Catching up Stateside and Kitchen Renovation Day 1

The first few weeks that my dad was in Vietnam, it turns out, he was in kind of a military limbo.  He didn't know where he was going to be assigned and couldn't give my mom any kind of "permanent" address.  That in and of itself wasn't particularly interesting, except that it meant that the first dozen or so letters are kind of like ships passing in the night.  Mom received letters from Dad, but she had to wait to send hers to him.  I was kind of amazed how much was written about finances - what money Dad was sending home, how she was meant to cover bills and what would go to savings and that she should let him know if she found she needed more.  Just one of those little insights into how a couple works.  When I was growing up, money was never an issue between them, at least not that I ever saw.  So it's kind of interesting to see the foundation of that trust and communication being laid between them as newlyweds.  In some ways I find it sort of intimate.  

And then there was this (from Mom to Dad):

I was checking the ‘69 calendar.  It seems I’m a bit overdue for the World series.  Only 4 days since I should have had one if I were still on the pills.  I’m saying that my system is used to being off of the pills, I feel symptoms of a “series” - it’s just a matter of waiting for it to show up.  Wouldn’t it be too much if?  That we don’t need at a time like this.  I’ll keep you posted. 

If you only had to read that once, then good for you.  I had to read it 3 or 4 times,  so very confused and all the while figuring the math and think that the World Series would have been well over by the time this letter was written on November 16.  But then it dawned on me.  Yes, it would have been too much, and definitely not what they needed.  Spoiler alert: she wasn't pregnant.

But it's just one of those things I'd love to ask her.  What was that like?  What was it like to be sitting there for 4 days, thinking that you could possibly be pregnant, your husband a million miles away and the future so uncertain.  At a time when minutes probably dragged by already, they must have become glacial.    

In other, more modern news, kitchen construction is underway here in the EFPN (Eventually Fashionable Petworth Neighborhood). 

The first two pics are from when we first moved in.  Just for reference.

I didn't get my act together to snap any photos this morning.

Just a little different.

There's no going back now.

 

This room is so gross.  The carpet needs to be burned.