rhinebeck

man, i really can't believe i thought about not coming up here. it's gorgeous! quaint little town, lots of trees, friendly people... granted, i do have work to do, and the house is a mid-renovation wreck, but it's good to be away. perhaps i'll figure out how to post pics from my camera so i can take a picture of my view from right here, out on the "patio," which was once the driveway. what i'm looking at will eventually be a big deck and pool, but that may not be til next summer. right now i see garden and trees and little else. to my right is a big old vacant house with a giant southern-style porch. behind me is a privacy fence; beyond that the street, and across it, more swollen-porched homes. people here are apparently dreading the influx of city folk (like me, us) and i can't really blame them. sunday i had many adventures with amtrak, starting when i overslept and missed my scheduled train, continuing with my later train getting to NYC an hour behind schedule, meaning i missed my connection. all told, i arrived at 2:30 am instead of the planned 7:30 pm. oops! just as well, really, as C had gone to montreal for the weekend and didn't get back til midnight anyway. we were both exhausted, but after giving me the house tour (and pointing out which light switches were actually functional-- information which i did not retain very well), he decided no matter the time, he had to show me the fire pit. it really is a crazy beaut. the house has a detached two car garage, and in the middle of the pavement in front of it, the previous owner built himself a circular fire pit, and put up a fence on the street side for privacy. the main purpose of this was apparently so he could sit around all day with his friends and smoke as he pleased. C has added a monster of a grill, one of those uber masculine shiny jobs that look like they should be parked on a manhattan street corner and not in a country backyard. the kitchen stove hasn't yet been installed, because there was an electric stove, and yuck, no one wants that. so the fire pit and the grill are the chief means of preparing sustenance, and the fridge & freezer are fully stocked with all manner of grillable yummies. delish. whoa, got sidetracked thinking about food. so 3 am, both exhausted, we lit the thing up, cooked some dogs, and just stared at the fire for what seemed like days (in part because of beverage and smoke choices) until 4 am rolled around and i found out that C has a new ritual that involves taking his new riding lawnmower out for a drive at that exact hour. no wonder the neighbors dread the city folk. the good news is, he kept it in the sizeable yard, unlike this guy... the bad news is, he didn't put down the cutting blades, so now that he's back in the city, i guess it's left to me to mow the damn thing. i can think of worse ways to spend the afternoon. more good news: i actually have transport. i was a tad worried about being up here isolated, thinking i'd get a little stir crazy, even though he told me that the village proper is a doable walk, albeit a long one... but it turns out his montreal-trekking friends had a few days remaining on their rental car, which they left here for me, which tides me over exactly until C's new yukon gets out of the shop. it's not an ideal situation-- i'm a little paranoid driving a car that's rented to someone else, especially when i have only a passing acquaintance with them and they couldn't pick me out of a lineup, and i'm even more paranoid about driving his week-old LEASED $60,000 tank. i'm just sure i'm going to scrape the side of it on a pole while trying to navigate a little bitty lane or a parking place. but i'll get over it. as a side note: if i was spending that much money on a vehicle (or anything, for that matter) and the thing had to go back to the dealer for repairs that quickly, i'll tell them to take the damn thing back and give me a new one. but that's just me. meanwhile, i must stay focused on the work so i will get it done and have plenty of time left over to relax on the... driveway? gotta come up with a good name for it... and also to write. note to self: no more breaks until the rest of the chair is assembled, the fax machine is unpacked and hooked up, and the trash collection and gas line installation is set up. go!