Sunday evening

Thursday night I vacated 3 Westland, our home for 10 years here in Brighton, NY, moving into an apartment next door (!) in Chris and Heather’s place. The last thing I did, after those last few boxes had been walked over, after my extraordinary cleaning lady was done, after I had showed the new folks who are quite nice, thankfully, as many little nuances as I could, was pick pears. It was dark, so I climbed gingerly, used a headlamp, and handed them down to Martin, one by one. It was my last indulgence, and a perfect offering to bring back west.

Mourning over, I hope. But then three times now I’ve accidentally driven there instead of here, mind on other things. A quick sad tinge, and then I’m fine. Really.

Outfitting this cute little place to be my special retreat for the east times is… interesting though. I feel somewhere between a new college kid out on my own to a wayward mate having gotten the boot. “Excuse me, ma'am, where would I fine towels? Oh thanks. And how about hangers? Perfect. Dish detergent? A corkscrew?´ Gosh there’s a lot of things we need.

What fun at the goodwill store! Who knew they have old video tapes for $1.50? I got Jurassic Park and a little-known Kurosawa and a bunch in between. I wasn’t there to get tapes. So I bought funny little tumblers with tall masted schooners etched on them. They’ll be good for juice or even wine. I bought a utensil set with bright green plastic handles. Maxine would NOT approve. I bought too much, probably. The only thing I still need are knives. Sorry, but I don’t do funky here. Cutting tools are my craft, and knives are the finest example of that. I’ll splurge on a small set by Henckels when I get a chance, I think.

When we knew I’d be bi-coastal, we said well, how about just staying in a hotel for that week, after all, I’ll be putting in plenty of hours and mostly just need a place to crash. Too inhuman; I need a familiar staging ground. Okay, says friend Ben, of Fire Tower Engineered Timber, what you should do is get a high story loft over looking the river and make it wow. Mmmmm. Ben’s not married. I settled here, in the home of good friends who are always up for a chat and a shared glass. I’ll shoot the basketball with the twins in my spare time, ride the trails with Ty, and work a lot.