Thursday, May 11, 2017

The Days Roll On

There is nothing special going on here in my little Home Sweet Apartment.  Just the day to day routine of living.  And when I look at the news and see the chaos in our country, I find myself very grateful that I live such a quiet life.

Lori left yesterday for Colorado to spend time with her family and to see her daughter graduate from college.  We miss her but are really happy for her as this is something she has been looking forward to.  This means Duane is batching it this week.  He came over last evening as he does twice a week to help me with my leg bandages.  I fed him pork chops covered with dressing and baked in the oven.  I will be seeing him often as the landlord has sent workmen to fix the bathroom in Duane's apartment.  The contractor who remodeled the apartments several years ago did a lousy job there.  The shower had developed a large crack in the wall, the toilet had been leaking underneath the floor so the plywood flooring had rotted out and there were other issues.  By the time the work is finished, Duane and Lori will have  brand new bathroom.  Meantime, he is using mine.  Good thing we live so close.

Youngest son David called me yesterday to let me know that he would likely bring his family to see me on Saturday.  It is always fun to see the grands.  They might bring the new puppy.  Puppy still doesn't do car rides very well.  Motion sickness.  And given that puking puppies are not much fun to travel with, they may just wait on the pup's visit.

I am enjoying the spring breeze through my open windows in the afternoons when the outside temperature is warm enough.  I admit to having a slight case of Spring Fever which accounts for the need to tidy things up a bit after the long winter.  The few dust bunnies that have been found are now gone.  Cupboards have been straightened and shelves have been reorganized.  I'm waiting for my grocery order to be delivered today, after which I think I had better bake a couple batches of cookies.  To have a grandchild find an empty cookie jar is just, well, wrong.  :)

My days are peaceful for the most part.  I still am working on being prepared for whatever comes - canning and dehydrating as much as possible - adding to the other supplies - spending some time in the evenings learning skills that may be useful.  YouTube is a great resource for tutorials on most any subject.  So many of the skills that were second nature to our grandparents seem to have been all but lost.  Sometimes I long for the days before electronic gadgets took over our lives.  The days when we read real books and wrote letters in cursive using pen and paper and actually held conversations rather than texting.  I do admit to loving my computer, for it gives me the opportunity to connect to the outside world at a time when it is difficult for me to leave my apartment.  But I think I would give it up to be able to sit on the porch and listen to Grandpa tell stories about his childhood.  I treasure the memories of those conversations with my Dad in his later years.  Reading from a screen or watching a video just isn't the same.  I guess the older I become, the more I wish the world hadn't changed so much.  Sigh.

12 comments:

  1. How nice it will be for your son to have a new bathroom!

    I was just thinking about the stuff I don't know that I probably should. My son asked me how to make a fire if we were lost in the woods. I could do it with a lighter but beyond that I don't think running 2 sticks together will work. I often think how I grew up before the internet and after...and how different things are for my son. Sigh is right.

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    1. Jenn...I think my generation learned the basic skills because we had to. We gardened and preserved food because we needed to in order to keep our families fed. I learned to build a fire by living in a house that had only wood heat. I learned to sew because store bought clothing was too spendy for the family budget. I learned to shoot because wild game put meat on the family dinner table. So many kids now don't have to do those things to survive. And it is probably a good thing they live in a world where those skills aren't necessary. But what if the grocery stores were closed - then what?

      I read an article just the other day that said the average young person didn't know how to sew on a button. Or read a map. Or cook a meal from scratch.

      I read your stuff and your comments. I'm pretty sure that even if you can't start a fire in the woods, you have a pretty good handle on reality along with a healthy dose of common sense. You will survive. :)

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    2. You are welcome, Jenn...And just for the record, I am pretty sure I can't start a fire in the woods without matches or a lighter, either. :)

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  2. I post some survival and prepping stuff on my Facebook page at times, hoping a few folks will pay attention. Most of my blog readers have enough sense to get by already.

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    1. Gorges...My blog readers are, for the most part, pretty much like-minded. But I keep hoping that someone who is unaware might stumble onto a page and maybe at least think about the necessity of preparing.

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  3. I can certainly relate to your thought of today. Several weeks ago, I became somewhat down...not typical for me. I even shared some thoughts with my adult son; expressing the fact that the once seemingly secure life I had been leading was slowly, maybe quickly disappearing. However, since I normally think of myself as a realist rather than a pessimist, I am determined to do whatever I must do to prepare for the future...whatever that may be. For those who are already preparing for difficult times or those who have yet to get started I would encourage you to pick up the book 'The Secret Holocaust Diaries...The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister'by Nonna Bannister. I purchased it at a used book store and began reading it several days ago. If ever there was a reason to prepare, reading about the years prior to and during WW 2, would certainly confirm the need. Sorry to be a downer but it is definitely something to think about...

