A Just for Fun Story

GOODWILL

She reached into the rack of used jackets, finding a nice suede one that looked as if it would fit.   Slipping it on, she heard someone say, "Well, you know I never liked that color on you, but it's a nice fabric".  Turning, she saw an older couple in the next  aisle, smiled when they glanced over at her, and turned back to the jackets.

Next she tried on a corduroy pinwale, noticed a button was missing, but the price was good and the fit--"Michael, do you like this?" The voice was close, and high, obviously a young woman's, but when she turned to look, only the older couple were there.  Mentally shrugging, she removed the coat, but not before she heard someone say, "Oh, Mike,  not HERE"...and a giggle.

Good lord, she thought. What are they letting in off the streets these days!   She went back to the suede, tried it on again, and heard, close at hand, sobbing.  On and on, so loud

she was certain other people must have noticed it too.  She walked around the end of the row to comfort or at least confront the person, but the only one there was a very small Japanese woman, obviously nowhere near tears. She smiled,  Anne smiled. 

oh dear, she thought.

Taking off the jacket once more, the sobbing stopped.  Farther down she came to a rack of women's winter coats.  Taking a mid length soft fur coat  off the hanger she draped it over her shoulders.  Startled, she took it off, hung it back up, and moved away.  "Oh, baby you look so GOOD" a male voice had purred in her ear.

Suddenly she grabbed a hat, put it on.  A child's voice called.  Wrapped a scarf around her neck, and she heard a fire engine.  The child, calling for its mother, the fire engine wailing.   Gloves?   The right hand began arguing with the left hand.   Now that coat again, with the male voice in it.  Still purring.  Occasionally moaning.   She started to giggle, then realized the clerks were watching her in her headlong dash down the aisle, trying on sweaters, hats, boots.  Drunk, their faces said. Or shoplifting. Watch This One.

Slowly she removed the little boy, and put the hat back on the shelf.  Took off the arguing gloves, returned them to the glove bin.  The scarf, still wailing, went back among the other scarves.   Regretfully she returned the coat, still murmuring,  to its proper place..  Half way down the aisle she turned, went back, and retrieved the coat.  "Eighteen dollars", the counter clerk said firmly. "no checks.".  She handed the woman the money, put the coat on, and left the store, smiling. 

Christmas recap (YAY, we lived through another one)

 

We survived another Christmas with enough relatives (all his) to populate a football team, but the wonder holds:  even with six little kids galloping about (the oldest is about 8, the youngest is 3), everyone seems to get along extremely well.  No sulks in the corner, no grumbling,  no fussyness.

The kids have now progressed enough to be interested in 'group games' and play them with a great deal of shouting, but no howling. Major diff, there.  It's fun to watch them change from infants into kids, one holiday at a time.  The youngest one marched right up to me and gave me the best knee hug (well, he's only three, he's still pretty short) I have ever had, with  a great grin on his face.  He's the Happy Kid,  loves to laugh, and I suspect he will be the future 'good guy' in school. 

There are three layers: Grandparents, parents, and kids.  All even spaced as to age, so none of one group is stuck in neverland, not really fitting in anywhere.   I think that helps.    I realize that now we are the oldest in the bunch, by several years, and if we had had kids,  they would be too old and too young for anyone there. That's a hard place to be in. And they would have had kids who suffered the same strange dichotomy. 

It's always a fun day,  if exhausting, and even though all we did was eat and visit, today I am barely up to anything, beyond coffee and filling the woodboxes. (Maybe it's time to give up the idea of 'someday' having one last Christmas here.) 

Happy Solstice =)

WINTER SOLSTICE

At any time of the year

you measure the dimensions of the sky

one constellation at a time

give it  perspective in terms

that you can understand

but at this darkest point

the nadir of the calendar

stars become much more

than pinpoints on a chart

sometimes it's all you have to steer by

and you begin to weary of the darkness

there is so much of it

Having lost the light

you announce yourself with candles

in every window

drape strings of icicles

from  eave to  eave

calling softly into the winter sky

over here over here

imaginary garden with real toads

bamboo

remember the sundial, lady,

keeping relentless time

precise in its circuit

of the garden, season by season

year by year

and the stones: lady, remember

how the stones looked then

when you held them to the light

now all that remains is memory

like feathers drifting

between the yellow daisies;

becoming Queen Anne's Lace;

a waterfall of leaves:

at rest at last

amongst the wild geraniums

http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/

this and that T13

1. plaster staple

2. triplet splitter

3.  stupid pundits

4.  careful carful

5.  bacon carbon (who cares, it's bacon...)

6.  crane dancer

7. dawn  drawn warden wanders

8.  manger garment argument (you know  how touchy manger directors are)

9.  postal portals

10. stapled pleats

11. lower slower bowlers

12. german manager

13. ingrate creating carpeting

http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

More curtain talk

Addendum: 
I was getting ready to sort all the fabric this house seems to have spawned,  and found two pair(s)? of curtains I made years ago and for some reason took down, never  put them back.  When the weather gets warmer (read: next spring) I need to go through all the bureaus and all the storage trunks and see just what it is I DO have. 

