It was a gorgeous morning, so Steve and I slipped the leash took the day off. Part of it was spent house-looking in Old Orchard Beach, where we were. . .dismayed to find that a liveable (and affordable!) house was located in a tangled warren of houses connected by thin alleyways that would become virtually impassable in winter. There was not only no place to put the snow, there wasn’t sufficient room to allow a town plow through. The Forester — not a large car by any means — was feeling a bit crowded.
Damn.
There’s quite a nice house in town which is also affordable, and on a nice street largely inhabited by college professors and solid career people. It has a garage and a sun porch and a front porch and is a Perfectly Nice House, really, excepting it’s two hours away from the ocean.
I may need to give the whole live-at-the-ocean thing a miss this lifetime.
This small blight upon the day aside, we had a lovely time. I rode a bike for the first time in mumbletymumble years and managed not to fall over and kill myself. It’s true what they say — you never forget! Now, I want a bike of my own. For when we move to the city and it would actually be possible to bike without getting run over by a log truck.
There was also ice cream on the day — and we purchased ceiling! fans! that mount flush to the ceiling, so I will be able to walk under them without being decapitated! What an age we live in. My mission tomorrow is to call the electrician and make a date to have him stop by and install one of these lovely things in the kitchen and another in the bedroom.
I’m already regretting not having bought a third, to install in my office, but the credit card was already staggering under the double-whammy.
Tomorrow, it’s back to work. Good thing, too, since it’s supposed to rain.
* * *
Progress on Carousel Seas
78,943/100,000 OR 79% complete
In the next moment, a wind lifted us, up and beyond the destruction — and set us down, gently, in the shadow of the ruined Gate.
“Thank you, my lady,” I heard Tioli say, and felt a cold kiss pressed upon my hand.
Don’t lose heart just yet. Something suitable will come along …..in the fullness of time. Ceiling fans are the best invention ever, IMO. Well, first right after the bicycle. I just bought one also, for the NY house and I love it. Sliced bread is right out, since I prefer to slice my own.
If you are looking for a bicycle, when my husband and I bought one for me we got a Raleigh Detour model. I don’t ride as often as he does, but it has served me well in over 4 years. When I brought it to Viable Paradise one year, I loaned it to one of the instructors who later went out and bought the same model.
As for ocean living – have you thought about the south coast of Mass?
Started riding a bike last August for the first time in 40+ years…now I ride almost every day. Riding on the land is fun, though very strenuous; riding on the streets is easier but does involve traffic now and then. Not, however, logging trucks. (Big pickups with trailers, though. I head for the bar ditch and wait until it’s gone by.)
Everyone needs a day off, even for writers of our favorite books. And any time one can escape a car is a plus in my book. And this from a former (for obvious reasons)Angelino.
I sometimes ride around in an adult tricycle….
kate … Southern Coast of Mass? Ummm — prices we see there seem to start off $150,000 above our ceiling, alas. Maybe if my Speilberg’s friends call…
If the alleys not being snow-plowed is the only worry about that house, it might be worthwhile to ask at the Orchard Beach town hall (by phone should be possible).
My town has a few smaller vehicles, used with rotating brushes in summer, that they attach snowplows to in winter. These are just the size to fit on a bikepath – I’d think something like that would fit in the alleys you mention.
Also, my town has a plan of which streets and bikepaths get cleaned first, which get cleaned if the snow lasts a few days, and which don’t get cleaned at all by the town; the plan is available on the town’s Internet-site. As we have a lot less snow than your area, I’d expect towns in your part of the country to at least be able to give you that information on request,if it isn’t available online.
Perhaps, just maybe, the nice house does get its access cleared after all, even if it’s not on a real road.
Or maybe you get too much snow for a smaller plow to deal with, and this is just a stupid idea. I hope it isn’t.
Salting might work really well on a narrower surface? But that presupposes enough traffic to melt the snow with the salt. Sorry, I keep trying for an optimistic conclusion, when it might not be warranted.
Have you got a helmet for when you go biking? Please keep safe, among all the faster and larger traffic – I understand there generally aren’t many separate bikepaths in the USA. It is very good low-impact excercise though, kind to the joints, and I also love how much better one can enjoy the countryside and the fresh air on a bike.
Here are two pictures of small snowplows/streetsweepers: they can attach a snowplow-blade to the front, or rotating brushes to clean off a thin layer of snow; they can tow a salt- or saltwater-spraying cart, or a hopper that spreads a thin layer of sand.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4183637813_afa9c19265.jpg
and
http://www.mobielvlaanderen.be/figs/convenants/MOB11860F01.jpg
Maybe, if Orchard Beach doesn’t have anything like that, you could recommend they get some. For this area with narrow alleys, something like that seems a useful sort of town service.