Winnie in the Window

Phil and Laurie Boyte are the most hospitable friends we know.  They let me use their house which is actually an estate on some acreage in the foothills above Auburn.  The propane tank was full so the pool would be heated, just for me.  I had 2 glorious weeks of almost solitude in a serene setting.  A black bear with long black floating fur on his haunches crossed the driveway about 50 feet from where I was watering flowers one morning.  I saw deer, fed the dogs and collected these mammoth sugar pinecones everyday, which I decorated our garlands with at Christmas.  I had a stack of books, my laptop, journal, ipod, great food and swimsuit and hours and hours to enjoy the sunshine.  

They are so hospitable that they don't ever lock the door and the house is freely used by the whole town.  Shaun had a friend pop over at 12 midnight to borrow his really expensive video camera.  People had a wedding rehearsal dinner there, the contractor came to finish some details, the pool man came to maintain it.  I dashed and hid quite a few times!   The mornings were wonderful, quiet and very restorative.   Remember I didn't have a key, they don't use one.  I was in this huge house alone and what with all the activity and communal sharing of the place, I locked myself in at night so I could relax.

One morning, dressed only in a sloppy old hip lenth tank top, I took my coffee out to the deck and as I heard the door closing behind me remembered that I hadn't turned the lock to unlock.  It closed firmly and clicked, locked.  None of the doors were accidentally left open the night before.  The closest neighbor was up the hill.  Trudging along outside in my skimpy nightclothes wasn't something I was eager for.  The neighbors probably wouldn't have let me in. I remembered that the pool house had some big fluffy beach towels stacked inside, but decided first to try the windows.  I needed one where I could manage to reach the floor once inside and also reach it from the deck.  The dining room one was the only one unlocked.  I kept asking myself what would Craig do?   Took off the screen, figured out how to take the window out, squirmed up and inside-to my waist.  Thinking I was very clever, I moved the decorative things on the sill so when I poured over to the other side nothing would break.  Except I didn't pour or ooze anywhere. 

I got stuck halfway, just like Winnie the Pooh, but not.   The view facing the woods just could not have been as cute, Pooh was a darling fuzzy bear!  Have you ever seen elephant seals harumph up onto rock, or a harbor seal heave itself onto a buoy?  Big bottomed girls CAN pull, tug, stuff and push that thing through windows that are too small when needed, I'm living proof.  Desperation makes creative strength.  It was such a relief to get inside.   I didn't lock the doors the rest of my stay.  Open door policy for me....