The Morning After

 I sit with my coffee this morning, and I don't even know where to start. The best way to put it is that I am grieving. Plain and simple I am grieving. 

Tim and I talked about it a little. Elon Musk is telling people that there will be economic hardship and turmoil. He is expecting the stock market to crash. Since he's going to be the man in charge of all that, I think that we take him at his word. 

Tim said, "he says that housing costs are going to skyrocket." 

I said, "Why do you think that is?" 

He said, "I don't know." 

I said, "It is because the housing market is owned by rich people, who will be able to determine the market. These people will operate with impunity under the new status quo. A system is in place that will benefit them, and they will use it." 

We looked at each other for a moment. 

We are landlords. We know that our prices are more than fair, based on current area rents for other similar houses and apartments. We know that we could be making more. A long time back, we made a decision that this is a ministry of sorts. Using the Christian vernacular, we decided that if we bless our tenants, our tenants will bless us in return. And they do. Every tenant we've got is a long term tenant. We have avoided one of the biggest headaches of rental units: getting good tenants. Our tenants move in, and they stay. 

I said, "Well, this is the time for us to take a long look at what we intend to be. Do we become 'them', or do we remain true to ourselves and our beliefs?" 

And with those words, a great deal of the confusion in my own mind was lifted. I'm still sad. I am very sad. Unlike many, I fear that this presidency will be the end of our democracy. I grieve for that and the fact that my grandchildren will be living in a world that I don't understand. I grieve that millions of people who voted for change will get it. Unfortunately it will not be the change that anybody expected. It will not be the change that we hoped for. 

In the end, what will matter is kindness. Our kindness for each other, and our willingness to address need. We can't change the big things, but we can look around us and change the little things. We can help each other through this. 

Tim and I figured our own strategies for these days, and they don't vary much from how we always lived. 

Minimize waste. 

Minimize spending. 

Maximize saving for a rainy day because the rainy days are here. 

We cannot change the big picture. "Don't look!" Steve Reed said in a comment on another blog. That's the answer, I think. Important people will do their self serving work behind the scene. We need to shift our focus, turning it to what we can do: take care of each other. 

Don't look at them. Look at each other. 

That's it, really. That's all I have. 

Election Night

 

I know that I said that I wasn't going to watch the election results tonight in real time. I meant it when I said that, too. 

And then I thought, just one little peak just to see how it is going...one hour later I was making an emergency run for oreos. 

I dunked my oreos in my glass of milk. 

I had to turn the television off. It's hard to get away from it. It's all over the internet too. 

Guess I'll got to bed. Reading a great book. "There's a River in the Sky" (Elif Shafak).

Election Day

 Our polls opened at 7. Tim and I were up at 6, showered and waiting in line at 6:58. 

(and what a line it was!)

We waited behind a man with a "We the People" coat. A star spangled cap. Here, that is a code. He was a patriot, goddammit, and he was there to vote MAGA. It was interesting. A black girl checking us in gave him a wary side eye. He said something about "America!" to a blue haired 80 year old. She smiled benignly and agreed with him, that this still was America. 

It took us 35 minutes to work through the line, but we got there. We entered our votes on a machine, which printed out our ballot, which we dropped into a locked ballot box on the way out. The line was no shorter when we left than it was when we came in, and you know what? I'm glad for those lines. I think it was beautiful.

When we walked out the door, a woman with informational packets for a democratic candidate stood along the side walk. We smiled at her. "She got our vote," I said. The woman smiled and thanked us. "We understood the assignment." That is code too, and the code was received loud and clear. The three of us smiled at each other. That moment of solidarity was a small one, set against the backdrop of a divided country, but it felt good. 

As we drove home, Tim said, "I wonder what will happen to all those huge tRUMP signs along the highway?" A local business man had paid big money for big signs, and dozens of them are set around the county. He said, "They never come back and take them down."

I said, "No. They don't."

He said, "I'd like to take a razor knife to them tonight, slice them right down the middle, and leave them flapping in the wind for a few days." 

I said, "Seems appropriate." 

Inside, I was a little bit astonished. He's a quiet man, not given to public displays of anything, but it seems as if he's had his fill of that noisy man's flapping mouth too.

The Long Days.

 We did not have wild turkey today, as you may have gleaned from my replies to comments yesterday. We had chili instead, the first chili of the season. Tim got up early Saturday and high-tailed it out there to where the turkeys had roosted. As he approached the hemlock, he saw that they were already on the ground. He did not want to risk getting closer and frightening them off, and it was too far to take a chance on a shot. So...he chose to leave them be so that they would (hopefully) continue to come back to the hemlock to roost. Fall turkey season lasts one week, so he has until the 9th.

