The Bedroom

What a great weekend. Off to an inauspicious start, but improved almost immediately. Stopped at Ken's on the way home Friday night, noting that there was no power for the last 10 miles of my trip home. He was doing all right but was pretty flustered, sitting there with 2 candles burning. The wind was howling and the power had been out since 10:30 in the morning. He was warm enough, sitting by his wood stove. I found his Coleman lantern in the cellar, showed him how to light it, and did what he really wanted done: moved all of the food out of his freezer into the wood shed. Since it was 10 degrees outside, we knew the food would stay frozen.

Then I went home to get myself set up for the night. I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to get to my house, since there were lots of trees down across roads in lots of places. No problems, though, just limbs down here and there and the road was clear, as was my driveway. My house was nice and warm, since it had been so warm in the morning. I always keep my Coleman lantern in the same place, and have a propane camping stove stashed awat, so I cooked myself some homemade soup and settled in for the night. Voila! The power was on by around 9. That was a huge surprise and great treat.

Saturday morning was cold, very cold. It was cold all day--the high for the day was 1. Lin and I had our plans for the day, but her phone and power were out so I couldn't call to confirm. She's a true friend, though, and showed up at 9:30. She was stunned that I had power and hot coffee to offer. We got to work: moved the horrible, old, rotten box spring out of my downstairs bedroom (what was built to be my basketmaking studio but has become a third bedroom). Took apart the bed that Jamie made that's been in the master bedroom upstairs. He was very proud of this bed: it's made of 4 X 4's for legs, 2 X 4's for sides and is a platform bed. Held together by 3/8" dowels. The design is unique and is not wonderful. We laughed long and hard while taking it apart, banging away at the dowels, pulling and twisting at them with my newly-purchased vise grips to get them out. Note to self: never build a bed with 3/8" dowels. In fact, don't build bed with dowels--metal bolts are just fine. Also, use plans someone else has drawn up. We got the bed apart, and even more amazing, got it put back together. We stood in stunned silence, staring at it. Then I noticed that we had 3 dowels left over. That made us really laugh. We searched for the empty holes to put them in but couldn't find them. Lin said she'd put her phone next to the bed so I could call her during the night when the bed collapsed and I ended up on the floor.

We moved my grandmother's marble-topped bureau upstairs (a marble top is much like a headstone in weight). I threw out a whole bunch of sheets (which shocked Ken when I told him--apparently frugal people do not throw away sheets, they are useful for rags. Personally, I have no use for rags). I went through my 4 bookcases and threw out 3 big boxes of books. Lin proudly confined herself to taking only 1 box. I was thrilled to get rid of so much. We loaded up the truck and left for the BIG dump, where you get rid of things like box springs. Drove there, 20 miles away. Got there at 2:30. Guess what? It closes at noon on Saturday. What kind of crap is that? The "convenience station" across the road was open, though, so we could dump the boxes of books and some of the trash, but we were left with the horrible, embarrassingly awful box spring. I swear that thing will haunt me for the rest of my life. It was given to us by Jamie's parents 12 years ago when they got a new one. The springs are starting to show. It has pink flowers and stains on it. It is now in my wood shed. Lin suggested we throw it in the river as we drove across the bridge. I wish we could have.

Anyway, we had lunch at the diner, and Lin went home. One of the best things about the day was that Lin noted we were making a special room for me. I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted that bureau out of there and I wanted a real bed. I wanted nothing under the bed (boy did we find a lot of dog toys under the metal frame). Yesterday I put away all of the pants that are too small (for now) for me to wear, threw away a bunch of shoes and have fixed it so that there's nothing between the bed and the window. I have all of my clothes stored on 2 sets of shelves (I prefer that to bureaus) and I love my room. There is still some work that needs to be done, but wow is it ever a nice room. I'm thrilled. And it is so wonderful to sleep on a hard surface that doesn't sag. My mother says I might as well sleep on the floor as sleep on a platform bed with a futon, and she's right. I love it. The dogs have adjusted to having to jump a little higher. This bed is really too high, my feet don't touch the floor when I sit on the edge of the bed (never let a man who is 6'3" tall build you a bed).

Yesterday I spent all afternoon watching The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. This is the coolest show. This man goes to houses where people are having problems with their dogs and teaches them how to solve the problems. There was a Lab who was obsessed with water and wouldn't stay out of the swimming pool, a chihuahua who bit everyone who came near the mother, the pit bull mix who charged every dog in the neighborhood, the young Great Dane who bullied the older Great Dane, and on and on. I loved it all. I learned a whole lot, most of which I should already have known Each segment was about being the alpha member of the pack, of course, and showing dominant behavior to your dog. He said you shouldn't say "please" to your dog or ask it to stop doing things. I do both of those all the time: "Please don't," and "Cut it out." I intone, I whine, I drag out the sounds when I say "Stoppppp it." I tried it while I was watching it and Tess was clawing me with her nasty paws. STOP! It worked like a charm. She was shocked but obeyed me immediately. I laughed out loud. This morning when she tried to lick my eyelids. I said DON'T and she stopped right away. I learned that Tess' clawing and paw-whacking is dominant behavior, which really surprised me. I also learned that a dog can be submissive outside and dominant inside the house. I think this may be the case with Tess. WHAT? Tess dominant? This would be unbelievable to any who know her. She certainly tries to dominate me.

And now I'm at work, working 9-5 this week. I love the last hour of the day, when there's only one other person in the building and it's usually someone far away from my desk. Since I've been here more than an hour and have accomplished nothing I suppose I should get on with those videos from Ticonderoga that beckon.