warwick
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The Backyard
You are viewing stuff tagged with warwick.
The lid of the seventy year old stove creaked reluctantly as I pushed it up and ducked my head under. Dust and the smell of distant eggshells wafted up as I relit the stove with the long reach matches from our landlord Mary Alice. A few years ago, when we woke up to the unpleasant smell for almost a week straight, we had learned the pilots tended to get blown out by gentle breezes. Now, this little piece of knowledge was to get filed in the “no longer useful” category in my brain, along with bits like how to keep the sink and tub drains draining (never use without at least one trap), when to change the screens out for the storm windows (earlier than you think; the days quickly get cold), how to avoid the water hammer (turn the water on more than you think you need), how much to turn down the heat (a Pendleton and a down comforter were musts), how to stay cool when the power went out in the summertime (good luck… meditation?), the trick to shutting the front door (humidity dependent), which outlets dropped cord prongs from them like leaves in fall, and which appliances tripped the breaker if used in concert.
3 December, 2013
Dear baby,
Today we found out that you are our baby. We love you already. Your mama went to the doctor’s office and they took your first picture. You are very small right now, just the length of a grain of rice — a “basmati grain of rice,” your mom said. I hope that someday you might read what I am writing and it might give you some insight into that mysterious time when your parents were young and not even five years into their marriage. We love one another so so much, and we want you to be in our family.
We’re thinking about moving houses soon. It’s been a great run at our little duplex spot here on Warwick in Minneapolis, but we moved here out of necessity back when I was in school. Five very short years later and we’ve outgrown the space. I’ll have quite a bit to say about it when we actually move, I really enjoyed my Cretin retrospective, and I think I’ll enjoy writing a Warwick one, too.
Sometimes you go into to work and it turns out you didn’t work that day so you scoot back home and open the windows to let the cool fall air in and crawl into bed next to your lovely wife and your fuzzy little orange cat keeps watch out the window and the light gently rises over the hill on which you live and a thought drifts lazily up from your subconscious, through your limbic systems, past your prefrontal cortex, right out through the crown of your head: life is perfect.
Home is a five minute bike ride from school. I’ve increased my efficiency in clinic, freeing up time after my morning appointment. These two facts mean I get to come home and see my wife for lunch. I love that a lot.
Though Mykala is away right now, I can sit here at home, on a warm summer afternoon, and enjoy the view onto our tree-lined patio.
I can’t remember where we were leaving to, or if we were arriving from somewhere, but I thought it might be good idea to get a nice portrait of us in front of our first house (duplex). You can see that I am holding the remote to the camera in my right hand. I am holding the love of my life in my left.
Spring came earlier in 2010; I’m finally getting around to uploading the pictures I took from then.
A few days ago, they had some record cold up in northern Minnesota. In late April — coldest day on record — something like 28°F for the high. This morning, I was taking out the trash (had to get the place looking presentable for our plumber visit), and it was SNOWING! On May 2nd!