Ego, Hunger and Aggression

More frosted windows after the storm

What a way to ring in February. Highs and lows. We had our first snow storm since December. You folks in California experienced it as really night winds and lots of rain. It headed east from there, dumping dumploads of snow on you folks in Colorado and hit us a day or so later. It dumped about eight inches of snow is a short period of time, then it got cold.

Today, it's 40 degrees outside. I've got the window open just to smell the fresh air. Patty was astounded, and actually sat in the sill, as she had done all summer, and sniffed as the crisp air.

One hour's accumulation

My biggest high this week was hearing from the artistic director of the La Crosse Community theater, offering me an offstage/backstage position in the next production, "Boeing, Boeing." If you're not familiar with it, it was a big hit in 1965. It's about a guy in Paris who juggles a bevy of stewardesses/girlfriends with aid from his begrudging housekeeper.

I went to the table read on Tuesday. The show is being directed by the artistic director, who directs one show each year. In talking with him, I mentioned that I had been a member of the Los Angeles Theater Center in the 1980s, and he commented that he was working with the company that installed the LATC ticketing system, so there are some connections there.

I'm hoping things will start expanding for me once I'm known as experienced and reliable (almost as important as talent when it comes to community theater). Tech rehearsals start the first week of March, and the show runs weekends though the 20th.

The major trauma of the week was the extraction of my 5.5 remaining upper teeth on Thursday in preparation for a full denture. The only other time I had multiple extractions, I went through oral surgery, since my dentist wouldn't do extractions or root canals (I came to realize she just wanted to do kids' teeth, and I was taken as a patient because she was hard up for money). This meant a general anesthetic and no real memory of the experience.

This time around, though, the dentist was game to pull the teeth, and I have a great deal of confidence in her. It was also about $500 cheaper than going to oral surgery, so I agreed.

It was a most unpleasant experience, even with her excellent chairside manner. Four teeth came out easily, since they were deteriorating and ready for extraction. My two canines, however, had deep roots and no interest in going anywhere; most of the pulling and yanking, cracking and drilling was expended getting them out.

I went home with a prescription for Vicodin, which I filled immediately. Once home, I slapped a bag of frozen peas on my upper lip, which helped with the swelling. The Vicodin took care of the discomfort and pain, and knocked me on my ass, so sleeping was about all I did.

On Friday, my niece Emily stopped off after work and picked up stuff to eat that didn't need teeth. So I've been surviving on Malt o Meal, mashed potatoes and canned gravy, chocolate milk shakes, cottage cheese and applesauce. Tomorrow I'm going to expand to scrambled eggs and yogurt, but the food needs to be swallowable without any chewing whatsoever.

I never realized how much mastication influences food and eating. And I've never realized how many ads there on TV for foods. I really do miss chewing, and am painfully aware of not smiling and speaking too much in order to masque my dental demise. Now feeling like Toothless Joe, I'm more than willing to drop the thousands of dollars it will take to assure that I'm grinding and grinning with abandon into future decades.

With the subsidence of the swelling, I can actually speak quite comfortably. My next appointments are on Wednesday and Thursday, when we pick out tooth color, etc. The Wednesday after that, I'm scheduled to get my choppers, and the 25th is my final appointment for final fitting. By the time my first rehearasal comes around, I should be back chewing and smiling like the fool I've always been.

Please forgive any misspellings, bad grammar or sentence fragments, but I just don't have the energy to proof and edit this entry. I'll come back in a week and see how close I got to perfection.

Flush With Progress

I'm getting used to winter, I think. When it's in the 20s, I can go outside to take out the trash or get something out of the car and only feel chilly. (Of course, I only stay out for a couple minutes.) And this week the highs are going to be in the 30s, so a couple layers and a regular coat will do me just fine.

New bathroom turning blue.

Old bathroom…ewww

The biggest thing to happen this last week was getting the toilet and sink installed in the guest bath. On Sunday, I went to Menard's and got the paint for the bath and arranged to have Mark from Eagle Eye pick up the fixtures on Monday, which he did. I painted the wall in the bathroom so it would be done before Mark showed up.

