Woman in the Middle

You all seemed to enjoy my last “Do you remember”  post, so I thought I would do another one. Did any of you have one of these in your house back in the late 60s or early 70s?

I remember when every self-respecting middle class home had a bunch of resin grapes in their living room. My Mom, in a moment of frugal craftiness, made her own resin grapes, which, if I remember correctly, were similar in color to these that I found in Mom-in-Law’s house.

What is it about a previous generation’s fads that seem so silly but our own fads seem, so, well, normal?

As we clean out the accumulation of over 50 years at Mom-in-Law’s house, I promised to bring you memories of times past. This time I bring you the gallon can of Black Flag with DDT!

If you look closely, you can see right under the black flag the phrase “Contains DDT.” Do you remember DDT? While DDT was first created in a laboratory somewhere in 1874, its usefulness as an insecticide was discovered in 1939. Heck, the fellow who discovered that DDT could kill bugs with abandon even got a Nobel Prize for his work. Soon, humankind was happily spraying DDT everywhere, especially here in the United States.

There was just one small problem. With DDT out in the ecosystem, it was getting into birds. The chemical caused, among other things,  the eggshells of these birds to thin and so the eggs would crush before the babies could mature inside the eggs. This resulted in the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon populations almost being wiped out in the continental United States.  Then came Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” in 1962, which detailed the environmental effects of the mass spraying of pesticides. DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1972.

Hubby and I are old enough to remember all this so we weren’t too excited by this find. On a side note, Youngest Daughter had to read “Silent Spring” in high school. When I told her we found DDT she was quite distressed! After taking the photo of the can, just for our amusement, and making a few jokes about keeping it because we knew it would REALLY work against any bugs we encountered, we took it and many other fine chemicals to our local household hazardous waste drop off facility. There the workers also joked that we should keep it because it would REALLY work, but we declined. After all, the can says it “kills fast!”

You just never know what you might find in an old house!

The big city next door has a Dickens Festival. I think it is one of the most enjoyable events they have all year, but, then, I like all things British. This past weekend was the 2015 edition. The church we attend (First Congregational Church of Riverside, CA) gets into the action and hosts the “Royal Victoria Music Hall” during the Dicken’s Festival as a fund raiser. To support our church, and because it is such fun and has such delicious food, we try to attend every year.

I am sorry I didn’t take a photo of our lovely plate of food. It had a scone, two types of sweet bread, grapes, strawberries, three types of tea sandwiches, and two chocolate truffles. They also bring around mini quiches, hot from the oven. Of course, there was all the tea you could drink. In addition to the food, there is a show. It is lead by Mr.Titus Cadwalleder Treacle and two of his players from the music hall. Mr. Treacle, played by church member Chris Marsh, is a kick, a hoot, and any other word you can  come up with that means so much fun.

Mr. Treacle (Chris Marsh)

Mr. Broderick Bumblepitch (Walter Bradley) and Dame Hermione Fabersham (Donita Smith) added to the find and frivolity in the Royal Music Hall 

The best part is I got to take dear Emma Jane, my 92 year old “other mother” who I have known all my life. She gets such a kick out of things like this and she adores Chris Marsh. He came to our table before the show, as Mr. Treacle, of course, and admired the sparkle in Emma Jane’s eyes and gave her a great big kiss on her hand. That right there was worth the price of admission!

I think I see the sparkle in her eyes!

Oldest Daughter has previously been in church productions with players from the Royal Music Hall, so before the show they asked her to be a part of it. They didn’t tell her what part but she was game. She got to put on a cute bonnet, which I though she looked delightful in. Oh, and she was supposed to act drunk! I can’t go into the entire plot, but it had to do with Mr. Treacle impersonating Queen Victoria and Eldest was a pretend maid of honor, found at the pub next door.

“Queen Victoria” converses with one of her “maids of honor.”

Emma Jane and Eldest Daughter after the tea and show. You can see that they both had a good time!

If you live in the area, I am so sorry you missed the Royal Victoria Music Hall and the rest of the Dicken’s Festival, for that matter. But plan on attending next year. You won’t be sorry!

I ended my week of tossing things with a score of 192 things pitched. Gosh, it felt so good! I have to say that finding the first 100 things was easy but the second 100 got a little harder. The first 100 included cleaning off my computer desk and getting things off the flat surfaces of my house, like kitchen counters. For the second 100 things I had to open drawers and go in search of new places to find things to get rid of.

