Laughs

 It was a day of getting ready to go, getting everything packed up. We are headed east to see Iris' ballet recital. 

I picked up some laces to teach her how to weave a simple bracelet. I was looking at some beads, but remembered that I'd gotten her a bag of UV detecting beads at Christmas (they turn colors in the sunlight). I gave my daughter in law a quick call to make sure she still had some of those. If not, I needed to buy some beads. I was assured that they were in a drawer, and that Iris was quite excited for me to get there. 

My daughter-in-law gets up before anyone in the house so that she can get her shower. Then she bustled down to the guest room to put the fresh bedding on the bed. She was moving quietly because the rest of the house was asleep, and she shut the door to keep any noise out of the hall. 

Iris woke up, and saw the light under the door in 'gramma's room' and charged in excitedly thinking that I'd gotten in early to surprise her. "She was SO disappointed..." 

That was sweet. 

Today, Mattie needed to do some grocery shopping, so I volunteered to take her down. Her sister Katie came with us too. I noticed that things were quite different last time. Levi was with us. The women were quiet, and when they did speak, they spoke in German to Levi and he translated to me.  It wasn't oppressive. I guess that's just the way they do things. But it was sure different from how it is when I've got a car load of ladies. 

Anyways, it was Katie and Mattie today. Mattie said, "I'll probably fill up the car." I said, "I'm just about used to that," and off we went. So as not to garner any ill will, our first stop was GoodWill. Fine by me. I found some cute dresses for the girls. I needed a knob for a cast iron dutch oven, and I've been unable to find what I was looking for. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before, but I saw a box of pot lids. Nothing but pot lids. I found one with a knob that I liked and so I bought it, brought it home and unscrewed it from the lid and tossed the lid in the recycling. Voila.

They had two stores they needed to get to, and once that was done, they suggested Dairy Queen. I had my normal meal which is a FlameThrower and an unsweeted ice tea. They ordered their meals and we waited together. They called out our numbers and one by one we picked up our sandwiches and headed for a table. 

When I unwrapped my burger, I thought, "This doesn't look right. I've never seen a slice of onion on a Flamethrower." I checked my bag, and it was my order number. At about the same moment, I noticed Mattie's red face with a very strange expression. She was looking at the burger she had just taken a big bite of. 

I knew what happened immediately. I said, "Is that your burger?"

She said, "I don't sink so." 

I asked "Is it hot?"

She nodded. I laughed. "They mixed up our orders. They put my sandwich in your bag!"

She felt awful because she had taken a bite of it. "It's alright," I said. "You're not contagious or anything, right?" intending to cut out the part she'd taken a bite from. 

She looked quite shocked at that. I said, "It's not a big deal, really...unless..." I fixed her with a look. "Will I turn Amish if I eat this? Is Amish catching?" 

Laughing out loud is something that they don't do in public usually. Polite little giggles, but the ROFL LOL stuff is not something you'll catch Amish women doing. It was hilarious to watch them. Their eyes grew wide and they both simultaneously grabbed their paper napkins and held them tightly against their mouths, and rocked with laughter. 

In the end, I ended up taking the burger back, not because I was afraid to 'catch' Amish, but because there was nothing to cut the portion away with. Just straws and sundae spoons. I explained to the woman at the counter what had happened and they made me up a new sandwich right away. I looked back at Mattie and Katie and they were still rocking with their napkins tightly held against their mouths, laughing uproariously as quietly as they could.

I bought William a new pair of jeans while we were out. When he walked over after school, I had him try them on. They were too big. Honestly. The kid is so skinny. He's getting tall though, so now finding pants long enough that are not too big around the waist is a struggle. I headed out to the store with him and the jeans. He was outraged that I expected him to try the jeans on before we left the store. I said, "No. We need to make sure these are right." We were just passing the newly opened Dunkin' Donuts. I said, "Listen, humor me, and we'll stop on the way back and you can try Dunkin' Donuts." That quieted him down. 

3 pair of jeans later, we wound up going back to what we always buy, Wranglers, 12 slim. 

