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Friday, April 2, 2021

Joy

Oops! I forgot to post this earlier.  Better late than never
The 13th week of 2021 began with full blown spring. My neighborhood is filled with dogwoods, pear trees, azaleas, and iris in full bloom. When it is like this our entire neighborhood looks like an enchanted fairy land. It does not last a long time so you have to enjoy it before it is gone and replaced by high humidity and heat__lots of heat.


These are the joys for week 13:

Friday: When we moved everything from the lake place  I had kept our outdoor table and chairs separate from the furniture donations I made. My sister first said she wanted them, and I was more than happy to give them to her. Later she decided she could not use them because the table did not have a hole for her umbrella, so they stayed in the side driveway next to the house. One of our neighbors asked if they could buy them and we told them no__they could have them.  Friday I walked outside and noticed 4 tomato plants and a beautiful potted plant from them. It was totally unnecessary since I was just going to donate the table and chairs anyway, but certainly appreciated. The joy is not really getting the plants, but the joy is having wonderful neighbors.

Saturday: Saturday morning I had arranged to meet some people in front of a local piano dealership to give away some items that were left in Mom's house. My sister, unbeknownst to me, met me at Mom's to help load the things I had listed in our local "Buy Nothing Facebook Group" in my car.  We were thrilled to re-home Dad's stereo speakers, his tux, and my wedding dress. Plus we had fun just watching the people who were happy to get the items.
Later TheHub and I got out around mid afternoon and took a drive. All the dogwoods and azaleas are in bloom and the neighborhoods are just gorgeous.  There is a particular joy in just seeing how incredibly gorgeous spring can be. But achoo! The beauty comes with a yellow coating on everything!

Sunday: We had some overnight rain which was much needed to wash the first round of pollen away. We were even able to open the windows and doors for a bit. More pollen is sure to come, but most of the trees have already set their beginning leaves so much of the tree pollen has fallen. Next up is the grass pollen!
We were able to stream our church services and then have a Webex Sunday School class. I enjoy having "face to face" interaction with our friends.
Later Son2 and DIL2 came over to eat and watch the Alabama/UCLA basketball game. UCLA won. Roll Tide!

Monday: I woke to a drop dead postcard kind of day. The air was crisp, the skies a gorgeous blue, fresh spring green on all the trees___and a fresh coat of pollen. Other than the sky and trees everything else was yellow.
TheHub came in from work (late) and asked if I wanted to ride up to the bluff to see the sunset. The overlook we always choose is over a valley and now that the leaves are out, all you see is a golf course and trees. It's the perfect spot to watch the sun go down. And as usual it was beautiful, but we know to get a good spot you have to get there early. We go to a small bluff side restaurant that closed at 3. It has very limited parking and every pretty day the "watchers" outnumber the available parking spots. So we head out about 30 minutes ahead of time, and talk until the sun is gone and the brilliant red sky following sunset fades to purple. Talk about a cheap date!

Tuesday: Some days the isolation caused by this pandemic overwhelms me. That coupled with the amount of excess stuff I have here becomes suffocating. Tuesday was one of those days that almost got the best of me. I figured I might as well give in to it and at least be productive, so I spent the day in the laundry room cleaning, sorting, and creating yet another Goodwill box. Letting go of things that no longer serve my purposes feels very freeing.

Wednesday: I had intended to wake early and hit the ground running. I had made my grocery lists to do a round robin type of shopping and hit 4 stores in reverse geographical order to take advantage of each stores loss leaders. 
But sometimes the universe has other plans. The day was beyond gloomy. It was pouring down rain, I mean a true gully washer. I will do foolish things sometimes, but I am never stupid enough to go shopping in the pouring rain if it is not absolutely necessary. Besides a bad weather day is always a perfect day for reading, right? Unless the universe decides you need to do something else.
I went into the laundry room to take something out of the freezer to thaw for dinner when I noticed water, lots of water all over the floor. The freezer had screwed up and was thawing. Instead of spending the day reading, I quickly put all my meats, fowl, and fish in insulated bags, ran them to my sister's house to stick them in her freezer, the came home ( soaking wet, I might add) to deal with the mess. About 5 hours later, lots of work, clean up, thawing and monkeying with the freezer, it was totally defrosted, up and running, and restocked. I did lose a small amount of foods but fortunately only the top shelf and stuff on the freezer door had thawed completely. Frozen fruits were on the top shelf so I had to cook a huge pot of mixed berries. Looks like I will be making jam in a couple of days.
Additionally I had to revamp the menu plans to salvage some partially thawed meats.  Oh well, spaghetti and tacos for Easter maybe?

