The Map

Tearing apart my house and putting it back together for new prospective owners has been, as you know, challenging, on many levels. One of the more difficult things for me has been dismantling my memories -- the memories that used to be OUR memories. With Michael gone, though, the "our" becomes "my" and shared memories that are "shared" by just me are pretty lonely things.

I don't want to lose my memories altogether, though, even when the souvenirs of such memories are artifacts that I must clear. One of these artifacts was the map.


Michael and I kept this map for 26 years. I'd built it by stapling a paper map onto a piece of board into which pins could be stuck. (I forget what the board is called, but there is a special name for it.) I then had this framed and we had it hanging prominently in our house. Whenever we returned from a trip, we'd take time to place the pins for that trip. The pins represented only those places where we had spent the night together. By the time we had completed our last trip together, we'd managed to place pins in 49 of the 50 states -- all but Alaska. (Summer of 2008 was to be our Alaska trip.)

I pulled out all 367 of the pins (367!!) and gave the map to the Trading Post, so that someone who wants such a thing can come and get it. I hope that it finds a good home. That's all I can do about it now.

I got the new sprayer attachment installed in the kitchen yesterday. I cleaned some window frames and sills. Today I made an appointment to have the carpets cleaned... tomorrow! And I have put in a call for an appraiser to call me back.

Got my tax bill, and, after all the hoo-hah, I was thinking that it would be a huge shock, but it wasn't much more than last year's bill, though my valuation went way up.

Catching up a bit: When I was in Ann Arbor, there was a young woman at the neighboring campsite who had some little snakes! And Wren and Josie were intrigued. The girl told us all about the snakes and let the girls play with them. Here are some pictures!







And here are some of us enjoying our lunchtime at Zingerman's. What a wonderful time I had with the kids up there!