Saturday was a ninja run for Kittie and David. They came down Saturday morning, arrived early afternoon, and David was immediately jumping onto the handyman tasks around the house. Time was short, as we had tickets to see Cousin Robin in a new play at the Odyssey Theater Saturday evening.
It was a good show, the premiere production of the script, and Robin was brilliant, as usual. We stopped at a local watering hole near the theater for drinks afterward, and it was so very pleasant to sit down and talk theater with someone who respects my theatrical talents and insights as much as I respect hers.
We got back to Pasadena around 12:30, and Kittie and David were off and heading back north by 8 a.m. Sunday. It was the quickest trip they've made down here ever.
The Thursday afternoon prior, the electrician had come by and installed the pendant lamp over the sink in the kitchen. He also made quick work of hooking up the three-way switches that eluded both David and myself the weekend before. The place is coming together, with only a few things left on the remodel contract to finish. I also started, for real, to clean and pack items for the move.
This Tuesday was my birthday. I did go out and get a small cake in celebration. My sister Kittie called me in the evening to wish me a Happy Birthday, but beyond that, the day went uncelebrated (although I didn't do any work and didn't take any work calls for the day).
Tuesday afternoon, Roni called and said he was going to stop by. Sam was the one who actually showed up, and I went over the list of final items that needed to be done. The trim around the bottom of the new countertops seemed to stump him, as though there was nothing wrong. I made him get down and look at the edge of the finish on the cabinet, and he finally acquiesced that it needed something. I showed him all the other things on my list. (It helps to have contractors' eyes look at the work, as both Doug and Bob pointed out things that weren't up to snuff that I hadn't even noticed.)
Sam hummed and hawed like I was asking an awful lot, then scheduled Carmen and the painters back today at 9 a.m. I got a call about 10, saying Carmen wasn't coming until 1 p.m., which was fine by me. When she showed up at 2, I walked through the house and showed her the finishing paint work, which includes a couple fairly large touch-ups (a poorly plastered crack along the office ceiling and a poorly painted ceiling in the bedroom). The one I'm really looking forward to is having the ceiling around the sink light finished off (which they are working on presently).
Yesterday (Wednesday) was the closest thing to a workday that I've had in a long time. Folks at Electric Power Group must like my work, because I got a request for a simple Photoshop job (sub out a screen image in a photo of a monitor) from yet a third person there. It was simple, just about 30 minutes work, but it was nice to have someone shooting out a project and me turning it around fast. (They are also incredibly fast pays, with a check being cut the same week they received their first two invoice.
Also, Kelly at the chamber was e-mailing me on Tuesday about three ads that are already sold for the 2015 chamber directory, which they've asked me to design once again this year. I was very up front with Paul (the chamber CEO) about the fact that I might be packing and moving just about the time the directory is shaping up (October/November), but that didn't deter him. I just wanted to make sure that there was someone in the wings they could hand the job off to if I was unable to finish it up and get moved out at the same time.
This time around I've set up an e-mail account specifically for the directory, so that all the ad copy and artwork and revisions and approvals will be sent to a separate address. As Kelly sells and the design work picks up, I'll be busier than the rest of the year put together. I remember the insanity of putting the book together last year, starting in earnest the week before Steve died, and having to deal with the insanity of having proofs, corrections and all the rest flying around at the last minute. It was bad enough to deal with that while I was mourning; I'm not sure I could deal with it if I'm moving at the same time (at some point I'll have to unhook the computer, which will effectively stop the work).
I've designed labels for the moving boxes: I'm using regular mailing labels, since I have a lot of those, and putting "LA CROSSE," "STORAGE," "DONATION" and "FRAGILE" in big letters. I also have a printed contents label, with room to write the room from which the items came and a space to list what types of items are inside. This should really help me organize things.
I don't think I've had a longer things-to-do list in my life. Everywhere I turn there are things unfinished, unpacked, unsorted, uncleaned, that need to be dealt with, organized, and put in a proper place for dispensation to the proper destination. It was making me crazy until I realized, on my birthday, no less, that the best way to deal with this is a line from "Mildred Pierce": "Never go in or out with an empty tray."
Mildred may have been referring to restaurant serving, but the same applies to any major disaster area: everything's out of place, so whenever you move from one place to another, take something with you and move it one step closer to where it ultimately will end up. This way, any movement you make becomes part of the move.
Cleaning, sorting and boxing is being handled at the dining room table, so grab one or two things, take them with you on the way to the kitchen and drop them off at the table. The same applies to moving from the kitchen into the rest of the house. When I have some time, I sit down and start cleaning and bubble-wrapping items for the storage boxes.
The biggest thing I have to face, besides our wedding anniversary next Friday, is the fact that, as of the moment I decided to sell the house, nothing has a home anymore. All the places things lived here are now space to be inspected by potential buyers. All the objects that have lived here have to leave, including me, and make way for The Sale.
Carmen and her crew are busy downstairs. I've given up trying to check up on the work. If there is something I want to communicate, there is no way of knowing if they actually understood: They just smile and nod their head and say, "Si," and there's no guarantee that they got a single word I said. If there is unsatisfactory work, I simply will foist it off on the "finishing guy," who will accompany Roni is checking out the job and doing the final touches. Then they can have their final payment.
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