Stewickie.com

Tag: apartment living

  • Ekdam Raamro

    The cat stretches, and then curls up like an otter, covering his eyes.

    He has been watching us pack, warily, and with great trepidation.  He has tired himself out by running to and fro, on things and off, sticking his nose under hands and running amok.  His brother has also been watching us, although Gus is a bit more laid back, wide eyes in disbelief… we’re doing this again….not again…

    Their sister, however, is the most relaxed… or is providing the best counter to all the commotion and turmoil.  She has burrowed under the covers of the bed.  If not aware, then at least asleep or ignoring the chaos ensuing around her.

    We’ve entered the power phase.  Drastic things are happening.  DECISIONS are being made.  I remember…I purchased that portable brass plumb-bob for my field archaeology class…  We used it during the  remodel of the Portland cottage…  It looks cool…It has a lovely weight… It goes … away! *sobbing*  “Not the plumb-bob!”  … and so it goes.

    We are tired.  We are irritable.  I say this feels an extension of the reducing of our material life during the farm exodus two years ago, finishing what we started.  Vee says this cleansing is something different.  Something new. Something with a little more acute pain attached.

    100 pounds to each to carry.  A small square of space to keep things here for return in two and a half years.  The rest of your life … gone.

  • Deep in the Midst of Sorting and Packing

    packing

    Stewart and I have moved a lot…no seriously…..a lot. In the almost 18 years we’ve been together (What? 18 years? Seriously? No way! Those years zipped by), we’ve moved thirteen times. We’ve lived in four major urban areas including Denver, Tucson, Portland, and Seattle and in one rural area on the Olympic Peninsula (outside Port Townsend). Trust me…we know how to sort, pack and move. We got this.

    But, this sorting/packing experience is totally different from the others. An extremely small amount of our ‘stuff’ is going with us, a max of 100 lbs. each, to be exact. This time when we hold an item in our hand before sorting it into a toss/sell/keep category, we must determine 1. Will we need it in Nepal?, 2. Is it something that we cannot take with us, but cannot bear to let go of? (mostly family heirlooms) and 3. If we keep it, where will it stay until we return to the States?(no moving van or storage rental involved on this one…very very few items will be kept in nooks and crannies of family members’ homes)

    Stew said it feels as if we are preparing for death. Kinda gruesome…but, a true description of the emotions involved in this experience.

  • Dick’s Deluxe

    Dick's Deluxe

    We don’t live in Beverly Hills of Seattle, but when 7 police cars pulled a truck over (“Driver… place your hands where we can see them”), it piqued the neighborhood’s curiosity.  Nary an empty balcony in the complex.

    A bit far off for clarity, but at least we have a good solid on Dick’s Deluxe.