The Elusive Grout Man
23/09/17 15:49
Where is the grout man? I was so looking forward to seeing the bathroom floor finished today. I don't think I misunderstood him when he told us yesterday that he was coming today to finish the job. You should have seen Nancy poring over the tiles that they planned to put down in our bathroom. This was yesterday of course when the tiles and the two men planning to put down the tiles arrived a little after 9am. She was hunched over on the garage floor taking the tiles out of the boxes tile by tile looking for patterns, fissures, anything that might catch the eye and detract from the overall look of the flooring once it was in place. God help us if she were to step out of the shower every day to a veritable Shroud of Turin looking up at her from the floor. If something was found she would want it to go under the vanity where it would never see the light of day. I wouldn't allow myself to obsess over such things but Nancy has no such compunctions so she went about her task with a sense of purpose disproportionate to the task at hand. No doubt the tile men had seen this sort of thing before and they were accommodating and agreeable insofar as we knew. Once the tiles were in place and the men long gone it was hard to know for sure whether they followed her explicit instructions. The patterns are, after all, a swirling and swishing of grays, blues, and whites, and all mottled and whirling. In a twisted psychopathic way it is whatever you want it to be. To those of us living in the real world, it is what it is.
I have to admit that any and all plans I had for writing my blog in the Airbnb never materialized. It's one of those things where you get to bring the things you need to do the things you want to do and maybe you end up doing them and maybe you don't. I've never had any issues writing while on the road staying in hotels and other short term stays while on vacation etc so not sure why I can't find my groove in this new place. I just know that it isn't going to happen so I'll have to do what I'm doing today which is to do it at home from time to time and that should work out okay. Sometimes I need events, feelings, sensations, worries, thoughts, and aspirations to stew for a while to the point where I can't contain them anymore and then it is time to get them down on "paper." That so-called news cycle is at times a 24-hour cycle and sometimes it is just longer for whatever reason.
I've been waiting for Evan to say something about the queen sized bed he has been sleeping in at the Airbnb. At home, he sleeps on a twin and has never had anything larger or longer. You might think that having exposure to something more generous might be more appealing to him to the point where it was worth mentioning. Crickets. Living in alternative housing forces all kinds of comparisons, some for the better and some for the worse.
For example, I like their silverware arrangement better than ours. There is more of it for one thing; there is a silverware drawer that seems to accommodate the silverware better than does ours; the windows and accompanying sills are newer and function better than some of ours; The house is roughly the same size as our home in terms of square footage but the feng shui in the Airbnb is undeniably better - you sense it the minute you walk in the front door; Their driveway only accommodates two cars so we're constantly jockeying around the vehicles to meet our demanding schedules; and while the Airbnb is clean as whistle and up to date in terms of all the niceties, there is a certain "on the cheap" feel to this place that makes one think that it serves more of a vacation home than someones primary residence. I doubt that it was built to be an Airbnb as Airbnb is new to the temporary housing market. Now that I think of it there is a mishmash of this kind of housing in this particular neighborhood and environs so we'll just leave it at that.
Believe it or not we're down to looking at various shades of honey colored wood for our front room flooring. I can't tell you how excited Nancy is about getting a hardwood floor put down. I haven't seen her this excited since I don't know when. We've been in and out of the flooring place more times than I can count. We're most definitely on a first name basis with the good folks at Portsmouth Quality Flooring. They see us coming and they just ignore us as we make our way to the back of the store where we restock our samples with different colors. I've talked about this kind of obsession so it shouldn't surprise anyone that Nancy is going to take her time to get it right. I should be thankful that someone is paying the kind of attention that this sort of task deserves especially in light of my previous comments about doing things on the cheap.
I'm that doting husband whose sole purpose is to tag along and carry the necessary materials from one place to another until the Mrs makes up her mind. In the drug trade, I would be referred to more affectionately as the "mule." I might need some good drugs before all is said and done so I'll hold my cards close to the vest lest they upset an applecart or two along the way. This is Nancy's time to shine and she seems to be in her element so that I like. It makes me wonder if her doing what she's been doing for the last number of years has all been a mistake. Maybe her real passion is, was, and should have been elsewhere. It's no time for recriminations. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing for better or worse. I'm sure she'll tell me when it's been for the worse.
I have to admit that any and all plans I had for writing my blog in the Airbnb never materialized. It's one of those things where you get to bring the things you need to do the things you want to do and maybe you end up doing them and maybe you don't. I've never had any issues writing while on the road staying in hotels and other short term stays while on vacation etc so not sure why I can't find my groove in this new place. I just know that it isn't going to happen so I'll have to do what I'm doing today which is to do it at home from time to time and that should work out okay. Sometimes I need events, feelings, sensations, worries, thoughts, and aspirations to stew for a while to the point where I can't contain them anymore and then it is time to get them down on "paper." That so-called news cycle is at times a 24-hour cycle and sometimes it is just longer for whatever reason.
I've been waiting for Evan to say something about the queen sized bed he has been sleeping in at the Airbnb. At home, he sleeps on a twin and has never had anything larger or longer. You might think that having exposure to something more generous might be more appealing to him to the point where it was worth mentioning. Crickets. Living in alternative housing forces all kinds of comparisons, some for the better and some for the worse.
For example, I like their silverware arrangement better than ours. There is more of it for one thing; there is a silverware drawer that seems to accommodate the silverware better than does ours; the windows and accompanying sills are newer and function better than some of ours; The house is roughly the same size as our home in terms of square footage but the feng shui in the Airbnb is undeniably better - you sense it the minute you walk in the front door; Their driveway only accommodates two cars so we're constantly jockeying around the vehicles to meet our demanding schedules; and while the Airbnb is clean as whistle and up to date in terms of all the niceties, there is a certain "on the cheap" feel to this place that makes one think that it serves more of a vacation home than someones primary residence. I doubt that it was built to be an Airbnb as Airbnb is new to the temporary housing market. Now that I think of it there is a mishmash of this kind of housing in this particular neighborhood and environs so we'll just leave it at that.
Believe it or not we're down to looking at various shades of honey colored wood for our front room flooring. I can't tell you how excited Nancy is about getting a hardwood floor put down. I haven't seen her this excited since I don't know when. We've been in and out of the flooring place more times than I can count. We're most definitely on a first name basis with the good folks at Portsmouth Quality Flooring. They see us coming and they just ignore us as we make our way to the back of the store where we restock our samples with different colors. I've talked about this kind of obsession so it shouldn't surprise anyone that Nancy is going to take her time to get it right. I should be thankful that someone is paying the kind of attention that this sort of task deserves especially in light of my previous comments about doing things on the cheap.
I'm that doting husband whose sole purpose is to tag along and carry the necessary materials from one place to another until the Mrs makes up her mind. In the drug trade, I would be referred to more affectionately as the "mule." I might need some good drugs before all is said and done so I'll hold my cards close to the vest lest they upset an applecart or two along the way. This is Nancy's time to shine and she seems to be in her element so that I like. It makes me wonder if her doing what she's been doing for the last number of years has all been a mistake. Maybe her real passion is, was, and should have been elsewhere. It's no time for recriminations. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing for better or worse. I'm sure she'll tell me when it's been for the worse.