Last Monday, Teddy called at 8:30 p.m.; he and Amy were at Idaho Springs, Colorado. He sounded tired, and said they were tired. They’d arrived in Grand Island at 1:30 a.m. the night before, and couldn’t sleep, what with all the things they discovered they wanted to talk about, until 3:00 a.m.. They awoke at 6:00 a.m., before their alarm went off, and couldn’t get back to sleep. So they got up and headed for Estes Park. He’d intended to go over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, but accidentally turned south from Estes Park, which is how they wound up in Idaho Springs so quickly. The weather was nice; they only had to put on their jackets at higher altitudes. The trees are turning colors, and it’s really pretty there. Teddy said the aspen trees are all scarlet and gold, especially higher in the mountains where there was enough moisture for them during the summer.
Tuesday afternoon, Hannah and Aaron came. Aaron was playing beside me ever so sweetly, offering me all sorts of toys, books, and soggy crackers, when he tripped over the leg of my desk chair. He fell, hit his face on the arm of the chair, and chipped a front tooth and cut his lip. He had a small bruise under his eye, too. Poor little boy! I felt so sorry for him. When he’d recovered a bit, he gave me a woebegone look, shook his head, and said mournfully, “Dear, dear!”
Hannah took him home and called the dentist. He was supposed to call her back, but he never did. She has had a dreadful time trying to get an appointment anywhere; as I’ve complained before, finding dentist appointments around here is like pulling hens’ teeth. (Oh my goodness gracious; did I just make a pun? Unheard of.)
When the children got home from school, we went out to look at the house near Scribner--this time, while the sun was up and shining brightly. Hannah wanted to come see it, too; so I stopped to pick her and Aaron up on the way. I videotaped inside and out ‑‑and forgot that Larry needed 35mm pictures so as to show the house to potential neighbors and get their permission to move in such a dwelling.
That evening, I took my favorite picture of Teddy and Amy to Wal-Mart, and got an 8x10 of it. I bought a gold frame…and soon the picture was hanging on my living room wall beside the big mountain puzzle picture. Keith and Esther’s and Bobby and Hannah’s wedding pictures are on the other side of it.
Teddy called that night from Colorado Springs. Amy was suffering from altitude sickness, and Teddy was wondering what to do about it. He didn’t feel so great himself. They’d gone through Cave of the Winds--and Amy nearly fainted in there.
I put on my doctor’s cloak and began dispensing advice. I told him there are over-the-counter remedies; even motion-sickness medicine helps. But especially eating good food--vegetables and fruits, nothing fried, nothing sweet except maybe a small piece of Hershey’s chocolate, plenty of water and juice, helps. And sleep.
And then his phone card ran out… He’d told me they were at EconoLodge…so I called back, just in case we weren’t done talking, knowing there might be several EconoLodges in Colorado Springs… I was right. There was a whole phonebook-page of them. The operator gave me the first two on the list. I tried the one near the Garden of the Gods--and BINGO! Got it, first time. What are the odds of that happening?!
Instructing Teddy to call collect the next time he wanted to call home, we bid each other adieu and hung up.
Wednesday I started sewing Hester’s beige-with-blue-and-pink-flowered top. Like the navy top I sewed last week, it has a front placket onto which the side fronts are gathered. It’s a pattern I especially liked when I was her age; I had two or three tops made from it. Good thing I saved all those old patterns; they’re back in style now!
After church, Larry and I went to Wal-Mart for pop for Hester and her classmates the next day. They were going to watch a video, and sometimes their teacher allows snacks and drinks during the film, which makes it a gala occasion indeed.
On the way home, we got stopped because of the lack of taillights. Larry hadn’t done a very good job keeping his toe lightly on the brake pedal, like he was supposed to be doing, to keep the brake lights on. Then, when we pulled out the registration and the insurance card, we kept coming up with old relics that would have fetched us an attractive appraisal at an antique boutique. We finally found a current registration, but no recent insurance card. AArrrggghhh!!! Where is it?! I paid it, I did I did I did!!
The officer, while surely thinking we were the most unorganized bumpkins he’d lit upon in months, except perhaps for the local hermit who lives in his car and must fight back snowstorms of paper and confetti every time he climbs into it or gets out of it, was kind enough to issue a fix-it ticket and tell us to stop by the police station with the insurance card as soon as we’d fixed the light switch.
Thursday, Caleb, Victoria, and I again drove out to the house we’d been looking at and took pictures--this time, with the Minolta. When I finished, we headed back toward Schuyler… All of a sudden Victoria said, “Hey! The ladder!”--so I turned around and drove back to retrieve the ladder. Good thing one of us was paying attention--I’d never have thought of it, probably, until we got home. Maybe not even then.
When Larry got home from work, he drove us all out to look at a lot northwest of town--in his pickup because the Suburban still had no taillights--all of the kids from Joseph on down crammed into that extended cab. Afterwards, we stopped at Taco John’s for chicken burritos, but the chickens had run off to Bangladesh, hoping for asylum. Luckily, the cows had come home, so we were able to have beef burritos.
