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When I got back home there was the usual post-trip crap to take care of. MAil and messages. Had to get a birthday present for Auntie. Had to sign a bunch of papers to continue Tanya's "studies" at GEE. They shut off our phone service so we had to sit down and thrash out about three months' worth of unpaid phone bills. In the middle of s spirited discussion of who had made seven consecutive calls to Santa Cruz at three in the morning, Ike got up and announced that he was moving out. He was tired of the plumbing problems, he said, and the weird messages on the answering machine, and Roscommon had come down while he was at work and torn down the Mel King campaign poster on our front balcony. That was okay. Ike was a shitty gardener anyway and he complained when I ran my model trains after bedtime. Tess and Laurie, the lesbian carpenters, announced that they liked the kitchen better after we'd untrashed it and cleaned it up so why not try to keep it that way? I pointed out that I had bought three new badminton birdies before I left for Buffalo and now they were all gone. Should we call this place a "co-op" or a "commune"? How about calling it a "house"? Who had scrubbed the Teflon off the big frying pan? Since Tess had weeded the garden, how many tomatoes did she get? Whose hair predominated in the shower drain--the women's, since they had more, or the men's, since they were losing more? Was it okay to pour bacon grease down the drains if you ran the hot water at the same time? Could bottles with metal rings on the necks be put in the recycling box? Should we buy a cord of firewood? Maple or pine? Did we agree that the people next door were abusing their children? Physically or just psychologically? Was boric acid roach powder a bioaccumulative toxin? Where was the bicycle-tire pump, and was it okay to take it on an overnight trip? Whose turn was it to scrub the green crap out from between the tiles in the bathroom?

Well, that's the Zodiac quote from the beginning of chapter 20. I absolutely love the sense of interaction it conveys. It's so real-feeling... how many discussions have you had that looked like that?

Now, most of the book is not like this, of course, but I do so love that particular part.

Date: 2004-10-15 03:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] khamura.livejournal.com
*laughs* Sounds very much like any sort of multi-person household to me. Very real-feeling, I agree. I can see the people around me asking me stuff like that, and asking it of them. :)

Date: 2004-10-16 06:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
I take it you're not in your apartment anymore? :)

Date: 2004-10-16 07:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] khamura.livejournal.com
Less and less of the time. With Arne starting his sound/audio engineering courses here in Cologne this November, which take place just down the street from where the apartment is, I'm becoming a permanent part of the original living arrangement of the SO and her flatmate -- and so is the flatmate's SO. It's cool, to be living with people again; it is definitely one of the things which I realized I missed the most.

I still have all my stuff over there safe for a pair of pyjamas, the yellow sarong and the laptop, though.

Date: 2004-10-15 03:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] echo2oak.livejournal.com
I've never read this book, or even anything by this author, but I really like the sense of realism he puts into this section of the book. That it's in a detective story is really cool too!

*ties an apron around her waist and starts fussing around you*

Now, be sure to drink lots of liquids - hot and sour soup is best, but chicken noodle will do in a pinch. Remember to cover up when you go out and sleep with an extra blanket tonight.

*wink* There! A bit of mothering from me.

Sickie

Date: 2004-10-15 03:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zargon.livejournal.com
sleep with an extra blanket tonight

Or someone very warm.

Re: Sickie

Date: 2004-10-15 03:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] echo2oak.livejournal.com
*chuckle* But the idea is to /rest/ *wink*

Re: Sickie

Date: 2004-10-15 05:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zargon.livejournal.com
Well yeah! That's what I *meant*!

Date: 2004-10-15 05:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] saxifrage00.livejournal.com
Two things: I love that scene too

and you have a message on my phone: call Sa[mumblesomething] back at VanDusen at 604-684-2732. It was a woman's voice.

Date: 2004-10-16 06:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greenstorm.livejournal.com
Thankyou. *sigh*

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