And when we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts, we had the intention of getting a donut for William and for Grandpa too. Except that there was (I kid you not) ONE lone donut in the long display case. William quipped. "This should be Dunkin' Donut without the S, and when I buy this donut, it will be just "Dunkin'" I thought that was hilarious. The poor guy behind the counter just looked as if he'd had a very hard day. 

Post Script: Tim has never met a donut he didn't like and so he told William that they'd go back to Dunkin' Donuts after supper. The store was open. They didn't have any donuts. When the guy said they had one donut left, he meant they'd sold out. There were no more donuts in the store. I guess they must be pretty spesh, as far as donuts go. 

So, we will be gone for the weekend. I hope that you all have a good weekend. 

GZ, I'll be thinking of you. 

Encouragement.

 You know, a profound thing happened this morning, before I even got out of bed. We have a pretty nice relationship with our tenants. 3 of them have a pretty solid historical connection. They grew up in Kinzua, and were forced out by the government who were building a dam, and where their tiny towns stood would soon be underwater, part of the Kinzua reservoir. It ties in quite really well with Tasker's post today, strangely enough as he too recounted a story of a place which no longer exists. 

So...they are good friends, bound together by their shared history. Through them, we met another couple, who had the same 'Kinzua Connection'. I wrote about them. The gentle man made a huge impression on me in that short meeting. 

It's no secret that I've been struggling. I mean, the news of the world is really just overwhelmingly awful lately. Today I read that Israel is blocking the delivery of sleeping bags to Gaza. That's indefensible. It is simple cruelty. Unfortunately, 12,300 children have been killed in Gaza in the past four months. More will surely follow, because they are starving to death. Israel's goal is to inflict suffering, and they are doing a fine job of it. Hammerabi's law demanded 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'. Israel's 'revenge' has gone far beyond what can be considered reasonable. 

I will always be ashamed of my president vowing to protect Israel, no matter what. To me, it is so very simple. Say that I've got a friend, and that friend gets mad and kills someone. How shall I respond? If I defend him, cover for him, help to him to avoid justice, this would be called 'aiding and abetting'. It is a crime. You can laugh at the simplicity of that, but in my mind, if it isn't ethical on a personal level, it is no more ethical on a national level, or a world level. Wrong is wrong. 

And then there is Putin. 

And our political chaos. 

I mean, it just never ends. I've given up watching the news altogether. I follow it closely, but somehow the words are easier to take than the actual visuals, so I read my news. It gets to the point where, really, you just feel as if it is futile. There is no point. There is nothing that I can do to make a difference. I mean, I try to be a good person. I do. But I will make no difference in this world. 

Last night, we got an unexpected call from that elderly gentleman from the beginning of this post. He's had a rough go of things in the past couple years. His wife died, and they were each a half of a whole. A tree blew down on his little house in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the winter. We offered him a camper to live in, but he thanked us. He went on living in the livable part of his little house, working industriously to make the unliveable part liveable once again. He's a quiet, independent soul, and sometimes you will catch him smoking a joint staring across the water. I don't begrudge him his small pleasures. I'll tell you true. Sometimes I am tempted to smoke one and see if the world looks any better when I'm done. 

Anyways, his text came out of the blue. He'd come across some foam sheeting and wondered if we would want it. Tim immediately said yes. The house is insulated. but Tim said that we could use it in the garage, to make that weather tight. They made plans to meet up. When we asked how much he wanted for it, he said that he didn't want anything, that it wasn't his. He was doing a job and had to get rid of it. He wanted it to be reused, instead of tossing it in the landfill. 

This morning, I invited him to supper, but it turns out that he eats very plainly, very simply. He's also a vegetarian. I said, "Well, can we do some sort of a barter? You're doing a kindness for us." He responded that perhaps we could do a barter at some point, but he could not think of anything at the moment. 

In a joking way, I responded, "Sigh! I can tell when I am being put off, sir!" 

He said, "Well. I'm afraid you're reading this wrong. Just an offer to a fellow traveler. I am sure things will even themselves out at some point." 

Afraid that I'd hurt his feelings, I said, "I know that you are right, and I hope that you remember us when the time comes that you need help. But whatever happens, know that this will be paid forward. In this world today, we have a responsibility to be kind, to pour as much good into this world as we can. It is our only hope." 