It took most of the day to get the fixtures in and the plumbing hooked up, but he did have time left to install a new kitchen faucet. The old one was from the '60s, sort of crusty and the volume of flow was very hard to control. The new one has a removable head that toggles from stream to spray. Getting the new one installed was no problem, Mark said, but getting the old one out was a struggle.

Sink before and after.

So, by the time he left, things were up and running. I now have 3 1/4 baths again (full bath upstairs, half bath on the main floor and 3/4 bath in the basement). I was almost giddy when, responding to a natural urge, I got to inaugurate the new toilet. It's one of those that has a small flush and a large flush. Slowly, the modern conveniences of the 21st century are being incorporated into the house.

After all the hesitation about colors for the house, I've made the first choice with the bathroom. The color seemed on the lighter side when I chose it, and I calculated that I could do the entire room with two quarts, but after painting the wall (maybe a quarter of the wall space), I had used up a full quart, and there were still touch ups needed. So, it's back to Menard's to pick up a gallon more.

Other fun things for the week: I got an answer to my e-mail from the community theater, with the tech director offering a stagehand position for the next show in the season. The tech is in early March with a two-week run. I answered back and accepted. Well aware of what a headache volunteer workers can be, starting with a backstage position is the way to do the least damage to a production if I turned out to be a disaster.

And this Thursday, we have the first meeting of the Center's communications committee this year. We have a couple of marketing interns from UW-L, so I'm excited about what innovations they can bring to the various platforms on which we work. Then Saturday is the annual breakfast for the Center, something for which I will have to get up early.

The first week of February will bring another dentist's appointment, and we'll talk about that later.

How Cold Was It?

Last week's forecast; this week will be more of the same.

Things are relative. And so, cold is relative. The 8-day forecast at right was followed by
Monday: 0º high/-11º low;
Tuesday: 11º high/-10º low;
yesterday: 22º high/8º low;
today: 21º high/17º low.

The numbers get dizzying, but the result is a rollercoaster ride from chilly to bone chilling. I had to stop and think: -2º is actually 34º below freezing. The wind chill has dipped to -20 or so at night, but the snow indicated in the forecast above was no more than flurries, leaving less than an inch on the ground.

Ice on the balcony window

I find that when you ford out in single-digit cold, a day in the 20s is downright balmy. The result is that when the days are particularly cold, I just stay inside. When the highs and lows both fall into positive territory, it's time to go out and do shopping and errands.

On those days when I relegate myself to the house, I try to cypher out the best tactics for keeping the place warm. During the day, the thermostat is at 65º and I supplement it with the fireplace if need be. At night, I set the temperature at 45º and run a small space heater (a Christmas gift from Amanda) in the bedroom. Still, my last gas/electric bill was $335 for the month, which is about what I expected.

Patty has found her warm place in the laundry basket in the bedroom upstairs. I've lined it with an old shirt to keep her warm (and to keep the cat hair off the laundry). I've even taken to putting a small towel on her when she sleeps downstairs. At first she was quizzical, and a couple times just outright objected to it (you can tell by the small, irritated yowl she gives), but once she caught on that it kept her warm, she acquiesced to it.

Patty under her blanket

Last Friday I chanced the drive out to Ettrick, which was uneventful. Pizza Night was embellished with Pam's recounting of her trip to Thailand from which she had just returned. Steve had just downloaded the photos she'd taken, so they weren't organized at that point. I think perhaps this Friday we'll get to see those.

I found a really good deal on the toilet and sink for the downstairs bath, so I purchased them online. Next week I'm having Mark from Eagle Eye pick them up and install them. This means I get to paint the bathroom this weekend. It should take about 45 minutes, as it's not much larger than a double closet.

The Christmas decorations are still up. I've dragged the storage boxes up from the basement, but haven't gotten around to filling them. I think I'm avoiding stowing everything because when the tree comes down, there's going to be a big empty space in the living room that will need chairs and/or a love seat to fill between the two occasional tables already there.