Except for the previously mentioned computer desk, my house does not look any cleaner. But my soul is lighter. Knowing I went though many drawers and hiding spots and cleaned them out feels really good. Also, because I was just tossing and not trying to then put what was left away, etc…I didn’t get as distracted from my task and that old time bandit procrastination didn’t rear it ugly head too much. When it did, all I had to do was remind myself to just toss and away I would go again. It was also something very easy to do in between other things.

This exercise was not about cleaning to the point of company ready, that will have to come later. But because I tossed almost 200 things, it will be easier when I do put away what is left. I have less to put away and more room to put it away in.

I don’t think my tossing is over. I am kind of in the mood now. Making a vow to toss 100 things just helped me get out of that procrastination place I was in.

All this tossing also helped me get in the mood to do some  other things as well. I was helping Oldest Daughter reorganize her room a bit. We moved a set of shelves Youngest Daughter no longer wanted into Oldest’s room. She and I also found a place in her room for a small table that came from Mom In Law’s house.

So all in all, a productive week!

We are doing something right because Blackie felt like a million bucks yesterday, his 16th birthday. He did his famous mad dash down the hall, he groomed himself like he was going to the Oscars, and he slept, but then he does that last one every day under any circumstances.

Blackie in his prime, as a big fat black cat – July 2006

After his birth with his three brothers in our front planter to a stray cat that adopted us, Blackie has added a lot of cat magic to our lives. But his birthday brings up that  age old question, “Where has all the time gone?” Just think, I was just 37 when he was born. How can that be? I should still be 39 and Blackie just two….but we are not, are we Blackie?

Happy Birthday you silly old thing. Glad we got to spend another one with you!

1. We have earthquakes every day. They are usually small ones we don’t feel, but they happen all the time.

2. We have beautiful beaches and they have been memorialized in song and culture. And when you step into the water lapping at those sandy shores? You will scream because it is so darn cold. Even at the height of summer on the hottest day of the year, that water is freezing. It comes to us on a direct route from Alaska. Surprise!

3.We have way better palm trees than Hawaii. I was so surprised when I went to that tropical paradise on my honeymoon and the palm trees were a bit stumpy. I am used to the crazy tall palm trees in California.

4. Southern California and Northern California are totally different. Over the years, I have met quite a few people who moved to So Cal from out-of-state and it wasn’t at all what they expected. They moved To Nor Cal and found it much more to their liking. For one thing, Nor Cal has seasons. People from other states seem to set a high priority on seasons. As a native, I personally think seasons are overrated!

5. We do have seasons, but it is a heck of a lot more subtle. If that big difference between summer, fall, winter and spring is your thing, you may miss that if you come here.

6. I have said it before, but our here where real people live, we never see anyone famous. N-E-V-E-R. In LA, that is a different story. But our here, nothing.

7. It doesn’t matter how many miles are between you and the place you are going. It is all about the traffic. So you will never hear a Californian tell you how many miles away something is. We will tell you how many minutes or hours it will take you to get there.

8. Our beaches are relatively sunny during the summer, but during the winter there is a cloud cover that sticks around a good part of the time. If you like the sun, don’t live near the beach.

9. San Francisco is a ridiculously cold place, even in the summer.  Always take a jacket!

10. If you are in Southern California, the most direct route to anywhere far away is through a whole lot of nothing.  If you go east it is just nothing but desert and if you go north you will have to go though the central valley where your only entertainment is trying to guess what crop they are growing in the fields or orchards you drive past for mile after mile. Either way, I would prefer if someone else drives and I can just sleep through it all. Believe me, I have seen it before.

I fully admit that getting awakened at 6:40 a.m. by a meowing cat is not normally how a good day starts. But in this instance, being awakened by an elderly cat who feels good and wants to be fed makes all the difference in the world. Of course, that also woke up the dog and while I put Honey out, Eldest Daughter fed Blackie and went back to bed. Then Hubby got up and I got to enjoy a nice warm hug while I kissed a bristled cheek. Ahhh, a lovely start to the day!

But, it got even better! We have had a week or so of very warm weather. I have been wearing sandles and short pants, it was so warm. But this morning is foggy and chilly and I got to slip on a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt. I wasn’t ready for summer yet, so this abrupt change in weather is a lovely turn of events.

