“Life is too short to try and glue together broken plates that were cheap in the first place.”
The morning is near perfect. The sun is shining and is framed in a blue sky which goes on forever. The air is a bit chilly. The breeze is strong but intermittent. Every now and then the top branches, the ones closest to the sky, sway. It will be 74˚today. Tomorrow, the rain returns. If you stop by to visit, I won’t apologize for the dog print covered kitchen floor. I was going to wash it today, but with rain predicted tomorrow, I’ll wait. I love a plausible excuse!
I have been hauling trash bags to the car. Today is dump day. My trunk is already filled and two more bags sit by the car waiting to be loaded. Filled with used litter, those bags from the cat room were so heavy they almost took me down the stairs.
My dance card is mostly filled this week. Today is my only list free day, and the dump is my only chore. I have uke practice tomorrow, inside for the first time this fall, both dogs have a vet appointment Wednesday, friends are coming for dinner on Thursday and Friday is another uke concert. I can’t remember the last time I was this busy. I’m not sure I like it. My reputation as a sloth, one I cherish, is in jeopardy.
When I was a kid, I didn’t know many bullies. I figure they were around but avoided me. They knew I couldn’t abide bullying. Only once did peaceful methods fail me. I was driven to violence, to punching a boy in the face, one who deserved punching. I don’t even remember the boy I punched. I do remember getting caught and going to the principal’s office. I was a ten year old felon. The principal agreed with me in philosophy but explained that punching was an unacceptable response. I sort of agreed.
My mother always used unbreakable glasses and plates. My favorite glasses were the aluminum ones in different colors. They had a matching pitcher. My second favorite glasses were the old jelly glasses. They had cartoon figures on the front. I have a couple of those. I remember the Melmac dishes. I also remember that Melmac was the home world of ALF but that is pure coincidence. Anyway, if the Melmac dish hit the floor, it rattled over and over until it stopped dead, surrounded by food. Seeing meat, potatoes and veggies on the floor was never a pretty sight, but the dish, sitting in the middle of the mess, never broke. When we closed up and sold my mother’s house, there were still a few Melmac plates with the wheat decoration. Those dishes were legendary.
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September 27, 2021 at 3:55 pm
Hi Kat,
When I was in junior high school I was bullied but can’t remember who the bullies were. I avoided them around school or on the short walk to and from school. I think bullying is a right of passage for prepubescent boys.
I hadn’t thought of the word “Melmac” in a very long time. We also had the multi assortment of colored, aluminum, tumblers, as they were called. I don’t remember the aluminum pitcher. My parents restricted liquids during meals because they were convinced too much water would take away our appetites. They had a lot of those kind of weird ideas. They were called in English, “Grandmother tales”.
Today is a slightly more humid version of the previous few days. The upper level low that will bring rain on Wednesday and cooler temperatures is working its way east from Arizona. 🙂
September 27, 2021 at 5:36 pm
Hi Bob,
I don’t agree about bullying being a rite of passage. Bullying is meant to intimate or mistreat or both. I knew plenty of boys in school and out of school but only 1 bully. The kid I hit was making my friend cry by calling her names. He deserved the punch.
I love the phrase “Grandmother tales.” It is so much nicer than an old wife’s tale.
We always had the pitcher. It came with the set. It was metallic blue. My sister has the set now.
It has stayed in the low 70’s all afternoon and will get cooler tonight.
September 27, 2021 at 6:14 pm
The term I used in Yiddish is, “Bubbe Miese”. Bubbe is grandmother and miese is stories or tales.
Maybe bullying is to strong a word, I should have said picked on or teased.
September 30, 2021 at 12:07 am
Thanks for explaining about Bubbe and the meanng of Miese.
I can take teasing easier than bullying but some times kids can be so cruel and labeling it teasing.
September 27, 2021 at 7:15 pm
Hi Kat,
I learned a very useful German word back in 2016: backpfeifengesicht. It means “a face in need of a fist.” There seemed to be so many of them around then and subsequently that the word has stuck with me.
My mother and my aunt had the aluminum tumblers. I think we kids lost most of them out in the wet woods between our two houses. My cousin and I used to scour the woods looking for fallen branches of specific configuration. They had to be several feet long, stiff but not too thick and they had to have a rightish angle bend on the top that was less than a foot or so long and roughly the diameter of the aluminum glasses. We’d bash the short end of the branches into the tumblers and play dinosaurs down by the little brook. They were color coded so we’d know which dino was whose. Perhaps when future developers dig up the lot for condos or whatever, they may acquire a tiny collection of vintage mid-century aluminum tumblers with partially rotted wood jammed inside them. 😀
This morning I took the dogs for a sniffy walk. After that I cleaned the outside of the fridge, parts of the floor in the bathroom and the entire bathroom sink, and then I took the AC unit out of the dining room window and put it up for the season. I feel that is enough activity for now and will hie to the couch to read a book.
Enjoy the evening and the rain you definitely still need.
September 30, 2021 at 12:02 am
Hi Caryn,
That is a great word. There are more around now than ever. I could walk the streets punching.
It is true. Those glasses are probably just waiting to be discouraged. Aluminum doesn’t rust so maybe they are intact. A metal detector is needed. It will give you another hobby!
Okay, I have tried to envision tumbler dinosaurs made from those glasses and branches, but I failed miserably.
You were busy!! I am impressed at your industry. I do a couple of things a day and call myself accomplished. Today was uke lesson, ordering groceries for tomorrow night’s dinner with friends, picking up some more papers and then cleaning poor Henry’s throw-up. He threw up about 5 or 6 times. I was about to take him to emergency Care but he started doing better or there was nothing left in his belly. He is now sleeping on the couch. ‘m keeping an eye.