Checking in

Wanted to let you know we are alive and making progress. At this point, I think we have more things in the apartment than in the house, except for the larger bits of furniture, of course, which are waiting for Two Guys and a Truck after we return from our Christmas trip.

We have the art hung in the living room and the dining room; Helen's pots adorn the shelf above the cabinets; the televisions are in place and connected to the U-verse (I thought we were all about the Me-verse) as are the telephones and the internet. Tom's room is all arranged and waiting for the arrival of bed and dressers. My room is serving as a staging area and is filled with tool boxes, yet-to-be placed art and boxes filled with things waiting to be put away. My office is 80% done and usable. All that is lacking is to get the paintings up and find a comfortable reading chair, preferably one that can flip out into a bed when needed. There are paintings to be hung in the entryway and such areas.The dishes and related bits -- including Tom's gazillion clear coffee mugs -- are in place. Since we are still cooking and eating at the house, we will have to wait to take pots and pans later. And we are shopping for cubes to use for books and paraphernalia in the living room and in the entry hall. (There is a story about the cube shopping and Tom's heroic patience with incompetence, but I will spare you the details.)

The apartment has great almost-new appliances -- the previous residents were the first to live there and only for a few months while house hunting -- including a built-in microwave above the stove, dishwasher and full-size washer and dryer. So we are not having to move any appliances, and the woman who is buying the house gets ours as part of the package deal.

This morning I got up early, packed the car with things to take to St. Vincent de Paul and things to take to Madison. Right now I am doing laundry. I will head over to St. Vinnie's when they open at nine, drop off the boxes and bags of donations and then go to Madison. Tom is staying in the Dells because he has people coming to take care of things at the house. I will unpack and put things away and enjoy being alone in the new place for a while before returning home (?) to cook dinner.  

Home is beginning to feel imprecise as a designation.  Part of me is thinking of the apartment as home already. Which seems like a good thing.

It has not been painless, but we haven't shed any blood yet either. Notice I said yet.

Thanks to those who have made suggestions about getting Sundance to take her meds. At the moment she is co-operating as long as the pills are served up inside Fancy Feast cat food of any flavor. I suspect next she will demand we put it in a crystal bowl.