karl.tsakos.us/blog

I’m taking a break from packing. It’s been said before, but I must reiterate, it’s amazing how much stuff one person can collect. I’ve packed a large collection of heavy boxes, and fortunately, there are visible signs of my progress. Of course that’s just in one small area of my apartment. But still, it’s something.

I have been spending more time at the new place tying to prep it to be moved into. Painting, cleaning, and all of the things that make a place livable. I’ve also done some work on the yard. Mowing, weed-eating, and trying to kill an infestation of poison ivy.

Believe it or not, having lived in an apartment for twelve or fifteen years, there are certain things I have been craving that only a house can provide. Things that most people consider a nuisance. Of those, yard work has ranked high. That and grilling on a Webber Grill. You can’t grill in an apartment. Not on a Webber. Anyhow, back to the yard. I have been longing to mow a lawn. Dumb right? Even odder, I have been jonesing to use an old fashioned manual mower. You know the kind, the one with the corkscrew of blades across the middle and no motor.

My sister was so kind to give me her mower which I believe she briefly used and then replaced with a power mower. On my first time trying it, my neighbor from down the street suddenly appeared with her husband with their power mower and offered me it’s use. I didn’t want to be rude. I had met her earlier in the day and it turns out they were taking care of the lawn while the house was for sale. It had gotten a little shaggy and I think she wanted to at least lend me their mower out of a sense of guilt and to welcome me to the neighborhood.

The second time I mowed the lawn I was in the middle of the backyard when I turned around and saw my next door neighbor. He and his wife came out to say hello and introduce themselves. I of course explained that I liked using the manual mower; they hadn’t asked. They seem like a very nice couple, but that is the one and only time I have ever seen them.

The thing is, there is something about the mechanics of those old mowers that is just appealing to me. I know it’s more labor to use it, but that’s kind of the idea. The mechanical motion of the blades and the whirring, clipping noise it makes. I love it. I think it’s kind of the same attraction I have to riding my road bike up hills. It’s hard and it hurts. But when you are in the right gear and have the right cadence going, it’s like you can cruise up the hill forever. I can’t explain the feeling, but it is very satisfying. Mowing the lawn is similar.

I’m pleased to report that no new people have appeared in the subsequent lawn mowings. It would start getting pretty crowded if they did.

Anyhow, I think I need to get a bite to eat before Jim comes over to help move the boxes I have been packing all morning. The fun is just never ending.

So much to do. Prepping the house to move in. That’s one thing. But then there is the start of the school year and the usual, “Uh oh, all those things I tested suddenly decided not to work on the computers when people choose to use them.” The one thing is interfering with the other thing. No, I’m not talking about the computers, I’m talking about my life.

I have a job so I can afford a house. But, I can’t work on the house because I have so much going on at work that I’m worn out when I get home. Today there was a long day at work followed by a short bit of work on the house (with the help of Jim $). It was off to work early to finish configuring servers for the work the lab aides needed to do following the district wide assembly. Then it was trouble shooting and followup e-mailing until I was the last one out of the office at the end of the day.

Then Jim and I swung by the house to move the laundry machine out of the entry way to the Kitchen, and push the fridge to the side a bit too. Why you ask? Well to put the piano in the kitchen of course. No really. I’m having the wood floors in the dining room and the living room refinished. Since the piano can’t go up or down stairs (it’s a very heavy piano) it had to go in the only other room on the floor. Now, the clothes washer is moved too, and will be moving out when I have the chance. I don’t really want a washer in my kitchen.

The next move with the living and dining rooms will be to pull up the old carpet which literally tears with the slightest provocation such as pushing a whopping great upright piano across it. I also have to tear it up on the stairs and in the upstairs hall. And, by tear it up, I of course mean to dance. Which will of course be followed by the removing of the carpet.

But before any tearing commences, it’s another day at work trying to figure out what I thought I already figured out, only now it doesn’t want to behave the way it behaved when I was trying it before. Stupid computers. Stupid carpets.

As Dave would say (I think dave would say; Dave would you say?), I got me a bunch of first world problems.