There's another communications committee meeting at the Center the end of this month. We've scored a couple of part-time interns from UW-L, so hopefully we'll get up-to-date and informed ideas about how to get the message out on a cross-platform environment. I understand the concept, but I don't know enough about marketing to actually plan things out.

I also got a reply to my e-mails to the community theater, asking what things I wanted to get involved with. I wrote back (to both tech and artistic directors) on my experience, what I liked doing and what skills I had to offer. Haven't heard back from either, but January has seemed like a quiet, even dormant month, so it fits. Now, however, I feel free to contact them whenever I see something upcoming on the season calendar.

And I still love the crunch of the snow under my feet and the prickle of cold air on my face. I forgot how much I've missed winter in my life. Now I just have to go out and get a winter trousseau, as I'm relying on layering and a rather raggedy coat that Steve loaned me last month to keep me warm.

New Year's Evolutions

The storm did come, dropping about six inches of snow overnight and during the next day. There was nothing blizzardy about it, although at times it came down heavily enough that the high school across the street was barely visible through the flurries.

As I suspected, the snow plows were out on West Avenue during the storm, meaning the street was open, even when the storm subsided and side streets were still piled with snow. I decided that I would wait a couple days before heading out in the car.

Mark (handyman guy) showed up about 9:30 on Tuesday morning, with snowblower and snow shovel and salt. It took about and hour and a half for him to really clear out the snow, but when he left sidewalks and driveway were clear of snow and ice. He did such a good job that the few snow flurries we've gotten since (never more than an inch) simply melted away.

New Year's Eve was quiet and I spent it at home, which is not so out of the ordinary for me. Times Square in New York in on the East Coast feed, so there's no delay involved, like on the West Coast, so the ball dropped at 11 p.m. There was also the Chicago Star, which is raised at midnight Central Time. Once that happened, I went up to the balcony and watched the fireworks set off at Grandad Bluff to the east. It was a full show. I would have liked to go out on the balcony but the snow had piled into a drift against the door, about a foot. I did get the door open, so at least I got a clear look.

My Alma Mater's 2016 parade entry

On New Year's Day, I got up and checked out the channels carrying the Rose Parade (in L.A. I had always watched it on Channel 5 because there were no commercials). HGTV ended up being the only station without commercials, and they had a 30-minute delay, so it didn't start until 10:30 a.m.

I always watch for the Cal Poly float. I worked on one once. I remember putting gray bark on a very large elephant. Usually, the Cal Poly campuses in SLO and Pomona make the front and back halves, joining them about a week before the parade and finishing them off in Pasadena.

A curly-haired Jesus waves from the Lutheran float

Their entry, animated gummy bears, was very nice. And, not too far behind it, was the Lutheran float. They had Jesus on the float. Jesus was standing in front of a lighthouse (he's the light of the world; get it?). Jesus was waving to the crowd. His wig is cheap and obviously synthetic hair. He was very, very white. No semitic lines on that Scandinavian shayna punim. He seemed like a nice guy, though a little intimidated by the crowds.

In the early afternoon, I gave Steve a call. Even though it was New Year's Day, it was also Friday, and Friday is Pizza Night in Ettrick. Also, Pam had gone on a trip to Thailand with friends, so Steve was alone, if you don't count Glen and Avis. So I asked if we were doing Pizza Night and he said sure, and asked me to pick up a pizza on my way out. So I stopped at Papa Murphy's and picked up a take 'n' bake cowboy pizza and headed out to Ettrick for Pizza Night with brother Steve.

Fireplace before and after

I was just checking back in the posts and realize I never posted any before-and-after pictures of the floors, only a couple of in-the-process photos. So I dug back in my photo archive and put together these shots of what the floors looked like, well, before and after.

Before and after stairs

At the beginning of December, I realized trying to get stuff done on the house was problematic, since Mark was swamped with work, and I really wanted to focus on holidays with the Solberg side of the family. And although I am not officially related to them, I was drawn into the fold and shared their low-keyed celebrations (see the two previous posts).