Last night I went to the store and while I was there I bought a two pack of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. I love a nice breakfast on weekend mornings, something more than cereal or toast. But I haven’t been able to convince anyone to take on the roll of weekend breakfast chef. So I bought cinnamon rolls. But as I started to take them out of their box, one of the tubes slipped out and fell to the floor. Off popped one of the ends and out popped a raw roll. I gathered up what was left and put in tin the fridge in a plastic bag.. But I couldn’t let it sit all week, could I? Of course not! So cinnamon rolls it was this chilly morning. Yum!

I have been up less than two hours, but it sure looks like it is going to be a good day!

Update: Yesterday was a busy day and I didn’t have the opportunity to get rid of much. I am up to 90 items cleaned out of the house. Today is pretty clear, so I think I should be able to break the 100 mark and keep moving forward to 200!

As of 8 p.m. last night, I was up to 83 items tossed or put in the pile to yard sale or give away. This has been easier than I thought. The fact that is has been easy is more a reflection on how bad he house had gotten and not on how determined I have been, unfortunately. Finding those 83 items to get rid of has kind of been like shooting fish in a barrel.

However, the cleaning out of 100 items has been a great motivating tool for me. Hubby had asked that I clean up the computer desk because tax time is coming and he wanted some space to be able to lay out tax documents as he worked on our taxes. I actually did that today. I also went through the great stacks of books and magazines on my night stand that threatened to topple over on my head in the event of an earthquake in the middle of the night, and they always seem to happen in the middle of the night. I am happy to report that death is no longer imminent and I even dusted the nightstand before I returned all the reading material I kept back to the night stand.

I decided I need to allocate Friday as the day all the stuff needs to be boxed up or donated. Cleaning out does generate it own work requirements, doesn’t it?

Since I should will be hitting my 100 item mark tomorrow, I have decided to see if I can get rid of 200 items by Friday. I know, I really live life on the edge, the edge of chaos, that is!!!

The house has gotten out of control. Everywhere I look is stuff, lots of stuff. It is especially bad these days because we keep bringing things home from Mom in Law’s house. Also, spare time that would normally be used to keep up with our house is instead used to work on cleaning out Mom in Law’s house to get it ready to sell. This weekend I finally had enough and decided it is time to clean some things out.

I have given myself a goal of getting rid of 100 thing this week. I haven’t put a lot of rules on it. I don’t want to slow myself down or get discouraged. If I throw away a piece of paper, that counts. If I toss a rubber band, that counts. The only rule is that I have to be getting rid of something that has been around a while. If someone drinks a can of soda pop, tossing the can does not count, for example.

Whatever I get rid of must be gone or boxed to go by Friday. Given how much we have, I don’t think it is going to be a problem. So far, I have cleaned out 23 things, ranging from stuffed animals Youngest Daughter wants to get rid of to papers by the computer that I no longer need.

I am under no illusion that getting rid of 100 things is going to make my house look wonderful. But I figure it is a start.

I will keep you updated on my quest for the Magic Number 100!

The young couple we know who got married on Valentine’s Day decided to do the civil ceremony now at our County Registrar’s office and will be having a church wedding at a later date. It has been a very long time since I was at a civil wedding ceremony and, since I have known the bride since middle school and because both the bride and the groom have been to my house many times, I begged an invitation to the wedding. I also really really love weddings. Just tell me where and I will be there!

According to our local paper, a total of 41 weddings were planned for Valentine’s Day at the Registrar’s office. I expected a madhouse but when we got there things were actually very calm. They apparently planned for plenty of time for each wedding. The bride didn’t wear the wedding dress she already purchased as she wants to save it for the “real” wedding. Instead she bought a very pretty white dress with a short train. She is very tiny and she looked adorable in it.

When the girls were in middle school and high school, for some reason every one in their little friendship circle was taller than average except Martha, who is quite petite. We used to joke that it was Martha and her body guards. Below is the bride with two of her “body guards.” That is Youngest Daughter on the right.

Please note the flowers. I have to brag here a minute because I made them, all by my little lonesome, with help from Fresh and Easy and the internet. Youngest Daughter and I checked several places on Friday for a bouquet of flowers we could turn into a wedding bouquet. The one we liked the best was at Fresh and Easy. I pulled it apart, put it back together, reserving a flower for the groom’s boutonniere. I wrapped the stems in green florist tape and put it in water until the next day. A couple of hours before the wedding I cut the stems off to a good length, wrapped the stems in ribbon and pinned it down the front with pearl headed pins. Easy peasy!