BerthaBlog

It’s a big, ugly couch. We dragged it down with us when we moved back from Canada, even though the house we were moving into was too small and it had to go into storage. When we moved again, we got a new couch and this one got stuck down in the basement (with all the other crap from the storage unit). It’s been down there collecting dust and cat hair for the last five years. It’s ratty, it’s tattered, it’s dirty. Springs are sticking through the fabric.

Last week I was getting an estimate with a local handyman to put a vent in the master bathroom. As long as I had him out here, I asked if he knew anyone who could get the monster couch out of my basement. He said sure, he could bring a friend to help him do it when he came to put in the vent.

Today they came and put in the vent (no more mildew in the bathroom, hooray!). And they hefted that old couch up the basement steps and down to the curb. Tomorrow they’ll come back with a truck and haul it off—although with any luck someone will spot it there tonight and make off with it. Take my couch, please!

There it is, in all its hideous glory. The cushions for the thing were lost ages ago. Probably I’ll turn them up two years from now as I continue to de-crap the basement. I’m doing the FlyLady thing, which means each day my house is a little less of a landfill.

Now I’m going to go downstairs and spin in the empty space where the couch was.

Isabel continues to head directly towards us. She’s already given the Outer Banks a good pounding, and even far inland we’re getting a lot of wind and rain from her edges.

Schools are closed for the day; last night the kids and I dragged everything from the back porch into the basement, and put the trash and recycling bins into the shed. Now all we can do is wait and see what she’s going to do. Wish us luck!

Finally got my watch fixed. It’s languished in my closet for years, because the cost to repair it was higher than the cost of buying a new watch. But after hunting for years for a watch I liked as well as this one, I decided I’d spent as much in time and effort looking for a new one as I could have just fixing the one I had. So I took it to a little shop in Sears and they fixed it for me.

I was regaling my spouse with this information, happily displaying my fixed watch. “How much did it cost to fix it?” he wondered.

“A hundred dollars,” I answered. “Which I know is more than the watch itself is worth.”

“Not any more,” he pointed out.

I love the way he thinks.

Today I got to hold a snake.

My son and I went back into the school after classes were out to retrieve his backpack from his locker. His animal science classroom was quite close, and his teacher happened to be nearby. Gordon asked him if I could go and hold a snake; his teacher said that we could hold the snake Gordon was in charge of caring for, but none of the other kids’ critters.

(A moment later he turned back and added, “But don’t force your mom if she doesn’t want to, just let her try it.” I guess he’s used to moms who don’t want to hold snakes.)

So we went into the classroom, and my son deftly reached in and plucked out a lovely milk snake. His name, I was informed proudly, was Ruby. Ruby had just shed his skin, and was gleaming and lively. He was apparently quite used to being handled, and didn’t seem at all afraid as he was deposited into my open hands. He hitched a loop of himself comfortably around my wrist and investigated his surroundings with interest. He had the sweetest little black face.

My son took a turn holding him, and Ruby was equally placid as he strolled about the room, occasionally forgetting the snake in his hand and gesturing with it. This did not seem to bother Ruby in the slightest. Then I got another turn; Ruby was feeling a bit friskier and travelled up my arm to poke his head into my sleeve.

It was a bit difficult at first to figure out how to hold him, as I’m used to animals with a more compact center of mass. But Ruby himself had no trouble getting settled. It was rather odd plucking up several coils of reptile, and feeling them gently grip my hand and arm. He seemed quite a pleasant animal. I wonder if all snakes are this amiable.