Reconciliation with the House
Jan. 27th, 2008 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perzephone
Well, in keeping with my journalistic standards - it's raining :D
Me, Rob & this house have had an ongoing war since we've moved in here. We don't like it & it doesn't like us. But in light of Rob's new quest for spirituality, and the possibility of me wanting to stick w/the County if I actually pass my background check, we're thinking of ways to try and reconcile our relationship with the house.
Everything is always based on so many ifs though.
If I do end up at the County for about a year, the m.i.l. might reconsider selling us this house, getting us out from under her thumb. Ownership leads to comfort and greater security. We would know we were staying and the house would know we were staying.
We haven't seen a scorpion for a year now. We quit spraying for the food bugs & we haven't had plants in the yard (other than weeds) for almost three years now.
So I'm thinking maybe it's time to start investing in a container garden. Even if it's just a lemon tree or two. I'd also like to do some things in the back yard, like Cretan-Minoan-style tilework or murals on the pure white walls. And a stone labyrinth on the ground. I can see stylized dolphins & octopi and turquoise blue waves back there quite easily. Any painting would have to be if we owned the place, but I could put a couple of outdoor braziers for when it's not too windy, or one of those earthenware chimneys. And a birdbath. And bird feeders. I don't care if all we get is pigeons & doves.
I also need to thoroughly top-to-bottom clean this place, which beginning Monday, means a room a day til it's done. Dusting, wiping off counters, pulling the fridge out from the wall, everything. I'd start tomorrow but I work. I should have started the week before last but I didn't have the whole County job thing looming over my head at that point.
And then I need to cleanse the house. Sage and salt water. Offerings to the lares and the household deities. I told Eleggua and Santa Muerte that if they got me through the County's door I would keep them in candy, candles, cigar and tequila for the rest of their lives. In retrospect, I should have said 'the rest of my life'. I am not on familiar enough terms with Santa Muerte to threaten her by saying, "If you don't get me this job with the County I will smash you on the garage floor and sweep you out into the gutter!" If I threaten Eleggua (which I have been known to do on occasion, and it makes Bob laugh - but Eleggua & Bob fuck with each other anyway) he just puffs up & says, "I'm made of concrete, I'd like to see you try!" If I could draw I could make a whole comic strip about the misadventures of Coyote Bob & Eleggua. Eleggua forgets, but I left his predecessor on the bank of a muddy canal in Metairie. (If a concrete head could flip someone off, I'd be so flipped off right now.)
We need to start doing more celebratory seasonal things again. I've neglected the holidays since I stopped being so Wiccan all those years ago, and Rob hasn't cared one way or the other, but there are things we can do to celebrate yearly changes without whipping out the athame.
We need to open the curtains more during the day when we're actually up. We need to play more music in this house - more background music, less background t.v. And we need a fountain or fish tank... something watery, while still being low maintenance.
But for now, I need to go to bed. While it's still raining.
Me, Rob & this house have had an ongoing war since we've moved in here. We don't like it & it doesn't like us. But in light of Rob's new quest for spirituality, and the possibility of me wanting to stick w/the County if I actually pass my background check, we're thinking of ways to try and reconcile our relationship with the house.
Everything is always based on so many ifs though.
If I do end up at the County for about a year, the m.i.l. might reconsider selling us this house, getting us out from under her thumb. Ownership leads to comfort and greater security. We would know we were staying and the house would know we were staying.
We haven't seen a scorpion for a year now. We quit spraying for the food bugs & we haven't had plants in the yard (other than weeds) for almost three years now.
So I'm thinking maybe it's time to start investing in a container garden. Even if it's just a lemon tree or two. I'd also like to do some things in the back yard, like Cretan-Minoan-style tilework or murals on the pure white walls. And a stone labyrinth on the ground. I can see stylized dolphins & octopi and turquoise blue waves back there quite easily. Any painting would have to be if we owned the place, but I could put a couple of outdoor braziers for when it's not too windy, or one of those earthenware chimneys. And a birdbath. And bird feeders. I don't care if all we get is pigeons & doves.
I also need to thoroughly top-to-bottom clean this place, which beginning Monday, means a room a day til it's done. Dusting, wiping off counters, pulling the fridge out from the wall, everything. I'd start tomorrow but I work. I should have started the week before last but I didn't have the whole County job thing looming over my head at that point.
And then I need to cleanse the house. Sage and salt water. Offerings to the lares and the household deities. I told Eleggua and Santa Muerte that if they got me through the County's door I would keep them in candy, candles, cigar and tequila for the rest of their lives. In retrospect, I should have said 'the rest of my life'. I am not on familiar enough terms with Santa Muerte to threaten her by saying, "If you don't get me this job with the County I will smash you on the garage floor and sweep you out into the gutter!" If I threaten Eleggua (which I have been known to do on occasion, and it makes Bob laugh - but Eleggua & Bob fuck with each other anyway) he just puffs up & says, "I'm made of concrete, I'd like to see you try!" If I could draw I could make a whole comic strip about the misadventures of Coyote Bob & Eleggua. Eleggua forgets, but I left his predecessor on the bank of a muddy canal in Metairie. (If a concrete head could flip someone off, I'd be so flipped off right now.)
We need to start doing more celebratory seasonal things again. I've neglected the holidays since I stopped being so Wiccan all those years ago, and Rob hasn't cared one way or the other, but there are things we can do to celebrate yearly changes without whipping out the athame.
We need to open the curtains more during the day when we're actually up. We need to play more music in this house - more background music, less background t.v. And we need a fountain or fish tank... something watery, while still being low maintenance.
But for now, I need to go to bed. While it's still raining.
