Making a home away from home

Welcome to our little home on the Hill.

This is where we're staying during our sabbatical/leave in DC, on a quiet street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. We are renting this pied-à-terre (a.k.a. garden apartment  a.k.a. basement apartment) in a rowhouse,.

We found it on SabbaticalHomes.com which is kind of like airbnb but for longer-term rentals like faculty on sabbatical: all the furniture, bedding, and kitchen stuff are included, as are the utilities. The landlords are a family that owns the building; they live upstairs. It's cozy, with large windows that let in lots of natural light.

This apartment is our home here. I love travel, and the kind I especially enjoy is the kind of travel where you have a place to put your toothbrush. Like when I taught at TASIS England for two summers back in the mid 80s: I lived on the campus of a boarding school, in a little cottage.

Or when Bruce and I rented a flat for the week we spent in London with the boys in 2006: we were able to take the boys out during the day to see sights like The Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, and then come "home" for a cozy dinner of soup and toasted cheese and a quiet evening reviewing our day.

Some of the first things I did here in DC were to make this place truly our home. Of course I unpacked everything and found places for the important things: laptop on the dining table (across from where I sit to eat), crosswords on the dresser by the bed, knitting under the end table by the couch.

Little by little, I'm making this apartment our home: while we listened to the State of the Union address (a hazard of Bruce's profession) the first night I was here, I crocheted two coasters for us to use at our little dining table. The next day, I rearranged the kitchen (why are there champagne flutes on this shelf? Let's put plain old wine glasses in their place) and threw out some mismatched plastic containers. Yesterday, I bought some cut daffodils at Trader Joe's for the table. We have only eaten out once--we've been cooking our meals here, in the tiny galley kitchen.

Oh dear. I've bored you, dear reader. You were hoping I'd be sharing tales of the amazing things I'm doing in DC--all the cool museums I've visited and famous politicians I've seen. Sorry. This blog will share some of that later, maybe.

Here's a photo of the Capitol building, visible from the street just a few blocks over from our apartment, to tide you over.

But maybe you will understand: a cozy home can be a great base from which to have adventures, a place to rest and regroup, to reflect on what we're doing, to write, to read. Venturing out is more exciting when there's someplace to come back to--someplace that's not just a warehouses for travelers, but a home for residents. We're not here as tourists for four months: we're living in DC--in our little DC home.

Driving from A to B (or CR to DC)

I'm not sure why I thought I should drive to DC from Iowa. I don't like driving, really. I have a hard time sitting that long. And I really don't mind flying, either. I could have easily flown.

But we kept going back and forth about the car: should we bring a car? Or not?

We're living downtown, and hope to try out the Urban Lifestyle, so it's not like we'll be driving every day to work, etc. The apartment is two blocks from where Bruce will be teaching, and not too far from Metro stops. We can walk to Trader Joe's (OK, it's a bit of a hike), and when we travel to visit people, we hope to use public transit.

Still, I just wanted some flexibility with our transportation; I didn't want to miss out on trips to places it's hard to reach with public transit. And I'm hoping to be teaching at American University, which is about an hour from here via public transit, but about half that by car (at off-peak hours, which is what I'm going to arrange, I hope!) I also thought about grocery shopping: so much easier with a car.

And plus: driving makes it easier to get our stuff out here.

So I drove.

Let me just say right here that it's a long way from Cedar Rapids to Shaker Heights, my first stop on this journey. I left at 8:40 am Iowa time, and arrived at maybe 7:30 pm Cleveland time. By the time I reached Toledo, I was so done with driving, but still had miles to go. Luckily I had an audiobook and some downloaded podcasts to keep me company.

I wish I could have taken photos of the landscape as I drove. If I had, I would have photos on this blog of:

• bald eagles flying over the Mississippi
• flat farm fields of eastern Iowa and western Illinois
• signs for I-71 South (it was strange skipping the west suburbs of Cleveland where I grew up: my brother lives on the east side)

In Cleveland, it was great to visit Bill, Kim, and Sammy--I stayed Sunday and Monday nights. Sammy and I did forms together (he's learning Tae Kwon Do), Kim and I chatted about being BoyMoms and Bill and I book shopped and went to Malley's.

