How to Fit In Where

It's tough getting used to a new home, feeling as comfortable in it as you do your own bones. And if it's a good home, it will resist you slightly, like a delicately coy lover that you're courting. The feel of the floors beneath your feet, the way the setting sun slants through the blinds, the small sounds the house makes in the wee hours, accumulating and taking out the trash; all these things feel new, awkward, slightly cumbersome and unpracticed.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church across the street, seen
from the back yard. When the bells toll, it clears my soul.

And like getting to know your future spouse, the discomfort of the newness has an exciting, arousing feel to it that says, yes, this is right; I want more of this. I know this house and I will become close and intimate over time.

I did make calls to the lawn guy whom Jackson had suggested, got voicemail and left him a message about doing the yard. I also stopped at the supermarket and picked up microwave dinners to try out my new machine. The rest of the day I dove into distributing as much stuff as possible from the dining room table, making room to unpack the last few boxes still sitting in that room.

I also received an e-mail from HR at the newspaper, saying they wanted to interview me, but needed a copy of my resume (kind of stupid, since I'd put the entire thing into their online forms when I applied). I would have to sit down and put together one in something other than Word, as it is a graphics position, and the resume should show off my typographic skills.

That evening, after rebuilding my resume in InDesign, I went to take my first shower in my new bathroom, and I was shunned by the plumbing: no hot water at all in the shower. No matter how much I twisted and turned the knob, not even tepid water emerged. There was hot water everywhere else in the house, but none to clean my sweaty body. It became clear, I had to call a plumber. So, (completely forgetting that there is a shower stall in the basement bathroom!) I dove in and took the coldest shower of my life.

So Thursday I called a local plumber (another referral), got a voicemail and left a message. On Friday morning I got a text message from the guy, saying he was out of town for the weekend, but he would contact me first thing Monday and come by soon after. I asked and was informed that, yes, they did both water plumbing and natural gas plumbing, so they could take care of putting a shut-off valve on the stove (which I had not plugged in or used yet because of this deficiency).

I waited until Friday to send my resume out, since I didn't want to appear eager (and I still don't). I got a response in about five minutes, asking if I was available to interview the next week. I made a point of not answering that day, choosing to send a reply over the weekend.

Other than that, the highlight of my day, as it has been every Friday, was driving out to Ettrick for Pizza Night. I saw Amanda there before she headed off for her bartending work, and she said she and Natalie would be in La Crosse on Saturday and asked if I wanted them to drop by, which of course I did. I mentioned that I hadn't heard back from the yardman yet, and she said she knew someone in La Crosse who did yards.

So Saturday they dropped by and, since the first guy still had not returned my call, Amanda texted her friend and arranged for him to call me. Within a few hours, I was set, with Todd coming by Monday morning to cut the grass and spruce up the yard (very important, since the house sits on the edge of the most meticulously manicured neighborhood in town, and I don't want to be the house with the scraggly lawn and dead stuff in the yard).

The weekend was now about clearing out the kitchen and finding everything in there a place to belong (or at least a place out of the way) before the plumber showed up to work on the stove. Sunday evening, he texted me, saying he would be here at 8:45 the next morning. My niece Emily dropped an email, reminding me she would be stopping by around 10 a.m. (not as unusual as Amanda, since Emily's job is at Gunderson Healthcare here in town).

So Monday Todd shows up, yard is lovely now. Plumber shows up. I tell him about the shower and also mention that the toilet in the main bath is wobbling slightly. He goes to turn off the main water valve in the basement, then reports it hasn't been used in so long that it has rusted open and needs to be replaced (something the inspector had mentioned in passing when we were in the basement). I ask how much this will cost, he checks with his office, says about $85 to $125 (I was expecting Big Bucks), so I tell him to go ahead.

Emily shows up around 11 (an eye appointment had gone late), and I tell the plumber we're going out for breakfast, to just leave the back open if he's coming back later.  (Yes, people leave their doors unlocked here). The plumber says he has to get some parts from the shop, but he'll get the main shut-off and the shower done today for sure (and he did). He came back on Wednesday and took care of the rest of the issues, so tonight I can use the stove!

