Rush

Sorry for the long silence.

I've been

talking on the phone non-stop,

standing on a ladder ripping off three different patterns of pink wallpaper,

coordinating contractor, plumber, electricians, texturers, and wallpaperers,

using a pressure sprayer to soak the underlying brown paper on my master bedroom walls,

using a putty knife to carve glue and soggy brown paper off the master bedroom walls,

quietly cursing whichever lazy person it was who stuck this pink wallpaper directly to the dry wall in the first place!!!!!

Basically, we have about seven walls and two bathrooms where 1980's wallpaper was stuck directly to the dry wall. On at least two of the walls and in one of the bathrooms, the wallpaper has bonded so it cannot be removed without ripping into the drywall (growl). So, we're looking into other options there.

I've got my painting crew of friends and relatives hard at work up there most of the time. My mother-in-law and I switch off watching the kids. She paints for awhile and then I go up and peel off goopy wallpaper. This is our life for the next couple weeks.

Meanwhile, the trees are changing color and shedding their leaves. Driving down from our new house I look over the valley. Today it was bathed fresh after raining all morning. Reds, golds and dark greens. The fields are yellow, the gray clouds rolling away over the valley, the blue sky peeking through like a polished spot on a silver plate.

I almost burst into tears.