Self Reliance

There is a movement afoot, at least in the magazines that I read, to become more self reliant. I recently read an article about a young couple who significantly changed their lifestyle to live on a 40 acre track of land in Wisconsin.  They built their own home and are living life pretty much off the grid.  It seems like a hard life, and I admire their tenacity.

I often kid with my husband and son that I want to be prepared when the zombie apocalypse arrives.  I want to know how to survive and live off the land.  It is not really the zombie thing that makes me want to do this, but I feel that a more simple lifestyle is really better.  Truthfully, without my electronic "buddies" I would probably be lost, but slowly learning how to grow my own vegetables and make things from scratch is a healthier lifestyle more than anything else.

There is a wealth of information out there on this subject and it makes my head spin, and the more I read about it, the more impressed with just how far technology has brought us.  Whether it is a good or bad thing, only time will tell.  In the meantime, I will continue to learn a simpler, more stress-free way to live.

Shoe Love

I, like most women I know, own a lot of shoes.  Not the kind that Imeda Marcus owned, but more than 30.  I will admit that for some unknown reason that I have not been able to figure out, love shoes.  Maybe it is because unlike other things you wear shoes for the most part can be worn in a fat stage and in a thin stage. I will also admit that I have several that I haven't worn for a long time.  I rarely come across a pair that is stylish AND comfortable but this morning while I was dressing I found a pair that I had gotten some time ago which are both. I immediately put them on.

For the last few years I have been getting out of the habit of wearing heels.  Now that I am working in a very casual office, I don't really have the need to wear pumps.  I had some that were wicked good looking, but I can't go dancing in them.  I guess as you get older the ability to teeter around in those skinny heels is lost.  Because I am relatively tall anyway, I never really got into the habit of wearing anything higher than 3 inches anyway and I probably own maybe one pair.  But, I really do miss the ability to wear them because they used to make me feel sexy and powerful.

I will probably never really understand why women love shoes even though I am a woman and I fall into that category.  To me a good pair of shoes makes my day. It is a mystery that my obsession with shoes continues to this day.  But it does and I will just deal with it.

Injury

On Friday night I was making pizza for dinner and I could not find my sifter for the flour.  I rummaged around the cabinet and all of a sudden I found my mandolin slicer!  Or rather my finger found it.  Blood was everywhere! I wrapped it in a paper towel figuring it would stop bleeding soon but no, it bleed, and bleed, and bleed.  I finally got my husband to wrap a paper towel around it and secure it with electrical tape so that there was constant pressure on the wound in hope it would finally stop enough that I could survey the damage.

Undaunted, I went on to knead the pizza dough with my uninjured hand.  Not an easy feat.  By this time the yeast was so bloomed I thought it would be no good. The pizza turned out okay but the dough was a little tough.  With all this going on, it was getting later and later and I really didn't have time to have it rise.  But I discovered that regardless, the crust was quite flat  - a little thick, but flat never the less.  It was supposed to be a flat bread pizza after all!

Having an injured index finger on your dominant hand is annoying.  One soon learns how many things are a challenge with that finger out of commission.  Take typing for just one example  A lot of mistakes for sure. But it is teaching me to slow down a bit and be careful where I place my hands.  The human brain is a wonderful thing, even mine which I am sure is short a few dozen neurons, and after a while, typing gets better.  One learns to adapt.  That's the moral of this story that all things heal and we find ways to do things that need to be doing.  For me, I found a recipe for pizza dough with no yeast.  It's much quicker.  I also found a new place for my mandolin - out of the way of delicate fingers.

A Nice House

We recently had a leak in our roof.  The next to last big storm we had opened up a large portion of the roof and my husband who was home at the time (luckily) came upstairs to find water pouring through the bedroom window.  Being the handy man that he is, he got what he needed and plugged the hole to save further damage.  After the rain stopped, he got some kind of material and patched the hole himself and then called a roofer.

The roofer called this morning to give us our options.  Of course there was the tear off option where the roof portion would be torn down to the rafters and then rebuilt (the more expensive option) or we could make do with a larger patch.  I am not sure which way to go because he didn't give me the cost, but requested to talk to my husband who has been dealing with him.  In this case I don't mind him dealing with my husband; but that's another entry.  At the end of the conversation, he remarked that we had a very nice house.

