Shrinking Vistas

They have finished, finally! The anxiety of the past few months during which our main sewer line was being repaired is at the place where it is supposed to be a memory. In many ways it is... the roaring backhoe, the workers leaving their trash and destroying my yard and the constant fear over what will be torn up next are in the past and happily so. I had only so many “anxiety years” worth of leeway there. I think I used them all up.

I came home last Friday and happened a glance out the kitchen window on my way by as has become my habit and did a double take. The fence was back and seemed imposingly out of place after months of open devastation and that orange see-through barrier. All the sudden I felt claustrophobic, like my world had shrunk. I didn't remember the fence ever seeming so imposing, so on top of us before but we'd had time to adjust to a fence-free back yard more or less during the course of the work. As we stopped to look we began to get the feeling the fence was indeed closer than it had been. It looked as if one were to take a swing on the ever popular tree swing, they might now hit the fence. Something was not right. Upon further inspection it was confirmed; the fence was replaced about 2 and half feet further into our yard than it had been before. In one day I lost valuable real estate and what feels like an acre of green. It's all the usual blessings and curses of my life. The sewer runs clean and the fence is far superior to the chain link all the neighbors down the line had put back up. It's a wood fence exactly like its predecessor, rustic and pleasing to look at, however, being that it is wood and creates a barrier, now that the barrier is creeping so much closer to the house, the feeling of open green vistas has diminished. The surveyors came and decided where to put the fence all the way down the line in the middle of the easement. My neighbor hadn't wanted the fence so far into the easement originally but said they never asked before replacing it last week. So he has now gained some valuable real-estate and an even more open feeling and unfortunately I feel like the world is closing in. I'll get used to it I'm sure, and we don't actually hit the fence while swinging, but all during the torturous process of the work I calmed myself with the thought that all would be back to normal when they were through. It would all be over one day. It's over all right, and while the sewer runs free, my backyard view will never feel the same.

Ok, time to get over that, I have a video to keep after. I did actually quit going through old tapes and have begun editing. Despite the fact that I haven't got all the music I need, I am working with what I have for now in hopes that I will find a way to get it soon. I did a chunk of editing last night, but a chunk really is a spit in the bucket with all there is to work with. I have over 1200 items of video and photos to work with on this project. Most of the time if I remember a clip to use in a spot it is almost impossible to remember what I named it and find it in the overstocked bin. Luckily I love this stuff and when it comes together I am completely satisfied.

I also have a new photo album job - a trip to Peru. I just want to work on my video though, and yet the checkbook is starving for deposits. I must get to work. Lifelong personal projects feed the soul but drain the wallet. If only it were the other way around.