The Magic Phrase Part II

Today I got a call from a nearly incoherent Indian man,  to remind me that  my 'delivery' was about to arrive and they hadn't recieved my payment yet.   Then I remembered that a few weeks ago someone who might well have been this same incoherent Indian man had called to let me know that my Clearing House delivery (o boy o boy color me excited) was arriving soon and they wanted to know if I would be home to accept it, and a small fee for the delivery would be in order now.

At that time we got into an argument about such things and I finally hung up. 

This time I may have found the magic words. I suggest that anyone who gets one of these calls, try it, it works a treat.  "I'm sorry, but we're on a do not call list and you shouldn't be calling here"  click.

I used it yesterday when manly-voiced Joe (or Pete or Frank) called on behalf on the State Fire Marshalls, wanting a donation.  click.

They don't argue.  In the case of the incoherent Indian man, he may be just versed in english enough to think HE has been put on a do not call list and who am I to dissuade him...

Year in review, back-country style

What a strange trip this has been

January and March
two ambulance rides,  one kidney stone/kidney removed.  My husband learned just how much to-ing and fro-ing is involved with running three wood stoves in below zero weather.   He got up a LOT, every two hours every night, whilst I idled my way through surgery and recovery armed only with one book, which I read three times.

February, March
it snowed a lot. It snowed a lot more and got colder.   When I came home Charlie was most solicitous of me, and was careful not to sleep on my stitches. I was most impressed by that.

June to November
Had the kitchen chimney lined,  and 6 cords of wood delivered. We cut and split and threw and stacked a bit every day.  I kept hoping I might lose a pound or two. Nooo. Not gonna happen...a neighbor last year had found a felled tree that straddled his property and ours, and he didn't want to deal with that much tree, so he said he'd help my husband buck it up and let him have the wood, as payment for getting it out of the way.  Which he did.  Nice rock maple that had outlived itself, and we're using it now for heat.

July, August, September
Got rid of the piano. it took an engine hoist and a chain saw, but we got it moved outside and dispersed. (to be gentle about it) Moved some furniture upstairs, and some into ever changing patterns, some of them right out into the car to the salvation army and some magically became kindling. You can never have too  much kindling, nossir.

July, August
 He decided we were about to be the dubious parents of an oil burner and a buncha radiators.  My job to move all the furniture into the middle of the rooms, and no I was not happy about that.  And as he said, since we have the walls cleared, why don't we get some wall board and put up decent looking walls. So I got out my plaster removal kit (one butter knife, a spatula, a hammer,  and a flat bladed screwdriver).  He also let me help him pick up  the wallboard at Home Depot, and then unload it when we got home.  I don't need a fitness trainer, I have a husband who Builds Things.

July
He replaced the water tank and pump, which were well overdue to be replaced.  The 30 gallon hot water heater in the bathroom sprang a leak, so that had to be replaced, too.  Damn didn't we get good at hauling things up and down stairs...


August, September
The radiator people came. They wired and soldered and clanged and complained loudly, and at the end of five days we had 8 new radiators hooked up.  I have no idea how to operate them, at this point, but they do work.  We still use the wood, but I no longer feel the towering need to get up every night and stuff the stoves like a mother bird with her babies, open wide, look at what mama has for you...

October to December
I started on new curtains for the bedroom windows (four) and one for the front hall. Amazing how much cold that keeps back.  We brought the small 36" weaving loom down into the parlor, and at some point I'll run out of excuses and dig into remembering how it works.  It's been awhile.

I also did a bit of sorting as to fabric, and was stunned to discover just how much I really have.  Much if it can be repurposed into things like dustcloths (old flannel sheets are perfect for that), or  potholders (former denim jeans, cut in squares,  folded over and stitched work a treat), and I still have one room upstairs to put curtains to, when it gets warmer.

We survived Christmas, and now it's next year, the days are getting longer,  which is strangely comforting.  Some things can be depended upon, no matter what else happens. 

If you've never seen this...

Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-24-2020?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cta

The Definite Maybe T13

(13 ways to say no to a four year old)

1. soon

2. not yet

3.  not always

4.  hardly ever

5.  probably

6.  possibly

7.  we'll see

8.  maybe, maybe not

9.  if it doesn't rain

10.  when the tide goes out

11.  not until tomorrow

12.  after the mailman comes

13.  ask your father

http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

I love old age. I get to be cranky

It would seem that the world of scams and hands-across-the-table has discovered that we're old.  And as they know, older people tend to trust more (except for the ones that don't), and are more easily taken in by scammers.  Except for the ones that don't.  So far this week I've fielded calls from insurance companies (for the car I no longer own) and for the policy I don't want and for the healthcare Im not interested in, plus a LOVELY man with a charming Jamaican accent this morning, who wanted to know why I hadn't responded to their inquiries about the Publishers Clearing house contest I won.  I said no, I never look at that stuff, and I throw it away.  He wanted to argue, so I hung up.

From now on, anyone with an Indian accent, or Jamaican, or any other accent will learn, to their sorrow, that she moved away months ago, or never existed, or died, poor dear, a year ago."Her?  That one?  Honey, she dead, she died MONTHS ago, so you just stop calling here, okayyy..."