And of course, it being Cleveland in winter, we got some snow!

This photo is from Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, we had probably 4-6" but no school delays or closings as there would have been in Cedar Rapids: the sound of snowblowers rang out all morning. It was not a problem to drive in at all.

Photos from the drive from Cleveland to DC would include:

• snow-covered trees, like lace against the cloudy sky 
• Pennsylvania mountains and valleys
• my first glimpse of a highway sign that said "Washington DC"

I felt triumphant coming into DC, despite the fact that I missed a couple turns and Siri had to reroute me. I had Hamilton blaring on Spotify to match the excitement of driving in city traffic.

I was so tired of sitting that I talked Bruce into going for a walk with me that cold night. Guess where we went?

No need to drive to that location: it's a 10 minute walk!!

Now the car is parked right outside our apartment. I used it today to go load up on groceries at Giant Foods. I don't know when I'll drive it next, but maybe it'll come in handy at some point.

Elsie Homecoming

Luckily I didn't have to tutor today. Otherwise I wouldn't have caught Elsie.

Unlike yesterday, when she was waiting in the neighbor's yard when I arrived, she didn't come right away today, probably because there was a tree-trimming truck making lots of noise on the street. But she eventually came and ate stinky canned food. I tried putting it into the cat carrier--just to get her used to it. She would put her head in, but wouldn't go much farther.  And then she sat just out of reach and bathed.

I kept talking to her and urging her to come over so I could brush her or pet her. Eventually the truck left, and she came over. She was scratching at her ears, so I scratched her back and neck, and she meowed and purred, rubbing around my legs.

I figured: why not? So I gently picked her up and plopped her into the carrier, which I'd stood on end. Only had to scruff her very briefly! After I latched the door, I started shaking. I couldn't believe I'd finally gotten her.

So now she's home! I kept her in the carrier for about 45 minutes, while I sat next to her (I was talking on the phone). She went from meowing anxiously to sitting quietly and occasionally purring.  I sprayed Feliway around, and filled up her dishes with food and water.

Just let her out, and she quietly walked around, then went into the basement. It might take her a while to reemerge, but that's OK. At least she's home, almost exactly 3 months after she got away.

How I located Elsie

Did I not tell this story yet?

Last Monday, August 1, I got two phone messages from different people. One was from the Humane Society. "Someone called us--she thinks she may know where your cat is." The other was from the somebody, Pam, who had been feeding a light-colored, fluffy, blue-eyed cat over at her mom's house on L Avenue NE (just a few blocks from the vet's).

Pam said that she'd been feeding the cat for about 3 weeks. She had wanted to find the cat's owner, and had resolved to catch her and take her to the animal shelter. She was telling a friend, and the friend said "Oh, that sounds like the cat on the "lost cat" poster I saw hanging up in the neighborhood."  The poster was gone, so Pam called over at the Humane Society (where I'd made a report when Elsie got away) to see if they knew anything, and they gave her my number.

I went over and met Pam that evening, and as I came up the driveway, there was Elsie, standing under a bush between Pam's mom's house and the neighbor's house! "Elsie!" I said. "There you are! Where have you been?"

She scampered off. Apparently, she was very easily spooked, Pam said, but she would let Pam feed and pet her.

I felt so relieved to know where she was! Pam and I decided that I needed to come and get her reacquainted with me.  So over the next few days, I came--sometimes meeting Pam, and eventually on my own. I let the neighbor know what I was doing--it's a bit of a rough neighborhood, so I didn't want to alarm anyone.

At first, I didn't see her.  I just sat on Pam's mom's back steps and read my "Peterson's Guide to Birds" app on my phone. One night, just after I finished reading about the elusive (and possibly extinct) Ivory-billed Woodpecker, I looked up to see Elsie walking up to the dish of canned cat food I'd set out. She ate, and let me pet her, eventually relaxing and purring a bit. Then a neighbor's dogs started barking and she dashed off. Still. It was great to see her!

