March in the Lake Tahoe area is usually cold and clear. Magnificent for winter sports but lousy for moving into a new house. Fortunately, it wasn't me who was doing the moving. It was Thursday and I was getting new next door neighbors without warning.
I've moved myself several times in the past and I know what it's like to do it in bad
weather, so I decided I'd wait a day or two before introducing myself. Friday afternoon, I picked up a wine and cheese basket at the local "gourmet" shoppe and ventured next door for introductions.
The door opened briskly and before me spread throughout was nothing but boxes and furniture askew. From behind the door, stepped a very attractive woman about 45 years old. She stood about 5'6", a trim athletic figure and brunette hair with small tinges of gray.
"Hi there, I'm your next door neighbor and I just thought I'd welcome you aboard. My name's Bill...Bill Harrison. 'Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."
"Oh, no. I was just takin' a break, tyrin' to figure out what to do next. I'm Carol Hix. How 'bout some coffee? C'mon in, but watch your step.
"Thanks, don't mind if I do." As I stepped through the door, I noticed she wore no wedding ring. I shrugged off my coat and dropped it on an unopened box. then she led me into the kitchen area. "Is your husband working today?"
"I don't know. We're divorced and he's the reason I'm here and he's not. I just moved from Tulsa."
"Wow, what a change of address." I said as she poured me a cup.
Over the next hour, we chatted like crazy and discovered most of the really important details about each other without getting too personal. She had two grown sons and she was travel writer by trade. One boy in the Navy and the older son working in Chicago, her husband left her for another woman as soon as the youngest joined the service. She divorced the pig and decided a fresh start was in order. "So here I am! How 'bout yourself?" she asked. "I've told you most of my secrets, now its your turn."
"Similar stories to yours," I said. "Got three grown kids. My Ex left me for Jesus about ten years ago. I got downsized and decided to run away to these mountains, buy a little business and start fresh. I've been here now for about five years."
I volunteered to help her move her furniture around on Saturday and help unpack if she needed it. She gratefully accepted the offer and reciprocated with an offer of dinner on Saturday night. I left her house about five that afternoon thinking "Hmmm...I think she likes me a little and damn, she's sexy as hell!"
************
Saturday morning arrived and so did I, with the strongest back I could muster. I rang the bell and heard her holler "C'mon in...it's open."
As I stepped into the foyer, there she was sitting in the middle of the livingroom floor, literally up to her ears in packing paper, surrounded by dishes and glassware all over the floor. "What a pain in the butt this is! Hope I don't have to do this very many more times in my life."
'You probably won't," I said. "You'll find that Tahoe really grows on you, and pretty soon you'll be calling this home forever. Where do I start?"
"Kitchen and dining room. We'll definitely need those if I'm gonna make you dinner tonight."
"Ok, you just point where you want things to go and I'll take care of the rest." By 3:30 pm, I had finished the kitchen, dining room, living room, washer/dryer, and two bedrooms.
"How can I ever thank you, Bill? What you've done today would have taken me two weeks on my own, if not forever."
My mind began to wander off toward the bedroom I'd just put together. "Oh, don't worry about it, you'll get my bill when the weather warms up a bit." I said jokingly. "But you do owe me a fabulous dinner, tonight. Really though, a little of that wine and cheese will do me fine. We're both pretty tired."
"Not on your life," she said. We're doin' steaks and salad. You can open the wine and I'll get the cheese and crackers."
And a great dinner it was! But by the time we finished off the second bottle of Red, I was totally relaxed and desperate for sleep. I bid her goodnight and crashed hard when I hit my own bed. Carol left the next Wednesday for Rio on a ten-day tour assignment for some travel magazine. What a neat job!
After she returned and wrapped up her story, we met again and again, dating out about once a week and dining in at least every third or fourth night. We began to develop a pretty close friendship over the following three months. We'd share our stories and opinions for hours on end, even though mine weren't nearly as exciting or romantic as her's were. But we found that we had many common interests ...things like taste in food and wine, good conversation, our long-distance kids, our forgettable spouses. Anyway, we always had plenty to chat about and rarely left moments unspoken.
**********
Carol traveled a lot by anyone's standards. She's literally explored the four corners and seven wonders of the world and she had published articles in a wide variety of magazines, ranging from PLAYBOY to BOY'S LIFE. I was truly impressed by her talents and skills as a writer. But she also liked to talk about me as well (thank god) and I enjoyed sharing war stories about my previous career of professional photography. We never seemed to get bored with each other and the longer we knew each other, the more playful we got...tickling, petting, teasing, practical jokes, and personal jibes.