My house is needing maintenance. It’s getting a little older and not running like I want. Things are running slow, the carpet and paint are looking dirty, light sockets are not working properly, the oven cooks uneven, the refrigerator makes funny sounds and the wallpaper is coming up on the edge where everyone walks. For some silly reason when you buy something new you think it is new forever. One day you look at your “new” house and it isn’t working quite like a new house and things need to be replaced or worked on.
I feel a little like my house today. I am running slow, my hair needs to be colored, not all my joints are working properly, and to be honest I feel that I’m getting old. I don’t exactly remember when I started getting old. I remember the first time a young person gave me a senior discount. I also remember my first gray hair. Arthritis was next followed closely by needing dental work. I wish it was much fun to go to the dentist or pharmacy as it is to go to the lighting center or carpet store. Kent and I will pour over pamphlets on stoves and other appliances but I can’t get excited about discussing whether or not we should get a blood pressure cuff.
The advantage to getting older is senior discounts, being able to travel, liking the people your teenagers turn into and grandchildren. I guess another advantage is wisdom. There are things I know because of years of living and learning. I guess I need to embrace this age thing. I’m just not ready to start smelling like my grandmother.
Today I started my sourdough starter again. It has been a couple of years since I made sourdough bread. When we were young I always had sourdough starter on hand. It kept me from having to buy extra ingredients to make bread, cake, biscuits, and cookies. During those early days of marriage many times we only had $12 to $20 a week for food and this was a necessity.
Times have changed. I now bake sourdough bread as a special treet. We are getting together with friends on Friday. My friends are cooking up soup and I will be bringing the crusty sourdough bread.
The starter is the key to good bread. (Putting a bowl of water in the oven as it cooks is the key to getting crusty bread, however.) Once you mix the ingredients together you need to nurture your starter for 3 to 6 days depending on how sour you want your bread. Then the starter is good forever as long as you take the necessary steps to keep it good.
Sourdough is a lot like friends. They need to be cared for and then they are good forever. Even if you don’t need them all the time you know they are special in your life. But every so often they need to be nurtured and cared for. Maybe it is a phone call or a letter (text, email, facebook).
I thought this weekend that the winter had kept me from walking over and saying hello to my neighbor. I really like her and miss our chats as we see each other. I think I won't wait for spring to see her. Maybe she will enjoy meeting my other friends over a bowl of soup and sourdough bread.
I have thought how different our talking is from our writing. When we are talking we seem to want to communicate to the individual or individuals we are talking to. We know we are going to get immediate feed back and there are no “do overs.” When we write we can edit, change, find the perfect word and then ask ourselves “is this what was intended.” If I receive feedback it will be at a later date. I have also noticed my writing tends to be more formal.
Today we have means for writing to give immediate feed back. When there is cyber news many times at the end is a place to give immediate feed back. I don’t know if the author reads the feed back but most times it gets a lively debate going. People say things anonymously that they might not say to the persons face. I think of it as “the writings of cowards.”
Recently I returned from a cruise. Since I find cruise reviews very helpful when planning a cruise I decided I would write a review of the ship and my experience. I thought, “What do I want to say that will help another plan their vacation?” I was quite pleased with my review and so I submitted it to CruiseCritic. Later I read the reviews of another who had gone on the same cruise. She had nothing but terrible things to say about the cruise. Since her review was submitted after mine she wanted everyone to know that I was a Pollyanna and my review was biased.
Am I a Pollyanna? I don’t think so. I think I’m just more realistic. I don’t expect everything to be perfect or about me. Not everyone will be what I want them to be nor will everything will go as expected. My room steward didn’t always get me ice. Towards the end of the first week all the banana’s looked like they were ready for banana bread. Interesting note: banana bread, banana pudding, and other banana deserts did appear on the menu the second week. I could go on but these things weren’t important. They didn’t keep my from having the time of my life.
The disadvantage to cyber blogging is once you write your thoughts they are there for the world to see forever. They don’t go away. If you hurt someone, ruin someone’s reputation or ruin a business because of what you have written I am sure there will be consequences not only to that person but to you as an individual. You can’t hurt another without hurting yourself. As my grandfather once told me, choose your words carefully because someday you may have to eat them.
I have always been fascinated by birds and as a child wanted to travel to the mid-west to see the red-winged blackbird. That would never happen! My father would tell me to stop acting uppity by thinking I would ever travel or be educated. Now educated and living in the Midwest I am excited every time I see the red and yellow epaulettes against the black feathers of the red-winged blackbird. They are a constant reminder to me that I don’t have to limit myself.
This vacation I again saw things I never thought I would see. Before my eyes was a toucan in the wild. The black bird with a bright yellow beak was almost hidden in the rain forest of Costa Rica. Oblivious to the excitement of my group they just wanted to stay out of the mid-day heat.
Being told once that I enjoy planning for a vacation more than I enjoy my vacation makes me think that statement is as limiting as my fathers. Planning for a vacation is part of the education. I don’t think we ever truly enjoy travel unless we are educated about our experience. Studying and then experiencing is the best way to learn. So as I return to the routine of my life I can truly ponder the wonderful education I have just experienced.