One thing with a large house, generous relatives (I don't want this fabric/yarn/thread, can  you use it) and a slowly changing  memory,  every drawer, every closet is an adventure and a surprise.  =)  I'm just thankful I never got the Yard Sale Bug.  My mother-in-law used to go with her sister every weekend, and she had a passion for lamps.  Not fancy, necessarily, just Lamps.  I now have about a dozen of those in the attic, waiting for Tables to Put Them On.  (those are up there too, btw)

I can remember when I made those curtains,  it was not long after we had moved in here, and my MIL had given me HER mother-in-law's Singer Sewing machine, that dates back to the 1887.  This house needed curtains, so I went out and bought almost an entire roll of unbleached muslin, then sat down and learned how to use the hemmer and the ruffler.  I must have made 80 yards or more of ruffles, and then attached them with the hemmer.  In looking at the 2 pair I have here from back then, I did a much better job than I can remember doing.

And I just noticed the time.  It's ten days to Christmas.  I've got to start paying better attention,  I'm afraid if I blink it will be June...

The lazy cheapskate (stuff you probably already know but I needed a subject)

1. With care and planning, you can get four sets of curtains for 6-over-6 windows (approx. 36" long) with decent fullness and length, plus valences, from one set of full  bed sheets.  Fitted works better, there's more material in the bottom sheet to accomodate the elastic, and considering the  cost of material...

2.  Shampoo and cream rinse contain carnauba wax, which is safe to use, heck, its even in chocolate, it's used in car waxes, foods, and hair care products because it makes stuff shinnnneeeyyy...but it's a lot kinder on porcelain and shower stalls, and if you put a blob on a sponge you can wash an entire car with it by swirling it around, gently, and then hosing down the car.  No rubbing/buffing involved. And no streaking.  It also removes that high-tide water line on bathtubs.  Great way to use up shampoo that you got and never liked.  Works on kitchen appliances too.

3.  Put a little vinegar in the water you're going to hardboil eggs in, and start the eggs in cold water, let them heat up as the water does.  Vinegar softens the shells so you can often slip most of it off the cooked eggs easily.  Only for about fifteen minutes. Longer than that and the yolk gets greenish.

4.  When you tie shoelaces, usually they skew to north and south rather than side to side.  If you make the last loop 'backwards'  they'll lie flat against the top of the shoe.

5.  House brands.  Most of them are exactly the same quality as the advertised brands, but way cheaper. Bleach,  vinegar, lemon juice, salt, baking soda, even  flour and sugar.  And sea salt is just salt with a huge price tag. Salt is salt.

6. Coffee.  Really.  Someone put me on to this one, and he was right.  As with a lot of other products, branded coffee is the same across the board. The only thing that changes is the label and the price. (Maxwell House cheats on its labeling, selling three different amounts in identically sized containers, all at the same price. ) The only difference is the teeny weight symbol at the bottom.  And house brands use plain coated cardboard containers, no ads, and are sometimes half the price of the fancy brands.  I love coffee, and cannot tell the difference.

7.  Jumbo sized standard foods like cereal, peanut butter, ketchup, and sometimes detergent.  Check the /per oz. label on the shelves.  We were taught as kids that the giant economy size was the one to buy.  Some years ago manufacturers realized that people bought this stuff on autopilot, and began changing their prices to reflect that.  If you  compare sizes, you'll find that the medium size of anything that also comes in jumbo is often cheaper-per-oz than the extra large.

8.  Paper towel products are a minefield.  Read for content on the label.  "squeezably soft" does not mean the product is soft, it means they have air  incoporated into the rolling process, so that you get big fluffy looking paper towels and toilet paper, but lots and lots of big fluffy air as well.  Sheet count is way more important.

9.  repurpose your knitted goods. Unravel the sweater you hate, wash the yarn, and make mittens with it.  Or socks, if you're so inclined.

10.  Those wonderfully huge lawn leaf bags can be used for more than just leaves, and they last, with care, forever.  If they get wet, they dry out quickly.  Great for kids' forts and paperbag games for cats.  Excellent for storing fabric or yarn, or even extra clothing.

11.  Neither of us likes the end pieces of store bread, so I let them dry up a bit and store them whole  in a plastic bag in the freezer.  When the recipe calls for bread  crumbs, take out what you need, let them dry out in the oven, and crumble them.  They still taste fresh, and you never have to actually buy any.

12.  Old socks. I use one as a duster, slip my hand in it and dust away.  I  prefer to go barefoot in the house, but in winter the floors are cold,  and use a pair of my husband's old socks, with the ribbing cut down to just above the ankle line.  The cut-off ankle pieces I use as wristlets  when I go outside to shovel. keeps the cold from whooshing up my arms.  And one is of them is perfect for my right wrist, I have a bone spur there that makes using the computer mouse unpleasant. This is just enough to relieve that.

13.  If you have water-based color pens (not gel or alcohol based, this doesn't work on them) and they start to dry up, take off the end of the tube (sometimes you need pliers, but you can see where it joins up), and with an eye dropper put in water, one drop at a time.  When the felt begins to look wet, replace the top of the pen and cap, and let them set for a few minutes or longer.  You can stretch the life of most water based pens like this almost indefinitely.

http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

The good news is...

in about three weeks the days will be getting longer.  Inch by inch, day by day,  we will begin the long slow journey back into light and possibly warmth.  I remember warmth.   No comments necessary, just nod and smile happily. Wistfully.

well my goodness

just did some terrifying things in google  and came back here and thought, hey this looks different.
It seems that, at least for now,  we are in business. 

That is one happy hornet, I'll tell ya.