Well, we made it.
Okay, we made it a few days ago, but this is the first time I’ve gotten around to updating, since I am writing on a–god help us all–dial-up connection. It is a measure of my geekhood that my brain keeps replaying that scene from Star Trek, where Spock complains that working with this archaic technology is like working with stone knives and bearskins. I feel his pain. (My buddy Kathy, being a dear friend, has offered the benefit of her connection to update, and if the DSL doesn’t snap on in a few days, I may take her up on it.)
But anyway, we made it. The trip was uneventful–good for me, not so good for people reading about it, since I have no fascinating accounts of how the truck hit a low-flying chicken on the freeway and overturned, scattering art across eight lanes before coming to rest upside down in an ornamental fountain of General Lee. That would make for good reading–a coupla states worth of “We drove all day, and then stopped for the night,” does not. About the only bad thing was that the majority of my houseplants died in Oklahoma due to a hard freeze overnight, reducing the collection down to a coupla hardy Peruvian cactus. Dunno where I’ll find a Karoo Rose again–I picked it up on a whim at the botanical gardens in AZ, and I don’t know how common they are–but it’s my own fault for leaving an Arabian plant out in a car with snow on the ground. Oh well, easy come, easy go.
House is nice. There’s some really reprehensible 70’s linoleum, an elderly lime-green dishwasher, and the less said about the faux-marble bathroom countertop, the better, but those are pretty minor considerations–the other appliances are brand new, the carpet is an equally new cream, and my studio’s half again the size of the old one. The deck is enormous–you could keep elephants out there–and the back of the property opens onto a sort of greenway, so pretty much it’s just trees, trees, and more trees. After Tempe, it’s like living in the woods. Our landlady is a pleasant woman with two dogs and a bird feeder hung from every available surface, which is fine by me–I’ll be putting up feeders myself here shortly.
And really, that’s about all for now. Having gotten my computer set up, I can get back to painting and catching up on my Digger backlog, which I’m glad off–those few weeks of packing-but-not-working made me feel sort’ve…unemployed. And I hate that. So–wombat signing off for now, shall hopefully return with a real connection in the next few days.
