{"id":33780,"date":"2021-06-19T02:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=33780"},"modified":"2021-06-19T02:00:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T09:00:38","slug":"widowed-im-staying-put","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/widowed-im-staying-put\/","title":{"rendered":"Widowed, I’m Staying Put. And So Are My Bricks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"widowed-i'm-staying-put\"<\/a>
Hundreds — thousands? — of Atlas street paving bricks were removed from our walkway and cleaned this week. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying put. At least for now.<\/p>\n

How do I know?<\/p>\n

Because my main preoccupation these days is our house — my house. Fix it up. Make it pretty. Show it off.<\/p>\n

This house and yard has been keeping me good company ever since mortality came crashing into my life four months ago today. Jon’s mortality<\/a> and by extension my mortality.<\/p>\n

Held in Place<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The tree trimmers came in April. The new deck furniture arrived in May. And right now it’s the lovely, but crumbling, brick walkway in our backyard that’s holding me in place.<\/p>\n

I’ve loved the walk’s rosy red bricks ever since Jon and I moved into this house forty-some years ago. And last summer, I found out that those bricks of ours<\/a> were bona fide antiques — made 100 years ago as pavers, hard and tough, for the streets of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

“Get Rid of Those Bricks”<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I loved the bricks, but I thought I had to get rid of them. Contractor after contractor told me they couldn’t be salvaged. The walkway was falling apart and the bricks had no where to go but the dump.<\/p>\n

Better to put in a stone stairway, the contractors told me. Or timber ties and decomposed granite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"widowed<\/a>
I might be widowed, but I’m staying put for now — and I’m holding on to the funny old Atlas paving bricks originally intended for the streets of San Francisco. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then along came a contractor I’ve dubbed Peter the Brick Guy. Peter likes my bricks. He thinks he can salvage them — pull them up, knock off the excess mortar, put them back.<\/p>\n

And that’s what’s happening at my house right now. My rosy red bricks are piled high in the back yard, waiting to be be beautiful again.<\/p>\n

I figure I’m good for another twenty years. The bricks — they’ll still be bricks in a 100 years. Widowed, I’m staying put for now. And so are my bricks.<\/p>\n

\"widowed<\/a>
Jon didn’t much like the brick walkway — too uneven and perilous, but I found it charming. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"brick-pavers-atlas\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m widowed, but I’m staying put for now. Also staying put are the charming old bricks in our backyard staircase.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[103,2286,34,1188,2288,82,2182,2419],"class_list":["post-33780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-widowed","tag-aging","tag-bricks","tag-dont-miss","tag-house","tag-landscaping","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-remodel","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}