Well, Mangey came back today. I let him in the house to feed him. I figure that I'll do that for a few days until he gets comfortable, and then we'll do the collar thing. And the treatment thing. I'm afraid that if I move too fast, I'll spook him and he'll make himself very scarce.
He came in the house very politely, partook of a substantial dinner with a dose of medication, had a nervous looky-lou around. It surprises me that he's so nervous. He was always sneaking in last summer. If I came in the house with a multiple bags and left the door ajar, he would slip in. I'd find him sprawled in the livingroom, or across my bed having himself a little snooze. He seemed quite comfortable then, so I imagine that he just needs to reacclimate.
I did not go to the new build today. I needed to be back at a specific time to begin a medical regimen, and Tim did not want to be pinned down to a deadline. He's working on his project. So. I stayed behind. Got caught up on all the housework and laundry, followed my afternoon medical schedule, folded laundry AND put it away. All on the same day, for those of you keeping track. Okay. I was impressed.
My daughter in law messaged me today and asked if we would mind coming early to Ruby's baptism in June. My son will be on a business trip and will not be arriving home until late. She has to work a 12 hour shift, so she has to leave the house directly after supper. Sure thing! She always acts as if we've done her a great favor, which makes me laugh, because what kind of a grandma would say no to an opportunity like that?
It's not really babysitting anymore, but William will be walking over after school tomorrow to spend the night. It's always nice to hang out with the big boy. It just amazes me how quickly he has shot up in height this year. It amazes me to think that he is a teenager. It amazes me to think that next year is his last year of middle school.
Truly, these kids of my kids amaze me and I will gladly grab for every amazing moment I can get with them.
Today, I felt like I redeemed myself somewhat for my failure with the swing stapler. I am about an hour away from having the upstairs fully insulated. Tomorrow morning, I will finish up, and who knows...maybe I'll give another try with that darned stapler! Walls might be easier than ceilings. We will find out.
The house looks a lot more spacious now that we have a lot of the lumber and nearly all of the bags of insulation used up. That's nice too.
While I was cracking away on my project, Tim was able to make progress with his project in the basement too. Now that he had a clear idea about how to proceed, he went right to it. Having a cheerful Tim makes my life easier too.
We still have to insulate the ceiling of the basement (floor joists of the first floor) but we are hoping to be finished with that by the end of next week. At that point we can call for our inspector to come out and clear our insulation work, as well as the things that he told us we needed to resolve from his last inspection. We need outside receptacles, safety film over our bathroom window so that we don't slip and fall out the window (which seemed pretty far fetched to me, for pity's sake, but hey...it's about keeping him happy) the stair walls in the basement.
Once this inspection gets done, we'll be ready to actually hook up the electricity and water, and then finally begin putting the walls up. That will make a big difference!
I've been thinking about it for a while, and today, I made my decision. Coming home, I said to Tim, "I've decided what I want for my birthday, and it's going to upset you."
He looked over at me and I was actually surprised to see he looked fearful. "What's that?" he asked.
I told him what I've been thinking of for a while, and made up my mind it is simply going to have to be done. "I want to buy a Seresto collar for Mangey and bring him inside."
Tim looked at me. "Steal him?"
"Weeeeeellllll..." I said. "It's not really stealing. His face looks bad. We've got the medication to treat him. I need to bring him inside to do it. The neighbors are not tending to him, and they haven't for quite a while. When he has one of these episodes, they simply don't let him in the house. He needs treated and I can't stand to see him. If we wait until warm weather, he's bound to end up with bot fly or something even more disgusting."
Tim said, "We can see how it goes."
So we stopped and spent a $60 on a flea collar.
I was a little surprised at how well Tim took it. "You're not mad at me?" I asked.
"No," he said, "I'm not mad."
Now...I will give you three guesses who did not show up for supper tonight.
Today went a lot better. Well...at least no blood was shed. We have begun to install the insulation on the exterior walls and it turns out that I am good at installing insulation, which meant that Tim could focus on other jobs.