It makes me smile to have a total stranger tell me that.  My husband and I work very hard to keep up the house.  Granted my husband still has not finished the bathroom, and neither of us are very fastidious housekeepers, but we try to keep the place tidy overall.  If we know we are having guests over, we clean thoroughly, but generally that doesn't happen otherwise and there are clothes, magazines, and dust lying about. Especially now that the summer is here, we spend more attention to the outside.  So it is really nice to hear that our hard work has paid off.  Because, yes, I think we do have a nice house and I am pretty proud of it.

Bring the Inside Out

In the recent issue of Mother Earth News magazine there is an article about creating outdoor rooms.  It appears the newest design trend is to create the space outside your house as well as inside.  In the summer weather it is probably smart as being outside on a cooler summer day will help to reduce the amount of electricity used for indoor living.  When you use your outdoor grill you don't use energy using the stove.  When you sit outside and read, you don't use energy for light.

I have started to begin to create some outdoor spaces myself.  I have my veggie garden, my flower garden, my herb garden, my corn garden (new this year), and the patio.  I thought about this concept for a while and ended up starting a little corner of the garden which I call my tranquility corner. It is a little outdoor room where I can have my morning coffee and prepare for the day enjoying some moments of quiet.  I have a bird feeder there and some wind chimes to provide some distraction if needed. It is really quite lovely even though it is not totally finished.  What is left is to strip the grass there, put some flagstones down, and plant some fragrant step-able plants like creeping thyme in order to bring some scent to the area as well. I also want to get a little side table and maybe another little chair so that it is not so obvious it is a room for one.

I really like this concept of outdoor living.  Like many of you, I work inside an office all day and being outside helps clear the head.  Between biking, gardening, and meditating, I get to experience all that God has provided rather than just stick to man made things. I am fortunate that I have a little space to create this garden of mine and I hope that others can create one for themselves.

Clean Up

This weekend I participated in a clean up of Norristown organized by a young person.  He goes to college in Norfolk VA now and has worked with the Disney Corporation doing college recruitment. I know that Disney has a long history with volunteerism and I guess that is how he learned some tips on organizing. As with young people the organizing was done online through a site called Indiegogo.  It is a way to raise money for a number of things and they have capabilities to help non-profits and get projects going.

I was really impressed with his dedication and organization.  He had a plan and food, water, and supplies for the volunteers.  While I was disappointed in the turnout, as I am sure he was, the dozen or so who were there accomplished a lot.  I met people from Norristown that I had not met before and we did a good job cleaning two alleys and four blocks.  I was chuckling because I was trying to imagine what the residents on the blocks we were cleaning were thinking.  I guess they just thought we were DUIs doing community service and didn't pay us much mind, but I was kind of hoping they would get inspired and come out and help.  After all we were cleaning up on their neighborhood and picking up their trash, but I guess that was hoping too much.

While the part of Norristown that we cleaned was not that bad, there are worse and they are scheduled for different days.  The site allows one to suggest areas that need attention.  I admire this young person for taking on this responsibility.  I talked to him before we started going and asked where he hoped this would go.  He did indicate that he would like to see people taking on the responsibility of doing it themselves by learning from the group. Kind of a "teach a man to fish" kind of thing.  I only hope for this town that people get the lesson.

Visual Pollution

This scene was not possible for many years driving North on business 202 through Norristown.  For about 10 years four large billboards claimed this view (minus the rain of course).  Just the other day driving home from the grocery store I realized they were gone.  But not for long.

Today I noticed that the large electronic billboard had been erected in roughly the same spot as the previous ones.  One is better than four and it is higher than the others so you can roughly see the same view as this with the new one.  I know this visa isn't some beautiful scene of a peaceful town that you might see in the movies, but the billboard is the issue here. It is visual pollution as far as I am concerned and it is a constant reminder of the demographics in the town I have chosen to be my home.

I am not sure if you realize it or not, but think about where you see those billboards.  Aside from Times Square, I have observed that most billboards I see are usually cluttering up the sky in low income areas. This makes no sense to me as people in those areas are generally less likely to purchase the things that are advertised there, except maybe a bail bondsman.  I suppose it is to attract those driving through.  But I would prefer not to have them in my town. I would prefer to see my town in all its glory and to see the buildings sans flashing ads for whatever advertisers feel the need to hawk at you during every waking moment.  I would appreciate some peaceful reflection.