I am sitting on the bed in our spare bedroom in Texas, where I’ve been working for the past three hours with students over the telephone. My butt is a bit tired at this point and I’m ready to eat something besides the two pimento cheese sandwiches I’ve had today, plus one peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. Not exactly the best nutrition.
The good news is that with the help of Ray and our friend, Darrah Dunn, our house here is feeling exceedingly clean and better put together than when we arrived. Darrah re-hung a big painting that had slipped off the wall and repaired the gold gilded frame that had been damaged. He also hung a carved wooden lion’s head in the dining room, reframed and rehung a painting of what looks like a Russian rabbi and then re-upholstered four mid-century chairs in a 50s orange fabric that Ray found.
The house was dusty but not dirty so the cleaning process wasn’t too tough. Now every surface is clean and the whole place feels as if people love it, which we all do. All three of us had a major hand in bringing this old Victorian back to life since it was in major disrepair when Ray and I bought it. Darrah, under Ray’s direction, has literally had his hands in the restoration of every room in this house and has not only repaired what was broken but also created what was never there in the first place. We have all done more work than can ever be adequately described related to this place and as a result, the love runs deep. Today, while we were all bustling around, it felt both natural and right to be here continuing to maintain the beauty of one of few Queen Anne Victorians left standing in Sherman.
After cleaning for several hours, I took a 2-hour nap so I could work from 5 – 9 pm with my students. Yes, a long day, but one that is feeling exceedingly satisfying since I had both physical and mental work over the course of this day. A little more food variety would have been nice, but we can make that happen tomorrow. One of my neighbors will be coming over then with the bounty from her garden. It’s hard to say what could be better than that.
I have been out of the loop lately with all of our traveling and wedding celebrating, but, hopefully, I’m back on track now. That is my goal, at least. I feel more grounded when I write every day so here’s to getting back into the writing routine.
With that in mind, I look forward to checking back in with you tomorrow.
Until then, have a lovely and restful evening.
That’s the Russian rabbi on the left before reframing
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