It has been quite the month here at The Havens. We have enjoyed almost non-stop guests since December 10. We had quite a long stint with visitors around Thanksgiving, too.
I enjoy having people visit, I really do. It just seems ironic that all the visitors had to arrive during the same time period, and at the busiest time of the year. I mean, we went pretty much all year without guests here, except for Jesse’s leave during late June to early July. We did receive the occasional visit from our niece Alexandra, but she integrates with the household so well that it isn’t the same at all. And besides, she often cooks wonderful things for us when she is here. So it’s more like having a chef drop in rather than a “house guest.”
The last group made quite a house full. I’m not sure what we would have done if we had had to find beds for them all. That problem was alleviated by the two adults of the four people visiting staying at a nearby hotel. We are looking into providing the back bed room (the box room) with some sort of convertible bed. Right now we use a blow up air mattress, which is fine unless someone has mobility issues. I am not really excited about buying a sofa bed, since my universal experience with those items of furniture has been very negative. I can honestly say that I have never slept on a sofa bed that was truly comfortable, and some of them have been excruciatingly uncomfortable.
One such couch made me vow never to make a guest sleep on a bed that I had not spent the night on. I have not really kept that vow,though. This week I put my youngest niece in the massage room on the massage table. But she reported it to be comfortable enough. Of course, she is very young and flexible. On the other hand, I have had lots of clients fall asleep on the table, so it can’t be all that bad.
Now, the futon couch, which folds out flat to a futon bed, I have found to be very comfortable. In spite of that, I have had an older, male, guest inform me that the futon couch we had him on was “too hard” and he didn’t sleep very well. So I guess it takes all kinds.
Anyway, after the last bunch left I spent some quality time cleaning the joint, not because my guests were so messy but because one of them was carrying an active cold virus along. This young person was happy to sit in my living room coughing and sneezing without bothering to use a tissue to cover the spewing orificies. But hey, we all want to stimulate our immune systems fighting off viruses, right? The young person was doing us a favor by spreading them all over our abode, freely and un-selfishly.
It is interesting to note just exactly how quiet it is here when it is just Jim and me. I’m not exactly sure why it seems so noisy when there are more people around. Odd. Perhaps the “psychic noise level” gets high. I don’t know.
I just know I am enjoying the peace and quiet. We certainly enjoyed having the house all to ourselves without any possibility of being walked in on this afternoon. Something about having the space all to ourselves. . .
And I still have four days of my vacation left.
the havens 