Finding Leah - May 15th, 2006

after weeks of not knowing the name of the color, a friend of Pippo's visited and said, "Wow! Melone.." So melon it is...and in fact, is much more melon than peach, apricot, salmon etc...we were happy to finally be informed.

Carl Jung compared houses and buildings in dreams to onesself. I like to think of this when doing some houseworks, plumbing is like digestion, washing windows like better glasses, dishes like cleaner teeth, floors like taking a shower etc etc. This weekend while Pippo was making the finishing touches painting one of his rooms, I dug out from under a heap of tool chests and cleaning rags, an old wood trunk that he'd found sometime back discarded by someone who didn't want it any more.
It was old and moldy but made of solid thick wood with original metal hinges, lock flaps and pull handles. Looked like it had been resurrected from the bottom of the sea. Has that classic arched top that treasure chests often do.
There was an old tag inside from a trunk making shop near the Pantheon that advertised itself as being next to some restaurant that probably hasn't existed for atleast fifty years (judging by the style).
I fantasized about where it might of been, on the back of horse drawn carriages, stacked besides baskets of other glub on the way to France or England by train and than maybe boat. Perhaps it had been shipped to America and back...or Africa...or China...
Originally all the woodwork had been covered in burlap. The burlap had been painted a few times and was very patchy, downright rotten in many places. I tore it off, cutting the edges off with a razorblade.
Then I got out the VIM ( an Italian bleaching powder cleanser like a sandier version of AJax.), and some metal scrubby pads.
The blackened moldy places were removable.

When it began to dry the wood had become even lighter toned than hoped. Looks splendid. Soon it will get a few coats of flatting, wood preserving stuff for boats.

A curled up adult human being could fit in it no problem...maybe I should try shipping Pippo to America.

Nah, it'd cramp his style.

Now that it's all beautiful again I kinda wanna fill it with durable odds and ends, brass candlesticks, pearls and coins and bury it somewhere, leaving behind a confusing map with an x that is burnt around the ages.

burnt around the edges---but I preferred ages...hmm Freudian?