Grump Central Archive: Week of 17 November 2019
Saturday, 23 November 2019
Ah, fire. With eternal gratitude to Adam, my neighbor, who brought the stove up from the street to the house, and Cody, my ever-faithful assistant, who helped muscle the stove down two flights of stairs and into place. As he said, I now have a home.
Friday, 22 November 2019
My wood stove arrives today. But instead of being excited, I'm in high anxiety mode: it's being delivered in a great big tractor-trailer, so they can't make it up the driveway. Worse, the truck has no lift gate. So, the challenge I face is offloading a 485-pound crate from the truck, and getting it up the half-mile driveway to the house. Fortunately I have an extremely helpful neighbor with whom I've become friends and whose father owns a front loader. Still, it was a sleepless night for me as I fretted over bringing all of the puzzle pieces together and making it work, especially since there's a good chance of rain today. In other (old) news, it's a sad anniversary today: this day in 2016, work on the house officially came to a halt.
Thursday, 21 November 2019
The last week has been awful, and yesterday was my lowest day. Ever. A terrifyingly black, desolate place full of immobilizing fear, of sobbing, of problems with no possible solutions, of anxiety the likes of which I've never known. I was convinced this had to be rock bottom, although I've known for a long time that "rock bottom" has always been some random point on a continuous downward slope, so there's no knowing how much worse things might get. I really do not want to find out, but I have no choice—time's arrow is always forward, and right now I can't see a way out of this pit. So I did the only thing that's ever really helped me keep my shit together: I spent time with my cats. I so envy their simple, carefree lives. Their move-in date is 30 November, TCO or no.
Wednesday, 20 November 2019
My wood stove shipped yesterday. No clue when it'll arrive—might be tomorrow, might be Friday. If the latter, it'll be tough scheduling the helpers who have volunteered to move it inside, as tomorrow was their free day. Well, whatever—we'll figure it out...
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
My soul is empty right now. I've nothing to say.
Monday, 18 November 2019
Hey, I'm building a coffee table. Kinda fun.
Sunday, 17 November 2019
Yesterday was spent (mentally) offline. Did nothing constructive except take a shower and check for leaks; happy to report there were none. That is all.