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Black Metal Trundle
I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.
-- Margaret Thatcher
Sunday, October 3, 1999
One year ago: Baby Shower
Two years ago: Sick and Twisted
I spent Friday and Saturday nights in Bellingham, at Jack's house, then drove home this morning.
A good thing: in his new house, Jack had put his old bed in the second bedroom, where his daughter is sleeping now, and purchased the frame for a trundle bed, and two twin mattresses. That way he'll have more room in his bedroom/office when I'm not there, but we'll be comfortable when I am there. He didn't buy a daybed (for the trundle bed to hide under) when we did these purchases, because the only one they had at United Furniture Warehouse that he liked was out of stock. He also had an idea of constructing a day-bed frame out of logs.
But when I spoke in a plaintive tone about how we'd improved our comfort level at my place, but had ended up less comfortable at his new house (since we were still sleeping on mattresses on the floor), we first went to look at a wooden daybed frame at a consigment store that Jack had been thinking of buying, then trekked back to UFW to check on the first daybed Jack had seen. The wooden frame would have been possible, but it did have heart-shaped cutouts in the wood, which seemed too girly to Jack. It wobbled a bit, also.
We were successful! We loaded the bed parts in the back of the van. I was a bit nervous on the ride back -- a sudden stop and the flat spring assembly might have decapitated us! We got the parts upstairs and assembled the bed. (This isn't the first time we've worked together on a project like this.) The cramped quarters in Jack's bedroom made the job a little difficult, but we got the thing put together and it worked. Jack took some extra pains to make the heights match up for the daybed and trundle bed, so there will be more of a feeling of us sleeping together.
I was especially pleased when, after one of the locking nuts necessary to the bed assembly had gone missing and refused to be found, I had the idea of opening up the toolcase that held Jack's wrenches and socket set. This toolcase is pretty useless for actually organizing the tools. In fact, I think it's a very poor design! You carefully place all the sockets, wrenches, and drivers in their designated places, then close the two sides like a suitcase. The tools immediately all fall out of their designated places. Sheesh! Anyway, afte we'd scanned the floor, looked behind the whiteboard that was leaning against the wall, and otherwise searched around, I opened the case and found it amongst the sockets, and did the happy dance.
The bed frame is simple, black textured metal pipes. Very cool and techno, I think!
* * * * * * * *
Jack's 15-year-old daughter A---- is back home with him again. It turned out that I hardly saw her in the thirty six hours I spent there, because each time she was supposed to come home, she didn't -- not without being hours and hours late. Friday night she didn't come home until two thirty in the morning (her curfew was ten pm!), and it turned out that she had lied about the circumstances of the evening. Saturday she was supposed to be home by five pm (she'd been in detention during the morning for skipping school) and she didn't call until after midnight. This whole thing is incredibly wearing and saddening for Jack. I feel real resentment and anger on his behalf! Plus I trust her so little that I went downstairs early Saturday morning to get my purse -- I considered it a real possibility that she might help herself to cash if she saw it there. I don't know how long this situation will go on. It's frustrating that there isn't anything I can do to help, except to be supportive for Jack. Since A---- hasn't really done anything to me, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to open up a can of w.... oh, well.
* * * * * * * *
A good thing: Jack doesn't care for Beavis and Butthead, or so he thought! But he watched Beavis and Butthead Do America with me Saturday evening, and laughed a lot! I don't think he's changed his mind, but he had a good time while it was on, and that pleased me.
I'm also glad that Jack has a good recliner now (from Costco, natch!). I convinced him to take a nap there Saturday afternoon, after we'd run around on errands Saturday morning. I sat beside him on a stacking chair and with my feet propped up on the ugliest "Spanish" style trunk I've ever seen -- my butt went completely numb -- next purchase will be a couch, I hope. As I was saying, I sat beside him and read the new Greg Bear novel, Darwin's Radio. It's really good and suspenseful, but also on the creepy/gross side. When Jack felt cold, I went and got him the sleeping bag I'd been using as a blanket. (Also needed for living room, a nice afghan or coverlet.)
Jack apologized for not doing anything "fun" with me this weekend. But I don't go to see him to be entertained, or wined and dined; I want to be with him! And that means taking the tough times with the good times.
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This month's design is based on the ArborisFolium font (shareware by Andrew D. Taylor), which I played around with in Microsoft Image composer. The text is Rosalinde, from the Scriptorium.
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