This first week of the new year was on the warm side (34º and 36º highs), so things started melting. I was sitting in the living room when I heard distant dripping sounds. A quick check showed things melting everywhere. The piles of snow along the streets were melting, as well, and driving in town became a slushy wet mess but passable with reasonable driving.

Tamara (and new haircut) are in the mirror

Yesterday, I went to the barber (her name's Tamara and her specialty is beards and buzz cuts. I had let the beard grow out to the point of being Santalike. I was hoping to get those looks from little kids that a rotund, gray-bearded older man gets during the holidays. Didn't really happen for me, at least not last year. I left looking really sharp.

This morning I woke up. I knew the weekend was going to be a cold snap. When I checked the weather app on my phone, it read: "Wind Chill Advisory. From the National Weather Service. Wind chill advisory remains in effect from midnight tonight to 10 a.m. CST Sunday. Expect Wind chill values to range from 20 to 25 below zero between midnight and 10 a.m. Sunday. These cold wind chill values will cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes to exposed skin. Be sure to wear your hat and gloves." Awww, Mom…

Today, we've already hit our high of 24º. Presently, it's 16º, dropping to -1º tonight. Sunday's high is forecast at 9º, with a low of -5º. I think winter is really here. And now I've got to go out and do some shopping to stock up for at least the next week, as it's well below freezing for the next week (and the foreseeable future), and I want to hold up inside if things get too icky outside.

Snowflakes are falling lightly outside. Got to sign off and get to the store now.

I like winter, inconvenient though it is.

Waiting for Whiteout

National Weather Service: "Winter storm warning remains in effect until 6 a.m. CST Tuesday…Expect snow to develop around noon and then diminish around 6 a.m. Tuesday. The heaviest snowfall rates will occur between noon and 8 p.m. this evening. Total accumulations of 8 to 12 inches are expected. Look for significant reductions in visibility to as low as 1/4 mile…due to a combination of snow and blowing snow. Traffic will be very difficult to impossible…especially for the evening commute." Hot damn.

It's about 10:30 a.m. and I'm just kind of waiting. I called Mark at Eagle Eye to make sure I was on his list of properties they clear after a snow storm, since we had only talked about it when he was here last. He did have me down, so anytime there's a snowfall over 2 inches, he comes and clears it automatically.

I think winter is finally here. Daytime highs are in the mid- to upper-20s all this week, and lows on several nights are expected to dip into the single digits. And I'm really enjoying it. I'd forgotten how brisk and alive cold weather makes me feel.

A Swarm of celebrating Solbergs

Glen (lower right) oversees the present giving Xmas Eve.

Sister-in-law Pam has been taking care of me from a distance. She brought over an old heavy coat of Steve's for me to wear until I get one of my own. She also brought over some loaner gloves for me, though I haven't used them yet.

Speaking of Christmas, it has come and gone. Christmas Eve was held at the house in Ettrick. It was pretty much a Solberg event, and there are lots of them! Pater familias  Glen proudly says, "Six kids, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren." Glen's recovering from a stay in hospital, and I could tell that having the kids around really lifted his heart, though they did wear him out over the course of the evening.

Most of the gifts were for the kids, who really did a great job staying civil and polite with all those new toys.

After the kids finish opening their presents, the adults have a Chinese Auction, where everyone brings a gift. Numbers are chosen from a hat; number 1 picks a gift. Number 2 can pick another gift or they can "steal" the gift number 1 opened. Number 3 can choose a present or "steal" from 1 or 2. After being stolen twice, a gift becomes unstealable. And so it goes until all presents are disbursed.

It's not such a bad little tree.

After everything's been unwrapped and all the stealing has occurred, you can always negotiate with someone. I swapped my gift for one Emily had gotten (Amanda picked it as her proxy, since Emily and Jim had to leave to go to another gathering). So I swapped with Emily and ended up with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree (from the TV special) with one red ornament. It speaks to me.

