Tuesday 7 February 2006

Pic of the day: Will the walls come tumbling down?

House not destroyed!

Today I went for the last time to the Chaos Node, not that it looks like that anymore. I jotted down the number from the electricity measuring device, which I'll use when I transfer the utility account back to the landlord. Then I handed back the key.

The elderly couple toured the apartment with me. Not that they hadn't just done that earlier the day with a representative from the realty company that is going to sell their house. They were quite happy. "You can hardly see that anyone has lived here!" I did not laugh out loud, though I think I may have grinned broadly. I remembered the guy who I was supposed to rent from by now, declaring without reservation that I was going to DESTROY THE HOUSE! I can't help but think that he got the short end of the stick. While it would have been really difficult for me to squeeze my things and myself into that apartment, I would probably have been the best tenant he could get.

Of course, in retrospect it seems to me that this whole thing happened so I could get a place to live that was better suited for me than the small basement which I chose for emotional reasons. I have moved on to a better place, so to speak. Frankly it was kinda crazy to try to cram in there, but it looked a lot larger when it was empty. And I totally underestimated just how much stuff I had. I thought that once I threw away the old magazines and games, and got rid of most of my books and comics, there wouldn't be so much left. Well, there is. Amazingly I still have dozens of books, and two crates of comics. And the enormous quantity of clothes, enough to fill the wardrobe space for a family of my childhood. Literally. That's disturbing, especially since I already threw away several sacks of clothes which had some small damage, often barely visible, or just a button to sew back on. (No, they can't be given away in Norway. Even whole, good clothes are no longer accepted.)

Actually I talked with my old landlord about this thing about not being able to give stuff away. After the praiseful tour of the apartment, I stayed with them for between half an hour and an hour. We talked a bit. It was strange. We haven't spent all that much time together despite living in the same house for 21 years. He was my brother's teacher in agricultural school, and may well know my brother better than he knew me. I doubt he knew my brother better than I do, but in a manner of speaking perhaps he did. I haven't had that much to do with my birth family in later years, the travel time is prohibitive, I don't much like traveling and they don't have much time for it. I know I have changed a lot in these years. Probably they have too, perhaps more than me since my brothers are all married. That's bound to change a man deeply. Then again, living alone with an invisible friend is probably also conductive to change in some ways.

I bade a final farewell (though I may visit them in their apartment on Tangvall once they have moved, perhaps). Intriguingly, their son considers bidding on the house. He has a fairly small family, and it won't be cheap. If he ends up buying it, perhaps he is going to rent out the basement apartment...

***

In other news, the telephone has been moved to my new home! I still have the same phone number. In fact, according to the letter it was done by February 1st as ordered, much to my amazement. On the other hand, the letter from LOS informs me that my DSL line will be moved on February 27th ... two months to the day after I lost it at the Chaos Node. I better log in to my mail account again and set the delete date to more than the 60 days I set it to last time. Three more weeks without Internet access at home. But I am sure I shall be able to endure that without destroying the house...