Before and after: the bangs don't stick up like that
unless I put goop in my hair. I like the look.

Also on Wednesday I went to a "lady barber," since she specializes in buzz cuts and beard trims (I was interested in the latter). That's another downside of living alone: no one to tell you where the hairs are sticking out in your beard and need trimming. Upshot: The haircut is a little short (but I asked for that) and the beard looks great.

Today (Thursday) I swore was going to be the day when I updated the blog (which I'm doing). Also, it's the first really quiet day this week, which means Patty emerged from her hidey hole(s) to socialize. She's actually doing quite well, and I can tell that she "gets" that this is our new home, as she is as relaxed and affectionate as she was before we started this whole adventure. Her favorite pastime is to sit in the casement windows watching the world go by. I don't have the heart to tell her those windows will be closed a good six months out of the year.

Patty in the window: her favorite spots are the living room
window downstairs, the office window (shown) and the
bathroom window upstairs.

As the hour gets later, though, my thoughts keep turning to this job with the paper. The big upside is having a workplace with daily socializing, an income that means socking away more retirement money, and a place to be other than this house. The big downside is the hours, noon to 8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. If I'm wanting to do any production work with the local theater groups, those hours preclude it. Hell, they even preclude attending performances on a weekday. So part of me is saying, "This is not why you came here. You came here to enjoy yourself and get involved in the community." So there's a real possibility that I won't take the job, even if they offer it to me.

On the upside, it will certainly acquaint the powers that be at the newspaper of my presence and abilities. Perhaps in a year or so, there will be a part-time position for me as a designer, and not just a Pre-Press Technician (a fancy term for a paginator).

I made the appointment at 3 p.m. so that I would have time enough to get to Pizza Night at Ettrick and relate my experiences of the day.

********

I did not publish this entry on Thursday, as I had intended. To be honest, it was really late, and there were a couple of photos I wanted to include, so I left it as a draft.

The interview on Friday went very well. I met with Robin Noth, who seems to manage the entire production end of things at the paper (there are over a dozen little papers that are printed here in La Crosse and owned by Lee, the company which owns the Tribune). There are upsides and downsides to the position. The biggest downside is that they are only paying $12 an hour, which works out to about $25,000 a year. It would be barely enough to take care of the monthly expenses, much less sock large amounts of cash away for full retirement.

While we were talking, it became apparent that she really liked me and wanted me for the position. I brought up the possibility of taking the position as part time, which would keep my income below $15,000 and maintain my Social Security survivor benefits. That way, I would be taking in more like $30,000 annually and, after paying for my own health insurance, would leave me able to save some money on a consistent basis. Also, if the work hours were flexible enough, I could get involved in theater production, even directing, and still maintain the job at the paper. She seemed open to both ideas.

It felt good because I knew I had nailed the interview. I walked out, hopped into the car and drove to Ettrick for Pizza Night. Natalie was there sporting her new glasses, which are slightly on the large side, but she will grow into them within a year, I'm sure.

The weekend was spent puttering around the house, moving things from one room to another, dragging the bookshelf into the office in order to get the books, samples and periodicals off the dining room table. Now it's mostly framed art that's stacked there and a few things that need to go down into the basement.

The days have gone from mild to warm, from comfortable to muggy, and the weather never seems to stop changing. It will be beautiful out as you enter the grocery store, then when you emerge 30 minutes later it's oppressively muggy and humid; when you get home 15 minutes later, the humidity has dissipated and clouds are moving in. That evening there are thunderstorms, with one or two bolts cracking down only blocks away. Everything's pelted with rain for a few hours, then things let up once more and the stars come out.

In California, I had a fairly good knowledge of how the weather worked: cold fronts coming down from Alaska, how the jet stream affected storm patterns, and I could look at a weather map and understand where things were coming from and where they were going to. Here, weather seems to come in from the west or south, move through and disappear to some other region. But I'm sure that, within a year, I will be prognosticating the weather as well as I did on the coast.