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    1. CW...You are not being a downer at all. I agree that our lives have changed and continue to change at an alarming rate. Never, ever did I think I would see the insanity that is going on around us. It is so very foreign to the world I grew up in. It is one thing to see the direction our country is going and deciding to do whatever we can to survive it, and quite another to ignore the signs and pretend that all is well. It is not.

      After reading your comment I looked up Nonna Bannister and read about her life. That she survived at all is nothing short of a miracle. I will have to see if I can find that book.

      When I hear those who say that nothing bad will ever happen here, I usually think about Pearl Harbor in 1941. I'm pretty sure there were many who, on December 6th of that year, thought that nothing bad would ever happen. Or those citizens of London who thought nothing bad would ever happen just before Germany tried to bomb them out of existence. We now live in a world where at least half of our nation has lost it's collective mind. Between politicians trying their level best to unseat the current president and to hell with what those who elected them want, just because their candidate lost, the precious snowflakes in their safe spaces with their puppies and coloring books, the social justice warriors working toward abolishing free speech among a host of other of our God given rights, it is no wonder we sometimes despair. But we keep going. We keep doing whatever we can to keep our families intact. We do it all because in the end, we are responsible and we know that nobody will save us except us. Good on you, CW, for continuing on even when life gets scary.

      Kicking my soapbox back into the corner now. :)

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  4. I'm with you on spring cleaning. I got to organizing part of my kitchen earlier in the week. The mess was oozing towards the door! Ha!
    I am thankful for my bloggie friends. I get out of my apartment on a regular basis but find it difficult to make new friends. Acquaintances, yes to a certain degree. But real friends who I'd call in an emergency, not so much. I, too, am the anomaly in that I don't want a smart anything - phone, computer, car. Don't get me started on texting - why not just pick up the phone and chat? I don't want to go there either.

    So our spring weather turned into a huge rain storm today. I'm glad in that I ran a quick errand and am now back home. No time in the garden for the next few days and I'm looking forward to the break.
    Take good care. I can practically smell those cookie! SJ

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    1. SJ...There is just something about Spring that brings out the Suzy Homemaker in me. That and I really need to get completely organized before the Farmer's Market is in full swing. I won't need to can and dehydrate as much this year as I have in the past, but it helps to know what I already have on the shelves and what I need to replace from using my canned goods over the winter.

      Isn't it funny that folks we meet through blogs can feel more like real friends than those we know personally? As you are aware by now, I am not exactly what one would call a social butterfly. I dislike crowds unless the crowd is family. I, too, stay away from the 'smart' electronics. Part of that may be sheer stubbornness on my part. Even though I have been known to use Facebook messaging to reach one of my kids when all else fails, it would irritate me to communicate that way all the time. The kids want to get hold of me, they can call. I want to her their voices. :)

      It is probably a good thing I am the way I am, now that I am pretty much housebound. Doesn't bother me in the least. Someone in similar circumstances who felt the need to be with people all the time would have gone bat guano crazy by now.

      Sounds like the rain is just giving you some down time instead of preventing you from doing what you want to do. Enjoy your break. I had to laugh when my youngest son called to tell me he and his family would be here on Saturday instead of on Mother's Day. He and his wife, Staci, have a daughter in dance, another in gymnastics and their youngest boy is in whatever sport is in season. Both of them are constantly on the go with the kids. He said that the only thing Staci wanted for Mother's Day was to have a day where she didn't have to go anywhere or do anything. Can't fault her for that. Their schedule would have killed me off by now!

      Hope the rain lasts just long enough to give you some rest, but not long enough to keep you out of the garden. :)

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  5. I have started writing old fashioned letters to my mother. She has never been particularly computer literate, and recently she has started changing setting on her email and consequently doesn't get them when I send them.

    I can sympathize with your son on the apartment. My daughter has had problems with leaks from the apt above her. Her apartment was literally flooded once.

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    1. Harry...I don't have anyone to write letters to any more, but I have been filling a notebook with the stories of my family. I like writing them in longhand. It seems more personal that way somehow. Of course, the irony is that if they completely stop teaching cursive writing in the schools, my descendants won't be able to read what I have written within another generation or two.

      The contractor who did the original work did a shoddy job. Before the crack in their shower appeared, the surround for my bath tub developed cracks. Turns out the contractor used a glue that continued to shrink, cracking my tub surround and then, Duane's shower wall. He and Lori didn't know there was anything wrong with the toilet until the floor around it became spongy. Our new landlord seems to be conscientious, for he is replacing Duane's entire bathroom, including the subfloor. It will be nice when finished. That has to be miserable for your daughter, having leaks from the apartment above her. Makes me glad nobody lives above me.

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