“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
I heard the most welcome of sounds when I woke up this morning, the sound of rain on the roof. I didn’t hear people shoveling or a plow working its way down the street. I heard heavy rain, and I was glad. The day may be dismal and dark, but the rain is a bright spot, sort of oxymoronic I know, but that’s the way it feels.
I am going to Hyannis today. It is really not very far, but I sometimes think of the journey as a trek of sorts. I’m attending a luncheon with the Cape Cod Returned Peace Corps group. We get together every now and then. The last time was in October for the dedication of a stone we’d purchased with a plaque on it celebrating fifty years of Peace Corps and honoring all who served. This luncheon is to recognize Peace Corps week. It starts early so I should be home early which is perfect as I have promised Gracie we will go the dump even if it’s still raining.
When I was younger, not young, but younger, never did I imagine I would pamper myself so much. My groceries were just delivered by Peapod, and they’re already put away. I didn’t have to go up and down aisles silently cursing the aisle hogs or make three or four trips from the car to bring the groceries into the house. When snow fell the last two weekends, I waited for Skip who plowed out my car, the driveway, the mail box and the place in front where I usually park. He shoveled two walks. My front lawn is covered in small, broken pine branches felled by the winds. The back yard has several larger branches on the ground, also victims of the wind. I know in a few months my landscaper and his crew will come and spring clean both yards. Roseana and Lee will be here this week to clean the house. They come every two weeks. I do cleaning in the off-week but usually as little as possible. I have had cleaning people for years, even before I lived here. They date back to when I had a roommate and we shared a house. We both worked, and that was our excuse for housecleaners. She got married and sold her house so I bought my own house. For a long while I cleaned it myself due to finances, not a work ethic, but as soon I could afford it, I hired housecleaners again. When I stopped working, I still kept the housecleaners. Age and a bad back finished off my shoveling career. When I redid the yard, I used a landscaper and decided he was the best choice to keep the grass green and free of weeds. I am, for the most part, a woman of leisure though I am still stuck making and changing the bed and doing laundry. I guess we all need a bit of suffering to keep us humble.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: landscaper, Laundry, leisure, Peace Corps, Peapod, plowman, rain, returned volunteer
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February 24, 2013 at 10:24 am
Hi Kat,
The welcome sound of rain greeted me this morning, too. Boy am I happy about that. There was just the tiniest dusting of snow on the grass last night and now it is all washed away.
Peapod is my friend. I hope Stop and Shop employees don’t have to go out on strike. I’m able to do the shopping again but I really don’t want to. It makes me cranky and I buy things I don’t need because they look good.
With age has come the acceptance that there are things that I shouldn’t do anymore: shoveling and heavy yard work. There are things that I shouldn’t do because it makes me a nicer person to be around: grocery shopping and mowing the lawn. I’m very happy to pay someone to do those things.
It is grey and dreary up here but it is not snow so I am happy. Today I must stand at the sink and clean up all the dirty storage containers that I removed from the refrigerator the other day. The pile is blocking the view out the window. 😀
Enjoy the trip to the dump and the rest of your day.
February 24, 2013 at 10:34 am
Hi Caryn,
I worried that you had snow all night-glad to hear it was rain.
You convinced me to use Peapod. Today I gave him back all those plastic bags and an envelope with my coupons. What fun to see this man, not me, bringing the bags into the kitchen in the rain.
I too am very happy to pay other people to do the work. I used to tell me these hands of mine were not meant for any sort of labor, heavy or not.
Thanks! Finish up at the sink then just relax!
February 24, 2013 at 3:23 pm
I spoke too soon. It’s snowing.
The sink decided not to drain so I had to give up the dishes (aww) and dump drain cleaner down the pipe.
I have retired to the couch and taken up some knitting and reading.
February 24, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Your response was just perfect! Te couch is the perfect place to be under the circumstances!
February 24, 2013 at 10:26 am
Kat:
I’m catching up on Coffee, so in response to your 2/22 blog: I have two friends from kindergarten, as well as some high school friends, and we too exchange Christmas cards, but nothing else. Time, distance and maturity have grown us further apart. Most of our friends now are those from our years at UNH, both before and after our graduating year of 1969. We see each other twice per year, and I think that is enough. Last week I received a notice about a group high school reunion in Milford Ct. The group includes graduates from several years; I have never been to any high school or college reunions, and I don’t want to start now.
