Iced Tea Chat - Goal Oriented

I have lemon and mint today if you'd prefer those to go into your tea...  Oh and Orange and basil.   And why not a cool but so tasty little appetizer of Roasted Red Pepper Hummus on Whole Wheat crackers topped with a slice of cucumber?  It's my new favorite munch mid-afternoon.  Cool and crisp and full of fiber and protein and low carb, too.

I've been busy trying to accomplish my month's goals and so far, I'm on target with them.  My desk area is as complete as I can make it at the moment.  I am still searching the house for artwork and frames to finish off the wall space. I've also worked on that flower bed beneath the Faith Tree. I'm not done, but I've plodded on.  It's slow progress but it's progress.

It sometimes takes a bit more gumption than I have to draw upon to get busy right now.  I think my problem is that I'm a little discombobulated with this new schedule.  I didn't think it would be difficult and really it isn't difficult.  It's different, however, and is taking a little time to adjust.  John and I are cramming in as much as we can into two days between two shifts.  It feels a bit like someone turned up the speed dial on our lives.  We've moved from 33rpms to 45rpms.  We might be keeping up but it's not our accustomed pace.  

"No sitting around." proclaims the man of the house, "I don't want to lose a day now that I've only got two days between shifts."   Indeed, except for one day when he'd spent the whole 24 hour work shift running one call after the other, he's made a point to mow  and to run errands and get tasks done on the other days.  Which means that I work the day he's gone and the two days he's off and in the end I've put in a full week of work.  Add in the time I spend writing posts for the blog and I really do get in a full six days of work each week.

One day last week I took John's work day and drove up to Katie's to visit.  Katie had been unwell and I was a little anxious to check on her.  She had gone to the doctor that morning but is doing much better.  She wasn't really into conversation that day which told me a great deal about how she felt overall but she seemed to find some comfort in my just being there. (

There was one little bit of conversation, something I thought was interesting, since I've been feeling  the same thing myself.  She expressed her desire to do something to change up her house.  I so understand that. I've been looking about for nearly three weeks now trying to decide what it is exactly I want to change.  Katie's house is cute as it can be but it's pretty much the same as when she moved in a year and a half ago, so her restlessness is likely far more genuine than mine.  She spent early Spring redoing her bedrooms and now she's ready to change up the main living spaces.  

I am always amused how she, Amie and I lean hard on a more formal/traditional look but none of us are formal  traditional.  I think what we like is classic style which is often portrayed as formal traditional.  What we do, of course, is our own thing with what we acquire.   Katie's shared some things from Pinterest with me that are inspiring her.  I can't wait to see what she manages to do.

As I said, I've been feeling rather restless about my house as well but so far, as I  look at a space I'm thinking of changing, I find I really do like it as it is. I did order another slipcover to put on the newest chair because I find I just like the look of slipcovered chairs.   I also like the lightness it brings into the room. But so far that's all I've come up with to change besides recreating my desk area.  If John's recliner weren't an unusual shape I'd order a slipcover for it, too, but it's not a standard reclining lounge chair. 

I know there's a change I'm ready to make but I'm not terribly sure it's in my house.  So what am I wanting to change?  I keep telling myself I need to dig and delve and figure it out, but right now it's all I can do to cope with the schedule change.  Funny that as analytical as I am I seem to be just too befuddled to sort it out.  In my journal, I note the things I plan to do for the day or the things I did the day before, but little of depth.  And when I sit and ponder it all, I just end up with a blank mind, staring out of the window and come to with a start realizing that I've zoned out.  

I took the little wooden child's table and chairs I'd bought at the consignment shop when I visited Katie and Taylor knew immediately that it was hers.  She sat right down and played with her toys at the table.  She ate lunch at the table, too.  She watched a portion of a movie sitting at her table.  She tried to have supper at the table but Zoey, the big German Shepherd took advantage of everything being at her nose level and tried to help herself to supper, as well.  Taylor takes no stuff off that doggie of hers and put up quite a big fuss about it. Her mama moved her to the big dining room table to finish up her meal.

I so enjoyed my day.  The weather was gorgeous all day long which made for a wonderful ride home.  It's quite a long ride, two and a half hours.  Plenty of farmland and historic homes and ranches to see along the way.   Just 15 miles north of us Queen Anne's lace grows wild at roadside.  It doesn't grow here.  I love seeing that pretty flower in patches along the roadways and there was plenty to be seen on this trip.  

