Victory

“If you are faced with a mountain,” Vera Nazarian wrote in The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration, “you have several options.

You can climb it and cross to the other side.

You can go around it.

You can dig under it.

You can fly over it.

You can blow it up.

You can ignore it and pretend it's not there.

You can turn around and go back the way you came.

Or you can stay on the moutain and make it your home.”

And so we come to the end of a move that borders on the apocalyptic. Even on this second to last day, much remains to be done but we have survived - more or less intact - the onslalught of

the water department, the gas and electric companies, the hostile and mildly incompetent plumbers, the fence builders, the yard crew, the dazed, confused and afflicted carpenter, a hoard of electricians and handymen, the godless and evil cable company, even the relentless and raging stupidity of At&t. The packers and the movers have nearly bankrupted us. It'll take months to unpack, re-organize and settle into our raggedy new home. But despite it all, we're still on our feet. The dogs have gotten past their initial shock at being so inexplicably uprooted - both of Jimmy's escapes came to ignominious ends - and they're adjusting, albeit slowly. I suspect nothing will ever be the same again but life and the business will go on.

And that's what you call victory.