Saturday, December 31, 2005
The Spirit of ColumbusI've been living in this house it seems like forever, certainly a lot longer than most Californians stay in one place. It's a one-story house, not big inside or out, but I didn't realize until recently that after all this time, there were places that I had never explored.
The discovery happened this week when I took advantage of the Christmas vacation to clean up the kitchen -- wash and reorganize the cupboard and other kitchen cabinets, throw out old food stuff and line the cabinets with new contact paper. Now that sounds about as exciting as a root canal, and that's why the job has been put off for so long, but this time orders were firm and I wanted peace in my corner of the Earth at least over the holidays.
One of the cabinets under the kitchen counter is somewhat hard to reach all the way to the back, so everyone has been avoiding it -- apparently stuff has been tossed in there but never taken out or looked at again, in an out-of-sight out-of-mind way. Quite a treasure hunt it was. First spider web everywhere, and of course where there was web there were spiders. I crushed countless tiny ones, and two big hairy guys the size of large walnuts. I felt like Frodo beating back the man-eater monsters in Return of the King.
Then five boxes of chocolate from Christmases past -- nobody here likes chocolate much (yeah I know it's hard to believe), so I guess chocolate presents were just put in there waiting to be "re-gifted." I don't know if we have a cousin or uncle, even on the "other side of the family" who wants crumbly five-year-old candies. And two wind chimes I got years ago from Japan, nice looking ones with an antique lantern design which I took out and hung under the gazebo -- the neighbors are going to love this. I hope they keep in mind that wind chimes are supposed to ward off evil thoughts, even after they listen to the cling-cling-clang sound all day long. Plus three dried-up pens, a box of 10 penny nails, and a roll of duct tape, apparently left behind by the previous house owners.
It took hours to remove the old junk, vacuum the cabinet, wipe it clean, lay down the contact paper and put things back nice and neat. But at the end, I understood how Christopher Columbus must have felt. I wasn't the first to discover the place, but I did reclaim a 5 x 5 ft piece of expensive real estate that time and man forgot.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:12 AM
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My mom has been bugging my dad to help her do things like this. My dad sees no problem with having boxes and piles around the house. My mom does though.
I like piles...they give me things to sniff, explore and check out.
I like piles...they give me things to sniff, explore and check out.
It took months of nagging :)
But you are right: The more things go into the cabinets, the fewer things remain outside for dogs to get into. That's OK as long as the human food stays on the counter.
But you are right: The more things go into the cabinets, the fewer things remain outside for dogs to get into. That's OK as long as the human food stays on the counter.
At California housing prices, that small area of cabinet space must be worth thousands. Oh, and I like wind chimes. Boo to your neighbors if they complain.
# posted by 
: 01 January, 2006 11:20
: 01 January, 2006 11:20
Dang, we've been here a year, and still it's a box fest. I have no idea where the stuff that was in our bedroom was (took me six months to find a particular shirt . . .). I know how you feel.
Connecticut,
I don't know about the neighbors, but the wind chimes drove ME nuts after one day. I taped the ringer to stop the cling-cling-cling.
John,
What can I say? The nagging got to me :)
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I don't know about the neighbors, but the wind chimes drove ME nuts after one day. I taped the ringer to stop the cling-cling-cling.
John,
What can I say? The nagging got to me :)
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