Jake’s question

If you could talk to one person who has died, whom would you choose and why?

I chose Gilda Radner and Philip K. Dick — Gilda because I miss her, PKD because I suspect that conversation would have to be memorable.

D.

A non-kvetching post

I don’t handle moves well, as my emotionally bruised family will attest. Same thing happened when I left University of Texas in ’98. I think it’s the loss which drags me down the most; and, ultimately, it’s the kind of people I come from — people who focus on the empty part of that half-filled cup. So it takes a conscious effort on my part to turn my attention to what’s good about this change.

Kenney Mencher has a series of half-empty/half-full. Check it out.

Here are some of the good things about moving to Santa Rosa . . .

(more…)

It’s all over

‘Cept the unpacking.

I like the unloading phase best of all. Something nice* about filling an empty structure with all of our junk, then watching the new home take shape. Something especially nice about coming in $1400 below the estimate because I was that successful at throwing stuff out, selling stuff, and giving stuff away. Give yourself a pat on the back, Walnut.

I like the loading phase least of all. It was rough seeing the office emptied, stripped of its me-ness, turned into a generic office; and my home? Jeez. Now it really looks like a warehouse.

Maybe I’m more Zen than I give myself credit. I thought I would feel more sadness leaving the Brookings house behind, but all I felt was stress, anxiety over the upcoming drive, and fatigue. No tears over inanimate objects, even if it is a house we’ve lived in for the past eight years.

How was the drive with Noah’s Ark? Not bad. The cats were good about not pooping or peeing, thankfully, so the only bad smells came from the ferrets. I screwed things up, though. Karen had told me to lower the back seat so that the trunk would get air conditioned, too. I’m not sure this would have worked — the cat carrier is awfully big, so I don’t know if it would have fit with the seat down. And I remember being so delighted to squeeze the cat carrier, degu carrier, and ferret carrier in the back seat that I didn’t stop to consider other packing strategies.

But I think the tarantulas and poison dart frogs came through it all okay. I haven’t checked every single tarantula cage, but every one I’ve checked is viable.

Now we’re wondering what to do with the ferrets, or as we call them in California where ferrets are illegal**, guinea pigs. We’re renting, so we don’t want to let the ferrets poop just anywhere. They’re resolutely resistant to litter box training, too, unless they’re in their own cage. Can’t keep ’em in the cage all the time, though, since they get stir crazy.

They’re leash trained, so one solution would be to let them walk around in the back yard. But it seems somehow criminal to restrain their natural rambunctiousness.

My preferred solution: we watch them like hawks while they’re out and pick them up the instant they head for a corner to poop. Pop ’em back into the cage and let them use their litter box. They might poop on our clothes or on the floor, but at least we’ll know where it is so that we can clean it up instantly. And at least they won’t poop in the corner, where they’ll stain the base boards.

Tomorrow the unpacking begins. We’re spending tonight in a hotel (hence my internet connection). After this, I’ll be out of touch until we get our internet back. See ya!

D.

*And MANLY.

**But don’t tell PetCo, where they sell a full line of ferret products.