The first thing I do each morning is take the dogs on a short walk. Typically, we turn right out of the driveway, the left is for the evening walks to keep things spicy. But since school started those walks are a little earlier and synching with the schedule of a nasty dachshund. At least I like to think it’s the dachshund that has the bad attitude and not my dogs. That could be because from across the street, his owner looks like that curmudgeonly greeting card lady. But maybe she is pleasant as can be? I can only imagine what she thinks of me and my wild beasts.
My dogs love people and most other canines too, but occasionally we encounter what seems to be a sworn enemy. Avoiding that little wiener dog often determines our route now and a leisurely stroll can turn into a heart-pumping fiasco of barking and pulling, setting a different tone for the day altogether. Also, nobody tell Sleater that her DNA test says she’s part dachshund
One minor change can have profound ripple effects. There’s a Chinese proverb that goes “The flapping of the wings of a butterfly can be felt on the other side of the world” but I imagine they are first felt closer to where the flapping took place. Our nephew Dennis from New Jersey is a Senior in college and needs to complete an internship as part of his degree. There were some good opportunities around here and we figured it would be fun to have him stay with us for a while. He’s a great guy, my kids love having him here and he’s helpful around the house. He requires a little space though, you know, for sleeping and such.
We have a small guest bedroom but, for the past few years, it has been used primarily for my daily Peloton affliction. So, we moved the Peloton into the master bedroom where we had the church pew I bought at a Poncey-Highland consignment shop about 25 years ago. I had a perfect spot for it in the foyer of my first condo. I’d sit by the open window and smell the Krispy Kremes being made but nowadays it tends to collect junk. We posted on the ‘Buy Nothing Decatur’ Facebook page (“Church Pew, barely used!”) and a ‘Free Stuff’ kerfuffle followed. The irony of people squabbling over claims to a free church pew somehow made it all worthwhile.
Since the guest bedroom shares a Jack and Jill bath with her room, Margo tried to parlay Dennis’ arrival into an argument about why she and Elliott should switch rooms. When Elliott wouldn’t bite, she negotiated a deal whereby we switched out the IKEA bed set up in her room for the pull-out sofa bed in the guest room. That way, she argued, Dennis has a real bed and she gets more space in her room. Only the IKEA bed had drawers underneath and shelves on the headboard that held years’ worth of Margo’s hoarding.
So Margo and I spent a weekend cleaning out and reorganizing her room as well as buying and building a new shelving unit for her closet. And I now have a ‘Nostalgia’ section of my closet that holds things she doesn’t need anymore but can’t part with either.
The IKEA bed is big and clunky and was built IN Margo’s room so moving it without taking it apart defied physics. The sofa bed is so heavy that I’m certain the Task Rabbit guys who helped me move it into the house sought other lines of work immediately after the gig. My mother-in-law offered that it might work better downstairs in her apartment. There’s another philosophical nugget about whether a tree falling in a forest makes a sound when no one is around and it probably doesn’t even apply here, but I pretended not to hear her.
