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writegirl2000@hotmail.com
I live in a quintessential Cape Cod, soft yellow with emerald green shutters and a corrugated plastic roof, which makes my house look like it belongs in a Tinker toy set or down the street from Barbie’s Playhouse.
It is on the corner of River Way and Lincoln Avenue.
I have a view of the river. My pier, made of silvered wood, extending beyond the requisite length required by the Army Corp of Engineers (shh!) , was put in by the former owner, a gay man that wandered the neighborhood with a martini always in hand. The pier is deluxe, longer and wider than any others in the neighborhood. I invite my friends to sunbathe. Men in boats stop to talk to us. They like to come and plunk down on the bench, sit with their legs spread out, and amuse us with mantalk. We laugh. We like it.
I have room to moor five boats…small speedboats or pontoons…and a few waverunners.
I like it when there are so many people tied up here that the pier creaks from all of the bodies walking around.
Since I am lucky enough to be in a bay, you can really swim in the river too! It feels like lake water except it is much warmer. I am guessing that is from all of the chemicals the corporations dump upstream. The water does feel great in the summer though when it gets so hot that one’s skin feels on fire. I guess I should mention one other drawback: silt.
When you come out of the water you need to shower because a very fine unnoticeable layer of silt is covering your body. You can feel it. It’s oily. And it is hard to shower off. You need to soap up into a big bubble. It is helpful to have a man or a woman around to do your back.
I once cut my foot on something in the river. The ER doctor called the river a “trashpit.” “A woman like you shouldn’t swim in that cesspool.” Like a woman not like me should…duh. Doctors and nurses are way too into hygiene. I don’t want to live a sterile life, so toodles.
In the winter if it is really cold for a long time, the river gets sealed off in a layer of ice. If you lived here you would want to join me in walking across to the other side, mostly just because you can. It makes you feel like a powerless Jesus parting the Black Sea, only you are cheating.
We also ice skate if someone clears a patch, and cross-country skiing is okay, but mostly boring. That’s for the over-50 set.
The back of my house, which is actually considered the front because it faces the river, has a huge deck. This is a great place to watch the egrets and herons come in to feed. And if you sit out there at twilight you can watch the raccoon families climb up into the White pine. The water turns the same colors as the flaming sky except the water is moving so it is even more spectacular…animated salmons, screaming yellows, soft robin’s egg blue, and bleeding-girl scarlets. You will hear the desolate coos of the mourning doves, crickets get so loud that your ears hurt, and fireflies dance in the air. A million stars fill the inky black sky. Okay, I am lying about the last part. The sky is too pink here from all of the artificial lighting, so I can only see about fifteen stars way up in the center of the universe.
From what I have said so far you might think that I bought this house just so I could live on the water. Well, you would be partly right to assume that, yet I do like my house well enough too.
I have an L-shaped kitchen with cherry cabinets and huge windows that look to the south so they are always filled with sunlight. I commissioned a cabinetmaker to create a table for me. It is set on a pedestal so I can put any number of chairs around it. The top is made of cherry with an inset edge of Italian ceramic tiles in royal blue, bright yellow, and white.
My china cabinet is filled with art and a few serving dishes. I light it at night. It is one of my most favorite pieces along with the table.
My living room with its two big bay windows is really my studio. Since it is the largest room I needed space for worktables and easels and supplies. This is where I hang out mostly. It is my best room.
I have a fireplace in one of the bedrooms so I made this my entertainment room. You can watch teevee, no big-screen though, read, or just cuddle here. It is a cozy room.
I’m not telling you about my bedroom because, well, it is private. And it has a private bath too.
Upstairs I have a third bathroom and a vast open space. Remember it is a Cape Cod, which means the ceilings are pointy. That part frustrates me because I like to hang things on walls and the only things that can be hung here are tapestries and posters. I have built-in bookcases along the entire length of the knee wall. Part of this space is divvied up into guest room/potential nursery. It has an Alice in Wonderland theme. And the rest of the room is whatever it wants to be for that week…mostly though, it is my writing room. That’s where I am right now!
I love my house. I love the decks and patios. I love my hot tub. I love my yard. I put in butterfly gardens, an herb garden, and a moonlight garden all of white and silver plants. I have great privacy shrubs and a huge wooden fence with three big gates that clack when you enter or exit.
We don’t have sidewalks here, so the people walk and jog on the street, lots of 40 year- old fathers pushing strollers and dogwalkers and kids on bikes, blades, or skateboards. “Hi.”
I like the town too. Stonehill Center is like an Aspen shopping center. People here drive lots of expensive cars and like to tie their dogs to the poles while they go into Doc’s or The Wild Bird, New China, or any of the other stores/restaurants. I like to meet men at the post office.
We have the only balloonport in the area so you will often here the whooshy sound of the balloons firing up. My boyfriend took me on a champagne flight. It was okay as long as we didn’t hit the high-tension towers/lines. He says I am very excitable.
Norge Ski Hill is located here. People come from all over the world to train on the jumps. Twice a year they hold an event and on the fourth of July a skier comes flying down one of the jumps with gigantic sparklers in hand. That begins the fireworks over the river.
And at night when it is bone quiet you can hear the freight trains rumble across the bridge. I love that sound reminding me that there is always a road out.
I moved last week.
