An Accident

Allow me to introduce my boyfriend, Rusty.  

 

He is a flame point Siamese we sprung from Kitty Prison seventeen years ago. At the time, he was one and half years old. The shelter labeled him an active cat, and, over the years, he has certainly been that and more. Now at age 18, his favorite activities are sleeping in the sun, sitting on the porch, looking out the window, sitting on my lap and spending time with his favorite humans, Scott and me.

Three weeks ago, he had an accident that required surgery to repair his pelvis.

The surgery went well and so has his recovery, but he is unable to walk or use the litter box without assistance. We’ve had several consultations with the surgeon and the trauma veterinarian who have been extremely helpful. Our next step is to meet with a physical therapist in Salt Lake next week. We’re hoping for some excellent and productive advice.

An Organized Garage

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Comparing first world countries to third world countries is a regular occurrence in the media. We read these articles and think we are lucky to live in a first world country. And, while there are many things to be thankful for due to the fact that we were lucky enough to be born in a first world country, we still complain. When it comes right down to it though, it seems like the majority of complaining we read or hear about falls into the category Scott and I refer to as first-world complaints. Those complaints include things like the price of gasoline, the power being out for an hour, how long one waits on the phone to reach a real person, the slow speed of the Internet. You get the idea.

The fact that we have never had a garage is certainly included in the category of first-world complaints. But, now that we are here in Torrey, we have a garage. My most recent first-world complaint has been that the garage is piled so high with our possessions (another first-world circumstance), there is no room for our car and truck (yet another first-world situation).

Having admitted to fully participating in first-world excesses, we still needed to organize our space in order to make it possible to store, and later find, all of our things and, at the same time, have room to park our vehicles.

Once we found a place for everything in the house, we moved on to the task of organizing the garage. This involved filling the control joints in the concrete floor with caulk and sealing the floor in order to keep fluids commonly found in garages from staining the floor. (First-world complaint)

We began by taking everything out of the garage. This was mostly tools used in house construction. Then we cleaned the floor, caulked the joints and sealed the floor with linseed oil. Next we grouped our things into categories of use – project space, bicycling, llamas, hiking, canoeing, etc. Finally, we put everything in its place.

Ten days later, the process was complete. Scott said we would know where everything was for about two hours and then it would be lost to our memory. Here we are, two weeks later, and we still can find what we’re looking for.

Two vehicles in the garage

With plenty of space all around

Skiing, canoeing and camping gear

Bicycles

Plaster equipment

Miscellaneous

Construction supplies

Garden tools

Scott organizing his shop table

Apologies for complaining...

Moving - Day Two

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The next morning, June 5^th, we loaded the car and truck with things we wanted to move ourselves and off we drove, arriving in Torrey six hours later.

We introduced the llamas to their newly-fenced pasture, released the cats to explore their new digs, stashed the fresh food in the fridge and took a short walk in the neighborhood before it got dark.

According to the original plan, Alpha Moving would arrive on the 7^th with our belongings. However early on the morning of the 6^th, they called asking if they could deliver that afternoon rather than the next day since they were ahead of schedule. Scott and I agreed and quickly got to work preparing for their arrival.

  

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By late afternoon, we were, once again, surrounded by boxes of belongings and furniture, distributed throughout the house and on the porch. The work of finding a place for everything began.

The first step of organizing the kitchen / living room, included staining the new pantry our friend Mel, owner of Baker’s Cabinets, had built for us. Months earlier, while searching for just the right thing, I came across an antique armoire in a consignment store in Logan. It was beautiful, but it also had characteristics inherent in some antiques: the doors wouldn’t close and the shelves could not accommodate the items we needed to store inside. I asked Mel to look at the antique and create something that would fit our needs.

The new pantry awaiting a finish coat.

Details Mel added to match, as closely as possible, the antique armoire at the consignment shop.

It holds food…

 

coats, a broom and cat food.

 Exactly what we wanted!

Moving - Day One

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For over a year, the sister of a friend had been interested in buying our Logan house. When we announced the sale price in January, we reached an agreement that was satisfactory to all parties and set a closing date of May 27. On that day, we met the buyers at the title office and signed the requisite documents, which ended our almost forty years of residence in Cache Valley.

Prior to May 27th, and in the ensuing week, Scott and I spent all of our time sifting through the accumulation of those decades determining which things would go to directly into the garbage, which would be given to the local thrift stores and which would move with us to Torrey. As the various piles grew, Scott suggested it might be easier to rent a dumpster, toss everything in and make a fresh start with nothing. That may have been true, but we’re not known to do anything simply, so, the piles grew into mountains and everything was eventually labeled and positioned to go to a new location.

After distributing thrift store donations among various Logan charities, we were more than ready when Alpha Moving arrived with their huge semi-truck on June 4. Despite our attempts to winnow our belongings down to a manageable mass, I couldn’t believe we still had enough stuff to completely fill almost one fourth of the entire semi. The fellows who loaded our things, reassured me that we really didn’t have all that much when compared to others they had moved, but it was still hard to accept the fact that we were still pack rats.

Our belongings completely filled this section.

 That afternoon, the semi drove away, leaving Scott, the cats, our fish and me to spend one last night in our Logan house.