Today was moving day, and as usual with these things it came down to the wire, with added pressure of trying to make the 12:20 Bremerton Ferry on time. We spent all New Year's Eve packing and cleaning, went to bed at 11:55, fell asleep to fireworks and revelry in the streets. The cats woke us by walking on our heads right on schedule at 7:30 and the morning was the last sprint to the finish of what has been a months long marathon going back and forth between Kitsap and Seattle. It was a relief watching the city recede on a one-way ticket with no hard deadline for return.
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Departing by sea is the nicest way to leave Seattle.
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I packed the truck bed tight as grains in a salt shaker, and when the last stray boot and bag was compressed into place, I doublechecked that the canopy hatch would stay latched against the outward pressure. Then I stacked up the backseat like a bricklayer all the way to the ceiling, bucket seats scooched up a couple of clicks to make use of every inch. Strapped a mattress and bundles of willow sticks to the rack, coaxed the kitties into their carrier, and we were off, slow and overloaded as the Joads, brimming with optimism. Had to detour twice (car crash and football game) on the short drive to the downtown ferry terminal but still made it with a few minutes to spare.
Unloaded quickly, belonging spewing all over like a can of snakes. This hodge-podge of stuff is what I call a yard sale:
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This is just a portion of what fits in a '96 Tacoma SR5. (Shovel and linoleum not included.)
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We have no kitchen. I took it down to the studs but delivery of subfloor and insulation is already two weeks late, so everything is delayed, which is sort of the default setting for construction projects. But I at least wanted us to have a fridge, so last time I was here I built an off-road dolly out of 6" heavy duty casters and scraps of very hard reclaimed 2x6's (old and dense, back when wood was wood, tight-grained and slow-grown). To get to house from wood shop where I stored the free fridge we got through a friend, we had to shove and jostle the shiny beast over a hundred feet of uneven ground but it all went to plan. It might not look like luxury sitting in the cold dark attached garage, but it sure beats living out of a cooler.
But nothing beats cats. Sunny and Patchouli have been here before but they were thrilled by the addition of a 6' blue wooden stepladder and a rope-wrapped PVC scratching post shaped like a cactus--both free, of course--and chased each other up and down one, then the other. But nothing attracts cats like a bag, so unpacking ground to a temporary halt when they commandeered our luggage.
I'm going to try to keep this blog from becoming about cats, but the fact is we're doing all this for them.
p.s. We wanted to take a quiet moment and appreciate nature's grandeur, so we walked to the water and got to chatting with some neighbors. That's more random social interaction with strangers than I get in the city. My scheme to become a hermit is already backfiring.
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