Journal Entry #3, 5/16/2020
I’ve missed a few days of entries. We were preparing to move from Madison to Appleton, and while I couldn’t physically participate in the preparation, I was distracted.
We’re now in the new house, sort of. I have my recliner, which is also my temporary bed, my oxygen supplies, and my laptop. I don’t have a standard internet connection yet (later today), so I’m using my phone as a hotspot. My wife and two of our daughters will move this evening from their apartment in Appleton, when the movers arrive to do the heavy lifting. They leased the apartment for six months, since my wife worked in Appleton; they lived there four days a week, returning to Madison on Fridays.
The contents in our Madison house are scheduled to be in motion toward the end of the month. The coronavirus rampage makes even an ordinary household move a little more difficult, especially since I’m in a pandemic high-risk category. Once the movers arrive, I will lock myself away in my room until they leave (when they place furniture in my room, I’ll sit on the back patio; a door from my room opens to it).
I like the new house. I saw it for the first time (except for pictures) Friday afternoon, after the closing; my wife did the viewing. It’s a four-bedroom, three bath ranch, with a finished basement (washer/dryer on the main level). Three features stand out, at least for me: a privacy fenced backyard with extensive gardens, a screened-in back porch, and my bedroom/office, which has floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, offering a panoramic view of the gardens. The photo below shows part of my view (there are many garden beds not shown); you can see the edge of the screened-in porch on the right.
The only drawback is that, aside from a wall-sized bookcase (only five shelves tall, but long; it’s the largest piece of furniture we own, and harder to move than our piano), the bulk of my library will be downstairs. A minor, but not insignificant, detail, because stairs and I are not really on good terms. I can navigate them, but it requires of me a Necomen Atmospheric Steam Engine expenditure of air and energy, especially the return trip. It goes without saying (but to eliminate uncertainty, I’ll say it anyway) that my John Milton collection will be housed on the “the empyrean domain where human will and God’s will became as one,” that is to say, on the main level. (I know, I know: That’s Dante’s Paradiso, not Milton, but that’s what came to mind.)
I am, nonetheless, quite happy with the move.
We found the house in an interesting way. In late summer, my wife attended a training seminar, and later she provided counseling services at a Ready Reserve pre-deployment meeting, both near Appleton. Rather than staying in a hotel, she used an AirBnB. She thought the house was nice, and she found the hosts, an older couple, gracious.
Fast forward a few months, when we’re looking for a house in Appleton. It was (and still is) a seller’s market; within hours of a property listing, the sellers received multiple offers, and we were outbid several times. One morning, my wife was looking at the “For Sale by Owner” listings and saw … the Airbnb house, which had been posted only a half hour earlier.
She called the owners and reminded them that she had been a guest. They remembered her and agreed to a showing that afternoon. She contacted our realtor (a great guy) and walked through the house (parts of which she hadn’t seen); we made a bid an hour later, which was accepted the next morning.
Serendipity is your friend.
