Gina's Bike Walter

Walter did stop by Walmart for a TV. The cheapest thing he could find was a $300 HDTV probably made in Korea. He called from his cell phone to have the cable account moved from the big house to the small house. He was told that the last owners of the house had cable service so it was a matter of making the switch at the office. He would have cable by the time he arrived home. As a matter of fact all the utilities had been left in tact. Walter was tankful for that.

With the power on it had meant coffee and a hot shower that morning Walter didn't buy any more furniture because he wanted to see what he could do with the doors he had purchased.

The one thing walter did not have was internet access. He canceled his DSL because it would be days before it could be installed. He decided to go with dial up service instead. Yes it was slow but he had no plans to do anything in a hurry.


Walter manoeuvered Gina's bike from the shed, then headed out for a ride before dark. It was a new neighborhood so his new neighbors stared at him. On the bike he had time to smile and wave at them. He used the bike to explore his new environment. Walter made a mental note to buy some cheap dog biscuits. It would probably be a good idea to make friends with the local K9s.

Since he lived just a couple of miles from his old neighborhood, he could easily get to the fast food joint where he usually stopped during his ride. He had a burger and diet cola while seated at one of their tables.

"You usually don't come in." the young black woman said from behind the counter.

"I just moved and I don't have any furniture yet." Walter was all smiles as he spoke.

"Well you will fill your new place with junk soon enough," She said it as though she were and expert of household junk.

"No doubt at all about that," he replied.

Walter watched TV that night while sitting on the futon with his back against the wall. He decided that he was too old for sleeping on the floor. He slept just fine, it was the getting up and down that was hard on him. In Walter's case getting down to the futon was more of a controlled crash landing than anything else. The hard floor was probably good for his back but it was not especially comfortable.

Tuesday passed in a flurry of activity. The doors and lumber arrived. Walter decided that since he had eaten his breakfast standing over the sink, a kitchen table would be the first order of business. He used the 2x4s from the surplus store and the brackets he had bought at the hardware store to construct two saw horses the right width and height to turn the door into a kitchen table. he placed the table in the open space across from the appliances. He in effect used the table to define the space.

Then he made a similar but shorter table using three saw horses and the narrowest of the doors. He pushed it against the living room wall. On that one he placed the infamous futon, folded so that it rested on the door/table and against the wall.. A third door was sawed in half to make two end tables. they were higher than the sofa/futon/old door. They in effect became the sofa's arms. The new raw cuts on the end tables went against the wall to hide them. With strapping hinges from the hardware store Walter used two of the doors in each corner of the side wall to make closets.

Tuesday and the doors were all gone, but Walter had accomplished what he set out to do. He was more than a little proud of his accomplishments. It had been hard work but the little house was beginning to take on a new personality.

Tuesday evening he put away his clothes in the two new closets. He made a note to go look for lamps for his end tables, chairs of some kind, and for a real bed that next day. The old doors had defined how Walter would decorate the space. He had more than enough money for his project. The money came from the sale of his big house furniture. Walter made the things not out of necessity but out of a desire to be a bigger part of the new place.

On Wednesday Walter found a mattress outlet who would deliver his bed the next day. Everybody seemed to deliver the next day. From them he purchased a box springs mattress and steel bed frame. Walmart provided the lamps for the tables and also one corner floor lamp. From their furniture department he also bought a knocked down entertainment center and student's desk for this computer. From a different part of the store he purchased a fiberglass modernistic chair in a hideous red color.

He assembled furniture on Wednesday afternoon and into the evening. The directions were written by someone who used english as a second language. They were a nightmare but eventually it all came together. Walter sat at in his fiberglass chair, at his knock together kids desk, while he slowly surfed the internet for ideas. After all he had a few good years left, he needed a plan. Walter went to bed three hours later without a plan.