January 11, 2023
The Christmas decorations have
been boxed up and stored away for another year. Outside, the snow has melted,
and though the temperatures are milder than we have any right to expect in
January, the dampness is a constant companion.
My cold has been behaving like
a pendulum, and I have resigned myself to taking each day as it comes. I know
it will go away, eventually. I’ve already given this thing too much attention
and importance. So, I will do what I can, and rest when I must, which is way more
than I’m used to.
In the second week of 2023, people
are going about their business, trying to decide what their normal is going to
be, moving forward. Something that I’ve noticed, though, is that when one is
retired from the work-a-day world, one’s concept of a lot of things changes—and
that even includes time. (Yes, I’m still writing but I don’t consider that work
even if it is). For example, I mostly know what day it is—I’m too honest to say
“always” because there have been a couple of days over the last couple of
months when I thought it was one day and discovered it wasn’t. Just getting old
is all.
My husband and I don’t watch a
lot of television these days. We do watch a few programs, though, and some of the
ones we enjoy are starting back up, so that gives us something to do in the
evenings. We’ve cut back on our “news” consumption, which seems a good idea.
There is only so much chaos I can stomach, and I think I reached my limit more
than a year ago.
I’ve heard a rumour that the
largest growing social “in” group is called “Lying Liars Who Lie”. I don’t find
that hard to believe. Lying appears to be the new “thing”. Who could have ever
guessed? It’s been more than 60 years, but I can almost feel the sting on my
butt that my mother delivered when I lied to her. Ah well, it’s never bothered
me to not be a part of any “in” groups. These days, I take great pride in
declaring my aversion to those kinds of groups, especially the one I named
above.
One of the things my daughter
likes to tease me about is what she calls my aversion to change. I have
explained it’s not change, per se, that I don’t care for. It’s unnecessary
change or, put another way, change for change’s sake. And I think that just
recently, I may have made some progress in getting that point across to her.
We had our “family Christmas”
this year on January 2nd. Our Sonja works a couple of jobs now, and
our Jenny, of course, works in the community and sometimes long hours. Any
family meal has to be scheduled to accommodate those two. And, since Jenny has
Monday as a regular day off, this year it was the day after New Years that we
feasted.
There was a big box under
Sonja’s tree, and it was for me from the girls. Friends, I am now the proud owner
of a Ninja Foodie! I had been curious about the appliance, and now I have one. A
couple of days after that wonderful family dinner, I unpacked my new gift, and
immediately understood that it would not go where we’d all thought that it
would.
So, after I washed all the removable
parts, dried them, and reassembled the thing, I looked around my kitchen and
made an executive decision—I changed it up! The space we had cleared for the
foodie now hosts our Keurig. Really, where that coffee maker now is makes a lot
more sense. Husband even approves because the surface it is on is a bit higher
than the one it had been on, and his back now complains less while he fixes a
cup of joe.
My daughter was quite
impressed that I had unpacked and then rearranged the layout of my kitchen all
by myself. Change that she hadn’t even had a part in!
And no, we haven’t used it
yet. I continue to read up and familiarize myself with the new addition. I’m
looking forward to using it, to learning all the things I can make with it.
As soon as my brain is firing
on all, cold-free cylinders. And yes, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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