Thursday, December 22, 2011

Longest Night

We are living in Portland, finally, and are glad to have arrived. Everything has gone OK if the curves thrown our way are disregarded. Some days we are better at disregarding than others.

Last night we observed the Solstice by sitting in our hot tub (one of the appliances that DOES work here) with daughter Erin, sipping a pomegranate ale and then an oatmeal stout. Nice.... All relaxed and drowsy we finally headed upstairs for bed about midnight.

I was awakened by our lab mix at 3:30. She seemed desperate, though never barked. I went downstairs and let her out, noticing that the house did not smell good. I turned on the lights downstairs but saw nothing. As I went back up to bed the odor was worse. I turned on the lights, awakening both Sally and Erin, and discovered that Juni had redecorated our entire upstairs carpet in the colors of accident. Everywhere. It looked like abstract art. I don't know much about art, but...

We were about out of Spot Shot carpet cleaner because the moving company wouldn't transport aerosals. This is presumably so they would have room for the open pint jar of used lawnmower oil that the packed in a box that was subsequently turned upside down so the contents would spread to no fewer than a dozen other boxes.

So at 3:30 I drove down to Safeway, hoping it was open, in order to buy two more cans of carpet treatment. What a treat.

It was a different kind of Solstice. We all came out of it a bit bleary and in fine spirits, if a bit stained and worn. That's kinda the way the move has gone. None the less, we are healthy, happy, and totally swamped by the boxes of stuff that are an indictment of our previous failure to avoid the perils of materialism. We'll do better this time. Promise.

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