That day, Larry had met the man who would be moving the house we’d looked at. He learned that this was the man who actually owned the house, while the man who’d placed the ad to sell it still owed the mover a bit of money. And they were both trying to sell it, and having some dispute over whose house it actually was. Hmmm…is that a good prospective purchase? The man told Larry about a couple of other houses that were scheduled to be moved. We decided to take a look at them.
After dropping Hester and Lydia off at home because they were too squished and Hester was getting carsick, we went on to Schuyler to see one of the houses. We drove round…and round…and round…
It was gone.
It just plain wasn’t there.
It had either a) already been taken away by another mover, b) already been demolished, or c) seen the demolition crew coming, picked up stakes, and followed the chickens to Bangladesh.
So we headed to Uehling to see the other house. We stopped at the mover’s house in Snyder. He buys houses that need to be moved, moves them, maybe fixes them up, or sells them. He and his wife (she looked to be about 65) led us--with her driving like an Indianapolis 500 race car driver in their Chevy pickup over hill and dale on country roads--to the house. As we flew wildly over small bridges and abrupt rises in the gravel roads, Caleb and Victoria laughing because it tickled their stomachs, Larry wondered aloud if the woman’s husband was screaming, or if he was used to it by now.
“Or maybe he’s giggling like Caleb and Victoria are,” he added, and then as we skidded madly around a 90° curve with a ravine on one side and woods on the other, “Are you sure that lady’s not your twin?”
I poked him. Then, just for good measure, I pinched him, too.
We eventually drove up a long, curving drive to a farmhouse under a grove of tall, stately trees, and the mover and his wife opened the door for us. It was all fixed up nice, walnut cupboards refinished, antique glass knobs shiny and bright, lights with ceiling fans in nearly every room, washroom with white sink and cupboards off the big kitchen and dining room, new curtains and drapes and blinds, reverse osmosis filter system, water heater and softener, wood burning stove connected to the furnace ductwork, central heating and air… We’d like to get it, but we must first find a lot to put it on.
Friday was a lovely day; the children played outside most of the afternoon after school.
I sewed a red plaid single knit jumper for Lydia, and started on a blue print and pink check dress for Victoria.
I appliqued fuchsia hearts onto the pink check collar with blue thread in a satin blanket stitch, then put a blue print ruffle around the wide peter pan collar, making the ruffle out of two longish rectangular pieces whose position on that dress I know not. They had interfacing with them…perhaps I was thinking of making a waistband for it? But it already has a pink check sash! Hmmm… I’ll probably discover the vital purpose for those pieces when the dress is almost completed, and find myself unable to finish it without them.
I used a small piece of trim with teddy bears printed on it, left over from a baby blanket Dorcas made, for an applique on the front of the dress, between the blue shoulder ruffles. It was slightly longer than I needed, so I cut one little bear in a red wagon off and positioned it cattycorner from the first bit of trim, splitting it diagonally and putting part above, part below. Looks altogether cute, if I do say so myself.
When Larry came home, we got ready to go to see the house by Uehling, in order to take pictures of it while the sun was shining. Larry put a new switch into the Suburban, and now the dash lights and the parking lights work. It was a beautiful day, just right for a drive through the country. Harvest is in full swing, and the combines and grain trucks are busy in the golden cornfields.
Hannah dropped by; she was going for a walk. Bobby and Aaron were both taking a nap. And then we were off to see The House.
Here it is. We will add a garage and upper story to it. Larry would add a two- or three-car garage, and build our bedroom over it. The house would have more than twice the space we have now. I tried to 'draw' it on the computer, but ‘Paintbox’ has its limitations--and computer architects we are not. Where did that Architect CD-ROM we used to have get itself to?--Did the chickens take it to Bangladesh?)
Teddy and Amy got home Saturday evening about 7:30. They’d been to Garden of the Gods, up Pikes Peak by cog-rail, to the Royal Gorge… We’re looking forward to seeing their pictures and videos.We are looking at lots here and there and everywhere, hoping to find one we can afford and actually like, into the bargain. We found one that was within our price range…but an old man and his wife live just south of the lot, and if you think you have ever seen a yard full of junk, and you haven’t seen his, well, you just haven’t yet, that’s all.
According to the owner, there have been all sorts of troubles with the ol’ geezer. The neighbors have tried taking him to court to get him to clean up things, but he’s been there a lot longer than anybody else, so he has ‘Grandfather Clause’ (‘Grandfather Claws?’). A few times when one of the neighbors went to talk to him about it, he chased them off his property with a shotgun. We would want to live next to that??! One thing: he is old enough now--maybe 80?--that he wouldn’t be around forever…on the other hand, what if he lived to the ripe old age of 110? That’s 30 more years!! Yi.
I stayed with Mama Sunday night, showing her the video I took at Teddy and Amy’s wedding, and giving her a few pictures. She was pleased with the picture of them with her, in her living room; I’m so glad they had it taken.
Bobby, Hannah, and Aaron were here when I came home, so we showed them the pictures of the house we’d seen.
Well…no real, honest-to-goodness plans have been made yet, but we are hoping… Meanwhile, back to the blue print/pink check!
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