I’m sitting in my lovely, orange living room, looking out at the park across the street. We finally got some snow this week; 4-5 inches, which is hardly snowmaggedon but it’s nice. The ice rink in the park is gorgeous in the morning sunshine: all glittery, pearly pinks and blues. It’s 97 degrees colder on that side of the window than on my side.
We’re in the midst of a polar vortex, which we simply called ‘winter’ when I was a kid.
It’s about time! The weather the past twelve months has been all over the map: rain all summer, early snow, a thaw for Christmas and now, a month into winter, we finally get some serious cold. I just wanted it to get below freezing and voila! It’s 59 below freezing. For the first time in memory, the post office won’t deliver our mail today because its too cold. That’s the 21stcentury for you: we have the technology to stay warm in this weather but we’re too timid to test it. Oh, who cares? Most of the info that needs to be sent is digital anyway. I still insist on paying my bills via mail but hardly anyone else does and one day give or take isn’t going to make a difference. “It’s just the willingness to coddle ourselves that gets me! ” I say, sitting in my bathrobe, in my warm house, drinking my hot coffee. What? I’m a middle aged grandmother, not a mail man. The guys who deliver pizzas are still out there, making their rounds, despite the snow, rain and cold! They’re the real heroes! We should put them on a stamp.
Speaking of deliveries, we had a new dishwasher installed a week ago. I guess I could file that under “modern technology” and “coddling ourselves”, couldn’t I? I’m so happy I was born in America in the mid 20thcentury.
Anyway, our 12 year old dishwasher wasn’t getting job done and the interior of the machine was disgusting so our options were to clean it by hand or get a new one. Talk about a no-brainer! Jay had the money from his job with the Spurs (Go Spurs, Go!) in his hot little hand so we ran down to the local appliance outlet.
I remember when we had the old dishwasher installed; it was quiet, clean and efficient. The only problem with it is that it was designed by someone who never actually used real dishes. The sprayer hung down so low that we never could put our dinner sized plates in the middle of the rack; they interfered with the cleaning mechanism. The best we could do was put two plates on the very outside edges of the bottom rack. In addition to the low sprayer, there was this completely plastic loop that hung down from the upper rack, the point of which seemed to be to catch on anything pot, pan or appliance that filled the lower rack to catch on, making it impossible to open the top rack without first opening the lower rack.
Such are the fancy problems of the 21stcentury American home maker.
This time, I brought one of our biggest, deepest stoneware dinner plates with me to the appliance store. The very first machine I saw, I put the plate in the middle of the lower rack. There were 4” of clearance. Four inches!! And the tines were spaced far enough apart for the plate to stand straight up! Narrow tines were another problem with the old machine. I really don’t know how I managed for 12 yearswith that stupid thing. Ishould be put on a stamp.
I told Jay this machine was perfect and I was done shopping. He said “really? You don’t even want to look at what else they’ve got?”
No, I wanted to go home and enjoy the rest of my Sunday.
The new dishwasher is perfect! It wasn’t very expensive (as far as these things go), it’s silent, I can fit everything in it and best of all: the dishes come out clean!! Winning!!
So again; Thank you, San Antonio Spurs!
Painting was fun this week! We tried something a bit different. For the past several months, we’ve been doing a four hour class, with a different set up each week. This week, we planned to leave our set ups and canvases overnight and come back for an extra two hours, just to push the canvases to a more finished level. We’d all agreed to bring something to do with sports for subject matter.
At first, I thought it would be fun to do a set up featuring all of Jay’s championship rings but I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of leaving all that bling in the studio overnight, so I asked Zack if he had a pair of shoes he would be comfortable with if I left them overnight. He was happy to oblige.
The painting is going well.
I really need to find the time to paint outside of class. I wish I had more hours of every day! Oh, who am I kidding? If I had four more hours, I’d probably spend them sleeping. Time is a problem but lack of energy, especially creative energy, is a much bigger one. My kids tease me for playing spider online but it helps me recharge my brain. This winter, my brain battery seems to be running out of juice faster. Getting old is hard.
Speaking of which, at least once a week, I head to my folk’s place to hang out, hang pictures and force Dad to march up and down the hallways. He’s doing very well; his strides are twice as long as they were back in September and the walk that took him 11 minutes before Halloween he now does in five. His goal is to walk into the rehab facility he spent last Spring and Summer in, to show the physical therapy team the miracle they wrought in him! No one thought a 91 year old with a broken neck could do what he’s doing. Well, no one except his kids, who have all always believed he could fly if he just put his mind to it. Or, if Mom told him he had to.
Margy has been in town every few weeks, keeping an eye on the work being done to their house as she gets it ready for market. It’s amazing what a difference a fresh coat of paint, new light fixtures and updated tile work can do for a house! It’s no secret that HGTV is such a popular channel! Margy’s only mistake was bringing Mom and Dad to the house to see the progress. The place they didn’t want to move out of is now twice as beautiful as before. Naturally, they wish they could go back and live in it again but THEY CAN’T.
I get it. They were living the life of Reilly, defying old age and ill health, feeling like the luckiest of the lucky while their friends got old and decrepit. Then events caught up to them with a vengeance and overnight, everything changed.
Yes, Dad survived a fall that should have killed him. Yes, he’s walking again, against all odds and the expectations of all his therapists and doctors. He’s also nine months older than he was when he fell and broke his neck and there’s nothing he or any doctor can do about that.
Yesterday, Tater Tot and I were on our way to visit Grandma and Grandpa and in the car, we made up a song about it. it goes like this;
Don't fall down
Don't break your neck;
Wheelchairs aren't as fun as they look!
Getting old is like winter in Minnesota; you can bitch and complain and hate it, making yourself miserable for six months out of the year, or you can adjust your attitude and embrace it. Snow is beautiful, skiing is a blast, hockey is fun to watch, hot cocoa and stew are delicious and long, dark nights are the perfect excuse to cuddle under a blanket and watch movies for hours on end. I love winter!
And someday, I hope I get to be a nonagenarian in a beautiful sunny place where I can take long walks without going outside, where friendly young men will make my lunch, which I can eat by a fireplace and a waterfall.
And I will not care at all if my oven has a convection feature or not.