Sorry- I was going to complete Big Smoke’s tale of counter-intelligence on the Cote D’Azur this morning, but for a variety of perfectly good reasons I got involved in an editorial project that was going to take too much time and I blissfully dove into it so I would not have anything hanging over my head the rest of this gray day down on the farm.

Big Smoke’s story can wait till tomorrow morning, and the reason I am here is to check on the status of the latest round of projects. Don-the-Builder and Tom-the-Awning-Guy did yeoman’s work during the week and I should be just about ready for spring, should it ever come.

I have been dragging this ship’s bell around since we left the house on Hawthorne Street in Birmingham, Michigan, in 1968. It was high time to hang ‘er high, so to speak, and now it is proudly positioned adjacent to the side door in order to have a means of signaling important events, without screaming to the Russians next door. It is a massive thing, and it seems happy to be outdoors and functional again. It will additionally enable me to signal the proximity of icebergs and other hazards in the night and I know the neighbors will appreciate it.

The fixed awnings remain fixed. What is new is the motorized awning that swings out on a roller-furling device like the Genoa on a sloop. It is pretty cool, color is right, and should enable drizzle-free drinking come the day when the buds are ready to open and the azaleas are starting to bloom. That is the plan, anyway.

This is the pièce de résistance, the new cabinet with the antique-glass doors and the new island/peninsula that should enable me to free up some counter space and make cooking fun again.

There are plenty of drawers and nooks on the other side of the fixture, which is a blessed relief. All the instruments of mass culinary destruction are currently out in the open. That had to end.

So, with the internet upgrade on Monday, we bring this round of home improvements to an end. It is about time, and symbolic that my little binge of spending will terminate with the 2% cut to the Federal Budget.

I have managed not to think of that since I cleared the Capital Beltway, and I think you would agree that our little journey with Big Smoke to quainter times has managed to stay clear of the toxic politics Up North.

I think it is probably good to leave things right there for today, wouldn’t you agree?

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com