We are still getting requests to visit our coastal version of  Shady Pines for the Rich and Elderly, gated community (which always puts me in mind of big clangy white gates that slam shut at dark, and you get to sleep outside in your car if you get home late...) and golf course included...

And the burial insurance. Oh, I love that one.  Or the life insurance for the elderly, no medical exam needed, at this age it's a tossup which of us will be burying the other, anyway.

I told my husband,  if you hear me telling people I'm dead, pay it no mind.  It's just my way.

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.

Sadly,...

well I can see your stuff, and bring it into the blog, but Google refuses to let me sign in with anything, and it does appear that I am whipped.
Ark, I have a blog at Blogger, but Im terrified to open it.  I just don't have the patience or the ability to futz with it any longer. 

Trouble is (this is whinging) I am so invested in Google at this point it tends to take over every thing.
Flick'r used to be Flick'r. Then it became Yahoo and then Yahoo became part of Google (aha, she says) and it does seem that no matter where one goes, Google is right there with those  big hairy hands, waiting. 

In any case, I appreciate the support, and the time spent here.  Maybe magically the whole thing will get over itself at some point (although I doubt that).  And I do have an email out there in my profile...

dese dem and dose

okay, so here's the deal.  For now, I can make new posts, and you can read them. And comment.

This is awkward,  and if no one minds comments without responses from me, then I'm cool with that. Or I can just comment in a new post. 

Sigh.

I would like to start a new blog, if I can close this one off from rogue posters and actually use a for real password.  I don't want it to turn into Vandal City, by any means.  I have about 9 years of stuff here, and I'd hate to lose it.    Lotta ego there, maybe, but it's like writing the world's longest book, and then seeing it go down (or is that up) in flames. 

if/when I do start a new one, I'll post the announcement here. oh, aren't we all excited, lol.

new post

lets see if this works

To everyone who is responding

It seems that not a lot is getting through,  although Im grateful for the sympathy:  I may just have to junk this whole thing and start over, something I do NOT want to do, after 10 years of stuff. 

I contacted Blogger and I was told this sounded like something that happened last spring (which it does not), and I should go reread that and see if that's the problem (which it is not) and that was the stellar advice I got from the four star help over there.   I have Chrome on this now, and I surely wish I didn't, it seems to cause more grief than not, but it somehow insinuated itself into nearly every program I have, sort of like the stray cat that you wake to find sleeping peacefully on the bed at your feet. 

Chrome is even less helpful as far as trouble shooting goes.

Anything else, I wouldn't mind, but I just can't respond directly to comments, I have no idea why.  So, we do this.

N.ayisha, if I can, I'll post photos of the loom when I get it set up.  This is a 36" 4 harness loom, collapsible for (ho ho ho) easy traveling (if you have stevedore blood) and storage.  What I love about it, you can fold it up with stuff still in it, unfinished, and drag the thing away to a corner.   And it's an amazing way to use up all that accumulated yarn and such.   I really think a nice coverlet blanket thing would work well.  I could back it with a patchwork quilt made to size,  and have it do double duty. 

Right now I'm doing curtains for the upstairs, from a set of cotton sheets that are no longer fitted sheets, but are also neutral enough to work well at the windows. 

I hate to admit it, but the radiators are working exactly the way we(I) hoped.  He has the thermostat set for 62 deg. and when the temps in here drop to 62 or so, the furnace comes on, and voila, you wake up in the morning to dead stoves but a decently warm room.  Considering it was 9 above this morning, and 2 above the morning before...

problems in blogger land /waving at Boud

It would appear that somewhere between here and there my password, sign in and whatever else google can dream up to mess with, has hit the fan.

I can  post, but I can't respond in the proper comment box.  Google is giving me three choices, none of which work.

This is not a good thing, here.

I posted this to Boud, and it won't take there, so I'll post it here.


"Im thinking of a nice easy straight stretch, maybe a blanketty thing, depending on what I have for yarn. 

My former loom is a big old barn loom, this is a nice 36" collapsible one.  The cats really don't pay a lot of attention to it, and if I can close it up between bouts, all the better. "

Thoughts on weaving looms and oil burners

For the first time in 43 years, tonight we let the woodstoves go out and turned on our new  oil burner.  It seems to be working.

My husband, the mechanical engineer, is down there right now with little digital  thermometers,  assessing and testing and generally having entirely too much fun. When it first went on, it really sounded as if the spaceship engines had been lit and we would be whisked off into outer space.

It may happen yet.

After this 24 hour test I hope it doesn't come on again until much colder weather, my fingers are itching to start up the stoves RIGHT NOW.  Habits die  hard. Also brought the weaving loom down from the front room,  now that we will have a place to keep it.  It belonged to a weaver friend of mine, and when she broke up housekeeping she sold it to me.  It's a reasonably small collapsible one, 36",  and I'm waiting for some long winter days to get it moving.  It's been years since I've used a loom, it'll be like starting from scratch again.