Out of the house

We got all our stuff cleared out of the house last night, except for one carload that Wife couldn’t fit in her van and that she is going to drive back this morning to get.  (The dollies and brooms and extra boxes, etc.)  We didn’t get the place cleaned, but our real estate agent told us not to bother because the buyers are going to redo it all anyway.  The lady across the street took some of the wooden patio furniture we had out back on the deck, and our agent is going to offer the buyers our lawn tools (rake, shovel, etc) if they want.  So we did indeed meet the deadline (escrow closes tomorrow) … strange but true.

Most remarkable is that we got some one to take two huge pieces of furniture I thought we’d never unload: Wife’s hand loom (a behemoth that stands taller than I am, that she bought in a fit of antiquarian mania one day and never ever ever used … not that I’m bitter, of course) and her piano (a heavy, Victorian upright grand with carved hardwood weighing … well God knows what it weighs, but a lot more than you think).  In both case we ended up advertising them on Craigslist for free.  The loom was gone the same day, much to my surprise.  The piano took three or four days: people would express a lot of interest, come take a look, get an idea just how damned heavy it is, and leave again – never to return.  Finally one young couple came prepared with a truck and a dolly and straps – and help – and took it away.  The girl was bubbling over with enthusiasm and gratitude: she said she knows how to do all the servicing it needs to bring it back into tune, that this is something she has really wanted for a long time, that she will treasure it, and Thank You so very very much.  She told her young man, and his father who was there helping, “After helping me with this you don’t ever have to get me anything else for Christmas or birthdays or anything ever again!”  One part of me is glad to have passed it on to someone who seems to know what she is doing and who really wants it.  Another part of me reflects that she sounds just like Wife used to sound back when she was young, with the same infectious enthusiasm that could persuade people (like me) to help her out in launching projects that were totally crazy.  That makes me wonder if this girl will ever follow through with any of her grandiose plans, or if (like Wife) she prefers planning to execution – if, in other words, the piano will be doomed to gather as much dust at their place as it did at ours.  That would be ironic and only fair (I guess) but a little sad.  But hell – it ain’t my problem any more.  Thanks be to God!

We delivered Son 2 to Durmstrang for the beginning of the school year yesterday.  Up till then he had been helping with this whole project.  Several times in the last week he’d launch into “Oh my God school is about to start! What happened to my summer?”  But it would be followed quickly by “And once I’m back at school, all this moving business is your problem, not mine any more!”  Well he was right.  And now it’s pretty much over.

I’m still absorbing that after nineteen years we really are completely out of the house.  It’s a new world out there ….