And then came his beautiful reply. "My friends on Water St. have shown me just how well you both understand the need to spread kindness and goodness to others. It is actions like yours that give me hope that we CAN create the kind of world that we long for." He closed his text with "Enjoy this day. Namaste." 

I do not relate this for shameless self promotion. I'm not bragging. But here's the gift of his words. We do try to be kind. We do try to do good. It never seems to be enough. It never seems to matter. It never makes a difference. Except...someone noticed, and I feel as if it has somehow eased my internal struggle just a bit. 

I think of Steve Reed's 'Estelle' painting her rocks, leaving them about London. I'm not sure how old she is but it was very moving to me to think of a girl, with a child's pure heart, leaving her rocks for others to find, earnestly believing that she can bring joy into the world. 

Red's story about taking his wife out for her birthday had an unexpected ending.

Weaver's stories about the kindness of others are touching too. 

Yeah. We are living in a very ugly world right now, but there is sweetness. There are Estelles. There are Geezes. There are good people, and just being reminded of that made a big difference for me today. 

Feel free to leave your examples in the comments, some little story of kindness that has made an impact on you. I'd love to hear them. I'm sure the world could use the encouragement. 

Feeding the Masses.

 Donna W. talked about potato soup over on her blog, I still have about 30 lbs of potatoes that I need to use, and I thought that would be a good way to use some of them up. 

Of course, I needed ham for that. I had a little ham, a two pounder, but it was in the freezer. Once thawed, it would need to be used. The soup would not require all that ham, so I made up my mind to do a quiche with spinach, ham, and swiss cheese for tonight. I got that put together and in the oven, and then chopped up some more of the ham and tossed it into a crock pot with celery and onion and some water. 

When the vegetables were tender and the broth good and 'brothy', I added some peeled, diced potatoes and let them simmer until tender. I added half a stick of butter and popped it in the fridge. All I have to do for supper tomorrow is make a cheddar cheese roux, add it to the soup base and heat through. That will make a quick supper for tomorrow. 

The rest of the ham and the left over swiss cheese from the quiche will become grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for the night after next. It's nice, esp. when we're busy, to have suppers pretty much planned and ready to go. 

At the end of the week, we are headed to see Iris' ballet recital. She is quite excited about her show, and it is all top secret, very hush-hush. She did show me one dance step, but swore me to secrecy. We're getting her a wrist corsage to present to her after the show. William is coming along and it will be a nice weekend away, a short one because Tim has a doctor's appointment bright and early Monday morning, so we'll head back Sunday. 

I haven't said anything about the cats lately. Houdi is not allowed out at night, and that seems to be saving his ass, literally. He hasn't been bit in the butt since his last bite in the butt. Of course, it makes him quite ornery when he asks to go out and it doesn't happen for him. He tries to argue the point. 

I know that after the last cat attack, I said that I wasn't going to feed the ferals anymore, but I can't help it. Mangey comes when I call, and he is glad for his food. He gets a good diet because proper nutrition is important to stave off mange. He had a horrible case the first time I met him, and we got him all cured from that. (I tried to talk to his owners about it. They think that this is from excessive grooming.) We treated him for mange, and got him all squared away. I was disappointed to see that a spot had returned on his face in January or so. So he gets a good cat food and medicated every other month as a preventative. His face is looking better. I know that commenters think he needs a new name, something nice, but he knows who I'm talking to when I call for him. He answers. We need to maintain that, because, as I said, when I leave this house, he's coming with me. They have a big dog, and he is not a fan of the dog. He told me so. The way he came over the top of the chainlink fence between our property and theirs was all I needed to know. 

Testing the water, I told Tim that we were bringing Mangey with us when we move. He gave me a look. It's not his favorite idea I don't think, but he didn't say were were not. Hence we have reached The Great Cat Accord. duly witnessed by all of you. You understand that you may be called to submit depositions in the case of objections down the road. 

In any case, when we got home from working on the house, Mangey was waiting for us. His face looks better. I called him to the mudroom and fed him his supper and we visited for a while. 