Very snowy here today, about 8″ worth so far. This week is the beginning of March, a snowy, rainy and sometimes unpleasant month; but we have to get thru it if we want to see spring. Only a few weeks left for ski season.
Thursday is the pope’s last day in office. I wonder if he’ll come in late and leave early. Maybe they’ll have a cake for him with those joke candles that re-light themselves.
February 24, 2013 at 10:40 am
Bill,
My list of people I knew prior to 1969 and keep in contact with is very small of people, and I’m fine with that. I have gone to a few high school class reunions. The last one was small and on a boat out of Hyannis. Haven’t been to a college one.
My Dad passed away in March and though Stoneham had rain the Cape got smothered in snow. There were 2 snow days, but my friends still managed to make it up to Stoneham. Sorry you’re getting snow!!
HaHAHA, I’m for all those joke candles. I can see that party now, all men standing around chatting, holding glasses filled with ceremonial wine and telling the now former pope we’ll stay in touch, maybe do lunch.
February 24, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Maybe they’ll give him a gold watch for his service. I think all those men with their red beanies and lace dresses will really tie one on Thursday night, and again when they elect a new pope. Maybe someday it will be a popess.
February 24, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Bill,
I can’t ever believe they’d be a popess. Conservation bunch in lace!
February 24, 2013 at 11:05 am
Kat,
You know I love your blog, but don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I enjoy your musical selections. You often post songs that I’ve never heard before and that’s always fun!
As for yesterday’s post, your students must have considered you very cool. I’ve never been to a Trek convention, but in the ’70s and ’80s I used to collect comics and Beatles memorabilia from the ’60s. I attended conventions as far away as Chicago and New York . . . so I’m a geek of sorts too (and very proud of it.)
Marie
P.S. I’ve had to give up on the WordPress idea, as I couldn’t manage to insert any songs on the blog, despite changing my browser. Now there’s the onerous task of uploading and inserting Box links for all of my blogger posts. By the way, if you hear anything you like I’d be happy to email you the tunes.
February 24, 2013 at 4:37 pm
Marie,
I so agree about new music. When I hear a musician new to me and I love the sound, I am always excited and then go hunting for more. I’m glad you enjoy the music. It is eclectic!
Nothing wrong with being a geek. I wrote up then taught a science fiction class, and my students loved it. They read Dune as one of the novels!
I’m sorry about the WordPress as it is really easy to put in that slide to listen then I just insert the link to the download on Box. It took me a while to figure out how to do it but WordPress had good instructions. Maybe you can understand theirs better than mine!!
Thank you for the kind offer!!!!!!
February 24, 2013 at 11:06 am
Today is sunny but cool which is the calm before the big storm hits us tomorrow morning with heavy rain, wind and thunderstorms. Our friends in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri will spend their day digging out of the frozen version of the precipitation. Have you ever heard thunder snow? That’s when you hear thunder and lighting while it’s snowing. Many people would be surprised to learn that during a big summer thunderstorm it’s snowing about four miles above your head in the storm. By the time the snow falls through the warm lower atmosphere it melts into rain.
I was born with a purple thumb. Anything that grows will whether and die if my hand has anything to do with planting, tending or even preparing the soil. When I bought my last house I bought a brand new Honda walking lawn mower. I only wanted moderate exercise while mowing. After mowing the grass for several weeks the grass began to die. I planted a nice shrub and it also turned brown and died. Luckily my next door neighbor owned a landscape company and he took pity on me and my yard. He offered to have his crew mow my yard when they did his for a small fee since they were already next door. The lawn mower is still in my garage waiting for me to donate it to a museum when it becomes an antique 🙂
We still go grocery shopping because my wife loves to buy things that are marked down. She will come home and pull a dozen donuts, bread, cake, meat or fruit from the bag that were marked down to 80% of yesterday’s price. We have an extra freezer to store ridiculously reduced food that will keep while frozen. My father was the king of freezing marked down meat. He once told me that scientists had discovered a frozen mastodon and that the meat was still good. I still think that the virus that attacked his heart and eventually killed him came from meat that he bought marked down and kept frozen for over nine years 🙂
My wife has fired a couple of house cleaners over the years because she doesn’t think that they are doing as good a job as she would. We are currently in the market for another cleaning person or company. Hopefully, as the last week of February approaches, you will have suffered your last big snow storm.
