Someone talking about helping get people shelter is part of what has stirred this particular stew of thought on the topic of shelter. Being at home more has surely lit/stoked that fire of my imaginings ... meanderings. ... and my husband is musing over the possibilities ... buy/build, when/where, etc. for what comes next as far as a home near the coast. I love the sky with it's many personalities and moods ... as you can see, the sky in Texas is full of ambiance ... robust ... less then spirited need not apply. The actual water in the Gulf of Mexico doesn't really stand out as stellar. Texas beaches are clean and the shoreline invites interface (unlike some places in Florida with it's devilish riptides) ... wildlife is plentiful and varied. The sand isn't that gorgeous sugar white found on the eastward Gulf beaches ... my husband is a "friction" guy ... materials ... he has explained that one sand is slate where the other is shell or is it shale, or did he say silica (Which is which ... idk) You can see the shelf area of the Gulf by looking at the placement of the off shore oil derricks ... I'm just guessing that, and from it go on to intuit that the relative depth of the water affects the wave action ... we strongly prefer the water near North Padre Island for goofing off in, the dolphins do too. Texas has a philosophy of ready public access ... meaning, the shoreline is public property, rather then limited to those fortunate few who can buy access. You can actually drive for miles and miles along the barrier islands in Texas ... and there are plenty of places to pitch a tent if you are of a mind to (not me!). South Padre is getting loaded up with Skyscrapers and huge commercial venues and that's fine ... I just don't want to live on an MTV Spring break sound stage ... playpens along the Texas coast are well defined. All that to say ... my husband is watching the real estate trends and making plans. I love my husband very much, but I do not want to build a house from scratch with him. I don't think I do. There are a few things I would really like to have in a house ... everyone has their things, right? I think we could make those things happen in an already built house ... I don't like to see all the already built stuff overlooked in favor of the new flavor. I don't like the waste of empty consumption. I appreciate the notion of re-imagining. Lovelovelove that home in Some Thing's Got To Give ... hope I'm remembering the right title. It appeared to be an older, conservatively, thoughtfully built, traditional, yet updated, comfortable, inviting shelter... all the adjectives I most prefer in houses and in people ... it looked like it could weather the storms. It seems right to put forth the effort to work with what is instead of starting from scratch ... that's part of what an already a shelter expresses to me. I like lofts ... but I sure don't want to live over a fish market!
It was old-fashioned when I was a young woman, but still known, to have a "hope chest". A hope chest is a collection of things that a woman might start putting together for when she starts her own home. I had (and still have) an old pine toy box. When I was about 14 I started filling it with things I thought I would need at college. My bank gave a place setting of dinnerware away with different savings milestones ... like a challenge ... those where my dishes. I loved thinking about that box and what it represented to me. I was very careful with what went in to it. Now, I find that I am doing that again with an eye towards our next home. I can see some of the details but the framework is intentionally fuzzy. I have a sailboat quilt, it is twin bed size. I will make an airplane quilt to be it's buddy. I hope to see grandchildren resting, tousled and toasty-brown, under them someday. I have a drawing in mind to hang in one of the bathrooms ... it is of a child running barefoot along the shore with a beach towel flagging out behind, like superman's cape. It will be a very detailed pencil drawing ... complex, yet simple. I see it clearly in my mind's eye and it reminds me of my childhood and makes me wish to see other littles who might come to visit. I am editing our stuff with the question "Do we want this at the beach" in mind.
That brings me to our books ... well, my books, L will have to sort through his own. I culled out quite a few that I won't read again and that have no sentimental value to me. Buried, behind closed shelving I have found a small stack of favorite (I guess) romance novels. At some point in my younger days I stopped reading romance novels ... yes I have indulged the occasional harlequin romance whose main merit is that if it falls in to my bath water I haven't lost the ending ... it's predictable ... easy to set aside when the water gets too cold! A literary bag of cheetos. I liked Thorn birds ... both the book and the mini series. I like them still. But why did I save theseother three? Yep ... my name is written inside each of them. Belva Plain; Random Winds. Sally Quinn; Happy Endings. Janet Dailey; Heiress ... a peek inside reveals these titles also by: Touch the Wind, Ride the Thunder, Night Way, Silver Wings Santiago Blue, The Glory Came, The Great Alone, and finally Heiress. I don't remember actually reading any of those three books, but I know I did. I have been thinking about romance novels lately ... the leading man is always so male ... a hunter at heart, he has a passion for life ... a bit of a wild streak ... and because these things are written for women by women ... his heart, once healed, is forever true. Uh oh, I feel a pinch of cynicism tightening my lips. And now I remember why I put most of my collection out.
That guy, even if he really did exist, is not my husband. That guy is a lot like the perfectly posed and lit, airbrushed and otherwise enhanced, tasty caricature specifically created to appeal, to scratch some itch that when scratched spreads as surely as a bed of poisonous ivy. Poisonous ivy is so interesting, because the insidious allergic reaction doesn't manifest on the first several exposures ... sometimes the rash doesn't appear until the most inopportune moment ... one assumes they are immune and then those oozy, itchy welts appear and spread. My husband knows he has no immunities to it and still he blithely tromps through the woods ... he has had steroid shots for it ... we keep the special soap and ointment on hand at all times. I'm hoping there is no poisonous ivy at the coast. That stuff scares me.
Well, I am cleaning house today and working on restoring an old table that is looking really really great ... better then I hoped even. And later I will get to hang out with an old friend for a few precious minutes.