Just Like on HGTV

I've been seeing things. Tonight, with a crystal-clear sky, I saw more stars than ever, not just the constellations, but all the little stars in between and behind. And there, sliding slowly in front of them, trailing southwest to northeast, was the international space station. It was a point of light dim enough that you had to set your eye slightly to the side to perceive it; when you focused directly on it, it disappeared. I looked it up on the internet just to make sure it wasn't a very high-flying UFO.

And last night I saw Steve. I was sitting on the couch and nodded off for a moment. My head slouched to the left, and there he was sitting next to me, just where he used to. I'd say it was just a dream, but it had the quality of a vision: he was slightly luminous and brightly colored (I rarely dream in color). He was smiling warmly at me.

Cracked Stack.

It startled me and I opened my eyes. It was the same effect as Bilbo Baggins disappearing at his birthday party, like my eyelids had been transparent and the only thing that vanished when I opened my eyes was Steve. Far from unsettling me, I felt a substantial warmth from within: Things are okay, I thought. Things are going well. I feel that way now, even after the plumber showed up and found a two-foot crack running down the original cast-iron drain pipe.

He spent a good hour checking all the pipes with his spy scope camera, and didn't cut into the downstairs bathroom wall until he knew where the problem was. I was pretty sure it would be exactly what he found and exactly where he found it, as Dave Vicars and I spent some time tracking down the leak when he and Kittie were here.

Right now it looks like it's going to be around $1500 to $1800 to replace the pipes and repair the wall, and they will probably be here for a couple days next week. I feel really blessed that I have a 3/4 bath in the basement, so I can avoid imposing on the neighbors for shower time and I won't have to poop in plastic bags until they're done.

The upside to this is that the last of the original cast-iron pipe will have been replaced by PVC once this fix is done. (Well, there will be a small section left beneath the second-floor bathroom, but that can be easily replaced when they break up the floor for the remodel, which keeps getting pushed back by other things.)

One of those other things is the hardwood floors downstairs. And I finally got ahold of the floor refinisher recommended to me. Well, I got ahold of his wife, which is almost as good. I figure if I want the floors done by Thanksgiving, I'd better move on it now.

Last night I was thinking about putting up Christmas decorations, where things would go, how to rearrange the occasional chairs I haven't gotten yet, what tchotchkes to store and replace with Christmas tchotchkes, etc. This may sound compulsive, but I haven't put up Christmas for the last three years ('12 Steve and I were in Eureka, '13 Steve had just died, and '14 I was getting the house ready to put on the market). It's about time.

I need as much celebration as I can get. Too often, I feel like I'm working on an uphill battle trying to start this new phase of my life. I mentioned reaching on the wrong side to get the toilet paper, how part of my is still wired for Pasadena. It's that way for a lot of things. I think it will take an autumn and a winter here before I really feel like I belong.

Ugly downstairs sink.

Perhaps I should harass the local theater companies again, see if I can get someone to actually return my e-mails. Then again, there's so much I can do with the LGBTQ Center which will directly use my talents in graphic communications. The Halloween Gala is coming up, so I'm working on something for that.

Bill, the wall repair guy, was working on a job just down the street, so he walked over around 1 p.m. and took a look at the situation. He said repairing the hole would be about $300, since Bob (the plumber) was going to open a small part of the ceiling to get to the old elbow joint and replace it. Looking at the condition of the wall, I asked how much to replace the entire thing, and he said about $500. So I'm going to buy a little corner sink to replace the ugly vanity/sink that's there now. So it looks like both bathrooms are getting a remodel, quite inadvertently.

After Bill left, I kicked around the idea of going out to lunch, but ended up having a sandwich here, since there's some turkey that needed to be consumed in the next day or so. And with these expenses piling up, it's the frugal thing to do. But there's still money in the contingency, even after these expenses, so I'm doing OK.