The day was OK. The day was better. The dawn was beautiful. There was a flaw in the day. At 2 p.m., the guy who did the floor refinishing was supposed to come back to the house and fix some mistakes. They hadn’t realized that our upstairs loft has no subfloors, so when they coated … read more One perfect thing
Author: Lisa
Before dawn
The day started out pretty well, even though it began with less than six hours of sleep, at 4:40 a.m. I got up at 5:30 and did all the good-girl things first: I wrote, I ate breakfast, I took time to admire the beautiful sky and its hazy crescent moon. I made a huge effort … read more Before dawn
Unchanged
After all I went through with this house, and despite all the new parts to it, much is the same – the architecture, the possessions, the view. The great room isn’t quite the same – half the books are gone from the shelves. The wall hangings are still in a box. The stained glass lamp … read more Unchanged
Claims on me
It’s a rather long list. Coffee table, stained glass lamp, two storage bins, Turkish stone vase, Baluch tapestries, stoneware crock and mixing bowls, fireplace, patio table, cantina lights, solar driveway lights, window blind … Twenty items, all told, that were damaged or destroyed in the past six months – when the tree fell, during house … read more Claims on me
Late-night cleansing
It’s the day before Moving Day, when all our belongings will be moved back into our rebuilt house. The last interior work is being completed; the workers were delayed by snow, which made it impossible to drive to our house for four days. The empty house is filthy. When I walked in, the hired cleaner, David, … read more Late-night cleansing
Bits of my life
As I continued today to sort paperwork, I fought a particular sadness that always fills me when I dredge through the past. Whether it’s reading old journals, shredding financial records, or just trawling through a pile of memorabilia that I’ve collected, I end up feeling a bit nauseated and sometimes depressed. It isn’t that the memories are bad, … read more Bits of my life
Attention to details
I’d put it off as long as I could, but today I had to face the file folders in my office. I hadn’t done a thorough sorting of office paperwork in maybe four years – not the superficial kind of sorting where you are only stuffing more paper into existing files and tossing the junk … read more Attention to details
Lost in the snow
Nothing around me is familiar. Only one house is visible, far in the distance. The street I crossed a few minutes before was unmarked. I followed an old road bed up into the woods until it stopped dead. Nothing now but snow, trees, shadows, and silence. A perfect afternoon to be lost. Though the temperature was … read more Lost in the snow
Snow prep
As I finished my workout around noon today, Tina came into the locker room to clean up. “We’re closing. We won’t open again until Tuesday,” she said. That’s how it goes in the mountains. When we get a forecast of snow followed by three days of freezing temperatures, we know that we’ll be stranded at … read more Snow prep
Unframed
I detest frames, and they detest me. Whenever I try to frame my art, the universe pushes back, hard. This morning I wasted more than half an hour trying to convert a frame with a sawtooth hanger into one with eye screws and wire. I must do this because it is a rule of display for … read more Unframed