In Which I Hike & Clean
Dec. 22nd, 2019 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aI got my day of rest yesterday.
Well, after the final fixes on our heater, but that was done early enough to get me out of the house by 11am: as I thought, the pilot flame just needed to be tuned down, but I neither had the confidence to do that nor the tools to open up the heater.
In any case, the rain stopped on Saturday, and it was a balmy 58 degrees, the nicest day scheduled until we leave. After a horrendous week and last weekend that were super busy and stressful, I was very happy to go out for a hike.
The hike was one that I've done a half-dozen or a dozen times: up Panoramic Hill, around the Upper Fire Trail above Strawberry Creek, up to the Sidehill Trail to Grizzly Peak Blvd, over onto the ridgeline Trail, into Tilden Park, and then along the ridgeline there until I cut down to the bus stop near Lake Anza. 11 or 12 miles total.
I did my best to be really mindful the whole time, because I'm not going to do that whole hike again before we leave (and I might not be up in the hills at all: I've got lots of my schedule). I enjoyed the paths and the people and their so, so, so cute dogs. I enjoyed the trees and the views. I really saw everything that I could.
I did also play music a bit, which I don't usually do while hiking, but it felt like a part of losing myself to the experience. Mostly I played through Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants, singing along as I went, even when I was passing other people.
It was a great walk, a really pleasant afternoon, only chilly when I stopped for too long.
And I got a last sandwich from Cheese 'n Stuff too, was a surprise, given their frequent Saturday closings (but they had a sign up, a very rare sign!, saying they were closing after Saturday and not open until the new year).
Good day!
But there's still lots of work to be done. My post-it by my desk says: clean; Skotos work; Bitmark work.
So today I dived back in, and it wasn't exactly super stressful work, but it was lots of things to be done.
We have six or so large caches of stuff: one cabinet in the downstairs bathroom; a couple of cabinets in the kitchen; the Harry Potter closet; and a lot of stuff in my office. So I just kept going back and back and back to those today, separating things into piles for Goodwill, to offer out in front of our house, and to trash. Oh, and a very few things get set aside to go to Hawaii or to keep until we're done using them.
None of those caches is close to done yet, but I can now see the backs and floors of all the spaces, so we're a lot closer.
And meanwhile more and more of my life is turning toward Kauai. In the last few days, I ordered a microwave, a printer, and a monitor all to be delivered out there (the first two the day before we arrive, the third just after, all to my dad's house).
Lucy has been very sad since we gave her cat tree away, so we found a new one for her, and we'll order that just after Christmas to make sure it doesn't get to Kauai before we do. (Currently, they say January 3rd, but I want that to go to our house, not my dad's, which is why I'm waiting.)
And we did have a relaxing lunch out at Cancun, a tasty restaurant that we'll miss.
When I was talking to my dad today he asked if things had quieted down now that our stuff is all out of the house, and I said no, but I was too frazzled to remember everything that was going on, so I told him about all the cleaning up I was still doing, but I forgot about the stressful house work that had gone on until Saturday morning.
And I realized that we actually have to deal with more than he did. Obviously, he had to (1) get all his stuff moved; (2) do any final stuff in the Bay Area [like my recent dental appointments as an example]; and (3) get stuff ready for them in Kauai. But, we've also had to (4) prepare our house for sale; and (5) finalize things for Skotos, like my closing down our mailbox and changing lots of addresses.
On the bright side, we're going to have family in Kauai, and Mary was just making arrangements to loan us bedsheets and dishes while we're there the first weeks.
So, maybe more stressful until we leave, then less stressful afterward.
Hope so. I've been waiting for that less stressful for a while.
Well, after the final fixes on our heater, but that was done early enough to get me out of the house by 11am: as I thought, the pilot flame just needed to be tuned down, but I neither had the confidence to do that nor the tools to open up the heater.
In any case, the rain stopped on Saturday, and it was a balmy 58 degrees, the nicest day scheduled until we leave. After a horrendous week and last weekend that were super busy and stressful, I was very happy to go out for a hike.
The hike was one that I've done a half-dozen or a dozen times: up Panoramic Hill, around the Upper Fire Trail above Strawberry Creek, up to the Sidehill Trail to Grizzly Peak Blvd, over onto the ridgeline Trail, into Tilden Park, and then along the ridgeline there until I cut down to the bus stop near Lake Anza. 11 or 12 miles total.
I did my best to be really mindful the whole time, because I'm not going to do that whole hike again before we leave (and I might not be up in the hills at all: I've got lots of my schedule). I enjoyed the paths and the people and their so, so, so cute dogs. I enjoyed the trees and the views. I really saw everything that I could.
I did also play music a bit, which I don't usually do while hiking, but it felt like a part of losing myself to the experience. Mostly I played through Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants, singing along as I went, even when I was passing other people.
It was a great walk, a really pleasant afternoon, only chilly when I stopped for too long.
And I got a last sandwich from Cheese 'n Stuff too, was a surprise, given their frequent Saturday closings (but they had a sign up, a very rare sign!, saying they were closing after Saturday and not open until the new year).
Good day!
But there's still lots of work to be done. My post-it by my desk says: clean; Skotos work; Bitmark work.
So today I dived back in, and it wasn't exactly super stressful work, but it was lots of things to be done.
We have six or so large caches of stuff: one cabinet in the downstairs bathroom; a couple of cabinets in the kitchen; the Harry Potter closet; and a lot of stuff in my office. So I just kept going back and back and back to those today, separating things into piles for Goodwill, to offer out in front of our house, and to trash. Oh, and a very few things get set aside to go to Hawaii or to keep until we're done using them.
None of those caches is close to done yet, but I can now see the backs and floors of all the spaces, so we're a lot closer.
And meanwhile more and more of my life is turning toward Kauai. In the last few days, I ordered a microwave, a printer, and a monitor all to be delivered out there (the first two the day before we arrive, the third just after, all to my dad's house).
Lucy has been very sad since we gave her cat tree away, so we found a new one for her, and we'll order that just after Christmas to make sure it doesn't get to Kauai before we do. (Currently, they say January 3rd, but I want that to go to our house, not my dad's, which is why I'm waiting.)
And we did have a relaxing lunch out at Cancun, a tasty restaurant that we'll miss.
When I was talking to my dad today he asked if things had quieted down now that our stuff is all out of the house, and I said no, but I was too frazzled to remember everything that was going on, so I told him about all the cleaning up I was still doing, but I forgot about the stressful house work that had gone on until Saturday morning.
And I realized that we actually have to deal with more than he did. Obviously, he had to (1) get all his stuff moved; (2) do any final stuff in the Bay Area [like my recent dental appointments as an example]; and (3) get stuff ready for them in Kauai. But, we've also had to (4) prepare our house for sale; and (5) finalize things for Skotos, like my closing down our mailbox and changing lots of addresses.
On the bright side, we're going to have family in Kauai, and Mary was just making arrangements to loan us bedsheets and dishes while we're there the first weeks.
So, maybe more stressful until we leave, then less stressful afterward.
Hope so. I've been waiting for that less stressful for a while.