Life Changes completed... for now
What's the famous lyric? 'Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans'?
Well, except in this case, the plans were (mostly) all my own, so I can't point the finger at fate, chance, or the divine. The sentiment still applies. We bought a house, I uprooted from a state I lived in for 26 years, moved cross country, moved my DOGS cross country, put the house together, got married, had my wife's family visit from Korea for a month... yes, it's been busy.
Now the house is empty again, and I'm ready to go back to work.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, of course. Lucky (the smaller of my two dogs) apparently didn't like being driven 1000 miles in a kennel carrier. He took a crap twice within the first two hours of his transport - IN his crate. When the drivers tried to pull over to grab some shut-eye, he started barking, and wouldn't stop until they got back on the road. I guess he just wanted to get to his destination. Thankfully the drivers were also dog lovers. They dropped Lucky off with a mix of exasperation and admiration, both still smiling in spite of it all.
The only thing we lost in the move, weirdly, was the waste-basket that goes in my office. Anyone that's moved long distances knows I'm not complaining. Our movers were, quite frankly, awesome.
There were issues with the house, a string of 'incidents.' We turned on the garbage disposal and watched as it began to smoke and fill the house with the smell of burning plastic. The sump pump in the basement burned out during one of the heaviest rain periods of the last five years, filling the basement with 2 inches of water. The fence is wooden and about fifteen years old, and my dogs demonstrated for me their ability to knock the slats off so they could get to the dogs in the neighboring yard. (A side thought - it occurs to me that dogs are like water. They will seek out and exploit all your weak spots.)
All of this was cheerfully dealt with by various contractors( cheerful because of the checks I was writing them). Don't misunderstand - it's a beautiful house, with good bones. It just hit the fifteen year mark and needed a little bit of TLC.
The wedding went off with only two hitches, which was something of a miracle since we never had time to rehearse anything, and only met with our pastor the night before the ceremony. The hitches were the kind that make for good stories. My brother was my best man, and at one point in the ceremony he had to change positions to give the pastor the ring. He crashed directly into a small table with some candlesticks on it, nearly knocking them all to the ground. The second was long and awkward. At one point the pastor introduced us to everyone and the three man band we had was supposed to play a little bit of music while we smiled and waved. Sounds benign, right? And the first ten seconds were. Problem is, the band played for THREE MINUTES! We stood there for three minutes, listening to 'Bridge over Troubled Water' while everyone shifted and waited and stared at us.
It's been a crazy, crazy time, and during much of it I was waiting patiently for the finish line, for a return to privacy and personal space and being able to walk around my house in my boxers. Now that it's arrived, I find myself missing all our visitors. I miss the fine, sweet madness made by family, friends, and the winds of change.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
My experiences of the last few months showed me a shorter, simpler version:
Life is what happens.
Heavy, man.
:)
Well, except in this case, the plans were (mostly) all my own, so I can't point the finger at fate, chance, or the divine. The sentiment still applies. We bought a house, I uprooted from a state I lived in for 26 years, moved cross country, moved my DOGS cross country, put the house together, got married, had my wife's family visit from Korea for a month... yes, it's been busy.
Now the house is empty again, and I'm ready to go back to work.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, of course. Lucky (the smaller of my two dogs) apparently didn't like being driven 1000 miles in a kennel carrier. He took a crap twice within the first two hours of his transport - IN his crate. When the drivers tried to pull over to grab some shut-eye, he started barking, and wouldn't stop until they got back on the road. I guess he just wanted to get to his destination. Thankfully the drivers were also dog lovers. They dropped Lucky off with a mix of exasperation and admiration, both still smiling in spite of it all.
The only thing we lost in the move, weirdly, was the waste-basket that goes in my office. Anyone that's moved long distances knows I'm not complaining. Our movers were, quite frankly, awesome.
There were issues with the house, a string of 'incidents.' We turned on the garbage disposal and watched as it began to smoke and fill the house with the smell of burning plastic. The sump pump in the basement burned out during one of the heaviest rain periods of the last five years, filling the basement with 2 inches of water. The fence is wooden and about fifteen years old, and my dogs demonstrated for me their ability to knock the slats off so they could get to the dogs in the neighboring yard. (A side thought - it occurs to me that dogs are like water. They will seek out and exploit all your weak spots.)
All of this was cheerfully dealt with by various contractors( cheerful because of the checks I was writing them). Don't misunderstand - it's a beautiful house, with good bones. It just hit the fifteen year mark and needed a little bit of TLC.
The wedding went off with only two hitches, which was something of a miracle since we never had time to rehearse anything, and only met with our pastor the night before the ceremony. The hitches were the kind that make for good stories. My brother was my best man, and at one point in the ceremony he had to change positions to give the pastor the ring. He crashed directly into a small table with some candlesticks on it, nearly knocking them all to the ground. The second was long and awkward. At one point the pastor introduced us to everyone and the three man band we had was supposed to play a little bit of music while we smiled and waved. Sounds benign, right? And the first ten seconds were. Problem is, the band played for THREE MINUTES! We stood there for three minutes, listening to 'Bridge over Troubled Water' while everyone shifted and waited and stared at us.
It's been a crazy, crazy time, and during much of it I was waiting patiently for the finish line, for a return to privacy and personal space and being able to walk around my house in my boxers. Now that it's arrived, I find myself missing all our visitors. I miss the fine, sweet madness made by family, friends, and the winds of change.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
My experiences of the last few months showed me a shorter, simpler version:
Life is what happens.
Heavy, man.
:)
posted by Cody McFadyen at
6:57 PM
3 Comments
