Attila has come and gone. He arrived for supper last night, we talked till midnight, collapsed into bed, and resumed our conversation in the morning over coffee. We have a lot of weighty issues to work through together right now, and it was exhausting!
We took ourselves out for Easter lunch to McDonalds, and returned to the little house to tie up as many loose ends as we could before Attila jumped into Tank and headed north for the country house. We have switched vehicles, so that I can park in the patient parking garage at the hospital where I have my appointment for my knee. Tank is too big to enter the parking garage!
The “weepy we-me”s hit both of us at the same time, it was a teary farewell. We are both very tired of living apart!
I need to stay at the little house for two or three more weeks, until I have all my health care appointments attended to and sorted out. Then I hope to head north to stay with Attila at the country house until the black flies begin to bite. At that point I plan on returning on my own to the little house in the city, for several months, until the serious biting insect season lets up. The lawn at the little house needs cutting weekly during the spring, so I will be able to get that done at least. I will have to cut a bit every day, because the whole job at one go would be far too much for me to handle. The little house sits on a double lot, there is a lot of lawn.
Attila and I are hoping for some quality time together in the summer, when he comes home from work in the evenings. It might not happen. We have our fingers crossed.
He is spending his free time, what little he will have in the next few weeks, preparing the country house for the “for sale” sign to go up on the front lawn. Maybe this year it will sell.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
Little House in the City
4°C
Date: 3:00 PM EDT Sunday 5 April 2015
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.0 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 3.8°C
Dewpoint: -4.4°C
Humidity: 55%
Wind: SSW 30 km/h
Country House
1°C
Date: 3:00 PM EDT Sunday 5 April 2015
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 0.5°C
Dewpoint: -7.7°C
Humidity: 54%
Wind: NW 21 km/h
Quote
“Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.”
Matthew Arnold
1822 – 1888
Wishing you swift, pleasant resolutions to your weighty issues and a quickly passing couple of weeks so you can be back by Attila’s side.
This year the economy is doing better. I hope that this will translate into your country home selling quickly and for a reasonable price!
Thanks for all your good wishes Teri! It would be nice if the economy affected us in a positive way!
I sure hope that country house sells this summer. You both need some good fortune. I’m just now catching up with your journal entries. I enjoyed your take on the ungrateful child and everyone’s responses. Hopefully you are all well now, and the dark morning anxieties won’t be too troublesome. I like the Clausewitz quote.
I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at mowing part of our lawn this summer… not sure, depends on things… but I’d sure love to be doing that job again. oxo
I like mowing the lawn too Bex. Last summer we bought a self-propelling mower, which makes the job a lot easier, not easy, but easier. I will be moving 1/4 of the lawn each day, then on the fifth day I’ll start again at the beginning. That way I am hoping to keep ahead of it!
Every so often I’d mow our lawn in Kansas. Blistering hot days. Humid. I’m an odd one that I like to sweat. Mowing a lawn in the summer heat of Kansas produces sweat that barely beads before it runs forked rivers down a face, between the breasts, and down the legs. I loved mowing. The rattling of the machine down the paved driveway. The chug-chug-chug start of the motor. The scent of fresh cut green.
I’ve never cared for beer. Have no taste for it at all. Tried to like Guinness when in Ireland. Couldn’t find a place on my tongue that welcomed it. But on days when I mowed the grass in Kansas, I’d pop a can of beer and guzzle. Some would seep from the edges of my mouth and I’d sweep a forearm across my lips like a longshoreman. It all became an alchemy of unexpected pleasure.
Hi Maggie,
I’m so happy for you that Attila was there and that you got to spend time together. It sounds like you covered a lot of ground but it was exhausting.
Tank sounds like our old Buick. Built to last and really was a tank. I never drove it but one time. Too much car!
A teary farewell…..oh, I hope it’s the last and the house gets sold and you don’t have to spend time apart.
Black fly season sounds brutal. I know they deliver a dreadful bite. Once while traveling in Canada in the summer the car broke down. While trying to get it working again we were eaten alive. Nasty insects.
I really, really hope your summer works out and you two love birds are able to spend a lot of time together.
Reenie! What a powerful description of a simple pleasure!
You like to sweat, now that is interesting. I don’t like to sweat, but will break into a sweat easily if I find the ambient temperature too warm for my liking, which is generally anything above 23C. I have a very narrow window of physical comfort, temperature wise. I have been known to pass out in very hot weather, can’t tolerate it.
Nora, I like driving Tank, a lot. I don’t like parking Tank. Usually it is OK because I head for the distant parking spots, where there are few other vehicles. It means I have to walk further, but it is worth it.
Thank you for all your good wishes for Attila and I!
I can imagine that you would have been eaten alive! Black flies are attracted to people who use scented shampoo, deodorant, perfume, skin creams and anything with any kind of scent. They also love dark colours. But even without any of those things, they are brutal. When I was a kid I barely noticed them. We would play in the bush and when we came in for the evening we had a crusted blood all along our hairlines. We never felt the bites and cared nothing about the blood. I am no longer oblivious. I feel the bites now, they take a long time to heal, and they itch. They are nasty insects.
Hi Maggie,
I did not know that about the black flies.
I notice too that it takes me longer to heal from bites. Guess it has to do with aging….sigh