Christmas Day and Saturday I spent at home, watching all the Christmas programming that I've been recording on the DVR: The Simpsons Christmas specials, South Park Christmas specials, and a number of films ("The Bishop's Wife," "Miracle on 34th St." "A Christmas Carol," etc.). Spent some time missing family and weeping over loss. Not a lot of time, though.

I'm finding that letting out a minute or two of weepy sadness will vastly improve my frame of mind for the next couple days. If I sit on the grief, it can ruin a whole week or more and send me into spirals. So crying is like an emotional laxative for me, a real soul movement, keeping things regular.

Sunday, the McDougal branch of the family reassembled in Ettrick for yet another Christmas celebration, this time exchanging gifts with the immediate family. Ettrick had gotten some snow (in La Crosse it had been misty rain), and there was ice on the road in front of their house, so I spent some time practicing turning and sliding the car on the ice before I parked. It felt very familiar from my years in Alaska, and I realized the skills were still there, just needing to be reawakened and honed.

Being my first holiday gift giving here, I stayed safe and got people gift cards to Menard's (Pam's and Avis' favorite store), which is Wisconsin's version of Home Depot (only much nicer, with almost anything you could think of under one roof). Pam gave me a pair of gloves, which is nice, because I my hands were freezing for most of the drive out there (30 miles). I also got a blanket for the car, which joins the ice scraper that Amanda gave me as a welcome present back in April. I already had the car winterized back in November, so I think I'm ready to go.

•  •  •  •  •

I just checked the Doppler radar on my phone, and the wall of snow is almost here. I'm snug in my house, waiting to watch this all unfold, wondering what Patty's reaction will be.

Speaking of Patty, she got a Christmas gift as well. It's a stocking that says "Santa's Favorite Cat" (now she has one to hang on the mantle). Inside were with three tiny fleece pillows filled with catnip. I left the pillows inside the stocking so she wouldn't lose them under the sofa. She loves her present and has been drooling and squirming over it, attacking it. I don't think I've seen her this worked up since we moved in.

•  •  •  •  •

I look up at the window and tiny snowflakes are drifting through the air, already accumulating on the ground and rooftops. The car is safely stowed in the garage, so I can avoid scraping and sweeping snow the next time I want to go out. But I've got all the provisions I need for the next several days, and plan to watch this all from my place here near the fire.

Wrap

Yes, it's the Christmas blog entry, with the traditional opening and closing videos for your enjoyment.

It's been two months since I put anything down here. I've been in some dark, reflective spaces during that time, all of them relating to Steve's death and two years of transitions. One of the reasons I took a year off from work was to have this time to do this mourning, beyond my physical relocation. And I've been doing a lot of it since the anniversary of Steve's death.

Natalie likes to build forts on the sectional.

I also realized well over a year ago that people just really don't want to be around that. They have genuine concern, but it is evident immediately that personal mourning is not something you can pass around and share with others. It's something you wade through on your own. So there are good days when things get done and there are bad days when I ponder my own mortality and wonder how much time I've got left in this new home.

But no matter how dark I get, I haven't gotten anywhere near suicidal, which is something mourning tends to bring up. No, I don't want to go away. I want this transition phase to be over. And I think that the New Year will bring that, especially when I pay my first year of taxes on the house.

Halloween gala costume winners

The weather has been  unbelievably mild, with highs in the upper 30s to mid-40s. Evening clouds keep the heat in, and it has rarely dropped below freezing at night. There was one period of a few days when the highs were in the upper 20s and it dropped into the teens at night. We got an inch or so of snow which stuck for a couple days, then melted with the next warmup. By all accounts, we will not have a white Christmas this year. In fact, the high is supposed to be 38º. We may get sleet and rain on Boxing Day.

Halloween, I attended the Center's Gala. I went as a trivia quiz, with 20 cards pinned to my shirt. Each had a famous quote from a horror movie, with the name of the movie on the back of the card (like "Heeere's Johnny!", which is from "The Shining"). It took some coaxing to get folks to open the cards, many saying, "I don't really watch horror films." The winners of the costume contest are shown above. There was also a Tippi Hedren in a green tweed suit with stuffed crows attacking her.

