Speed Blogging, January 31, 2024

In an attempt to post more often and not overthink things, I will be doing speed blogging from time to time. I will blog for however long it is on my timer. Currently, that's 16 minutes. Read ahead for a bit of stream-of-consciousness posting. :) 

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Note: I haven't been taking many pictures recently, so pictures with this post are from this day 10 years ago, Jan. 2014.

Back when we had 4 kitties. Annie, Lucky, Lucy, and Leo.

I will have to stick to my timer today because I need to help Theo, who is locked out of his car. He is in the dentist's chair, so I have a few minutes before I have to leave. In the meantime, we have workmen here working on a loose tile in the kitchen. Ward will stay with them. Luckily, I don't go to work until later this afternoon, so I'm free to help.

I heard something the other day that had me making one of those "Well, in my day..." comments. Someone told me they were at a local brew pub and tried to pay with cash. Then, the employee said they didn't take cash. I was surprised to hear that. I know that most people use less cash these days by using a credit card or some form of electronic payment. But cash is what it's all based on! It seems like there should be some kind of regulation that businesses have to accept cash. I don't know how common this no-cash policy is. I do know a few people who only take Venmo for their handcrafted things, but that's different than an establishment where you can come in off the street. Anyway, times are a changin'.

Female cardinal

This past week has been busy. I worked more than usual, and we've had a few more extracurriculars than usual. Ward and I are basically introverts who sometimes find it an effort to socialize in unfamiliar places. But we try to do it anyway. Last weekend's big event was a line dancing party at the local American Legion Hall. We had no idea what to expect. Although we did know some people there, we spent most of the time by ourselves. That is, except for the other 150 people we were dancing with. It was a good fit for us, and we had fun. They spent the first two hours teaching dances, and the last hour was free dancing. And the experienced people knew just what dance to do for what song. 

Times up for now. Another time, I may talk more about me and dancing.

Until next time...

Getting Rid of Stuff

 We're in the middle of a decluttering effort at our house. I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but so far, it's going well. We have finished the cat things, our bedroom, and our bathroom and have started our files. After going through the tedious and difficult process of deciding what needed to go and what was going to stay, we still had to process what we were getting rid of. 

So far, we have gotten rid of three carloads of stuff, another seven big bags, and two boxes that were picked up. Here are the places where things have gone: vet's office, Humane Society, charity pickup, church thrift store, women's shelter, friends, recycling center, home recycling, the dump, and trash. 

I tried not to get too hung up on finding just the right fit for an item because that can be immobilizing. But I hoped that by donating something to the right place, it could still be used, or it wouldn't be a burden on someone else who would have to get rid of it because it really was trash. Also, we tried to coordinate our donation trips with other errands to be mindful of our time and gas.

So I said that I tried not to get too hung up on finding just the right place for things, but when you look at the list, maybe I did. Do find it hard to declutter? Do you worry about donating things to the right place, or do you say, "Good enough is good enough"?

Until next time...

Snowflakes

 

Recent snow in my neighborhood.

With snow covering most of the country, I think it's time again to share a poem Theo wrote when was a young boy. It's simple but describes fresh snowfall well. At least, I think so. (Of course, as his mother, I'm not biased. 😀)

Snowflakes

Snowflakes falling from the sky,
Landing softly on the ground,
Often times I wonder why,
They never ever make a sound.

Landing softly on the ground,

Snowflakes white and glistening,

Nothing ever to be found,

For someone who is listening.

Speed Blogging

 In an attempt to post more often and not overthink things, I will be doing some speed blogging from time to time. I will blog for however long it is on my timer. Currently, that's 16 minutes. I haven't been using the timer much today, but that's what's on it from the last time I used it. Without further ado...

Out the kitchen window

We have been having winter weather like much of the rest of the country. Luckily, we have not seen its extremes. This past week, we had a couple of snowfalls (maybe 8-9" total) with temps in the teens and high winds. Enough bad weather to cancel several things, including our dancing class on Monday night and the line dancing party we were going to go to on Friday. The latter has been rescheduled for next week.

We also missed a stargazing party at a local brewery because of the bitter cold and wind. There's another one scheduled for next month. Ward used to do these kinds of events where he would set up his telescope with others for people to look at different things in the night sky. I was so amazed the first time he showed me some of Jupiter's moons and the rings of Saturn. Maybe this will get him back into star gazing. His telescope has been packed up in the basement for several years. Sometimes, when I look at stars and think about what I'm actually seeing, my brain has a hard time comprehending the vastness of it all, and it sort of freaks me out. There. Now you know some more about my peculiarities. :)

I mentioned earlier that we had car problems and are getting a new car. After being unsuccessful last week, we tried again on Saturday to buy the car that had come in for us. After a couple of hours, they determined that the person who had to approve the paperwork wasn't in, and it would have to wait. Hopefully, we will have a new car by tomorrow evening.