The main thing I was trying to figure out was how to catch her so I could bring her home. She was definitely skittish, and I know from experience that she is very strong, so the idea of grabbing her to put her in a carrier seemed unlikely. I investigated ideas, from ways to trap cats with live traps to getting a "Cat-in-the-Bag" to maybe putting sedative in her food (didn't fly; the sedative takes too long to take effect).

In the end, it was Elsie herself who became relaxed and happy enough to let me pick her up. Without that, she'd still be living in that backyard.  And without Pam's kindness and diligence, I may never have found her! Right now, I'm just feeling relieved and grateful.

The Lost Elsie Saga from the beginning

I thought I'd give a quick overview of the Elsie saga: how she escaped, what I've done.
It all started Tuesday morning. She had her annual check up with the vet, and I was going to see if he had any insights about her persistent chronic cough. She was easy to plop into her cat carrier--wow!--and off we went to the vet.

But when I got there and parked, and went around to get the carrier out, the cat carrier door popped open and she sprang out and ran!  I just stood there for a minute, but then walked slowly after her. I didn't know at the time what this meant. I just thought I'd walk slowly to her, call her to me, and pick her up. She eventually ran around from one end of the lot to the other, and I lost sight of her. The vet's assistant came out and discovered her sitting in a tree outside the house next door.

I could almost reach her. Almost. But as I talked calmly to her and reached out, she ran further up the tree, then further.

I called the Animal control people to see if they had advice, but they did not answer the phone. The non-emergency police dispatcher got a hold of animal control, but they (AC) declined doing anything, and the dispatcher sent . . . the CRFD!

 Yes, a big fire engine with ladder.

 The ladder scared Elsie, who ran down and bolted around the house. By the time we (me and the firemen) ran after her, she had disappeared. I mean completely.  We looked for a while until I told them they should just go. And I looked and looked. No Elsie.

Eventually, I went home, but came back later in the afternoon with a live trap that I borrowed from the Iowa Humane Alliance. I set it up and caught . . . a neighbor's cat! I took a break for dinner, then came back with Bruce and Eli. We set up the live trap again, and also walked the streets, me calling to her and rattling food in her dish. No sign of her at all--we were there almost 2 1/2 hours.

I came back  the day after at 5:30 am and in the evening, and several times on other days. My friend Anne and I walked through the area one evening and tried to "think like a cat" and we thought that maybe she might be in a shed near where she escaped. We tried the live trap overnight, but . . . nothing.
Later, I made flyers and posted them on telephone poles and gave them out to anyone I saw: businesspeople, people who were outside. Everyone seemed very concerned and was encouraging to me. The guy in the sign shop who said he walked his dogs and sometimes saw stray cats, the guy in the other sign shop who offered to put out a live trap and hung the poster in his store window, the middle-aged lady with the bird feeders, the toothless guy with the detailing shop.

The flyer has this picture of Elsie

And this text:

Elsie

Female, spayed, has all claws, about 5 years old

Microchipped

Mostly white with gray patches and dark gray tail. Blue eyes.

Last seen outside Family Pet Hospital, 1101 J Ave NE, 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 10

If seen, please text or call 319-431-9084

 

It was just so hard to go walking the streets calling and calling, shaking the dish with food and have nothing. No sign of her at all. :-( that's why today was so hopeful and heartening: maybe we will find her after all.

Elsie Search Party

So this morning was the search party for Elsie. Totally awesome idea from Michelle, who despite being terribly ill this week, had a great idea!
When I got to the meeting point on J Avenue, Helen Reddy's song "Keep on singing" was playing. Got me singing along, head bobbing.  There was already someone at the meeting place: cheerful Julie, who's been posting responses to my Lost Pet posts.  Julie and I walked through the area behind the vet's, me calling out to Elsie and her stuffing flyers in mailboxes.

Michelle, Luke, and Dudley (a large "dumb," according to Michelle, and handsome dog) came a bit later, and I walked with them, glad for the company. It was nice to catch up with Michelle and watch Luke's energy and antics. A guy with a SAINT sweatshirt met us, too: he seemed knowledgeable about some feral cat colonies and went to check them out on his own.

