Bye Bye, Weeds

Just after the garbage truck came by, the yard waste trucks came and whisked away all of the raked leaves and the drift of weeds from my backyard.  If I was doing that job I'd want to be driving one of the little bobcats with the scoop on the front of it that sweeps the leaves, etc. into the street in big piles so that the front end loader can pick it up and put it into the dump truck.  They buzz around the street like waterbugs working fast and furious to get all of the stuff into the road piles, looking like they're having fun.

I'm wearing one of my new long-sleeved tees today.  It fits just right so once it's been washed and dried it'll be a little snug which will be perfect motivation for me to stick with the eating plan so I lose more weight.  Temptation to overeat sweets has been bedeviling me lately and I don't want to backslide.

This afternoon I sat on the couch watching TV, knitting on the October Preemie Hat #3, and finished it.  I think I'll cast on another Warm Beanie tomorrow.  I found a couple skeins of bulky yarn in nice colors that'll make good hats.  Might as well start stockpiling Seamen's hats for next fall.

 It was overcast and dreary today and I didn't see one bird at any of the feeders.  A few squirrels made it their day's work to denude the cobs of corn I put out yesterday but aside from that... no birds.  Tsk.

21 October--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

            I drove back to my room and changed out of my one remaining business suit into shorts and a T-shirt, then walked down the beach to the Seaview with my huge ring of keys.  The seller’s solicitor had told me that one of the shiny brass keys unlocked the front doors off the porch that stretched the whole width of the front.  I worked my way through the eight brass keys on my ring before finding the one (the last one, of course) that opened the doors.  Damp had swollen the wooden door and made it hard to open but once I figured out that it opened out, not in, I had no trouble at all.

            It was as if I had walked into a time machine.  The lobby sitting area was painted the 1930s-vintage apple green that my maternal grandmother had been so fond of when I was young.  I loved the old-fashioned desk with the pigeonholes behind it for room keys and messages.  It brought to mind all the black-and-white movies that Mom and I had stayed up late watching when I was in my early teens.  Some of the wood was broken and, now that I looked at it closely, rotted.  I hoped I had bought enough lumber.

            There was plenty of room for me to scatter small tables and chairs for my guests to use at breakfast and there was a beautifully made buffet and china cupboard on the wall opposite the desk that would be perfect for breakfast service once the bird’s nest I could see on one shelf was removed and the lizards were evicted.

            I went down a short hall to the kitchen and had to catch my breath.  Part of the floor had collapsed and weeds grew up through the hole.  The sink was stained with a long tongue of rust where water had dripped from the ceiling every time it rained and wore away the finish. There was no stove, just a capped-off gas line near the floor.  The refrigerator looked like it came over on the Ark and god knows what sorts of insects and rodents had taken up residence in the cupboards, most of which had lost their doors.  It took a leap of faith to believe that any worthwhile cooking would ever come out of this wreck of a room.

            Part of the apartment behind the kitchen that I intended to make my own looked almost inhabitable but the bathroom was another story.  I was happy to have my room at Sydans to retreat to when the remodeling got to be too much.

            The four guest rooms upstairs needed a good scrub and everything needed paint.  There were two bathrooms up there that I intended to gut and replace so that no one would be reluctant to use them.  There was a lot of work to be done, but I had a shipping container of supplies on the way and planned to get started tomorrow.

            I made sure that all the windows I had opened were closed and I locked the wide front door behind me.

            I sat for a long time on top of an old fish trap I found in the debris heaped in the corner of the porch, thinking of the new chapter of my life that I had started less than a week ago.  It was a daunting undertaking, one that I had hoped to share with Jim, but I was determined to give it my best shot.

Today's toss was a carton of razors that were not shelved with the others.  I hoped that they were disposables so I could take them to the homeless shelter but they're not.  They're handles with replaceable blades and not what the shelter wants.

I found out today that my tenant has COVID, the husband does at least, so I'm guessing that the wife will get it too since it's not such a big place that they can avoid each other and not share the virus.  I hope they have a mild case like DD did.

--Barbara