Ward worked another puzzle this week. This one was 1000 pieces, and he completed it in just a few hours. Have I mentioned that Ward is good at puzzles? :)

I had been wanting to do some decluttering in the new year. We started with our bedroom and bathroom. I am happy to say that we have completed that area. We have looked through the closets, every drawer, shelf, and cabinet, gotten rid of what we didn't need, and reorganized the rest. One benefit of this exercise is that I found some things I had forgotten I had that I want to start wearing or using again. 

This weekend, we started on our office. I don't know how long this will take because an awful lot of papers can be crammed into a small space. And our space is not that small. I sorted two major folders today. It's just a drop in the bucket, but I feel pretty good about it. Ward and I usually have different ideas about what we want to keep, so part of the job is reaching a compromise on that.

Last night, we went out to dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. Wally and Theo came along since they hadn't seen them at Christmas. You may remember that "the boys," as I call them, both had COVID at Christmas. A good time was had by all. 

Today, I made a big pot of vegetable soup - always a favorite of mine. I was especially pleased because I was able to rescue a few things from the fridge and pantry. Other than that, we've been eating a lot of hummus, tzatziki, and crackers. 

The timer is beeping, so I guess my time's up for this post.

Until next time...

Mrs. Schoolcraft

Mrs. Schoolcraft

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I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. We lived on a short, hilly street, and directly across the street was a house much like ours - an older, two-story house. After a series of neighbors who lived there for a year or two, Clem and Donnie Schoolcraft moved in.

They were an elderly couple; at least, they seemed that way to me then, but when you're 12, everyone looks old. But if I had to guess, they were in their seventies. They had lived their whole life out in the country and moved to town for convenience as they got older. Mr. Schoolcraft didn't do much but sit quietly on the porch. Probably because his wife was such a talker. 

Mrs. Schoolcraft could talk non-stop, seemingly without taking a breath. She loved to talk with friends on the phone, people in the neighborhood, people at church, and people she saw at the store. She would go to visitations (sometimes called viewings or wakes) at the two funeral homes we had in town, whether or not she knew the person who had died or their family. She would go hoping to run into someone she knew because visitations often brought people into town that you might not usually see. When she talked with my mother, the drone of Mrs. Schoolcraft's voice would put my mother to sleep every time. We always smiled when we saw her nodding off.

Mrs. Schoolcraft was not only a talker but a hard worker. She always said that she wanted to wear out before she rusted out. The fact that she had a serious heart problem didn't slow her down a bit. Her house was immaculate, and she would regularly be seen on her porch roof washing her upstairs windows. 

And she loved flowers. Her porch and yard were full of bright flowers in the summer, and along with the flowers, she had huge ferns on her porch. She did all the work to keep her yard looking good, including trimming the hedge that grew along the side of her property. When she trimmed her hedge, it would go something like this. She would get out her electric hedge trimmer and start cutting. Then, at some point, she would cut the cord in half, and she would bring it over to my father, who would fix it. And it would work until the next time she trimmed the hedge. Mrs. Schoolcraft cut that cord every time she used the hedge trimmer.

I told you about Mrs. Schoolcraft because of what happened yesterday. I was shredding the large volume of vet bills we had accumulated, feeding them a few at a time until there was a jam. Upon further investigation, the jam was a metal rabies tag that had been taped to a bill that was stuck in the blades. I worked with it a bit until I took it to Ward to see if he could fix it, and he got the shredder working again after some work with screwdrivers and pliers. I was annoyed with the mistake I had made and checked the other papers to make sure that there were no other tags on the remaining papers. I started shredding again, and all was going well until the shredder jammed.  Again! And I am embarrassed to say that this time, I got two tags stuck in it at once. While I had checked the remaining papers, I did it more by feeling than by separating every single page. I sheepishly took the shredder back to Ward, who fixed it once again, although it took a lot longer this time.

So, as I made the same avoidable mistake, I thought about Mrs. Schoolcraft and how she cut the cord of her trimmer every time. And that made me smile through my embarrassment as I remembered her. 

So now I'm off to finish the shredding, and I want you to know that I have separated every single sheet of paper to check for any other shredding hazards that may be lurking. I know that will make Ward happy. 😉

Until next time...