He's been having a struggle with something that he didn't seem able to problem solve his way out of. We've never built a house from scratch before, so I keep telling him that we will run up against situations like that. We'll have to ask someone who has done this before. He was stubbornly insisting that he could figure it out, and I've no doubt that eventually he could, but my question was why would he spend the time to do that, when you could get your answer much more quickly simply by asking the right person a few questions?
So he spent the day puzzling through his project, while I installed insulation. Note: I avoided the swing stapler. I just installed it, cutting it to size where necessary, and it went okay. Tim came up from the basement to help, and I think he was a little frustrated. He took the swing stapler and began stapling bang, bang, bang. He was going too fast and hit his finger twice. Not as bad as yesterday, but it was a sure sign that he was upset.
"Slow down," I said. "There's no rush on this, Tim.
He slowed down.
During our home inspection last week, Tim was told that the steps to the basement needed to be walled in. That was a bit of a shock. Our stairs here are not. They have railings on both sides, but are open. We live in a house that is 100 years old, and things have changed. So, we needed to pick up a few things to build the walls in the basement.
So, we drove up to New York State to the Amish building supply and picked up what we needed.
I tried to talk to Tim on the way up. His jaw stayed very taut. It's what he does. If he doesn't like what I'm saying, he tends to simply not respond. I gave up.
We picked up the lumber and then drove it back to the new build and put it inside the basement. It's already for him to work on his project tomorrow morning. I can finish up the insulating. We locked up and headed for home, both of us tired and hungry and scratchy from the insulating.
A shower made me feel better.
I microwaved our suppers, and getting some food in my stomach made me feel better too.
What made me feel best of all is that after supper, Tim said, "I'm going to take a shower, and then I think I'll run up to talk to Levi."
It was bound to happen at some point. I was using a swing stapler to staple the insulation against the bottom of the roof trusses, and I was getting aggravated because apparently I lack the hand/upper body strength to get the staple all the way into the truss. When I tried to adjust the paper, staples would drop to the floor.
I practiced with new ways to hold and swing the stapler while trying to hold the paper flat with my other hand. I swung a mighty swing and *bam*! I smote my left index finger a mighty blow, which caused a mighty oath to spring forth. There was blood running everywhere, and I did the best I could with a piece of zip tape and a strip of paper toweling.
Forgive the bad picture...or maybe you're grateful for it. My phone is on its last legs.
I tried to continue on, but the job was even more awkward with a zip tape wrapped finger. I gave up and went down into the basement in frustration. "I can't do it," I said. "I don't know why I can't do it, but I'm making a mess of it. I can help, but I can't manage the stapler part."
So he came upstairs and I maneuvered him on the scaffolding as he did the stapling. I quietly cleared the work areas in preparation for moving the scaffolding. Oh the shame! I finally had a job to do, and I had proven myself incompetent.
I heard a noise and looked up to see Tim shaking a bloody finger.
He, too, had smote his finger a mighty blow. His and her boo-boos. Same finger. Same hand.
I think maybe he did this to make me feel better about myself.
The girls were great fun. There were walks and a community yard sale, which was fun. (Two lights for the new build, nothing else. I'm really trying hard to be sensible about STUFF.) Iris played her piano for me. I saw little show. She and her troupe did one tap routine and one ballet routine. It was cute. I wish that I could show you the little video. It really brought tears to my eyes to watch her. Ruby is a 20 month old 'sassypants', which makes me laugh. Her father was the same way. She has the same blond curls at the back of her head as he did when he was a baby. It's fun to watch them and to remember. There was a celebratory supper out with all the grandparents after the dance program. We watched a movie after the kids went down to bed. We had to leave before noon today, but it was a leisurely morning, with a nice walk. Coming home was a six hour trip.
Supper is made. Laundry done. Short blog post.
Back to work tomorrow. We are doing the interior insulation this week.
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.
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.
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.