The Solberg cousins

In November I started my dental work, which is going to be a long haul. Also, we put together the first newsletter for the Center, which got published last week. We're doing it all pretty much by e-mail, so there's not a lot of personal interaction involved. The final product looked pretty good, considering, and I'm sure we'll be getting the routine down in the new year.

Final ornaments for the tree

Thanksgiving was with the Solberg clan, and it was a very casual affair, with just about everyone in attendance. There was a downstairs family room space (where the photo of the cousins was taken) where the kids could escape. Slowly, I am becoming a quantity to the Solbergs, all of whom I'm not sure I've met.

A fireplace for the stockings

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I invited everyone over to help me put up Christmas decorations. It's been three years since I last decorated for the holidays: In 2012, Steve and I spent Christmas in Eureka. In 2013, Steve had just died and I wasn't feeling festive. In 2014, I was getting the house ready for sale, so the decorations stayed put.

Dining room tree(s)

In December I fully realized that I was in the midst of the Holidays and, as I have always said, "'Tis the season to be dealt with." I promised myself that, beyond getting the holidays up at home, I wasn't going to force holiday cheer if it wasn't spontaneous. One of the things I did want to do was go down to Riverside Park and see the Rotary Lights.

Steve and Pam stopped by the first Friday of December and we had Pizza Night at my place. Afterwards, we went down and checked out the lights. We walked through the park looking at the lights, but they also have a drive-through set up so you can circumvent the park in comfort. Of course, those in vehicles didn't have a chance to stop and purchase some hot chocolate.

Entry for drive through

The sidewalk is Christmas Tree Lane

A geodesic igloo? Sure.

The evening was one of those nippy ones, and Pam brought an extra heavy coat for me, since I haven't gotten around to purchasing one in all this mild weather.

We walked in from the south, along the sidewalk, and all the park trees were festooned with lights. We were a block away and already feeling festive. We crossed the street into the park, which was ablaze with displays and scores and scores of small Christmas trees sponsored by various organizations in town.

Some displays were high tech, some were simple and obviously homespun. All of them were impressive. We circumvented about two-thirds of the park when we stopped in to have a cup of cocoa and warm up in the "warming tent" provided.

We completed our trek around the park, heading along the river side of the park. There was one animated display which I really liked. A flying saucer appears in the trees with Santa standing below with a present. A beam emits from the saucer, an alien beams down and receives the package from Santa. It's kind of blurry with all the other lights around competing, but the video's worth a look.

Finally, we walked back to the car, and Pam and Steve dropped me off at home before heading back to Ettrick.

On attempting to get a full list of siblings from Pam, she explained the family doesn't give everyone gifts. They have a white elephant Christmas gift exchange. So I really only have to worry about the immediate family.

Yes, you guessed it: I haven't even started shopping. However, I know what I'm getting each person, so that will make it easier. And I plan to hit two, maybe three stores, so it shouldn't get too hectic. And knowing that I won't be driving home in the snow from Ettrick is a plus.

So, for the first time in decades, New Year's resolutions are foremost in my mind. I am ready to put all this upheaval and change behind me, get on with life in La Crosse, and make something meaningful happen for me, especially on the work front. After all, getting someone to hire me would be far simpler than setting up the business again. Either could happen; I've given up crystal balls.

I hope this finds you well and happy, and that your holiday season is filled with joy. I close with one of my favorite Christmas cartoons from childhood (or before).

Getting High In My Hidey Hole

There's a Dalek in my kitchen!

That's what I'm feeling like, stranded upstairs on my perch. And even up here, I feel like a hoarder in a "clean space" carved out in the junk. And the fumes! Must. Keep. Air. Moving.

