01-16-15 The Tale of the Stove

Lately I feel like I'm channelling Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window. I spend a lot of time nursing the baby and since we don't have cable yet, I pass the time by staring out the window at the parking lot and houses around me. It's interesting to watch all the activity no matter what time of day or night. Last nights at 4 am a U-Haul pulled up and I watched its occupant wait in the cold for a neighbor to answer the door, only to return to his truck and re-park it and then go back inside. And it seems this neighborhood has no lack of U-Hauls. 

This morning I was getting ready to go when I heard a metallic thud outside. I went to the window to see this...

At the left side of the picture you can see a stove lying in the middle of the road. On the right you can see the U-Haul from which it fell. As you can see, the back of the U-Haul is wide open. I waited a moment to see what would happen and the truck started backing up towards the stove. A woman got out and surveyed the stove. She picked up a few pieces of debris, put them in the truck and backed up even closer. She looked very perplexed. I felt bad for her, so I put on my coat and headed outside to se if I could help, because she was clearly all by herself. 

As I approached I asked her if I could lend a hand and she said, "Yes, thank you! I have no idea how this thing fell off!!" 

I'm guessing it might have had something to do with the fact the U-Haul back was open and she drove over a speed bump, but I held my tongue. As I helped her lift the stove back onto the truck (don't worry, i took the lighter end and i made her do most of the lifting, after all, I'm not that far removed from having a baby) I realized this stove was a junker, covered in grease and gunk and was totally disgusting. We were lifting it into a truck that was filled with trash, broken furniture, etc. We got it precariously right inside the truck. I kept pushing it but there was so much stuff that the stove wouldn't budge. It was sticking a few inches out of the back. She seemed satisfied with that and said it would be secure, but honestly I was pretty skeptical. After all I had proof that her stove packing skills had failed her at least once before, but I smiled and went inside to scrub down my hands and arms of all the grease. 

This evening we had our first dinner guests. In the two years we lived in the farmhouse we never once had people over for dinner. I am looking forward to entertaining more often now that we have a space more prepared for it. 

I'm loving the new kitchen. 

This evening we gave our kids some presents we held over from Christmas. We want to wait until we were in the new house. C got a dollhouse and E got a toolbox. After investigating their own toys they promptly switched toys and started playing.

Before going to bed, I had to assure E that their new toys would still be in their room in the morning.