Vistors

Last evening, as we were getting ready to go out for dinner, I heard one of my dogs barking. It was a different kind of bark than he usually makes. I took a peek and saw he was standing at the kitchen door and calling out periodically. I asked my son if there was something in the back yard. Turns out that there was:

I'm pretty sure it's the same breeding pair of mallards I saw strolling across a neighbor's lawn last week.

After the fire at the old house, as the place was sitting in limbo before the actual rebuilding began, a pair of mallards started hanging out in the back yard.  The first time I discovered them, it startled me, but then I got used to them swimming around the pool and looking for bugs under the cedar trees along our back wall. Basically, with no dogs around, they could live in peace with a big swimming hole (they didn't mind the algae build up) and a certain level of shade from a tree that had branches hanging to the water.

With three Golden Retrievers in the yard, on of which is quite aware she's a water dog, the new house is hardly duck heaven. But they got a nice swim in and got to walk around Maui East for a while, much to the frustration of the dogs in the kitchen window.. By the time we got home, they were gone, but I expect they may show up somewhere in the neighborhood again.

Improvements in Small Steps

I am back to 10-fingered typing. The arm still feels like lead, but at least I'm able to keep up with my thoughts and not look at my fingers. I feel like I'm pounding on an old manual typewriter, though, in terms of the finger strength I don't have.

Since I last posted, I've been out of the cast and into a brace. Surgery was avoided. I figure I'm probably another month from getting back on Ace--getting on isn't the problem, but I do need the left arm to get off and I haven't started physical therapy yet. I'm allowed to start weaning myself from the brace by taking it off to sleep, which I've now done for two nights. It makes it easier to jump in the shower in the morning, which does make me happy.

During the day, I'm not willing to give it up because I'm emptying boxes. We finished moving out of the rental house on Sunday night. Instead of going to our traditional Oscar-watching party, I stayed at the house and packed up Len's office. His mistake. I was able to throw away a lot of his junk and junk food (not the marzipan, dear, it's in that rolling bag in your office) while he was at our house with friends. When the Oscars were over, everyone showed up with cars and carted the rest of the boxes back to our house. I did a final cleaning, and I think we left the house in really good shape. Me, not so much.

Our house looks quite nice inside, but it is no larger than before. What's particularly nice is that the front third of the house is open. The kitchen finally has a logical lay-out and a pantry. The cabinets look very nice. I got it cleared up enough to make dinner last night. Pictures will be forthcoming. Biggest complaints: there's never enough counter space and the contractor didn't listen when I said the sink was to be a single tub large sink. He put in a double sink where one side is larger and deeper than the other, but not large enough for a turkey roaster to be put for soaking. I waited 15 years to get that sink in our renovated kitchen and I had the use of it for less than two years. Someday when I get to build my real dream kitchen, I'll have one.

There is now a breakfast counter. It is not exactly what I had in mind and it also means there's no place to put my round table when it comes back from storage. I knew there would not be room for my great-grandmother's Hoosier kitchen base, and that's a shame because every built-in counter in the house is too high for me. I guess the new normal height for a woman is 5'8". My friend Gillian, who is around 6' tall, would be very happy in it. My Hoosier kitchen has a work space that is probably 7-9" lower than my new counters--much easier for chopping & rolling out pie dough.

Photos will be forthcoming. Maybe even of the mallard couple who decided that our pool was their private playground after the fire. When Dexter saw them through the bedroom window on Saturday morning, he was very clear that he knew exactly what his purpose in life was. It was hysterical.