Since the TV from the living room is now in the kitchen, along with the attendant AV equipment, the only real sources of entertainment are streaming services on the computer. I could watch a DVD, but they're all buried in the guest room behind the sectional. So, I tried connecting to Spectrum's (my cable server) online streaming, but there's some bug preventing me from hooking up, so I'm kind of limited to Netflix (which is plenty, believe me). But rather than lounging on the couch, I'm relegated to my desk chair.

Two cabinets, two rugs, the
dining room table, etc.

It's a good thing that the powder room walls got finished last week, as there are no lavatory fixtures installed, which makes room for some of the stuff removed to do the floors. The photo taken doesn't really reflect the depth of the stash nor the content in there.

The old bathroom fixtures are still in the kitchen, along with the buffing and varnishing equipment Ron left. There is just enough room between the fridge, the microwave and the sink so that I can do reheating. I shopped this week with that in mind, so I have several dinners from the store's deli and enough sandwich makings to keep me fed without cooking for the next three days.

Guest room and Patty's hidey hole.

You see, Ron finished sanding the floors today and put down the first of three coats of oil-based polyurethane varnish, and it is so making me high I can't believe it. All the windows on the main floor are closed (no dust or dirt can get on the floor) and he has the heat at 69º with the furnace fan going constantly. As the intake for the system is in the dining room, this means the fumes are getting sucked up and redistributed throughout the house.

So, I've closed all the registers upstairs, opened all the windows (save the guest room, which I can't get to) and turned on the ceiling fans, which has helped substantially. But since it's dropping to 41º tonight, and with the next two days topping out in the low 60s to upper 50s, I'll need a sweater. And, wouldn't you know it, they're all in the closet in the guest room, so I can't get to them.

The path to my hidey hole through boxed knick knacks.

On Tuesday morning, Ron arrived right at 7:30, just like he said. I had gotten up at 6:45 and moved the cat's stuff upstairs, then moved four of the five dining room chairs out into the garage. I left one in case he wanted something to sit on. I made a point of letting him know that he is rather legend in town, and it pleased him to no end, though he played it down.

And the grinding started. A huge sanding machine with an even bigger vacuum to suck up the wood dust. I'd say he got the lion's share of the sanding done that first day, switching to a smaller sander to clean up the edges of the floor. It was very strange, because as he worked, I could smell the fresh oak breathing for the first time in decades. It sounds weird, but I think this is making the house happy.

Living room before and after sanding.

He left around 4:30, saying he would return at 7:30 again Wednesday to finish the touch ups and buff the floor before putting down the first coat of varnish. I told him that I would probably not get up early to greet him. "The first day, it's just good manners to be awake when you arrive; but once things are underway, I don't feel quite so beholden." He thought that was quite funny.

And I was true to my word, not getting up until 8:30. He was busy at work when I went down to the kitchen to get some coffee and breakfast, and I didn't see him until he got back from the lunch break. We talked some about the coming winter and the realities of snow removal. "If we get a lot of snow, the ploughs will throw it right up on your yard. If you don't clear it within 24 hours, the city comes and does it and charges you an arm and a leg."

Switching gears, he explained that he buffs the floor once before putting down the varnish. "Most folks don't do that, but I think it helps blend where you used the different sanding tools." Made sense to me.

The dining room, before and after sanding and with the first coat of varnish applied. Shiny!

About an hour later, I smelled the unmistakable stench of oil-based varnish. I opened the windows in the office and turned on the ceiling fan. Before he started the first coat, he moved his equipment into the kitchen, so there is little more room than to move from the fridge to the microwave and the sink. If I move the trash can, I can use the stove, and I'm thinking about making some rice for my dinner tonight, just so not everything on the plate is from the deli.

I do have to admit that this process is much more disruptive than any of the plumbing fixes I've been through. It's almost as disruptive as the remodel in Pasadena, but not quite. However, I can say that I will be very, very happy when Saturday arrives and I can start reassembling the downstairs. And one plus is these two rooms won't have any unhung artwork or boxes and non-assigned tchotchkes hanging around. I'm leaving all that upstairs. So the downstairs will be, finally, guest worthy.