The Morning’s Blog Found

Hello, once more, and I trust several times soon again. I think I’ve never been busier than currently. Just a “brief” bit about that: I’m clearing out my house of papers back to eighth grade (not my school work but the teacher’s, work I used in my own teaching), much more paper than that; and moving furniture, having bought some new pieces, and getting ready to decorate a “rose room.” A truck will pick up some old furniture for donation to the Idaho Youth Ranch. Some new floors are on schedule as well as a large pantry in my big kitchen. Those finished cabinets (and the man who is making them) should arrive here on August 1. I will lose one row of counter space and the cabinets beneath the counter, but some of those contents have already been donated and some will go into the new pantry. The new kitchen floor design is to be the large-size black and white squares on the diagonal. Heather first said, “Oh, you’re going back to the ’60s.” I said, “No, back to the 1600s.” This design has been the most popular of kitchen floors and front entry-ways for several generations. That counter that now stands between the kitchen work area and the kitchen dining area, will be gone, allowing more room for the table at its longest size.

I’ve purchased a new sofa and a settee that are the right size for a woman to sit on. I’m tired of all the seats in a room being designed to fit big men. My big men, and they are all that, can sit in the big chairs. The flowered sofa with the peonies will go into the rose room. That is located at the front of the house and hasn’t been used for a few years. Its old furniture goes into donation, and I have all the main pieces to turn the space into a lovely sitting room. The carpet is to be replaced by the metal that looks like wood. Doctors’ offices and dentists’ too, have gotten rid of their carpets, for the metal floor (it has a name other than metal, of course) is a healthier environment. I plan to do the same to the floors in the living room and dining room. My study and all the halls already have the healthier stuff. Rugs will be considered at a later time.

In the meantime, other donations include one of my two jewelry chests, all my costume baubles (the real stuff has already gone to relatives, but there wasn’t much of that), clothing, books, and much little stuff just taking up space, never used for years, or perhaps not at all. Now here are two special messages for my granddaughter-in-law Marsha in California and for my former student in German and English, Laura in Colorado.

Marsha, you probably do not have time right now to make bread with the big mixer I gave you. However, if you tried, you must have wondered where a necessary part was. Yesterday, I found the dangerous looking hook on a shelf. I never made bread on the machine, therefore I must have put that part out of sight. Now you and Heather would have found it long ago, for you leave no bit of dirt last that long on your shelves. Well, that whole shelf was filled with things I didn’t use. Frankly, I’d rather write a story than face the dust up high, where I can’t reach and neither can I climb to such. That’s a great excuse for old age; can’t reach the dust.

Laura, I came across a lovely box of German songs (dated 1966) on 13 discs, 33⅓ speed, probably never played. If you don’t have an old record-player, you can take them to a recording studio that should be able to transfer them to some 24th-century device for you. Let me know if you would like to have these.

Well, today is the day a great lot of my family heads for their annual vacation at McCall, the town Rob wrote is the best place on earth and he’s seen much of the world. He’s the grandson who, with his wife and baby Rocco had to flee Libya. Gooch invited me to go but I had to turn that down. The floor-measurers will be here any day, the window-washer, the furniture pick-up men, and I’m still not quite ready the cabinet man who will be here in about two weeks. Nothing will stay in my kitchen unless I will use it. For example, the slow-cooker. I used it for chicken yesterday and I got an idea: I plan to try it once first, of course, but I’m anticipating preparing on Wednesday night the casserole bowl ready for Thursday, placing it in the fridge overnight, setting it to cook in the morning, just before I leave for the day, and arriving home Thursday to welcome the aroma as I walk into the house.

Breakfast is now over, at five minutes till 11:00, so I suppose I should prepare lunch now!

♥