After about an hour, we said goodbye to Julie and started walking between J and I Aves, along the streets. I dropped off a flyer at Green Gables Inn--a neighborhood bar on J Ave. I've never been in that place. Of course I haven't: I don't really drink. Amazing: at 10 am it was full of men in baseball caps drinking beers in dim light at the wrap-around bar. The barkeep told me she'd put up the flyer.

There was a sign for a garage sale in the next alley, so we went down, thinking we'd drop off a flyer there. The woman having the sale looked at the flyer. "I think I might have seen your cat this morning," she said.  Really?  Where? When?

"I'm a smoker, so I go out on the porch," she said. "This morning there was a light-colored cat I haven't seen in the area before. There are other cats that live around here, and another light-colored one, but this one was different. She started to come up on the porch, but when I got up to pet her, she went across the street--not very fast."

Totally sounds like Elsie.

We told her how grateful we were for the lead, and she showed us where the cat had run, across the street to an abandoned house.
I was so heartened by this report. Michelle and Luke went home soon after, but I stayed and walked around that neighborhood, putting flyers on cars and handing them to people. I met a couple getting out of their car. The man said he thought he'd seen a cat like that recently in the alley. "There are a lot of stray cats around here," he said. "They come by our house. My wife leaves out food for cats."

"Oh, thank you," I said to the wife, who didn't answer, but just smiled slightly and looked down.

"If we see your cat, we'll try to get her to come close so we can catch her for you," he said.

I put out lots of flyers in the area, and walked one more time by the house where Elsie had run.  As I walked along the house, I looked into the neighbor's yard, lush with deep grass and a perennial bed. Could that be a light-colored cat?  I called Elsie's name, and "here kitty kitty" and the cat looked at me: blue eyes, light body, but this cat had tabby markings on its face. Such a let down!  Maybe this was the other light-colored cat that lives around here. Hard to know.
When I got home I finally remembered to check my phone. I am very bad about that: my phone lives in a wallet in my purse, so I never hear it vibrate. There were two messages from the person from SAINT left before we met up . . . and two messages from people regarding the flyer about a lost cat!

One person, Candace, said she might have seen Elsie. I called her back, and she said that she and her boyfriend saw a cat like the one in the flyer on Thursday night in her alley near the car detailing shop. "My boyfriend and I love cats, and she was a beautiful cat. She came pretty close, but then ran away."
Again, sounds like her.
I thanked Candace for calling. "I have some pouches of cat food--if she comes around again, I'll try to get her to come closer," she said.

Another caller, John, left a message "I'm calling about the lost cat, call me back", but I couldn't get a hold of him because his voice mail isn't set up. I'm going to keep trying.

It's good to have some sightings and an address:  1029 Center Point Road. I think maybe I'll go over there at dusk tonight and see if I can find her.  I'm a bit sad that I'm going away tomorrow. I wish I could find her before I go. 

Garden update

Good news and bad news about the 2015 garden on July 1.

Good news:  raspberries! 

This year, the bugs have not eaten the berries, and they're doing well despite the not-optimal location behind the garage.  Every time I stop back there, I can pick a handful or so.

Other good news: Eli's pumpkin! 

Its huge leaves and ever-growing vine are a wonder to see!  Just male flowers so far. Not sure what will cause it to start producing female flowers.  Perhaps less rain? 

Speaking of rain, the humid weather has caused stupendous tomato growth. Despite constant pruning, the 4 plants--1 grape tomato, 1 Celebrity, and 1 President--are as tall as I am. That's 5'3".

Plenty of little green tomatoes waiting to ripen.  These are on the grape tomato plant.

But bad news: all the rain has also caused the usual tomato fungus to spread very quickly. 

Many of the lower leaves are dying. Not sure if these plants will live long enough for the fruits to ripen. I spray them with copper soap spray because I can't bear to use anything stronger. I think it's supposed to be dry the rest of this week, so maybe that will slow the spread of the fungus.

Meanwhile: good news:  basil is doing great.

Some of these plants (I have about 7-8 plants) are knee-high. Others a bit smaller.  Probably we'll have our first pesto dinner in mid-July, with plenty of pesto in August and September.

Zinnias and blue salvia are doing fine: I'll post photos when they start blooming.