Standing around isn’t an option here
On Friday evening, the recycling truck stopped in front of our house and the driver stood in contemplation. He then radioed back to recycling headquarters and received the permission to take all of our patio furniture, such as it was. The table that had served to barricade a puppy on the deck. The folding chairs that had served as a diving platform for the puppy. The chairs that had served to barricade a table in place against the other barricade for a growing dog. All gone to wherever greyed plastic ends up. We were now a family with no reason to sit outside.
Such a thing is unheard of in the opening days of this century. We need Vitamin D, but we must remain sheltered from the sunshine. We can’t be outside not sitting in the sun without sitting down. A conundrum. So we did what all good consumers do: we went on on the quest for the holy grail of the perfect patio set. On a limited budget.
The tent part was easy. There are gazebos up the yin-yang at every hardware store in our area, and with some careful choosing, we took a big box home in the van. It’s still just a box, because the stain I so carefully removed on Friday is miraculously reappearing, brush stroke by brush stroke. A wonderful shade of beige that I can’t see. What I can’t see won’t hurt me and all that.
Next, the choice of furniture. We visited a store where furniture cost as much as a year in university. I didn’t care for the attitude of the sales people, so we dusted off our shoes and headed off to a big box store where the choice was bewildering, the crowd shoulder to shoulder and stuff available in, you guessed it, big boxes. Since we have no short term plans to host a banquet in our refurbished sun room, we chose not to buy a table large enough for football with enough chairs for an extended board meeting. Instead, we chose to go low scale (think cheap, but with nicer vocabulary) and purchased a “bistro set”, suitable for pastis and crusty bread. I have no pastis on hand, but if the urge ever strikes, I will have a place to serve same.
Finally, the piece that will make my deck a real deck. A hammock. I don’t have time to grow any large trees, so we had to find a frame, and there came the difficulty. They exist, just not here. We searched high and low (this is a hilly area) and at my favourite camping store we discovered “just the thing”. A FOLDING hammock. If we get really crazy, we can take it with us while camping (although the other hammock that fits between trees is still serviceable). I can see a lineup (that doesn’t mean there are people standing around) to sleep outside around here.
