I am a retired 44-year veteran of the Real Estate Assessment field. As with real estate assessing and how it applies to real estate taxes, one can make many acquaintances, but not many real friends. It was a great career choice.
It has been nearly 10 years since I reclaimed my home and my real passions within my home. I enjoy it more each day and tip my hat to those who I left behind.
Each day I try to stretch myself with the use of my computer as it relates to this site and using it to print out labels for quilts for trying to incorporate photos into my sewing. Life is so full and I know that I have room for more.
With horrific winds, thunder and rain it seemed like a great day for day two of cookie baking. Dennis manned the mixer for a double batch of Grandma Laura’s Ginger cookies. When all was said and done nine dozen goodies cooled on the dining room table. As luck would have it the snow did not last as it came down on the yard. Whew! Many to the northwest of us were not so fortunate.
Today we made a trip to the home family farm in Boon Lake Township. I had not visited with Michael one on one since mid-summer. We had a great visit, ending with heartfelt hugs . . . the cheesecake and coffee wasn’t bad either. As weather changes, trips are a bit more thought through. Dennis and I hope the forecast storm is more news media blitz than the real stuff.
Dennis had cowboyed up for so many tests this year . . . and all of them came back A.O.K. Today was my turn to check myself in for a mammogram. Just got the phone call that it tested negative, which is another way of saying I also am A.O.K. A great way for Dennis and me to enjoy these last several months of the year. Being healthy, wise and very wealthy with all things not measured in dollars and sense.
Back to my pillow bed in the sewing studio.
Today we are traveling, not that far from home, and we are calling it a road date. Great granddaughter Lux is two and we have been invited to Eagle Lake for the late afternoon. Eagle Lake is a burb of Mankato to the southeast. Lux’s mom, while still in the active Army, works for an initiative that includes finding short term solutions for veterans whether it is for health care, housing, or career opportunities. The homeless as the number one priority. She affirmed that there are many in the south half of Minnesota. Sadie is 31 and has 14 years in with the Army. She went through basic training in between her junior and senior high school years. Three years of those 14 having been in Iraq and Kuwait. Sadie made sure to stop in yesterday to visit Grandpa Dennis on Veterans Day. Very special. So . . . the sun is shining and the job jar is quite empty. I know we will work in a few stops in Mankato. It’s a good thing.
Where oh where did the day go? Dennis is back in the pink as his rider mower was able to be gotten home from the rural fix it shop. The hub that held up the mower deck had snapped and it needed some welding. For the sum of $50.00 the mower is ready for next spring. This veteran had a great Veterans Day. Subway for supper didn’t hurt either.
One pail at a time to net the Koi out of the pond. The dye from the leaves has made the water dark. It was getting to be a job keeping the pump going as leaves continued to fall.
Two more needed to be netted to join these seven. As cold as the water is, they can dodge the net to no end. This horse tank will be their home until late March or April 0f 2017. As soon as it is 45-50 degrees they go dormant and do not take food.
This is Dorothy. Nicholas and Megan brought her to our Koi pond quite a few years ago. Dorothy had been in a fish bowl on Megan’s dresser way before Nicholas was born. Nicholas is now in third grade. When Nicholas came for a visit with Megan and their mom, Nicholas walked up to the Koi pond and out Dorothy was plopped. She was no bigger than a minnow. There was no getting used to the tepid water from the two hour trip in the baggy . . . just right out in the cold water. She has done well and has acclimated with the big boys.
When I think what I could have done if YouTube videos were in place while I was trudging my way through young parenthood. In the 1940s and 1950s every home was made to feel guilty if there were not an expensive set of encyclopedias sitting on a bookshelf for information seeking instances. Well, we did not have such a set. We actually had something better . . . we had Raymond and Lena as parents. I am sure all that was passed down to the four of us kids did not get handed to them any other way than trial and error. I do so treasure what I did learn at the elbow of those two stalwart individuals.
Today in my 70s, I can seek and search to my heart’s content watching a demo on a YouTube video just as if I were the only one taking advantage of it. Pause, backup, pause and then maybe see it through to the end. No books are needed to culture up my sewing studio, though I would give up my titanium knees to have Raymond and Lena telling me, “I don’t want to tell you how to do it, but . . . ”
The modern highway to learning is just fantastic . . . sprinkled with just the right amount of inherited logic.
Nothing says contentment like looking through clean windows. November 6th and it was a joy being outside to get the three sets of patio doors in the porch glistening. Dennis knew I had my head down and would not surface until the rest of the porch was cleaned as well. Even the cats disappeared. The afternoon was not lost on Dennis as the snowblower got moved from the back garage to the garage right off of our back door. Greased, oil changed and idling for a few minutes we should be all set when the weather does decide to turn.
I had it in my head for some time to make an old time salad. Some cottage cheese, a packet of dry Jello, a can of drained fruit cocktail and mini marshmallows tossed with a bit of whipped cream. Just something different for a change.
As I was mixing this concoction up I remember calling Elvera one afternoon for our three o’clock coffee session. She giggled when I asked her what she was having with her coffee. Elvera had found a fairly dried out bag of mini marshmallows and was enjoying them with her coffee. Snippets of memories are just plain sweet.
My Dads’ oldest sister Corrinia was thought to have been a spinster until she found her “Allen.” They had a very nice home. They had a very tidy home, with the optimum word being “tidy.” I think the older I am getting the more I am taking after Aunt Corrinia. I like things in their place and I appreciate things being put back in their place when I am through with them. It sure takes the guess work out of the next time I happen to need that item. Perhaps I have finally gotten to the point of working smarter rather than harder. I sure hope so. Each day is so much fun when I can start with a clean plate and not spend half the day trying to find the plate under yesterday’s mess.
No one is harder on me . . . than ME! Stitching is my thing. Stitching that does not measure up to what I had anticipated or expected, causes me to scratch my head, making the gray hair stand on end. I realize not all things will bring my seal of approval, but that does not make it easy to suck it up and move past it.
I have found I need to walk away from the project as it is laid out on my sewing tables and find something else to do for a bit. When I return and do a quick glance, I may be hard pressed to see the elephant in the project. I had zeroed in on the problem area for so long, that it was all I did see. Interestingly, some of my fellow quilters are into what they call “heirloom quilts.” Nice to look at but don’t you dare expose them to the crunching that a quilt would normally endure while its owner tosses and turns in bed. My quilts become heirlooms as my loved ones use them, abuse them and always feel good snuggling up in them. It is all about perspective.