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The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

28 September 2007

Sixty-four reasons I haven’t blogged


For some cruel and perverted reason, the packers labeled these forty-seven boxes "Shauna office"—along with another seventeen that you can’t see in this photo and several that I’ve already unpacked. Surely they can't be all work-related. But I have to open and empty each one to find out.

Yes, we’ve been here two weeks and I still haven’t unpacked my office or done any writing.

Our drive from Louisiana to California went well. I had not expected the scenery to be so beautiful and was sorry not to have my camera available to capture it for you. We saw conical mountains, rounded mountains, jagged mountains, striped mountains, bare mountains, plant-speckled mountains, boulder-strewn mountains, and even one strange pyramidal mountain that reminded me of old pictures of the temple of Ur before it was excavated.

I’ve spent my time so far mostly unpacking and resting from unpacking. Still, we’ve been able to enjoy some of the perks of living in California. Our house is in the foothills, so in addition to good views we have a constant breeze that lets us eat outside on our patio even when it’s hot and cools the house in the evening enough that we rarely need to run the air conditioner during the day. A few hummingbirds have already discovered the feeder my husband put up this past weekend, and we have at least one roadrunner that hangs out on our property. The photo at right shows the clearly-not–New Orleans view from our back patio.

Back to blogging about writing next week—if I can get my sixty-four excuses unpacked.

5 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Hey Shauna. Great to hear from you and that all is well. I love the idea of a breeze and evening dining on the patio. Send us more pics for sure.

And good luck with your box overload.

Sphinx Ink said...

Shauna, it's great to hear from you. I envy you the drive to California and the beautiful scenery. I like driving and like road trips. (Not big on flying.) I like mountains, too, or at least the friendly type one sees in California. By the way, the rose cutting you gave me is now a tiny bush and has actually bloomed--a lovely flower with a sweet scent. I hope it is a good omen of the future for all of us.

As for your boxes, I feel your pain! Good luck at getting everything unpacked.

Lisa said...

Welcome back!!! Oh cruel world that the movers mislabeled all of those boxes! I had a hard enough time unpacking boxes when I knew exactly what was in them. Take it easy and I'm glad you are starting to settle in. We missed you "out here". :)

Shauna Roberts said...

Thanks, CHARLES, for the wish of good luck. I'll need it!

SPHINX INK, I'm not big on driving, particularly with a cat wailing in the back seat, but this was a fascinating trip. As an Ohio girl used to the eroded, wooded Alleghenies, I never knew mountains could have so many shapes and states of vegetation.

I'm glad your rose is doing well. Our new house has some modern roses, so I will have to learn about pruning and other things I didn't need to worry much about with antique roses.

LISA, glad you stopped by! I opened a few boxes from my office this weekend and discovered that my tongue-in-cheek remarks were actually true. I found stuff from the dining room, from the kitchen, and other rooms mixed in with my office stuff. I can't imagine why the packers would carry that stuff up the stairs and across the house to pack it in with my paperclips and books.

Farrah Rochon said...

I'm so sorry you were not able to take pictures of the drive, even though I can picture it from your wonderful description.

Who can beat dining out on the patio with a breeze blowing and the threat of contracting West Nile thousands of miles away? Lovely.

I hope you're able to get some writing done...for my own selfish reason, of course. :)

Happy unpacking!