Still, it was quite a long day overall, pleasant as it was.  I confess I found it very hard to push through on Friday and get my tasks done for the weekend.  

John was back at work on Sunday and I did a number of tasks before heading out for the morning.  I'd planned to go to church and of course, had to do several things on the way out.  I was a little put out when I got to church because a sweet little old lady ran up to me and insisted that I commit to coming to the senior adults dinner that evening.  I wouldn't agree however, partly because  I don't feel senior adult.  I don't think I look old enough to be senior adult yet, either, I found the idea of being a senior citizen depressing.  Yes, John is getting nearer a retirement age, but he's just barely started his sixth decade and I'm not quite there yet.  The senior adult people aren't really old, but they do tend more towards mid-70's and 80's.  I'm not even near that yet.

John and I have had this discussion many times lately.  We're forever being invited to join the senior adults for this or that at church but we don't really seem to fit in anywhere.  We're hardly as young as the empty nester group and not quite old enough for the seniors groups.  We'd like a between sort of group.

I was less convinced later that I'm as young as I feel when I got out to the car and glanced in the mirror. I gave myself a slight pass only because (a) I'd not had a hair cut in eight weeks and (b) I'd only had about an hour's sleep the night before.  I decided a hair cut was priority before I even thought of heading home that day and that's just what I did.

No it didn't transform me.  I still looked mighty tired but I felt sure that with a sound night's sleep I'd look less senior and more just adult.  One can hope anyway, right?

I was going to the rather lux salon to get my haircut.  The truth: I felt so pampered going in there to have my hair done despite the cost.  However, when the stylist I was using left unexpectedly and no one bothered to give me a call but cancelled my appointment I was mighty upset.  I loathe breaking in a new stylist as much as I loathe shopping for a bathing suit, but I do prefer to choose the stylist myself.  Call me picky but if I show up to get my hair cut and you've not made your own personal appearance look nice, I don't expect you're going to give much care to my appearance, either.

I started going to the same cut rate, in and out in 15 minutes, place that John goes to.  The girl there does a passable job on my hair.  She does shape it well, but there is no shampoo or styling.  It's truly a 15 minutes hairstyle and penny for penny, I assure you that in reality I'm getting what I pay for though it is still an inexpensive option. 

I must look for a new stylist.  When I go in to get my haircut I don't go in just for the basic cut.  They don't even blow it dry at this cut rate place which is something I do every day here at home!  No, I want the salon experience.  I want the pampering moments.  I want someone to take the time to show me how good my hair ought to look...  I want more.  I guess because I cut corners so many places when it comes to clothing and makeup and house and home, I just need an area where I feel I'm indulged, you know?  But I struggle with it at the same time.

We had the most pleasant day on Monday.  I don't know why but I simply had no desire to do a whole lot of anything on Monday.  I had worked double time on Sunday when I was alone, as I normally do, and Monday just the basics was enough as far as I was concerned.  I'd made a big breakfast for John coming in from work.  I did nothing about dinner.  Nothing.  I didn't thaw out a thing, I didn't offer up anything.  Instead I looked at him and said "Perhaps we could pick up something to eat while we're out getting your check."  I guess he wasn't very hungry, either, because he agreed readily enough though he didn't plan to leave until a little later in the afternoon.

Well, we went by a favorite local hamburger place in his work town.  Packed to the gills.   "Why is everyone eating so late today?" he asked me as we chose to bypass the place.  We drove past a spot that was closed on Monday's and then on to a mom operated place outside of town.  They closed after lunch every day.  John turned down a back road I hadn't traveled in perhaps ten years and we drove to a small town like so many other small towns in rural Georgia.  It's limping along just barely alive despite all the people that live there.  I so hate seeing these little towns dying out but you can't singlehandedly save them all.  

No, I don't think Walmart killed the.  In fact, there's only one Walmart within 30 miles of many of these towns and very seldom do any of these folks shop at Walmart.  I know many folks who would happily support small business if small business would just clean up their act a little.

