot, racing through the course just on my words or a little body language and using their own experience as I barely managed to keep up or stay ahead, adrenaline peaking.

Remington, somewhere in those 1st couple of years, Qed 7 of 8 runs.
Very happy handler (I was concentrating too hard on the dog paying attention to the  photographer Bill Newcomb to remember to smile!)--my heart soared! 
Still one of my favorite photos.
(Wearing my Bay Team shirt, too!)

-----------
* I worked as timer/scribe on July 3 at the Bay Team USDAA in Prunedale.

** I still know so many people in agility, and they post on Facebook. Wins, near misses, contact joy, whichever videos they choose to post. So much fun!
***  Last weekend, SMART also hosted a USDAA trial in Prunedale; I stayed home.

-----------

Evvverybody...Must...Get...Shamed

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

But I wUUUld not feel so all alOOOne...

[also posted facebook July 10]

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. << 
I mean, technically, there are words here, but they're in the photos so they don't count.

Random Notes on Music and Love at First Sight

SUMMARY: While reading fan fiction online

Started from a comment I left on this chapter   In Feb 2021 (and started this post March 3, 2021). (Finished July 14, '21.)

This fan fiction was for Captive Prince, a trilogy that I am newly (March 2020) a fan of, but that I suspect has only a certain demographic of fans. Auguste is one of the characters.

About that music

I had music in my life from my earliest memories. We always had instruments in the house, including an old crappy piano. My mom still sometimes got out her old cello and played a bit, very rusty. She played the piano, too. Advanced beginner level, I'd say. I liked to pick at playing it, too: major symphonies such as Chopsticks.

In the fourth grade, I learned to play flute and how to read music. 

And I was always in the choir in most of elementary school and high school. (And in the Sunday School choir, too, I suppose simply by being there. I remember singing songs in the church at Christmas: "I, said the donkey, shaggy and brown...".)

And in band in elementary school, junior high, high, and college.

I told the story's author, "I know so many of the composers’ names and the titles of music from your story so far. I love how you weave music all through it." Told me that all those years of playing and listening to (I have albums, as did my parents...) so-called classical music paid of in a deeper experience when reading this.

This is not the albums I was referring to. But I have this, too.

I also said that I laughed out loud when I read: “Choosing a song from Don Giovanni isn’t exactly the proper way to get a girlfriend, Auguste.”  But one has to know Don Giovanni to appreciate that line in the story more fully. Fully pleased with myself.

About that love at first sight thing

Because love-at-first-sight was something that happened in the story, that I believe one of the characters didn't believe in, I noted that I believe in love at first sight. Not because it has happened to me, because it hasn’t. But I saw it happen to two male friends and their now-wives exactly the way you describe Auguste. 

Friend#1, on the day we arrived at the University 300 miles from home, while I and friend#2 were up in the dorm room putting things away, went downstairs to drive his truck to the proper parking lot. He didn’t come back for an hour; should've been about 10 minutes.  He finally walked back into the room with starry eyes and said, as I recall, “I think I’ve met the woman I’m going to marry.” After chatting with a freshman girl in the parking lot. And he did. And they’re still married. After – – 40+ years? we certainly teased him originally. 

My left arm is on friend#1; his new girlfriend's (now also a friend) left arm is on me.
Friend#2 is in the center.

But then, eight years later, it happened to friend#2, too! We were long-time friends who had also ended up working at the same company.  Over the weekend, he went to a party that included a few mutual friends. He arrived at work Monday morning, and said, "I think I’m in love." The first time they met. This is a guy who had hardly ever even dated anybody. They’ve been married now for about 38 years.

The latter couple (friend#2) with rabbit ears behind him) came to visit maybe 15 years later
with their three kids. (Me on left in colorful shirt.)

Love and music?

When I hear music, I often feel many emotions. Some evoke the feeling of love.

When I think of love at first sight, I think of music. I blame the movies. ("Love at First Sight {A Montage of Movie/TV Couples}")

And that pretty much sums up life, doesn't it?

Sister and me at Mountain Winery for a Moody Blues Concert

Back in the day

Things Photographers See That Others Might Not

SUMMARY: Wordless (mostly) Wednesday

Five of us sat in the same location. Four wondered what on earth I was shooting. One of us just smiled. 

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

P.S.