Waxing Crescent Moon in Pisces

How will we make the transition from the city life to the country life? Should we be cautious and thoughtful, or should we throw caution to the wind and jump into the void? For some the known brings comfort and stability, for others, the thrill of the unknown brings an excitement to an ordinary life. Leaving, we risk the financial security of Ricks job, moving further away from Jessie, leaving Essential Apothecary in others hands, the stimulation of city dwelling, leaving friends behind… There is so much to do in Idaho, the two or three day stays are challenging. We do make a slow and steady progress. I remind myself to enjoy the journey. 

Rick and I steal away in the afternoon on Thursday and are on the road by 2:00. Just over Snoqualmie pass we hit heavy fog and it makes the driving challenging. We arrive to Moscow around 8:00 and stop in town for a meal. We turn off of the main road onto our drive and I can feel the car tires being pulled by the deep snow. There has been a few more inches added to the snow that fell over our Christmas visit. The road has a sharp turn to the left and a fairly steep incline and the car gets stuck in the snow almost at the top of the incline. 

We grab a few things and walk to the house. I am overwhelmed by the darkness of the sky and the stars are so vast and bright, it delights me. I find myself a bit anxious to see if the house is as we have left it. Closing off the living room to all other rooms I am quite surprised at how warm that room has stayed. The late afternoon sun shines into the dining room windows, and the electric heater turned to a low setting has kept this room almost warm. We start a fire in the house and go back to retrieve more loot from the car. We decide to give it another try. This time I get behind the wheel and I back down the hill and around the corner. I put the car in low gear and press hard on the gas. With the car in a low gear, and my determination, it makes it to the top.  

I noted, last visit, a bright star or a cluster of stars in the late night eastern sky. It is visible again this trip. Using our Planet Finder app on our phone we have identified the stunningly bright mass as Venus and Jupiter in a 5 degree conjunction in Sagittarius. We wake with the sun pouring in the windows. Rituals of coffee/tea, little bites of nuts or fruit to break our fast, and performing our daily spiritual practices, get us ready for our day. Friday morning, we demo the upper cabinets on the kitchen sink side of the kitchen. While Rick is taking out the cabinets, I pull up the old linoleum floor tiles. The old wood floor is covered with black glue, but it looks better to me than the faded yellow and tan linoleum. We find a layer of sheet rock and a rubberized wall covering with a paper felt backing glued to the ship lap. It takes all day and all the rest of the next day to remove the glued mess from the wood. We discover that they have lowered the ceiling when they added the ceiling tiles. The one we did take down, showered us with dust, and mouse shit. I can see it all now. Ceiling tiles removed, and a bright white coat of paint on the ship lap ceilings. We just need to steel ourselves to the large task ahead.