Working Weekend

Whenever Kittie and David come down for the weekend, the Monday after is always a day of rest for me. This is out of necessity, since we have been diving into chores, and I want to get all the two- and three-person jobs out of the way while they're here. And, on this trip, just lifting, carrying and moving stuff I can't.

This time around, I made a written list so I wouldn't forget anything. And, of course, I did. But I think we hit all the bases, and the place is 90 percent prepped for cleaning and staging. The only stragglers are new screens and a coat of paint on the banisters.

So the upstairs is clear; ready to clean and show. I'm keeping the office space as my personal area, but I'm ready to live as sparsely and unobtrusively as possible once the place is on the market, so as to minimize the amount of cleaning and maintenance I have to do, day to day, to keep it spotless all the time. I just don't live like that, as many of you well know.

Since I'd done most of the packing, the real work was carrying boxes to the garage, organizing the donations—blahblahblah—you can cut and paste this stuff in your own head. The upshot is that the closets are cleared and the cabinets are cleared, all the extraneous furniture is out.

The downstairs closet needs some clearing, and the Christmas stuff needs to be moved out. I want to cull extra dishware/glasses/appliances from kitchen and pack/store as much as I can. Not only will it make all the storage look bigger, but I'll have less to hustle out of here when the house does sell.

Sell the house: that still has a weird sound to me. Mired here near the end of getting the house ready for sale, the idea of this process being done and moving on to the next step seems somehow unreal. I suppose I considered the preparation process some kind of purgatory for those recently widowed.

So we spent the weekend with Kittie and David doing most of carrying, and David also grouting the slate tile at the foot of the garage stairs. The grout set up faster than he anticipated, so there was lots of scrubbing, but the floor looks spectacular. He also lead the charge on disassembling Steve's huge corner desk, then ripping down the pieces to make tops for the cabinet and file drawer that we saved from the ends of the desk.

The apple tree in Kittie and David's back yard is prodigious, so Kittie brought down stuff to make a pie, just like last time they came down. And just like last time, I didn't have any cinnamon, except a couple sticks in a jar that were at least a decade old. Like last time, she ground enough off to give the pie a little cinnamon flavor, but I made sure the spice is on my grocery list now, because if the pies are incredible without it, think what a little fresh spice would do.

We really did burn through the weekend, even going shopping for cat needs and a couple new sets of bed sheets for me (PetSmart and Bed Bath & Beyond are next to each other in the shopping center). The extensive walking was uncomfortable at times and painful after a while, but I'm taking the advice "exercise to discomfort" to heart. And after each session of such exertion, my recovery time is now five minutes instead of 45.

So each day begins with the sore muscles from exertion the day before. It takes half an hour to work out those kinks, then another 45 to feel comfortable in my own bones. The middle of  the day has at least several hours where I can stand straight and walk with almost no discomfort. But standing in place is still very uncomfortable after only a few minutes.

The fact that I can stretch out the muscles without them cramping is a sign that things have turned the corner. I'm feeling as though I'm on top of this malady, rather than the other way around. It's going to be weeks before there's a full recovery, but at least I feel like I'm starting to get my life back.

On the not-all-about-me front, I'm feeling certain that Kelly (at the chamber) and I are going to work very well together on making the directory happen this year. She also extended an invitation to go out for drinks or coffee just to get me out of the house. She's a single mom with an 11-year-old kid, so I'm sure she needs adult contact in a non-work setting, just like I do.

This week is pretty much devoted to getting several design comps put together for the director for Paul (chamber CEO) to look over. I want to have a positive direction on the directory by the first of October, and have lots of time in November to get it just right.

So life goes on.