Category: Waxing Philosophic

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Calluses

Sometimes I think you spend your life

Defined by calluses

As a child your skin is thin; you feel everything sharply

Pain is close to the surface

You age and the rough abrasions of experiences begin

To thicken your skin and you develop the first callus

You can moderate the world’s impact

By mid life you have grown a coarse bark that protects you

Age reduces your ability to repair the damage

Your shield weakens and the bark thins

Calluses wear away.

In old age once again you feel sharply.

Sadness and tears come easier, unexpected and unbidden.

My calluses are thinning

Winter has been hard

The world connected with some good punches

I needed a rest

Back soon I hope

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Quiet Days

As we approach the shortest day I get less and less done in a day. Probably pretty common especially for us without office or indoor jobs. Heck without jobs at all.

With all that has been going on I have been turning down all opportunities to work on indoor jobs. Outside by myself is the current rule. I get enough sketchy exposure time getting groceries, thank you.

I did manage a quick turn around the yard the other day. The garlic is up about 3 inches. Cool. We are just now coming into frost days, and no snow so far. Not sure if that makes any difference. I’m new to growing garlic.

Spent a crap load of money on the vehicles in October and November. I was hoping that would be it for a while but I know it is not. The BMW will need brakes all around in the spring and the Chevy has a suspicious belt/pulley sound starting. May be a new alternator or water pump in my future.

With not much work to be done you might think I was in the shop. Nope. Haven’t been in there in weeks. I am not feeling it right now. I have a few projects I would like to make but frankly each day I could go over there I simply can get up the gumption to go. Now with Christmas getting close I find I would rather sit in front of the fire or try to find new recipes. Recipes are a thing now. We made major changes to our diet this spring and most of our old favourites are now verboten. Especially baking recipes. I am trying a lot of vegan baking recipes. So far the opinion is that vegan baking sucks ass.

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Quiet Days

It’s a cool and rainy day today.  Coffee on the deck this morning was a quiet and foggy experience.  Very beautiful.  

This afternoon we are just chilling.  Kate and Anna McGarrigle are soulfully playing in the headphones as I alternate between my quest to finish the Internet and enjoying the view of the forest out the window.

The first large harvest of tomatoes is on the counter, almost ready for us to start salsa.  Probably tomorrow.  If it goes quick we will likely make a batch of cheese as well.  We picked up the supplies for both yesterday and cheese is fast.

As I type Kate and Anna give way to the Seekers.  iTunes seems to be in cahoots with the weather to get me to have a nap. I shall fight the urge.  Maybe a bit of guitar practise before a shower and then off to supper for Saturday date night.

I highly recommend retirement.

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Live simply

Spent the last couple of days hauling away the contents of another estate.  This is the third one I’ve helped with this year.  There is something profoundly sad about loading someone’s valued possessions, items they picked out with care and thought and passion, and taking them to the landfill.

It feels like an insult.  Demeaning.

Many items are taken by relatives and friends.  Some items make it to local recycling or are donated to second hand charity stores. The lion’s share of the house contents however ends up  getting unceremoniously tossed into the back of the truck and taken to the dump.

You start to think about you own possessions and what will happen to them.  The fox statuette and whale milk pitcher.  The painting that was Kelly’s retirement gift.  The drawer full of watches I’ve been keeping (some even still work!)

Cleaning out someone else’s home can be a great eye opener.  It makes you really think about what you want to leave behind for somebody to deal with.  We have been downsizing fairly steadily over the past decade or so, quite aggressively at times.    We’ve gone from almost 4000 sqft of living and storage space to just under 900 sqft in the process. I like to think that in the end of days most of our belongings will find a second home and not simply tossed out.  Live simply and spare someone else the sadness and guilt of destroying the artifacts of a life.

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Mel’s Stump Axiom

No matter what you think, and how carefully you have dug, cut, and chopped, there will always be one more tree root when you are trying to dig out a stump.