Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Sweat Equity

March 10th

Jonno is an exceptional rower, having meddled in the Australian quad at the under 23 world championships. This means he is a hard worker. With a year of marriage and a new house, he has turned his efforts towards work and has not been quite as physically active as he would care to be. That being said, an out-of-shape Jonno is quite capable of a brusque 60 km ride down the beach.

Again, it was great to have the bags off and enjoy some city riding. We lunched with Suze, again at St. Kilda before heading home and making a list of small house chores and getting some supplies from the hardware store. Sadly, it was the Australian equivalent of "Home Depot." I chastised him for not going local and promised him I would check out his local store the next day. The biggest accomplishment that day was the finding and putting up the old brass house number, "#34", found in the corrugated iron garage in the back yard. Old wood filled the hole in the brick where the number used to be. It was brittle, and we cut it out, created a new shim from some newer wood, and screwed it into place. It was a simple, satisfying task. Despite the minimum of manual labor, we were sweating profusely as the sun got ready to set and warmed the brick walls in the front of his house.

We cracked a cold beer and admired our work. The house had a number and looked all the better for it. Suze and Oscar, a mix breed of poodle (a snickerdoodle, I think), came outside, and we lounged in the day’s last bits saying "G'day" to the neighbors as they passed by. I love watching a house turn into a home.

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