The Poet Buys a Stove and Makes a Plan

I still have not done any writing in the new house--or any creating of any kind, except for creating order out of chaos.  I've put away seemingly endless boxes and bags of possessions.  I've sorted the possessions left behind at the old house.  I have a closet full of boxed stuff to be given away or sold at a yard sale.  At least with it in the closet, we can hopefully get the house on the market soon.

We were going to have a yard sale this past Saturday morning, until I decided I just couldn't manage that.  Thank goodness we made that decision.  Saturday was another day of torrential rain.  Of course, torrential rain was nowhere in the forecast.

So, I've been sorting and boxing and transporting (to the new house or to the yard sale closet).  My writing space will be wonderful very soon.  My goal is to be writing in it as August begins.

The other thing we did this week-end was to buy a stove.  You may or may not remember that we bought a house that the former owner was in the process of remodeling.  There wasn't much in the way of a kitchen, although the owner had a decent refrigerator with an even nicer refrigerator on order--but no stove.

I did some research and determined that the stove we wanted was at Lowe's.  My spouse and I had several times when we had planned to go get it--and then, he'd get another assignment in his capacity as a consultant.  The consultant's life down here is similar to a freelancer's life, so I told him to go ahead and take the work, since we're never sure when it's coming.  Make money while you can, I said.

You're probably wondering why I didn't just march off and buy the stove myself.  I really wanted us both to do it.  He does more cooking than I do these days.  We were deliberating between black and stainless.  And I wasn't in a huge hurry to spend the chunk of money a stove requires.

Finally, on Sunday, we made it to Lowe's.  The stove I'd chosen wasn't there, but a better version was there for only $40 more.  They didn't have any in stock, but I got the floor model for 10% off.  And I got a 6 months same as cash deal.*  Hopefully, by the end of January, the old house will be sold.  If not sold, it will be rented.  And I can pay for the stove, which frees up resources for other projects now--at some point, I'll write about the cottage in the back yard, but not now.  I don't want to risk getting overwhelmed.

So, although I haven't done much writing in the past few weeks, the puzzle pieces are coming together.  And it's not like I've done nothing.  I've done a blog piece for the Living Lutheran site.  I've continued to do some blogging.

I expect this move will be the last one we make until we go to the old folks' home, so hopefully, my writing life won't experience this kind of disruption again.  Of course, there will be other disruptions.  The important thing is to continue to plan for the time when the chaos recedes.

And I have plans!

*The stove was supposed to be delivered yesterday.  When I got home, I was surprised to find the wrong stove--how can this happen?  More phone calls, more weeping, more waiting.  This moving experience has been quite the combination of wonderful customer service and horrible customer service.