and i speak to you like the chorus to the verse

The old house is officially gone, and I have to say that it's 100% a good thing. Today started early but went as well as it could have gone - I went upstairs around 7:20 and promptly accompanied my dad into town to pick something up, and when we got back the crew was ready to go with the demolition. So I spent most of the day watching that - it was a bit surreal to see someone on an excavator use the bucket to rip through the roof over my bedroom, or tear the porch off the front of the house, etc., etc., but it was also v. satisfying.

The demolition was surprisingly quick, all things considered - as of tonight, the whole house is gone and the site has been smoothed over, and all that's left is to finish a bit of cleanup and spread some fresh dirt on top so that my dad can get his guys to seed the yard sometime. But it was an oddly relaxing morning to stand around (and later sit around, since I commandeered my dad's gater so I could easily drive around the yard and catch the action from various shaded vantage points) and watch the destruction of the house I grew up in.

We saw some occasional things get revealed that we recognized, and somehow my dad's bowling ball and also a crate that we'd taken to/from Ukraine emerged unscathed from the wreckage, but for the most part it was all blessedly quick and easy. And I'll also say that the advantage / total oddness of small town life is that you know so many people - so where in a city this would have been an anonymous, transactional engagement with the demolition crew, in this case the excavator operator was in my brother's graduating class and one of the other two guys was three years ahead of me in school. It was both easy and bizarre to have people we knew tearing our house down, and yet so very different from hiring contractors anywhere else.

So, that was today. I also went it town to mail a package and wash my car, then cruised around the other town and talked to [censored] for a bit (he was present for our house demolition in the morning, but then he went to accomplish other things). Then I came home, took care of some tings, and made dinner - I cooked a v. tasty chicken stuffed with cheese/bacon and wrapped in prosciutto, and it was delish.

And now I'm contemplating sleep, so we'll see how that goes - goodnight!