Beachhead

Yesterday I moved into the house.

Brenda opened a special bottle of wine for the final meal before departure and the next morning I spend two hours packing up everything that I could think of to take with me to the house.  I wanted very much to clear the room that I had been using of all of my belongings so that Brenda and Stephen could implement plans that they had developed for using the room.  For a full 10 months Brenda and Stephen had done everything they could to provide me with a comfortable home life and for that I will always be grateful.

My first day at the house has difficult because I was dealing with a relapse of a cold that had been plaguing me for over a week in the dreary winter weather (rain and cold) that brings me down at the best of times.  I didn't begin dinner (spaghetti) until after dark and afterwards I had to wrestle with the new bedding for over an hour in order to prepare my place of sleep.  I found time to locate my HP psc 1210 "all-in-one" printer in the garage and found it well protected and looking good as new.  I also moved one of my filing cabinets from the garage into the office and my chest of drawers into the wardrobe space in the office.  The filing cabinet was a big thing for me because the office thing is a really big deal for me.  During my years of wandering around the world I was forced to do with using my laptop in whatever environment that I could find or, worse, use a commercial internet facility.  What luxury it is to have a laptop in one place, on a secure internet service, my own reliable printer and scanner attached, and my lockable filing cabinet within reach.  Wow!  Folks, look around at whatever makes your life comfortable and enjoyable, think for about 10 seconds of what life would be without it, then embrace it with gratitude and thanks.

Cozy Comfort

Thanks to Brenda I had everything on hand for that place of sleep.  The mattress arrived that morning as planned and the mattress protector, sheets, wool duvet (doona) and cover were there ready for use.  I put it together then turned my attention to dinner, which was a simple but old favorite spaghetti boiled with a large onion then served with a nice (Paul Newman) sauce, plenty of Parmesan cheese, and fresh olive oil that I had helped produce myself.

Today I went into Midland on a shopping mission and purchased a good cutting board, a large box of printer paper, and a good quality electric blanket. I fitted the electric blanket this afternoon and saw how the technology has changed in the 20 years since I had purchased my last electric blanket.  This one had a very fluffy and warm layer above it, was form fitting to the double bed, and had detachable controls to enable washing of the blanket.  I decided not to purchase new ink for the printer just in case against all odds the ink and print heads that had been sitting unused in the printer for 6 years would still be OK.

In the evening I investigated the drivers for the HP PSC 1210 printer and learned that my Windows 7 64-bit OS would handle it without a special download.  I loaded up some paper, launched a print of a 1-page PDF file, and voila! the print came out as though we were back in 2008 when I had last used the printer.  I'll try a color print tomorrow but at this point I must say that I am surprised, encouraged, and impressed with the durability of HP systems.

During a visit to Officeworks the last week I learned to my disappointment that the cost of laser printer cartridges made them comparable in overall cost to ink jet printers.  This is contrary to my understanding of the situation in the USA, where laser printers cost more but the low cost of cartridges more than justify the expenditure.  I will keep using the HP PSC 1210 until while I investigate the alternatives out in the market.  In the meantime, I have a printer, thanks to the minor miracle of the HP ink and print head still being intact after 6 years.  

This morning I recalled the pleasure with which I had cooked my first meal in the new kitchen and the pleasure that I had felt finally being "home".  I remember thinking that 'I wanted to be back here, and here I am.'   Even though I had spent 10 months working toward moving back into the house it wasn't until  now that it really hit me that just how life had allowed me to fulfill the wish of rounding Cape Horn it had also allowed me to return to my property in Darlington because that is what I had wanted.  This morning I looked around and told myself "I'm back ... so what."  But then I remembered how miserable I had felt when I was letting the property go and saying goodbye and thought "So what????  Hey man, I'm HOME!"