I think there is a tendency to get a small town attitude at times.  You call for an appointment and they don't bother to get back with you.  You ask to have work done and they suggest they'll stop by and it's months and months before they call.  You want to keep a small time alive I say there are things you can change.  Do timely work.  Recommend someone to do what you don't do well.  Stock decent produce or meat at the grocery and rotate the stock so you don't have customers pick up expired products.   BE competitive.  I'll happily pay a higher price for a product that is not inferior to one I can get 30 miles away for half the cost.  I just don't want to pay the premium price for stuff that isn't any good.  And keep a little stock on the shelf.  I think it's ridiculous to find no Tylenol and be told they'd have to order it for delivery in two days.  No thanks.  I can drive the 10 miles to the next town and buy all I want without waiting two days to cure my headache.  And there is no Walmart 10 miles away.  No I'm afraid what has killed the small town is the absolute refusal to do anything differently than it was done ten or twenty years ago, the refusal to believe that people will stay and shop if the product offered is at least equal to what's available elsewhere or if service is a little better than it is anywhere else.  And lose the attitude. I don't want anyone being surly and rude because I shopped elsewhere when I've TRIED to purchase in your place and you didn't care to have what was wanted in stock and refused to order it.

Our little local diner is a prime example of people staying around town for a bit of quality service and food.  It's not expensive and it's not fancy, but it's good plain chicken and good plain hotdogs and hamburgers and the locals and those who drive through town flock into the place.  The service is always nice even when they are at peak busyness.   There are many other choices people might make within ten miles but to a person they choose to stay local and buy their lunch and their family reunion chicken because they know it's GOOD.  It makes a difference.

Oh I rabbit trailed off there didn't I?  Through the little dead town with  it's pretty old houses decaying not so gently we drove and then onward toward a town with a selection of fast food places because there was not even a diner seen in that little town. We drove past a restaurant and two fast food places. All were packed out.   We ended up going to our favorite restaurant which was a much bigger and nicer meal than we'd planned to have, but it's just secluded enough that traffic seldom builds in that area.  I treated John to dinner which is unusual because he generally insists upon treating me.  We decided to have a steak, something we never choose to indulge in away from home and it was so good.   And after, John stopped and bought us each an ice cream cone to eat on the way home.  There's something awfully summer-ish about an ice cream cone in July,  isn't there?  I mean you can't eat as slowly as you might in winter and yet it tastes so much better somehow when it's hot outside.  We took the longer drive home, too and laughed and talked all the way.

We seem, this week at least, to be in a pattern of eating a very, very late dinner and skipping supper entirely.  It's not been planned to have just two meals each day but it's where we've been this week for some reason.  Tuesday John mowed and trimmed the lawn.  I was busy indoors writing and doing some deeper cleaning jobs that I'd wanted to get done.  I think we finally stopped about 3pm and had our meal.  

So yesterday, John was back at work. I'd toyed with the idea of leaving home.  "Go do something fun..." I said to myself.  But in the end I wanted to be at home.  I wanted to tend to some of those goals on my list for July and my work list for this week. I wanted to putter about my house.  So I did.  I got so much accomplished. The fridge sparkles with little real effort on my part.  The cupboard I'd meant to clean out two weeks ago is neat and clean.  I loaded up a basket of things to take out to the shed and a trash can and a box for donations from the guest room clutter.  It looks restful and peaceful now in that room.  I pulled up the soapwort and dug out the iris from under the Faith Tree.  I did laundry and dishes and wiped and polished and straightened and in the end, I felt tired but happy, productive but not deprived.  

I made myself an indulgent sort of lunch of Chicken pot stickers with stir fried vegetables and settled into my chair to read a couple of old magazines.  I had a long conversation with John and watched in amazement as rain poured down.  We weren't supposed to get any rain at all.  Silly weather man.  My

laundry got soaking wet and stayed on the line but I did have presence of mind to run go put the fern under the eaves of the porch roof where it could get a good watering.  It was a good day, a happy day.  Maybe my idea of fun just isn't the same as someone else's idea of fun but I will venture that I had fun as I played about my house, involved in what I did without stopping to do anything but what I was doing.  No division of attentions required.

Today started with promise and ended with a broken pinky toe which is throbbing painfully.  I've taken just enough Tylenol to lessen the pain slightly and fuzz my brain mightily.  I think I'm going to see if there's an unclaimed nap lying around anywhere.  I'll call it mine if  find it.