The Big Move
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Grandpa Snicketts’ 79th birthday, and Magnus’ 18th birthday.
And on Saturday, the move had come. Collette found herself that night in a new home with brightly painted walls and unpacked boxes scattered in every corner of the house. They would be unpacked as opportunity was provided.
In the end, it had only taken them four hours to move everything from the apartment to the house (Theodore, Dad, OLeif, Curly, and Izzy).
While they were occupied with this, Joe was busy washing hundreds of cars at work, and Frances had a basketball game, which Mom, Collette, and Linnea attended. Frances’ team, the Celtics, lost 44 to 8, but all in good effort as usual. It didn’t help that often there were no more than seven players complete on the Celtic’s team, while often the other teams held a full ten players, allowing for enough breaks for each player throughout the game. But Frances was awarded a yellow star following the game for good sportsmanship.
Meanwhile, the move passed with no incident, and Collette managed to find a curtain rod long enough for the living room window, including a set of white curtains.
By the time OLeif had returned from Burger King, where he had treated out his family for lunch, he was tired enough to crash into bed for a two-hour nap.
Later that evening, they ran a few errands, including a stop by Target for a shower curtain – OLeif’s choice – blue with white fish swimming across the entire front.
Back home, they enjoyed their first dinner, or tried to enjoy it anyway. OLeif pulled the frozen pizza out of the freezer and added extra cheese to the top, because OLeif was always improving processed food whenever possible.
After the oven had been turned on for a few minutes, they smelled an odd smell.
“That couldn’t be the gas, could it?” Collette asked him.
She had not grown up with a gas range, and hoped that it wouldn’t take a great deal of trouble getting used to it.
“No, it’s not gas. Believe me, you’d know,” OLeif said, checking inside the oven for anything unusual, just in case.
But the smell continued. Then the smoke detector went off, piercingly loud. OLeif removed it temporarily from the ceiling. There was no smoke. He opened up the oven again and looked far into the back.
“Ah ha,” he pulled the door down all the way. “Hand me a towel or something,” he told Collette.
Carefully, he pulled out one of the oven racks and reached back, to the very back. He pulled out a rather crispy piece of brown (once white) paper.
“There’s our trouble.”
Part of the instruction manual had been wedged in the back wall of the oven. The smell soon subsided, and they were able to enjoy their pizza.
The rest of the night was uneventful.
The next morning was not quite as easy, however. Collette had just been sitting on the couch looking over her journal and thinking back to that one warm summer day years ago, when Grandma and Mom had taken her and the rest of the kids to Elephant Rocks and Johnson Shut-Ins. They had dropped by a bait and tackle shop after the Elephant Rocks (which had amazed them) for a bag of potato chips and a box of canned root beers for their picnic at the park before heading to the shut-ins. Those were good days, the Wishbone days.
Collette had been thinking about this, and OLeif had just gotten out of the shower when he hurried downstairs.
He quickly returned.
“Basement’s flooded,” he said, sifting through his toolbox for a screwdriver and hurrying back down.
Collette walked down the stairs to where OLeif was looking over a large puddle of standing water near the main drain sight.
“Guess it’s clogged,” OLeif said, after checking around the area. “We’ll have to get a vacuum and clean it up this afternoon.”
So it was off to church leaving a minor flood in the basement.
Church itself was rather odd that day, an unusual line-up for Collette anyway. They both attended senior high youth, as Jimmy was mostly un-present for the duration for various reasons. And so they watched part of an historical teaching on Augustinianism, Pelagianism, and Semi-Pelagianism… the usual. And then OLeif went off to the nursery, the first time he had been there since Frances had been baptized two years before, seeing as OLeif was always playing music for worship. This time, Wallace covered for him with the violin. And the children’s choirs sang for the first part of the service.
Church was followed with a brief stop at the Silverspoon’s for Popeye’s chicken, biscuits, and mashed potatoes and a viewing of part of Bali Hai on PBS. Then OLeif and Collette scooted back to the house with Theodore and the vacuum.
Upon arrival, the puddle had disappeared. However, it soon reappeared when Collette turned on the tub upstairs. After some deliberation and a trip to Home Depot for Theodore and OLeif, they came to the conclusion that the drain was indeed clogged. And OLeif would call a plumber first thing the next morning.
Incident number two in the new house.
Sunday evening came and the youth group saw a larger crowd that evening with Jimmy, Judah, OLeif and Collette, Magnus (who arrived late wearing what might be called a newsboy cap, a brown corduroy jacket, and carrying a book on G. K. Chesterton and a Red Bull), Ben-Hur (who decided to wear Magnus’ cap for most of the evening), Tiger Eye, Susie and Sunrise, Rose, Bob B. (after a prolonged absence), Molly, and Nacchianti.
Loraine had already dropped off a hot pasta dish and a bottle of Coca-Cola and the rest of the evening was spent in discussion of upcoming events, singing and prayer, and much monkey-business.
This included a somewhat modified version of tackle football from Jimmy’s end, after youth had ended. After Jimmy had knocked Magnus to the floor once, slammed him backwards into the wall, lifted him out of his seat twice (by the collar of his corduroy jacket), and thrown a sheet over his head, Magnus ran out of the building, screaming into the night.
Later, Magnus returned and talked about how Joseph beat him up all of the time. (Magnus and Rose would often swap sob stories about older sibling “confrontations” – older sibling dominance. This was their mutual bond, it seemed.)
After that particular episode, Judah and Nacchianti, the Popples, Bob B., and Tiger Eye had to leave. Everyone else (including Loraine and the two little ones) headed over to Steak ‘n Shake to celebrate Magnus’ birthday. Ice cream or shakes were on the house (courtesy of the youth budget) and before drinks had been served, Joe and Wallace had arrived, followed shortly later by Curly.
The table was its usual level of obnoxiousness and laughter. Ben-Hur had already donned a Steak ‘n Shake “sailor hat” which he wore throughout the meal. And everyone else took pictures with Rose’s camera or doodled on place mats with crayons, pencils, and pens, and joked and laughed loudly until later in the evening.