Ti Point Tork

Day 3: On Caring

Another full day: we drove to Auckland to collect a fridge we bought
on TradeMe, I cleaned the rusty
grill, and began the rehabiliation of teh house. I hosed off the
front wall and windows, digging out spider webs with the brush, and
swept as much of the dirt, dust, and leaves out of the garage as I
could reach. We have two cars in there (a dead Honda that Dad’s
selling on TradeMe, and an Austin that Uncle Zom keeps threatening to
fix up).

This domestic labour is new to me: I barely touched our house in
the US. I don’t think it felt real to me: a huge palace, bought with
the bank’s money, it wasn’t really mine. Jenine did all the work
(and, I assume, felt correspondingly invested in it). This house, I
don’t know: I feel like I’ll be living in it for a long time, and I
don’t want to be living in a crusty dump. I don’t want to dishonour
the memory of my grandparents, either, by letting their house turn to
crap.

Dad spent most of the day on the boat (the Tiri IV, his trimaran)
with William and Dad’s coworker/employee from USA, Jeremy. They
caught four or five fish. In Jeremy’s words, “I fished while they
slept and got four or five little ones that I had to throw back.
William gets up, throws over the line, and within ten minutes he’s
caught four keepers.” Jeremy had a great time, though, sailing and
fishing on the ocean for the first time.

I spent the trip to Auckland and back bouncing ideas off Jenine and
fleshing out my current Great Idea[tm] for a Kiwi Internet business.
This one involves food. I think it has potential. Next week I’ll run
it past Marc Hedlund, the O’Reilly “entrepreneur in residence” (aka
man who has had lots of experience starting and running Internet
companies) and get his advice.