12 Oakdale

Quietly tiptoe to the guest bathroom in the dark, which is still pretty light since it’s on the east side of the house, and the upper half of the plantation blinds are open. I can just see the sunrise between the houses across the way. Sit down, and hear a gentle splat to my right. A flat, black form has appeared on the wall next to me. Please, oh please, be a moth. Sure. The tree frog jumps on my chest, then leaps away, propelled by my shriek. Grant levitates from our bed, but I’m able to breath and yell I’m okay. Everyone survives; the frog is captured and released to the wild. Before  It may have joined us when I’d had the porch doors opened all day yesterday to put another coat of varnish on them. Spaulding came over Friday and sanded them with his electric sander. I’d offered to borrow it and do the sanding myself. He wisely realized I’d take all summer to get the 6 porch doors and the front door finished. He could knock out the porch doors in a couple of hours, then ta...

Our lives have developed a nice rhythm with always something to do but no pressure to do it. Perhaps this will get boring, but I am content. We are mostly settled, with the kitchen set up, and clothes put away. Hanging pictures and setting out objects d’arte has been stymied because first we need to move a couple of bookcases and a bureau to what we hope is their final spots. Today I’m being Cinderella and seeing if my swollen foot has healed enough to let me wear sneakers or my boots. Not glass slippers, but toe protection while I help slide furniture. Glow-in-the-dark Tape After stumbling off our almost invisible step too many times, I’m proud of my solution. We’d tried rugs on the higher level, then on the lower one. Grant put out a nightlight. I added blue painters’ tape as a temporary measure. But nothing helped when we were up in the middle of the night. I though about some sort of laser beam, but could only find invisible security alarms. Then a lightbulb went off: glow-...

Dang, I was working on my garden, wearing old Berkies which, yes, I know are not the best for yard work. I tripped, then, as I stumbled, caught my middle right toe on the steel milk crate I use as a stool. Now my toe is listing to the right and hurts like the bejesus. I guess today will be sit with my foot up and do paperwork. I’ve finished all the address changes and contact updates for credit cards and bank accounts. All fairly easy online. Crossing my fingers my telephone call last Friday to Social Security will have all the government computers lined up to let me change Medicare, car registration, driver license, etc. Yvonne said to wait 24 hours, but I don’t know if the machines work weekends. Two Beds Finished   I had hoped to finish my vegetable garden this week. So far, I have two beds seeded with marigolds, okra, and eggplant. Grant wanted to know what kind of eggplant I chose. The available ones. Everyone is planting Victory Gardens, so people like me, late to the s...

What Is This Key For?   We wondered what the key hanging on our shower wall was for. Mystery solved when I noticed water still standing from Grant’s bath eight hours previously. It’s the key to taking up the linear drain to find whatever is clogging the pipe. The miracle was that Grant was able to do this easily, after his midnight obsessing and internet searching. In our long tenure as homeowners, we have found usually there is a vast chasm (are chasms anything other than vast?) between an explanation of how to do a repair job and the reality of doing it. Once, as far as we can remember, and only once, did a repair go as planned, without much cursing and at least one additional trip to the hardware store. Unfortunately, we can’t remember what the job was, but we are both sure it happened. In this case, Grant sopped up the water with a bunch of the dog towels (too holey for human use), unlocked the drain, and lifted out the nasty, completely full, hair catcher. Voila, the dra...

Food of the Gods - A Costco Hot Dog Sadly, No Relish or Onion Available   9:00 AM, old people’s time at Costco, and we were there. My first grocery shopping since April 1st, and I haven’t missed it a bit. InstaCart and Stephanie can do it all forever as far as I am concerned. Everyone had to wear a facial covering. Physical distancing marks were taped on the floor at the meat counters and checkout areas. In some sections, employees held big signs to show how far 6’ is. Dallying as we do, we were still there at 10:00, and suddenly the store got crowded. Time to wrap up and get out. I only went because I had an $846.02 Costco reward certificate that I had to go to the store to cash. I’m feeling slightly guilty because we are not suffering in this quarantine. The first month, we were playing with grandbabies in Okinawa. Then we spent 5 weeks panicking about packing. Now, when others have been staring at their same old walls for 10 weeks, we are in our new home. Granted, th...

Oh, happy day. Spaulding and Molly came over, and he cooked roast pork ramen with two kinds of mushrooms, sautéed  bok choy, soft boiled eggs, and noodles. The house smells so good. Patten drove up with gardening tools as my Mother’s Day presents, and he took his leaf blower up on the roof and cleaned out our overflowing, mulch-filled gutters. Stephanie and Clara delivered the groceries we’d asked for and brought peach cobbler for dessert. Mary called, and Bella chatted while Remi slept and Ryan doctored Happy, happy. Only sad part was not getting to hug them, still maintaining the suggested 6’ physical separation, at least most of the time. Girls Have Landed on Edge of Spa And, of course, I have to eat my words. I am loving our pool, even though it’s a little chilly for my south Florida body. Everyone swam, including granddog Emma, a Sharpei/Lab mix. She had to be coaxed in, even though she’d already run into the canal without slowing down. I’m sure there are alligators, but...

Our New Street  Was this a good idea? After 40 years of homeownership in Fort Lauderdale, we sold our house, then rented a condo on Key Biscayne for a year. Hurricane shutters didn’t close? Call the landlord. Sink leaking? Call the landlord. Smoke alarm needs a new battery? Actually that we did ourselves, but that was the only maintenance other than housecleaning, which took about a half an hour each week. I could dust mop the whole place in 15 minutes. Now we are back as landed gentry. A little, remodeled, 1950’s house with a pool after I swore, dang it, swore I would never own a pool again. Yard with grass and fruit trees in central Florida, a whole new gardening hardiness zone for this 70 year old south Florida gal. And we have neighbors to meet, and a new community to learn. But our daughter and granddaughter are 15 minutes away.