& other Loves

A few times since we've come to Aber-land. (Aberdeen--we have many nicknames for it: Aberdabberdoo, A-brad-een, Ariele-deen)...a few times since we've been separated from most of our work (yes, I write columns, host a website segment...Sharing Stories, teach onsite classes, and edit books) but even with moving and setting things up and still working, a handful of times, I've found myself reading for pleasure. I haven't done RELAXED reading for pleasure for dozens of years. I've stolen time to do it occasionally, but that wasn't relaxed. One of my favorite things to do when growing up was reading...many, many hours of reading--the feeling of escaping on a magic carpet, going to other times and worlds, melding minds with authors. So wonderful. I feel jealous of it now, like anything else I take on--teaching on site down here, other edit jobs...anything. I feel like I don't want anything to take that away.
And the waking up next to Brad. The watching his Westerns in the morning, his "stories" as he likes humorously to call them.
Cooking healthy stuff again after the moving & setting up was pretty much done. Petting the cats, sitting with a cat on my lap until my legs go numb. Ah, life!

Life--it's good. 

AND another cat???

Yes, our neighborhood has an outdoor stray cat who is everybody's cat--friendly, loves to be petted, is fat from all the feedings. He can't be indoors as he has a history of spraying. But he wasn't getting any vetting. So I took him to the vet for worming, to be sure he was neutered (yes), to check for fleas, for vaccinations, etc. Then I bought him an outdoor heated house (has a pad on the floor to plug in, waterproof, and about the size of him...but he does spend his nights in it with a feather toy I stole from the girls' toy box.)
So our LOVE can include another cat. Really really wasn't looking for another cat at this point, but it happened.

Sox--accurately named. 

Ariele & Sox on deck in sun.

Changes

We are who we have now--a new place, no people we really know here. We've both coalesced in this situation and found the weaknesses between us as well as the strengths. Hiding from the weaknesses in other relationships when need be during our 31 years of marriage...not a bad thing to have other recourse than each other. But now he's retired and we're far from others. Days when heavenly closeness and pleasure in our new situation and having so much time together can suddenly switch to "and that has always aggravated me...and NOW, argh!" Having lots of space helps. We both love all of the house but the upstairs kind of mine and the basement kind of his. Main floor is mostly where we are all the time. Neighbors have been pleasant.

Here's how we've altered the surroundings.

Main bedroom with lovely view out over the deck & wooded area.

Front door, living room, view into dining room

Fireplace DOES work and we love it!

Office area in dining room is convenient to kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom...and only 14 stairs from the laundry LOL

Another living room angle that shows the linen closet outside the main floor bathroom.

Kitchen

Deck, carport, shed, woods--deck just repainted

west side now has a hydrangea & hosta

main bedroom

upstairs landing

 

Upstairs guest room--has a tv, DVD player, video player, and Roku stick

walk-in closet in guest room has a window!

upstairs bathroom

East facing windows outside large "library" upstairs--facing walk-in closets in this shot.

west side of the "library"

Reading area

south end of library--projects

utility closets behind fireplace--warming shelves for linens!

Outside the front window now has a palm with acanthus bookends & dragon statuary in front, a flower berm with celosia, black-eyed susans, crocosmia, & wigelia, then a juniper with ferns on either side on the corner of the front yard. 

main floor bathroom

built-in on wall going into living room. Brad says for a phone.

Entry at bottom of stairs for the basement

small bedroom in basement has door, outlets, overhead light, 2 windows (7 in basement!)

holiday storage

Brad's performance area--The Cat Box

Brad's books, videos, weights

Music watching & game playing area

laundry area

Life goes on

Love and its many changes. 

A year of staging our house, selling in a crazy tuff market, buying in a place we think of as a vacation place (Aberdeen...gateway to the ocean but far enough away--20 miles--to avoid the tourist traps, excessive prices, and crowds), and re-planting in a new area with new house solutions to find.

All this to allow us to live. Seattle too expensive. Husband disabled & retiring at 57...before IRAs or retirement funds are available. How to live? How to retire?

Sell the house, buy cheaper, live off the difference. And, yes, a year later, that's what we're trying to do.

So many expenses to sell, buy, move, relocate. 

But we're declaring at least partial success, at least current accomplishment.

This is the new house.

This is the living room with, we find out now the nonfunctional fireplace...but so cute. Solutions--never use it, get a pellet stove insert which...hopefully won't wreck the look and sadly will cost $5000 or so. This fireplace was featured--without notice that it has too many problems to function. Inspector discretely didn't mention the fireplace. We thought this meant, all's fine. Hah!

This is the great kitchen--yes, some sticking drawers, but nice. 

This dining room is great--way big enough for a large computer desk and office area as well as dining room table, chairs, etc. 

This adorable upstairs is totally remade from this listing photo. It's filled with my books and projects, photos, portfolios, etc. Three walk-in closets, a large bedroom, and a half bath make this upper floor a haven of delight. Only drawback, their outdoor dog had brought his fleas, so the area and our only indoor cats (never a flea in their lives) are having to be treated. But this upstairs is a wonderland of space, big windows, nice lighting, tons of storage, nice colors, overhead fans and always enough heat rising from the lower floors. Delightful.

Yes, we're still in step.

Still figuring out how to live,

how to be happy,

how to be us.

Life is Amazing

Life is amazing. I just found out that after a year of not being able to use my blogs, on the same day I got back into them--November 27, 2017--a longtime student and friend died.
Kay Chelemedos was one of my longest running group members. First through North Seattle's Senior program at the Northgate location, then at Greenwood Senior Center for many, many years. She and her husband Peter Chelemedos have been more than my longest term couple members, more than delightful friends. I felt they were like semi-parents. Whenever they traveled, and it was often, they sent me postcards. I have one of the farthest northern spot in Europe that is inhabited, among others.
In another shocking coincidence, Kay had stimulated the initial gathering of pieces about friendship when she thanked me in class for allowing our group to be a friendship group as well as a writing group. I began gathering those stories in the 1990s but only completed and published the book a few days before Kay's death. I hope she heard it had finally been done. I had no idea, at that time, that she was close to passing. Yes, I'm not that surprised. Not surprised that I had some internal connection with Kay and Peter as they went through this hard transition. Not surprised that this connection brought me only something good. Fancifully, I can imagine Kay with her angel wings, smiling in approval at the book...which bears her photo and her words. Sigh!
Ariele M. Huff

This is a photo of Kay (in the black hat speaking to Martha Lindquist--also a long time member of groups with me).