Thoughts on Moving

First, I didn’t feel like writing because I didn’t feel well. Then, there wasn’t time to write because of the distractions with moving. And then at the old house came the power outage, which took our internet connection down for good, and at the new house, the mobile company’s missed appointment, which set our phone and internet service back a week. On some level, I am comforted by the fact that customer service is bad everywhere in the world.

I wrote that last paragraph on Thursday, the day before we left the previous house. It was not a sad departure. I had stayed there alone on Thursday night. It was the longest night of my life in the spookiest house on earth. I completely understood why Paul had slept at his parents’ home when both Nathalie and I were gone for a week. It was unsettling…and I’m not one to be frightened easily. I think I fell asleep around 2 a.m. Not sure.

Although it was possible to see it, I was in a state by the time Nathalie and the kids showed up the next day for the inspection by the real estate agent. It was after lunch and felt as though they had abandoned us. As it turned out, they were having their own Private Idaho at the new house: no electricity because the power outages were lasting all day, and the new generator was not working. The night before, breathlessly hot. had been without air conditioning and they were late because nobody had slept until the power came back on at 6 a.m., just in time for everyone to be able to get ready for the day.

Well, the power problems have continued. The generator was repaired later on Friday and worked for a whole hour that evening. We had a second sleepless night. The washing machine does not work. The toilet in my bathroom is broken. The air does not move in this house at all, probably because of the height of the wall that surrounds it. The house is prettier. It’s more modern. But there are some challenges.

Next day…it’s nearly 9 pm. The generator guy arrived at 7 pm to repair the big yellow machine…for the third time. He was disbelieving that it didn’t work until he fussed with it, turned it on and let it run for an hour, at which point, it shut off automatically, as it has the last two times it was used. He scratched his head, said he hadn’t ever seen a generator do that, and set out to repair the problem. Now it’s 9 pm and he’s still here. Guess that means that he doesn’t know how to fix it.

Power just went out. Lucky us because the generator guy is still here. Let him spend the night. Let him stand in the hallway with a big fan and keep us cool.

The other new guy arrived this afternoon. Paul brought the male sheep to live here. I guess there’s no room for newborns in the pen. And Leland or Daredevil or Dominic…I can’t remember what the sheep’s name is…ahh…Daniel. He seems to not have an off button when it comes to sex. All six females with whom he WAS living are currently pregnant. He’s much more prolific than the bunnies, who should have been bearing “clutches” [I think that’s what a bunch of rabbits is called] every 39 days. But we haven’t had one baby rabbit and just before we moved, we found out why. Paul inadvertently bought four males. They’re all the time humping each other, but they aren’t making babies.

We try not to tease Paul too much about his sexing expertise. He seems to have gotten it right with the chickens, but hey…how can you possibly go wrong with a rooster.