Chronicles Continued

Judge a Book by the Cover

Did my research.  A lot of it.  Sorted.  Decided among the options. Decided what I could live with for the next six years. Made an appointment with myself and walked into the dealership.  The old codger at the front desk, I don’t know what he thought but it was clear he considered me a purchaser.  He sloughed me off.  More disinterested he could not have been.  He called over ‘not your usual suspect’.   30 minutes later Mr. Salesperson had a sale.  Days later, when I took delivery of the car, I shared my feelings with the salesman. The salesman also said I was the first woman he had sold to who asked to see under the hood.

Got my library card.  Do not understand the concept of the ‘Free’ Library.  That is in the name.  The Village name followed by the word ‘free’ and ‘library’.  I asked if they were part of the public system.  She says they are.  Sort of.  I asked if they had fund-raisers.  Yes they do.  She said they are part of a 4-library system, I think she also said in four counties.  It is as yet unclear what the procedure is if there is a book not available from among the books on their shelves.  Yes, they have a book club that meets once a month, but ‘Mrs Volunteer/person-behind-the-desk’ seemed reluctant to share the information.  Could not quite remember what the book was for this month or exactly what the date was.  Perhaps this is a closed group.  It was all on their website she said.  When I took a minute before exiting, I saw that she had given me the website for the 4 libraries together, not the specific one for the village.  I did find that there is a book club meeting 15 June in the other village.  I’ll try for that one.

Dan, the woodman, and I had been in contact.  18 months ago he delivered half-a-cord, at the last-minute, for winter.  Now, planning ahead [get that concept in such a new way] and as I am going to buy a wood-burning stove, contacted Dan for a full cord delivery now.  I called and left him a message.  Then he tried to call me.  We played phone tag:  I drove to the City and back and we tried to connect at least 8 times.  It wasn’t until someone else tried to call me, that I realized my phone needed a reboot.  Upon my return to the country, my land-line-phone was dead, so Dan and I were still not confirmed.  Standing in the kitchen,with a guest, I hear a knock on the door.  I thought maybe it was the person, as yet unknown, who was coming about the grass.  ‘Hi’ she said, ‘I’m Michelle and Dan called me and asked me if I knew you and I said I didn’t but I would like to and so he said, would I mind going over to your house to tell you that he will deliver the word order on Sunday if that is alright. You see, Dan and I work together, but I’m living right over there. and…’  She talked non-stop for 45 minutes.  I offered her coffee, tea, wine [it was Friday evening after all and past 5] a chair, but she was content to stand and chat from the corner of the interior doorway.  I took myself up on the chair, didn’t feel I could drink my water, which was in a wine glass because it looked like a huge slug, and I listened.  She explained the lay of the land.  Who lived where and what they did for work.  Who owned the rest of the land that her family didn’t own. Where the state boundaries are.  Who had lived in the house I am in and why there were all these random nails jutting out of the ceiling beams in the kitchen.  How particular the previous-owner-husband had been about the grass, the mowing, the length of the blade and given what it looked like now, he must be turning over in his grave.   How much snow comes in the winter.  How I had a baptism in my move-in with the no electricity.  How the neighbors saw a truck they didn’t recognize pull into my driveway and they were on the telephone debating among themselves who was going to go over and see what it was about [apparently I was not at home and it was night].  She had volunteered, but the truck pulled out before she took action. Who had recently hooked up with whom and how well they were doing, as they were now on vacation in Florida. How the farm down the road sold eggs and honey and had goats and those large creatures.  No, not those, yes, those, alpacas.  That I should stop there for eggs.  [I failed to ask which of the 4 houses on the compound was the door to approach for the sales – I tried later in the week, stopping at what I thought was the most obvious door, but no one answered].  She was the best Friday night entertainment I have had in many a moon.  I suggested to her as I had suggested to another, that come July, I was going to have a Friday evening ‘Women and Wine’ in the back yard. All anyone had to do was to bring a friend from the neighborhood.  She thought it was a good idea.  My list of cohorts grows!

Children can know one all too well.  My daughter whose chosen profession demands exactness never could quite accept, that for me, a recipe is a mere suggestion not an absolute.  [It started when i used mayonnaise for the brownies when she was in high school]. The entire family was gathering for the holiday and through the years, with an eye on the best bodily nourishment possible, the eating habits of the group have in some ways, become quite specific.  I like cooking and so do not mind catering to the whims and wishes.  Then yet another stroke of genius, I ordered up ‘Blue Apron’.  The box arrives via FedEx, early in the afternoon on Saturday.  I figured it would be perfect for the Saturday evening fest. The group thought too it was a grand idea.  The box arrived and a couple of us set about sorting out the ingredients and discussing the recipes.  My daughter asked if I had ordered it before.  ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘I have. Twice. But, well, I haven’t yet made any of the suggested recipes’.  ‘No’, said she, ‘Of Course, as far as you are concerned it is a CSA box!’.  Bingo!