Another of the ferals is 'Goblin', and I think that he's the aggressive cat. He's a long haired black cat. We tried to bring him in a few years ago. Probably 6, maybe 7. It didn't not work out. He did not want to be an indoor cat. He told me so. The way he continually shot out the door each and every time he had an opportunity to do so made it crystal clear. When we tried to force the issue, he simply got out and to teach us a lesson, he did not come back for a couple months. 

Tim went to visit a friend and was a bit grumpy when he got home. He said, "Well, we've got another one. I've never seen this one before." I said, 'Is he the tiger?' Tim answered, "Nope. He was gray." I said, "Oh, the gray one with the white face?" Tim started to look a bit provoked. "No. He did not have a white face. He was solid gray. How many cats are we feeding???" he wanted to know. I honestly had to tell him that I don't know. If I see a cat hanging around looking hopeful, I put a cup of food out in the dish for him. 

I feel badly for the street cats, but they can't all come with us. We've already got one feral living in the old house in Grand Valley. He's figured out how to get in through the basement, and we don't mind. We run the furnace in the little house, keeping it at 50 degrees because we have a lot of stuff for the new house in there, so Get-Along has a cozy place to get out of the cold. I'm sure that he finds plenty of mice to keep himself fed. He is a true feral, and I doubt that he will ever get close enough to be petted, but he's a wiley character who has managed to fend for himself quite nicely, at the same time avoiding the foxes and coyotes. You have to respect an animal like that. We've seen him, off and on, for 4 or 5 years now, always from a distance, just a glimpse. 

Houdi was a rescue. We'll rescue Mangey too. but we cannot save them all. I can't help but feel bad about that.

Sunday

We spent the afternoon working down at the new house. Wiring. I am not an electrician, and so at this point, I'm back to my old familiar role of step-and-fetch. I leapfrog the ladders. It's pretty boring. 

Today, I gathered up the scrap pieces of wiring and thought...hmmmm...and so entertained myself by stripping the wire down to the copper and then using pliers to shape it. I began restringing a windchime that had fallen apart, cutting the old string and then toying around with the wire to figure out how the best way to hang it. I think I have a plan. 

Of course, about the time that a design all began to come together in my mind, Tim needed me to feed wire through. We did that for the rest of the afternoon. 

When we ran out of wire, we spent some time finalizing the light placement for the bathroom. 

We stopped in and visited with my sister and her husband for a while, and then we headed home. The trees are starting to leaf out. and daffodils are everywhere. That's a hopeful sign. 

We watched the craziest movie tonight. 'Serenity', with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. It had an intriguing start. We were both hooked. I watched that movie devolve until I had no idea just what was going on. Tim dozed off and woke up after it ended. "So what happened," he wanted to know. I had to answer honestly, "I don't know. I couldn't tell you."

Gray Area

 We worked on the house yesterday. It's a frustrating time for me, because there is not really a lot I can do, so I stand around a great deal of the time waiting for him to tell me what to get, or what to do. Sometimes, I can stand around for quite some time. We are doing the wiring for the ceiling fans/lights/exhaust fans, etc. We have the bathroom exhaust fan, and the recessed lights for in the bathroom, We will need to make a decision on the kitchen exhaust. 

So that was yesterday. 

Coming home, I had an unaccountable craving for a veggie pizza, and so we placed an order for one to pick up. 

I find myself just not wanting to be around people lately. Sounds awful, doesn't it? 

People just want to argue. An acquaintance really began blasting Christianity. She really feels it is responsible for so many evils in the world. There is no God! She proclaims this long and loud and will argue the point with anyone who dares to believe differently. 

Now, I don't disagree with her. She's right in my opinion, but I countered with, "Leave people alone!  For heaven's sake, I know people who call themselves Christians who are every bit as horrified as you are at what is happening in the world. Their belief does not affect you. " 

She was quick to let me have it. I think that she just assumed that we would be in agreement. The thing is, we are. I just don't understand the need to hold all Christians accountable for the acts of some. I guess my point is that I am completely willing to debate ideology. Evangelical Christianity and their ideology is doing a lot of damage, and I will argue that ideology because it affects me. Ridiculing everyone who believes in God is simply religious intolerance,  no different from the Christians she criticizes proclaiming that all other faiths are not 'right' or 'true'. 

