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| As I left Golf Links with the last of my possession on Saturday evening, I clipped these two roses from Mary's garden. A very bittersweet moment... |
After having five days of two men packing and moving my stuff into storage two weeks ago, followed by a frantic weekend where Stephanie and I packed up the rest of the stuff, the movers returned on Tuesday morning (June 11) and packed and put into storage the last of my household goods.
There was a small pile of odds and ends left in the garage and the new owners graciously let it linger there for a few days. Stephanie and I made daily trips to Los Gatos from San Francisco to get the last of it out, finishing on Saturday. After sweeping the garage, Golf Links was no longer mine.
Sue and I bought that house in the summer of 1984 when we returned to California. I was recruited by a company then known as KLA Instruments and is now KLA-Tencor. Chris was in middle school and Erika was just starting school. The family loved the pool and spent hours and hours in it in the summertime. Erika went to Daves and then Hillbrook. Chris went to Fisher Middle School, Los Gatos High School and then moved to Univeristy of California at Santa Cruz. In the early years at Golf Links, we had lots of fun with kid's parties and activities.
The family pet that was most appreciated was Zippy, the cockatiel. We used to let him fly between the family room and the kitchen--he had a perch in each room. Chris learned how to rub the back of his neck. The bird would walk from his perch to Chris sitting on the couch and demand a head rub! It was hilarious. The bird also imitated sounds and he was best at imitating the sound of a squeaky cabinet door in the kitchen.
In the early 90s, Sue and I were divorced and she sold her interest in the house to me. Three years later, Mary moved into the house, we were married in 1996 and with dot com money in 2000-01, we did a major remodel. Before the remodel we redecorated the house to make it ours. These were some of the most pleasant memories with Mary. Just coming to an agreement on the wall hanging or the color and pattern of a chair, wall paper or whatever. Its mundane activity, but very close to my heart.
Besides Mary and myself, Mary's son Daniel lived with us for a couple of years. And, of course, Mary's dogs: Sweep, Beau, Rocky, Shawna, Wolfie and Leyla (aka Wiggles). Sweep, Beau and Rocky were rescue dogs and died within a year or two of our adopting them. Shawna and Wolfie were from Sandy LaFlammes' Dawnglow kennels and lived until the ages of 17.5 and 15.5 years! Leyla was adopted by the family next door and she moved with them to Tennesee a few months ago.
Mary's last year (March 2009-April 2010) was the most intense living in the house. I became the chief cook and bottle washer. When Mary was feeling good, she'd come out and sit at "the round" as we called it. During that year, I called it the Master and Commander chair as she instructed me on how to prepare food for dinner. I will never forget her quote as she sharply barked a corrective action to me.
"Patrick, I am going to die of cancer, dammit, not from food poisoning because of something you do wrong in the kitchen!"
After Mary died, I kept the house because of her dogs, Shawna and Leyla (aka Wiggles). When Shawna died in March of 2012, I knew it was time to sell. Mary and I had prepared for the day when I would die and leave her behind--we always figured I'd die first. We never planned for her to die first. In our planning for her, the first step was to sell the house and buy something smaller and with less yardwork. It has taken me three years to get to that point and that is what I will be doing now.
If you are a regular reader, you know I purchased a studio apartment in San Francisco last year. Well, I now have three storage rooms of stuff in Los Gatos at Extra Space Storage. And I will be living out of my studio apartment until I find the condo or townhouse that will become my new south bay home.
My travel takes me away for the rest of June and most of July. So I don't really have to face living in a one room apartment on a daily basis until August. And by then, I might have found my new place in the south bay.
If you need my snail mail address, please feel free to ask for it.
Email to:
Pat @ Lamey . us . com (without the spaces, obviously) and I'll send the new address.
Ciao...
There was a small pile of odds and ends left in the garage and the new owners graciously let it linger there for a few days. Stephanie and I made daily trips to Los Gatos from San Francisco to get the last of it out, finishing on Saturday. After sweeping the garage, Golf Links was no longer mine.
Sue and I bought that house in the summer of 1984 when we returned to California. I was recruited by a company then known as KLA Instruments and is now KLA-Tencor. Chris was in middle school and Erika was just starting school. The family loved the pool and spent hours and hours in it in the summertime. Erika went to Daves and then Hillbrook. Chris went to Fisher Middle School, Los Gatos High School and then moved to Univeristy of California at Santa Cruz. In the early years at Golf Links, we had lots of fun with kid's parties and activities.
The family pet that was most appreciated was Zippy, the cockatiel. We used to let him fly between the family room and the kitchen--he had a perch in each room. Chris learned how to rub the back of his neck. The bird would walk from his perch to Chris sitting on the couch and demand a head rub! It was hilarious. The bird also imitated sounds and he was best at imitating the sound of a squeaky cabinet door in the kitchen.
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| This isn't a picture of our Zippy but it is a classic cockatiel and looks like Zippy. |
In the early 90s, Sue and I were divorced and she sold her interest in the house to me. Three years later, Mary moved into the house, we were married in 1996 and with dot com money in 2000-01, we did a major remodel. Before the remodel we redecorated the house to make it ours. These were some of the most pleasant memories with Mary. Just coming to an agreement on the wall hanging or the color and pattern of a chair, wall paper or whatever. Its mundane activity, but very close to my heart.
Besides Mary and myself, Mary's son Daniel lived with us for a couple of years. And, of course, Mary's dogs: Sweep, Beau, Rocky, Shawna, Wolfie and Leyla (aka Wiggles). Sweep, Beau and Rocky were rescue dogs and died within a year or two of our adopting them. Shawna and Wolfie were from Sandy LaFlammes' Dawnglow kennels and lived until the ages of 17.5 and 15.5 years! Leyla was adopted by the family next door and she moved with them to Tennesee a few months ago.
Mary's last year (March 2009-April 2010) was the most intense living in the house. I became the chief cook and bottle washer. When Mary was feeling good, she'd come out and sit at "the round" as we called it. During that year, I called it the Master and Commander chair as she instructed me on how to prepare food for dinner. I will never forget her quote as she sharply barked a corrective action to me.
"Patrick, I am going to die of cancer, dammit, not from food poisoning because of something you do wrong in the kitchen!"
After Mary died, I kept the house because of her dogs, Shawna and Leyla (aka Wiggles). When Shawna died in March of 2012, I knew it was time to sell. Mary and I had prepared for the day when I would die and leave her behind--we always figured I'd die first. We never planned for her to die first. In our planning for her, the first step was to sell the house and buy something smaller and with less yardwork. It has taken me three years to get to that point and that is what I will be doing now.
If you are a regular reader, you know I purchased a studio apartment in San Francisco last year. Well, I now have three storage rooms of stuff in Los Gatos at Extra Space Storage. And I will be living out of my studio apartment until I find the condo or townhouse that will become my new south bay home.
My travel takes me away for the rest of June and most of July. So I don't really have to face living in a one room apartment on a daily basis until August. And by then, I might have found my new place in the south bay.
If you need my snail mail address, please feel free to ask for it.
Email to:
Pat @ Lamey . us . com (without the spaces, obviously) and I'll send the new address.
Ciao...
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