This is what I’ve been up to …

To answer your question … No, I have not dropped off the planet.

When we moved into our home 48 years ago, I vowed several things – We would fill it up with children and I would never again move. Travel, yes, but move, no! We took possession of our home in 1972 with one child and proceeded to add seven more to our ever-expanding household. We also had dogs – Laddie, Candie, Maggie, Abbie, and an assortment of saves. Siamese cats – Mai Ling, Nieko, and Jazz Man Furrari and their attendant litters. Fish, parakeets, gerbils, and more, much more, rounded out our burgeoning family. And, let us not forget the racoons who lived in the big spruce out back, the deer who lived wherever they pleased, and that one possum who visited our basement, drove the dog wild, and eventually left on her own.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2020 and storm damage from five back-to-back winter storms which resulted in the loss of a ceiling in a newly finished room. Sigh! Well, I thought, as long as the insurance is going to fix the damage on that side of the house, I’ll pay extra to have the flashing finished properly all around the house. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but that project grew as the siding on the upper story had to be removed due to lead paint. It nearly broke my heart to see 140+ year old clear fir with no rot be wrapped and carted away, but the work continues apace. Covid-19 delayed the work for six months and overtook a small second project I’d planned to do in the back hallway. Which brings me to the reason for the delay in posting. The back hall was a catch all for everything that didn’t have a home. It was a mess!

I worked on a design for a wall pantry with a friend who actually built the cabinet while I reclaimed the cabinet doors from the original pantry that is no more. (Sometimes it pays to save things!) Then, I lucked out with finding some mid-1800s patterned glass. I’ve been staining, varnishing, painting, sanding, sweeping, wiping down, putting together, taking apart, adjusting, and taking a bit more Excedrin than is normal. And in the meantime, I completed a novelette and submitted it, have taken a writing class (one is never finished learning. Thanks, Wulf), kept up with my writer’s groups, wrote a short story, and repaired the Queen Anne window on the stairwell.

I am writing this in between coats of paint, picking up the glass for the sliding door, which will hide the vacuum, brooms, and assorted mops, and then I will finish this project and return to my full-time writing as well as Nana duties. Cheers until next time!