Thursday: The day was as beautiful as Wednesday had been gloomy.  The rain and winds moved some of the pollen along, so everything looked even more gorgeous, though it was a little too cool to be outside enjoying the beauty. 
Normally I would have begun the day by going grocery shopping, but I had a refrigerator filled with formerly frozen things that had to be incorporated into the immediate meal plans, so there was no reason to go shopping until some of the foods were eaten.  I guess the joy was being able to delay shopping for at least another day, but we are going to have to eat some very disjointed meals for a bit.

So go and find your joy for the 14th week. It is always there, even if it is well hidden!



24 comments:

  1. I'm glad the damage from the non-working freezer wasn't worse than it was and you were able to salvage most of the frozen items! Got to find those joys where one can!

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    1. It was a first world problem and the worst that would have happened would have been that I lost all the food. I am still giving it a week before I move everything back from my sister's freezer. Meanwhile I told her to use anything in there that they might want for dinner

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  2. I hear you on the yellow overlay on everything in pollen season. An overlay which is not stopped by closed doors and windows.
    Hooray for joys.
    I am glad that Wednesday was not worse, and loved the rest of your week.

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    1. It was so bad that for a day or two after a gentle rain I had yellow paste on the porches. The gully washer did clear that up though!

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  3. ugh! The car was filled with pollen! Gully washer was right. We resign ourselves to staying put, needing nothing at all.

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    1. My car is a deep gray/blue and it appeared to be green/yellow. I still need to have it washed__maybe later today. The pollen is still falling but at least it is not as bad now, although I think I could still write my name with my finger on the car hood.

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  4. Your Wednesday might have done in the strongest but look at you making the most of it! Its sure nice to have good neighbors and family like your sister.

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    1. Good neighbors make living somewhere so nice. My sister is the greatest!

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  5. Good neighbors are the best! Love the description of your sunset date night. It sounds perfect.

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    1. You can't pick your neighbors but if I had hand chosen them I could not have better ones!

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  6. I love all your joys but so sorry about the freezer. Spaghetti and/or tacos work just fine for Easter in my book. Happy Easter to you and yours!

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    1. We are affectionately calling our food Salvage Meals right now. And Easter will be salvaged whether it is spaghetti or not!

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  7. I'm glad you're having such great weather. Where I live, I think we're a few weeks behind you. I love rainy days, so that one gusher would've been fine with me.

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    1. I enjoy rainy days too, especially when I have the option to be out in it or not!

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  8. I am glad you have such lovely neighbors. I am running away from Istanbul which became a Covid hot spot recently and that is my joy. Happy Easter!

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    1. Options to run away are always great! Especially when running from Covid!

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  9. I totally understand the mixed blessing of spring--all of the beauty surround by pollen. But it is what it is. We have had more than one freezer mishap. One time, the condenser stopped but the fan kept running so we didn't know that it wasn't cooling until one of the rotting meat packages puffed up enough that it lifted the lid of the freezer and the stench was everywhere. The smell was so bad we had to trash the entire freezer and get a new one.

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    1. My freezer issue pales in comparison to yours! Mine was just an inconvenient first world problem.

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  10. I think it's lovely that so much of your mom's stuff is being passed on to people who will treasure it. I'm a sentimental old soul so knowing someone else would get pleasure out of it would please me no end. I'm so sorry to hear about your freezer though. I did wonder what the "car crash" post was about yesterday. I had the same thing happen two days before my son's wedding, just after I'd done all the shopping for my visitors' stay, and it can be stressful but you get there in the end, don't you! P.S. White wine helped a LOT!

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    1. Dad's speakers are fabulous, I just don't have room for them and I am glad we found some music nerds who really do appreciate them.

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  11. Thank goodness you were kept at home that day, otherwise it could have been an even bigger mess.
    I believe things happen for a reason and your ability to see the good side of it is marvelous.

    Enjoy your Easter weekend!

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    1. I will admit I said a few colorful words when I found it, but then it was just a "giterdone" mode.

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  12. Well, you've been busy. I hate it when an appliance acts up. Do you have a photo of your wedding dress? I'd love to see it.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Yes appliances are nasty when they act up. Yes I do have pictures of the dress

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