The Quiet Woman

My household goods are here, arriving in good time 43 days after leaving Johnsonburg and the Pennsylvania Wilds.  About 2000 pounds of stuff, boxed then stuffed into 2 separate wooden crates which were each one sheet of plywood tall by 2 sheets of plywood long.  I’m surrounded by boxes and drowning in packing paper.

But my stuff didn’t take the trip I had anticipated.

Back when they were being packed up, the moving guy indicated that from Johnsonburg my goods were going to Altoona to be crated up, then to Baltimore and placed on a cargo ship.  Through the Panama Canal and eventually to our tiny Pacific atoll via other ports unknown.

My crates arrived on Kwaj via C-17.

Say wha?  So where all have they been for the past 43 days?  The route they took can only be surmised.  Johnsonburg to Altoona for sure.  But instead of trucked to Baltimore they were either trucked or trained to the west coast.  The C-17 was most likely out of Travis AFB in California.  Or maybe Hickam Field in Honolulu.  Who knows the roads, rails, tarmac, oceans and skies my things have traveled?

Anyway, now begins the process of converting this massive echoing concrete bunker into a home.  Kitchen and bedroom the first priorities…

A week or so later there is some order overcoming the chaos.  I can get to the couch again.  My big Afghan rugs have been rolled out.  Rolling wire shelves have been reconstructed, a few pictures have been hung, about a dozen boxes remain to be dealt with as time allows.  The kitchen is still cluttered but taking shape – finding a spot for all my tea things remains the biggest challenge.

So happy to now be surrounded by mine own bits and baubles, like Maureen O’Hara as Mary Kate Danaher in The Quiet Man, one of my all time favorite movies.  There is definitely something calming and comforting about personalizing and accessorizing your living space, something special about “my own chairs to rest upon, my own china and pewter shining about me…”

Be it ever so humble.