Monday, July 11, 2016

Who sleeps there?

Our stay in the little bungalow made available to us has been a bit more checkered than expected. Initially, we were told that the tenant of a basement apartment was away and we would have the use of that apartment while she was gone, Then we got an email saying that the tenant was not comfortable with that, but we would have the use of a basement twin bedroom and the use of the upstairs while the owner was away for a few days. When John and I arrived, we were surprised to find the basement tenant still at home. She was kind enough to show us around, then disappeared. Soon, Rob's friend, Becky, showed up and gave us a full briefing. John decided a lovely, upstairs, closed-in porch looked great, lots of windows and fresh air, and he settled in there, while I moved into the downstairs bedroom. It turned out that I was allergic to something in that room, and was awake much of the night and miserable. It might have been the duvet, which might have been down-filled, and which i relegated to the closet during the night. But I also suspected mold. 

Oh, and both John and I were visited by raccoons during the night. One was nosing its way into my window (which is right at ground level) so I had to close it, and John had the whole family, including four cubs, piled up at his porch screen door! 

So last night, I decided to change venues. The porch had a very long bench covered with cushions. John only needed some of them for his bed, so I used the extras to make a bed in the living room. No duvet and no mold. 

The downstairs bed I used the first night and abandoned the second.  

My new bed created on cushions in the living room

That, however, was not the end of the story. Not long after I settled in, I got a text from Rob - his friend Becky had texted him that the owners daughter, who lives in Nederland, might have to evacuate her home because of the Nederland forest fire, and she and her husband could be coming in during the night to sleep in the master bedroom! And a bit after that, John decided that the porch was just too hot (it got into the 90's during the day) and he was moving downstairs. So there I was, wondering what the owners' daughter would think if she came in and found this strange man sleeping on the living-room floor! I began to rehearse in my mind just how I would handle that. Fortunately, I went to sleep, but was wide awake at 4:30am. Still uncomfortable with my location, I decided to get up and put the living-room back into good order and move to the porch, which was by now delightfully cool. I wasn't as quiet as I intended to be, and John heard some thumps, and came up to see if his dad was ok. I explained what I was up to, hope he was able to go back to sleep, and I am now happily ensconced on the porch. 

   The view from where I am lying now. 

If the daughter and her husband do have to evacuate their home and move in, they will be happy to know that we will not be spending another night here. With all the stress of being evacuees, they don't need to be dealing with strangers. I don't know what I would have done if I had decided to stay here another week, which I was seriously thinking of doing. But it will all work out. 

The restored living-room, a lovely room



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