People want to see things as black and white, and yet, life is rarely like that. If you don't agree with the actions of Israel, you are quick to be labeled 'pro-Hamas'. Or antisemitic. If you don't agree with the Evangelicals, you are a 'liberal', a word that cannot be uttered without contempt dripping from every syllable. If you don't agree with Islam, you are an infidel. It goes on and on, doesn't it? 

Yesterday, I disagreed with a liberal, and watched her take a page from the far-right republican playbook. If I was not with her, I was against her, and she tore into me. I recognized the gaslighting immediately. She was trying to discredit me by picking apart my words, making a big deal out of semantics, all in an attempt to miss my point, to ignore the big picture. 

I wished her a good day and ended the conversation, which she seemed to find hilarious. I'm sure she thought she won, that her argument was so overwhelmingly 'right' that I had no comeback. I had plenty to say, but what was the point of saying it? She wasn't listening to me, and I was sure as shit not going to stand there and listen to her. There was nothing to be won by continuing the conversation.

In the end, I think our world will be destroyed by intolerance, the refusal to respect people as fellow human beings with every bit as much right to live their life by their own rules as we have. 

Live and let live. 

It sounds so simple, doesn't it?

Water, Water, Everywhere

 We are getting quite a bit of rain here, but the Allegheny River is at 12 feet. It reaches flood level at 14 feet, so we're good. Still, the river is high and muddy. Our Conewango, which feeds into the Allegheny is likewise high. Tim walked down to check the flooding behind the rentals. He was mostly worried about the steps we built down to the creek for our tenants Paula and Jim to be able to reach the river bank and sit with a fire and watch birds during the summer. The steps are right where we left them, which was mighty good news to us. We've got rain in the forecast through Saturday night. High winds predicted for tonight. 

They're getting it badly down in Pittsburgh. Our Allegheny flows through Pittsburgh, and water levels there raised 21 feet in the past couple days. Comparitively speaking, we've got nothing to complain about. 

Today was a big day for us. The city has not responded in any way, shape or form to our paperwork. Dead silence. 

We have had a local television investigation team in. They've got questions. They requested paperwork from the city under the Sunshine Law, but the city has 30 days to get that paperwork to them. According to the reporter, he expects the city to take the full 30 days to forward it to them. 

In the meantime, we hired a guy to come in and run a camera down the line. He was going to provide us with a flash drive of the pictures to prove that the line had been capped. Unfortunately, the line is still filled with water and he could not see to get the pictures. But...all was not lost. He ran the camera through the line until it stopped. He came out of the basement and went to his truck. He had a device that communicated with the camera, telling him exactly where the camera was at. 

With a big grin, he said, "There you go. The camera is right here. See that writing on the side walk? (4'8", it said.) He said, "He marked where he capped it. The cap is 4'8" beneath this marker. That's where my camera is. That's where he's got it marked. Your line was capped." 

He gave us that information in writing. 

He explained where the city is going to try to get us. Shared lines are not allowed now. Back in the 1920s they were allowed so our lines were 'grandfathered in'. However, the law is, in the case of a drainage problem, the city requires the property owner to put in an unshared line. They will stubbornly stick to that, ignoring the fact that there was no drainage problem until they capped our line. Had they recognized that that was a 'wet line' and left it uncapped our drainage would have been working still. Since the house next door was removed, that line would no longer be a shared line, There would have been no problem. 

He pointed out that when a wet line is capped, the property owner is to be given written notice of what is going on. We were not. 

He said, given the city's dead silence on this, they are not going to respond, in his opinion. He said, "You'll have to get a lawyer." We had already figured that, and we have been researching out of town lawyers.

I forwarded the information to the reporter. Over the weekend, I will once again assemble the packets of information. Monday morning, I will deliver the information. What is so frustrating about this is that as citizens, if the city demands payment for anything, even a parking ticket, you don't have the option of ignoring that. How do they have the right to simply ignore us? 

*sniff!*

Well, I've caught cold. 

I'm on the mend. *snuffle*, but luckily, I have a nice pile of funny books on the table to read at my leisure. (Thanks again)