February 24, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Bob,
We just had the heavy rains but no thunder. The streets were flooded in many places-made navigating through them difficult.
I have heard of thunder snow. They were talking about it on the weather the other night as there had some reports of it. I feel sorry for anyone digging out. I know how awful all that snow can be.
I am lucky as most things grow for me. It’s the upkeep I don’t like. My mower broke, and I never replaced it!
When I was in college and had an apartment, I used to go to the Hostess mark down store. It was filled with great stuff at lower prices. We didn’t have a huge freezer so we only bought what we could use. Nope, not me on the meat frozen for a long time.
We are known to have a snowstorm or two in March. The year my dad died the school was closed two days due to snow, and that was just around St. Patrick’s Day. But I’m hoping with you!
February 24, 2013 at 6:17 pm
In 1981 or so, I flew a trip to Augusta Maine and back to Dallas on the same day in mid March. There was a hurricane type blizzard hitting the New York Metropolitan area. I remember that JFK airport was reporting visibilities of 1/4 mile or less in blowing snow with a barometric pressure of 29.86 inches of mercury as we flew overhead at 41,000 feet on top of a high overcast. When we departed Augusta the snow was just starting to fall. Airliners headed to New York and Boston were diverting to places as far away as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Columbus. Spring time blizzards along the East Coast can be brutal.
February 25, 2013 at 12:54 am
Bob,
That one I mentioned the year my Dad died was just such a blizzard. It dumped several inches of snow and made the roads impassable for a while.
Usually by March I have had it with winter!
February 24, 2013 at 11:19 am
And I thought your driving a mile or two away to dispose of your mice was a bit excessive….
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/02/22/172695707/dead-mice-are-going-to-be-dropped-on-guam-from-helicopters-really?ft=1&f=100
February 24, 2013 at 4:09 pm
im6,
None of mine needed parachutes either!
That was pretty interesting. I wondered how they were going to kill the mice. I hope humanely.
February 24, 2013 at 4:21 pm
Maybe the 80 mg of acetaminophen kills the mice and the residue kills the snakes. Like d-Con. 🙂
It’s a bit worrisome that they said the dosed mice shouldn’t harm any other animals because the mice will be in the trees. But they also are “hoping” that the majority of the dosed mice will end up in the trees and get eaten by snakes within the 2 day window.
I saw somewhere that Jack Russell Terriers are used as brown tree snake sniffer dogs at shipping and airports. They find them and then they kill them. Very efficient.
February 24, 2013 at 4:29 pm
Caryn,
I wonder what other animals are around which would eat the mice.
I’m thinking there are far too any ships arriving for the Jack Russells to sniff through each one.
February 24, 2013 at 12:28 pm
We’ve got new snow and I’m happy about that!
Some American customs are still difficult to understand, you can’t vote on a Sunday because it could hurt religious feelings but the dump is open on Sundays? Perhaps a trip to the dump can be declared as part of religious ritual purification. Or as the Gospel according to Gracie 😉
February 24, 2013 at 4:12 pm
Birgit,
I’m glad for your new snow and glad there is none for me!
The law makes sense when you think about it this way. The dump is open five days a week and you can choose any of those days to go and leave your trash, but if Sunday is the only day to vote, then you are stuck trampling on religious custom or feelings or whatever.
February 24, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Sunshine, a bit cold and a nasty and bitterly cold wind here today, what could have been a wonderful winterspring day outdoors becamé a stay indoors day watching a dvd. Well I did fetch my car but that’s it.
It’s still a bit too expensive to have cleaning people coming to the house but if I had the money I woulödn’t hesitate 🙂 Perhaps a butler 🙂 I think I would trust someone living here all the time better 🙂
I am a gardener and would have problems letting anyone but myself do anything there 🙂 But weeds aren’t a problem here, we all have so much of them in our lawns that no one cares 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
February 24, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Christer,
I don’t think staying in and watching movies is lost day! Bitterly cold is not inviting in any way, and it can be dangerous outside in it.
I would love a live-in who did whatever I needed and is here when I travel. That I can’t afford so I’ll just make-do with what I have.
I wish I were even half the gardener you are. I love picking out and buying flowers and I love how my garden looks, but I don’t like the work.
Have a wonderful evening.
February 26, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Yes… indeed
Humble… yes!
Carl
February 26, 2013 at 4:29 pm
Carl,
I hope this is not with tongue in cheek!