So...I stayed at home working on chili, and putzing around. Tim came home from church, ate lunch headed up to his hunting spot with his son to change the direction of his tree stand and to talk 'hunting'. 

Tomorrow is a funeral. It is also a city council meeting at 6 PM. In September, we received news from the city lawyer, the city was going to settle with us. We were told that it had to be done correctly...that it had to appear on the agenda, and the discussion and ensuing vote had to be recorded in the minutes. We were told that this was all a formality, that the discussion had already happened informally, and that it was a matter of doing things according to protocol. We were relieved...except that they have never put it on the agenda. It has never been discussed and recorded in the minutes. The vote has never happened. 

I see in tomorrow's meeting, right after roll call, there is an acknowledgement of guests and the floor is opened to public comment. At this point, I've e-mailed the lawyer to tell him that I planned to be present at that meeting and to speak, unless he had any strong opinion why I shouldn't. I also e-mailed the city admin office to make sure that it is possible for me to attend the meeting at this point. 

It will never stop rankling me that a city who bragged about having $4 million at their disposal should be able to simply ignore this situation for months. We have provided them written correspondence and copies of bills, and received no response from the city. We hired a lawyer in June. We finally got an agreement in September, which it now appears that they will simply ignore as long as possible. How is that right? If I ignored my tax bill to the city, they'd take care of that in short order. There would be a lien on my house. If I ignore a parking ticket, they send a constable to the house. There would be interest and penalties accruing for late payments.

Argh! 

So...I will attend the viewing with my family, and I will duck out to attend this meeting at 6PM. Hopefully, I will be given first chance to speak, and be able to scoot right out of there and get back in time to attend the funeral at 7 PM.

Initially, it struck us as an odd time for a funeral, 7PM on a Monday, but Tuesday is election day, and it is important for people to be home in time to cast their votes. She was a beloved mother and grandmother and daughter and sister and wife. Some folks have quite a drive, so the time makes perfect sense in that light. This is an important election. 

I will be glad when that election is done. A lot of people are afraid of what will happen after the election. I'm not. I can't even worry that far ahead. 

First the election. At least that will stop all the political ads. They are getting worse by the day. 

2020 was a real nailbiter for me, but in the end, tRUMP lost, and eventually things settled down. I have to believe that 2024 will work out the same. I saw an encouraging thing...I live in a red county, but the last 'map' I saw showed it as pink, which means it is no longer so strongly republican, and I can say that I've seen more democratic signs in yards than I've ever seen, which is encouraging. 

We shall see, people. We shall see. The polls close at 8. Then the tallying begins. I will hold my breath and I will wait. I really don't expect to see this settled, not right away and I doubt that I will sit and watch election night coverage. In the words of the star spangled banner, I will simply get up the next morning and see if the flag held through the night. 

Thrift

 After a very warm Halloween, things cooled down last night. Tim spent November 1st deer hunting (no luck), but was thrilled beyond belief that he'd "put six turkeys to bed", which means that he'd watched six turkeys roost in an old hemlock at nightfall. They will stay there all night, quiet and protected from the things that roam in the dark. They will come down at first light. All that Tim needed to do was to get up early enough to be waiting when they 'unroosted' (for lack of a better word). So he was up and gone at the crack of dawn. 

Yesterday was my adventure in the thrift store. Man, that was a pleasant hour. I rarely get time to do that, and I don't know why, really. It just seems like I've always got something that needs to get done getting in the way of something that I'd like to get done. 

Another thing is the car situation. We still have only one car. My car is fixed and ready to be inspected, but to get the salvage title changed to a regular title that allows the car to be driven, we will need to pay sales tax on it, which galls Tim. We paid sales tax when we bought it several years back. We bought it from the insurance company for $400, but we are required to pay sales tax on the blue book value of the car. In effect, we pay sales tax twice on the same car. Plus the enhanced inspection. Plus the tags and title transfer. 

We just paid our final installment on the property and school taxes, which we've been paying monthly since September. Now that this is done, we can turn our attention to getting my car through the required hoops to be put back on the road. 

Always something. 

