Orange County Register; North County News-Tribune; January 11-12, 2024, Page A3
Saddled with a sense of doom as change approaches
BY GAYLE CARLINE
FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Change. Ugh.
Most folks hate change, I think. Even wonderful changes, like getting married or buying a new house come with stress. Part of this is because the primitive part of our brains only recognize change as danger, something we should run away from. And part of this is because our sophisticated brains are always asking what could go wrong.
These two brains make one odd couple sometimes.
This is why I’ve told my husband that there are only two ways that I’d ever move from the home we’ve lived in for 30 years. One is if we are so rich, we sit in fluffy robes at a Hilton while workers pack our stuff, move it, and unpack it. The other way is if we are in the street with a shopping cart.
Anything in between? Count me out.
Unlike my house, I’ve moved my horses to five different facilities between Anaheim Hills and Chino Hills, all in the last 25 years. Every time, it confirms why I don’t want to move myself.
The last move was from a tack room the size of my bedroom closet to one big enough to hold a dance. I was giddy with the extra space but kept my equipment to as much as I could fit in the back of my car.
I’m so glad I did.
My storage capacity at the new stable is about half the size of the dance hall, which isn’t bad. Of course, I had to load all my stuff into my car to move it. This was fine until I found out that the new place had to be cleaned out before I could move in.
For about a week, it looked like me and my horse were living in my car.
When I was finally able to unload and organize my equipment, I began thinking about how much I dislike moving and wondering how many more times I’d have to be flexible about where I stowed my saddle.
This of course made me think about my home and all those closets that need to be reorganized. As opposed to my horse equipment, I’m afraid the Carlines have filled every shelf in every room. I won’t even pretend that it took us 30 years.
There’s no way we can move.
We’re currently looking at our schedule and budget for remodeling the kitchen. It hasn’t been updated since the late 80s, not even the appliances. I’m just praying we can get it updated before anything dies, especially not the oven and especially not on Thanksgiving.
But I was imagining the kitchen upgrade…which will require packing all the dishes and food and living with the microwave and paper plates in the dining room and being displaced for who knows how long.
A new kitchen would be delightful, but it would also be a change. What if I find out that a new island is not as useful as I thought it would be? What if the flooring gets ruined in the process of moving things around and we can’t find the exact replacement boards to fix it?
What if things go wrong?
My primitive and sophisticated brains are in agreement, that change is scary and awful, and we shouldn’t do it. Good thing I don’t listen to them.
Longtime Placentia resident Gayle Carline tracks those moments that shape her days as a wife, mom, computer whiz and horsewoman. E-mail her at [email protected].