June 6, 2001
Dear Everyone:
The ancient (but perfectly good) hide-a-bed sofa is (finally!!!) out of the living room. More importantly, it’s out of my life for good.
Last Saturday, “Elaine” (bless her heart) cleared out the walk-in-closet-on-wheels that she calls a van and drove it over to my place. “Jeannie” (bless her heart, too) came down from Concord so the three of us could wrestle the sofa into the van.
It was “Jeannie” who suggested removing the mattress first, to make the thing as “light” as possible. We dropped the mattress on the front lawn and prepared to tackle the sofa. The easiest way to get it out the door was to turn it on its back, since it was less wide that way. Unfortunately, sofa-beds aren’t designed to be upside down and gravity started to interfere by “automatically” opening the thing up.
It was also at about this point that one of the casters snapped off. Since it was going to the dump, we didn’t worry too much about that.
Once we got it outside and the three of us walked it down the sidewalk, it was a relative snap to get it into the van. It fit perfectly. We added the mattress and all the cushions. I tried to show them the stain on the cushion that caused The Salvation Army driver to reject the sofa, but couldn’t find it.
“Jeannie” took her leave then, even though I’d offered to buy them both lunch once we were finished. No matter. There will be plenty of lunch opportunities to come.
“Elaine” and I then drove to the Pleasanton “recycle” area. I have to say that Pleasanton has a much higher class of dump than Martinez. We pushed all the cushions into the front seat area and carefully lowered the main sofa from the van to the concrete floor. Why carefully?
No sooner did we have the sofa on the floor than a pleasant man came up to look at it pronounced that it , “looks nice”. “Elaine” assured him that it was very nice. Also very good. Also free. By the time we’d put the mattress back inside and added all the cushions, he was back with two of his compadres.
I mentioned the broken caster to him, but I’m not sure he understood what that meant. He did understand “free furniture” and the three of them lifted it and carried it away. Lapsed time: About two minutes. I’m sure they’ll figure out that the caster needs to be replaced. For all I know, a family of fourteen could very well be using it right now.
And it only cost me $10.00 to get rid of the sofa for good. Not counting lunches for “Jeannie” and “Elaine”, of course. But who counts lunch anyway?
The living room is much roomier now. I have the two new chairs at right angles to each other with one of the school desks as a kind of end table. One chair is perfect for watching TV. The other is perfect for reading (currently gobbling up Number Nine in the Amelia Peabody mystery series). The matching ottoman sort of migrates between the two. Plus I’ve found that, when matched with a tray table, it makes an excellent (if very petite) dining area.
With all that activity, I haven’t been to a movie in a while. But I have hopes for this weekend, if “Jeannie” isn’t too busy with work. (The Good News Is: If she’s busy working, she’s making money.)
Love, as always,
Pete
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