Anyways, in addition to thrift shopping yesterday, I made a stop at Aldi's. They had small two pound-ish sliced hams. They were a bit pricey but I got a small one for $8.41. The nice thing about those little hams is that you can do so very much with them. Right now, I have a pot of potatoes simmering away with that ham, some celery and some onion. Once the potatoes are tender, I'll make a cheese sauce using cheddar and half and half to add to the soup. Cream of Potato is one of Tim's favorite soups and he's looking forward to supper. 

I still have 2/3s of the ham left. I froze 1/3, and I put the other third into the fridge. It will be a nice pairing for grilled ham and cheese to go with some home made tomato soup using stewed tomatoes from this summer. It's also a good way to use up the rest of that half and half. 

Even after that, I'll have enough ham left over to make a nice ham and cheese omelet at some point. And still there is a third of that ham waiting in the freezer to be used. 

When you break it all down like that, that $8. ham makes 5 or 6 good meals, which justifies the expense. Venison provides most of our meat for most of our year, but this year, we ran out (although I did find 3 more packages of hamburger that I did not realize that I had.) So we've been going to a grocery store that offers 5 packages of meat for $24.99. We buy mostly pork, chicken, italian sausage, and steaks, but those five packages of meat can be divided into Tim and Debby sized portions and tossed in the freezer. They will last us nearly two weeks. 

People complain about grocery prices. We don't see it that way. We choose where we will shop, and we shop carefully and mindfully. We are lucky to live in an area where farmers sell their produce and eggs at roadside stands. Next year, hopefully, I will once again have a garden to tend, and just maybe we'll have a wild turkey for Sunday dinner tomorrow.

Debby Falls in Love

 Today, I headed to the thrift store to look for work pants for Tim. I found 2 pair for him. I also had myself a little 'looky-loo'. I found a tin box of 7 wooden brain teasers for the Amish Christmas. The children do love puzzles. I also got a jigsaw puzzle for the family. (They pull a table in front of the kitchen stove and gather around to put jigsaw puzzles together). I found a game for my youngest granddaughter, a Pete the Cat game that does not require reading. So many of the games, if not new, are as close to new as you can get. I really had a fine time browsing. 

Another thing that I was there for was a new blowdryer. Without warning, that very morning, my blowdryer had made a popping noise, and simply quit. There were three blower dryers on the shelf, and I opted for the Sassoon one that was still in its box. 

On my way to the checkout, I saw...

The most beautiful scarf I've ever seen. The picture does NOT do it justice. It is shades of rust, gold, blue, green, red. It was kind of tucked back on a rack full of scarves, but the colors caught my eye immediately, and I pulled it out in delight. 

It shimmers.

Even as I was putting it in my cart, I knew that I was being ridiculous. For pete's sake, my winter coat is a quiet gray and black, so it wouldn't even match!!!! But...the ways of love are inexplicable. 

I also found myself a periwinkle J. Jill shirt. It had a 50% off color tag so I felt justified in my purchase. When I checked out, I discovered it still had the hang tags and new merchandise doesn't qualify for the discount. There was a brief moment of indecision. Then I put it on the counter anyway, being the wild and crazy woman that I am. 

When I got home, I told Tim that I'd spent $40 in the thrift store. His pants were $15 for the two pair, but I'd gotten games for the Amish kids, two jig saw puzzles, a game for a granddaughter, and a shirt for myself, and I'd fallen in love with a scarf...and, oh yeah, I had to buy a hair dryer because my blower dryer had made a popping noise and quit. 

He smiled as I mused, "I'm not sure what happened. I never had a problem with it before and this morning, it just quit..."

He said, "I borrowed it. I was using it outside to heat the corner of my bumper to tap the dent out last night. It popped and quit after 10 minutes or so. I brought it back into the house and plugged it in and it seemed okay." 

I looked at him and felt like I had a lot less to apologize for. "I'll need to look at winter coats too," I said.

 

Happy Birthday Pat!

 Today, I was pouring the candy into a bowl for the trick or treaters. We don't get a whole lot of them, living on a street with poor participation, but we like to have a bowl full of candy just in case. I cut open the bags and poured the chocolate into the bowl. This year it was Mounds bars and Kitkats. 

The kitkats reminded me of Weaver of Grass blog (Pat Thistlethwaite) and her love of two finger Kitkats, so I snitched one of those bars and ate it thinking of her. I miss her. I miss her blog, her unfailing kindness and her gentle reminisces of days gone by. 

As I walked out to set the bowl of candy on the newel post in the foyer, and to turn on the outside lights, it struck me. Today would have been her birthday!