There's Something Healthy About a Big Ugly House!

In its day it was majestic.  A large colonial white home with 9 black shuttered windows on each face, two fireplaces holding the walls together, and a brick stoop providing two directions for entry.  Today, if you follow the private lane flanked with up-kept homes, deep swimming pools and modern cars to the end you will find a large boxy green shadow of what we are only left to imagine it was.  Our imaginations have a sense of humor.

There is a 19-forever-ago Cadillac Eldorado parked in the front yard and its competitor, a diesel Mercedes likely from the same decade, parked in the back (with a three car garage and a driveway fit for a Quinceanera, I'm surprised they missed their marks).  A 30 foot shed also resides on the property; its roof resides on the overflowing contents within.  Posts mark the border of what was once a kitchen garden and vines are digesting what was once a privacy fence.  Even the trees look like they are ignoring the house, for if they haven't been reduced to stumps they are leaning away as if seeking life from all other dwellings. But, in its day it was Majestic.

We intend to live there.  There is something beautifully healthy about a big ugly house.  Looking forward to bringing it back to life has taken our minds out of our current place and into our future home.  If you recall Mrs. Potts singing her directory to the dishes to clean the castle before dinner you'll have a good idea what we sound like here.  Our song has 'rid the termites' and 'install a heater', 'fix the plumbing' and 'order a dumpster' in the lyrics, but we are singing none the less.  Along with a door that must become a window and two garages of 'stuff' to redirect, it does come with a riding lawn mower (it is about the silver lining, after all...  ).

While imagining breakfast at the island and evenings around the fireplace, we are envisioning what will grow there.  Veggies, fruits and flowers for sure, but more than that I hope.  Our son will walk his first girlfriend home from school.  Our daughters will likely be kissed on the stoop.  My parents will take to rocking in patio chairs on warm evenings and cool mornings while smelling the brackish river water and listening to sneaky teenage preambles.  Will there be chickens pecking the ground?  Will we have bird feeders and bat houses and opossum traps?  Will we plant flowers in the Eldorado or just around the wheels?  A sense of humor indeed.

Vitamins do not live in this post, dear reader, nor do minerals or proteins or examples of sugar by grams, but something as important yet much less tangible is present: joy.  In place of food and water vitamins, the soul can be fed with holding onto joy or creating something joyous.  Because of my healthy imagination and an Eldorado as a guard dog, my soul, dear reader, is stuffed!  I am off to sing my song.... "Sweep the Chimneys!"~"Hang the Stormers."~"Burn the wood pile!"~"Swing the Hammers." "Fix the vent hood."~"Replace the toilets."~"Bring on the movers." Before I go, as always, remember to wash your hands.

Anna~