When it comes to moving from a home to an apartment far away, de-accessing has got to be up there with leaving old friends. In some cases, maybe harder than old friends. Two examples:

When Peter was into table-building, (In summer he changed from his life of teaching to his life of sawing and staining.) he built the following: a picnic table with two benches, two coffee tables in the style of Design Research (a modern furniture store) and a more traditional coffee table. One table is in Seth’s apartment, one is I don’t know where, but an antique dealer bought the last (and my favorite), probably because he thought it was made by a professional furniture maker. Seeing that table go out the front door was wrenching, but there is no room for it in our new life.

And then there was my exercise bicycle. At 6:10 a.m. every weekday morning, I did thirty minutes of interval training on the bike, but there is no room for it in our new home either. We advertised it on Craig’s List and the first guy to call drove an hour to see it. He said he’d been looking for that model for a long time. We worried when we saw he was alone because it weighs a ton and needed to be carried upstairs from the basement. No problem for him. He just took it apart. He was thrilled. and we were relieved.

And a little sad.