…After the company departed,  I looked in the refrigerator at the three-quarters of the left-over watermelon.  I’m really not such a watermelon fan, although every time I have one in my house, it reminds me of a long-ago-sister-in-law.  She, in my recollection, loved the fruit and when she had them [I was just a small child], they were always sugar sweet and I ate it, with the juice running from my wrist to drip off the crazy bone of my elbow.  But now, as I too was leaving, I didn’t want to throw it away, nor just leave it to spoil.  So, I cut it up and liquified it in the food processor.  Drank a small glassful, but what to do with the rest.  Found and filled the flex-rubber ice-cube trays.  If they don’t taste like the freezer, they could be fun in tonic water, or wine, or vodka or…  Will let you know.

Today the ‘lawn’ was mowed for the second time.  It took Toni-the mow-stress 4.5 hours.  That is a crazy amount of time to spend on something that is going to have to repeat itself in 14 days.  Toni is a delightful person.  She operates an equine rescue just down the road.  Again, another person with a fascinating life story.  She is likely 20 years my junior and is a grandmother.  She has at least one child still in high school and suggested that if I didn’t hear from the school district i approached about being a drama volunteer to try the school of her daughter.  They put on two productions a year and have an active drama department.  That is now on my radar.  She has never been to a Broadway play and would like so much to see Phantom of the Opera.  [I will keep that in mind and if it comes up on my discount list, matinée, I’ll make it a day-trip with her.]  She also suggested, as did another, that I get a barn cat.  She had me going:  where to keep it, how it would keep the mice away, how to make certain it was spayed and by-the-way she did have an extra or two.  She was on a roll, until I showed her the shed I had just cleared out and where it could sleep, as well as parking my car there. ‘It will sleep on your car’, she said.  ‘I have to tell you.’  Sleeping on the hood or roof of my car?! Those dusty, dirty paw prints?!  I’ll keep after the mice with the current remedies. For now, no barn cat.

She did get brownie points when commenting on the garden asked me how long I had lived here.  32 days.  ‘Wow’, she said, ‘You’ve really worked hard.’  It was delightful that she noticed.

Definitely in the karma-deficit vis-a-vis small insects and creepy-crawly things.  If they make the life altering choice of crossing one of the thresholds, then most likely it is on to paradise for them.  I do have friends who are excellent at catch and release.  I’m better at ‘fast-foot’.

From the local paper:

“Residents shall maintain grass at a length of less than 6 inches.  Failure to do so will result in Village of Deposit correcting the violation 72 hours after notification at a rate of $75 per hour with a $50. admin fee.

That works out to about $125. an hour to have your grass cut!

do I love this life, or what!  When was the last time You saw Fels-Naptha at your grocery store.  Or hung out the wash to dry and watch it flap in the wind.  Of course there is the downside when the line snaps and the sheets and towels all fall to the ground, which fortunately was grass. That requires hanging the same wash twice, which just counts as double bending exercise.  Although a few choice words were uttered.  Or watched it rain so hard that the back 40 are a sheet of perpendicular water.  But the subsequent rainbow over the valley below was huge and magnificent.  Or matched the Kleenex box to the bedspread quilt in the guest room.  I was at the store, actually looking for the suitable color when this nice older man came over.  He said he too was looking for the best price and went on to do the math for me, which box came out to be the most sheets for the $1.39.  I dared not tell him, that it wasn’t price I was debating over, it was the box cover that needed to be just right.  None of them were, so i bought no tissues that day.  At the wine shop in the big town north, they ask to see my driver’s license to enter my birth date.  They have done that twice.  The next time I am going to give them my ‘phony one’ which I use with regularity to keep the internet from having exact information on my identity.  If that doesn’t work, will speak with the manager and explain my madness.

Go to YouTube, type in the word permaculture and spend as much time as you have to watch video after video.  This is a world-wide course given for free by OSU, and it is so important.  It is especially relevant to my living space at present; a pine grove, at the top of a hill.  There is no need to try to tame the nature, [you have already heard my rant re the lawn/grass] but I would like to work with what is here.  If I end up staying here indefinitely there will have to be a permaculture plan put into place. In addition to that I would build [well someone else would do the digging] an organic pool: http://organicpools.co.uk.  Would be a dream come true… again.