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Men and Tools

Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

I don’t have firmly entrenched ideas about what is men’s work and what is women’s work.  I am more about getting things done than about who does them. I have tools.  But nothing makes gratitude well up in me more than seeing a man use a tool to accomplish something, especially something that I’m glad I’m not having to do.

getting up there..., yeah that ought to be easy.
getting up there…, yeah that ought to be easy.

Our list of things to be done at the oneacrewoods got a bit shorter this month.  We’ve known for a couple years that there was some dry rot under the siding around some second story windows – not an easy place to work and also tricky when it involves making a big hole in the wall to replace windows in a climate where it rains nearly every day and is over 90° F (and a hot metal roof).  But our friends who have done quite a lot of work on our house over the years took it on, with ropes and ladders, patience and skill.  The finish work, inside and out, should be completed today.wpid-20140623_172906.jpg

Like most projects, this one grew midway through the process.  Once this bedroom had new windows, it was necessary to do some dry wall and sanding around them.  And while we’re making that kind of mess, maybe we should think about painting all the walls when we’re done.  And maybe since the carpet is in bad shape we should replace the flooring. Stop it, already.

The men took it in stride and added laying in a laminate flloor – in one day.  As I watched them painstakingly cut the pieces to fit and deal with all that pounding and sawing I was soooo glad that the only tool I had to wield was the broom.

wpid-20140623_172839.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Beautiful Place

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Good morning world, it’s Tuesday.  Just after putting all my favorite sky pictures up I see this one on the way to work.  And even though I was slightly late, I had to pull off the road and get the photo.  I live in a place where there is something beautiful to see every day.  Where do you find beauty in the place you call home?

 

sunrise over intercoastal waterway.
sunrise over intercoastal waterway.

What About a Business Blog?

Shirleyjdietz3 Comments

???????????????????????????????????????Notice the question mark after the title.  I want feedback from anyone who has experience with blogging as an adjunct to a legitimate business – you go to their website and on the top bar along with “account” and “shopping cart”, etc… there is an option called “blog”.  In your experience, who goes there and what are they looking for? What functions should the blog serve for the business? What kind of writing is most effective?  I am going to find out the answers to some of these questions through trial and error, probably, but it would be wonderful to hear from some wise ones and not have to re-invent the wheel – just sayin’.

I have the opportunity to write for a small family business (not my own) and am so intrigued by this new challenge I can hardly stop thinking about it.  The business has grown steadily over the past few years but now with an upgraded website and the desire to use social media to the fullest, the business blog is soon to be born.  I suppose that as I learn about the business, other people might also want to learn the same things. So… is it to my advantage that I know almost nothing about it? I hope so.

Another thing that would help me write for them would be to know if you have ever received an award for who you are or something you’ve done. What did it mean to you to have a tangible object of appreciation, something useful or beautiful, given to you?

I want need crave comments.

Honor

Shirleyjdietz6 Comments

Today I will think of all the spent hours of your life that translated into food for my body, clothing to cover me and as much security as you knew how to create.  Today I will consider that you started out as a teenage man with little instruction in family life, except that you grew up in a family yourself.  I will think about the times you changed your path and the uncertainty you must have felt as you searched for a better way to provide.  I will think about why you would fall asleep in your chair at the end of all those long days – not from laziness or drunkenness or escapism, but because you were physically exhausted.

I will realize that as a human you probably experienced sadness, frustration, anger (oh yeah), despair and doubt and yet you never bothered us children with any of it.  We had little knowledge of your struggles because you were a man and we were self absorbed children.  You taught us how to work alongside of you, but you always worked harder and longer.  And yet I can remember that you sang in the barn, and whistled and tried to yodel.  You modeled that it was possible, and desirable to enjoy work.  You gave me the idea that sometimes when trouble seems overwhelming the best thing to do is just go out and work at something.  Sometimes the trouble loses interest and goes away unfulfilled.  And at any rate, working is better than worrying.

As you’ve grown older with so many limitations ganging up on you, your persistence to do what you can inspires me (and scares me, but, hey… how can a nearly blind man on a rider mower cause any trouble?)  I see you teaching lessons of humility (when Mom is right and you are wrong), lessons of love (when you rub Mom’s feet and wash the dishes), lessons of trust (when you put those unsolvable things in God’s hands).  And you still whistle now and then and have Pandora playing on your cell phone, announcing your presence as you go.  I honor you for all of that.

Today I will grieve that as a society we have almost lost the concept of honoring our fathers for anything. Temptations are everywhere, expectations are high, psychology focuses on faults and there is nothing that cannot be blamed on a father.  I will remember how hard it is to be the head of anything, particularly a family.  I will be thankful for you – that you have not run away, that you are my dad, my father.

One of my favorite pictures of you, Dad
One of my favorite pictures of you, Dad

Sign Me Up, Please

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I was only two steps ahead of a giant lizard who had gained entry into the dorm and was sucking up hapless students as they tried to figure out what was going on. That one had Jurassic Park written all over it.

Last night I dreamed.  I probably dream every night but I rarely remember any of them. For some odd reason I remember two dreams from last night. I willed the Jurassic Park one to go away and not come back.  It worked and I slept again. But the second dream was different and I hung on to it in wonder.

We, myself, my two girls and my mother, were in a large medical building waiting to be called for appointments.  My youngest was only about three and I was carrying her.  I was feeling kind of like a mother who has been denied custody of her children and is suddenly reunited.  I asked if she wanted to get down and run around but she said no and we hugged closer and smiled at each other.  We sat down since the wait was interminable, but we were still content.  My oldest daughter leaning against my knee and the youngest snuggled close on the chair beside me.  It was the most pleasurable situation and I remarked “this is the way it should be”.

The strangeness of the dream is that we do not have a broken home and I have never been denied custody. My children are grown and live far enough away that I do not see them often but they have moved on in very natural ways. I wanted them to grow up and have lives of their own. They have done that successfully.

It was like a little gift – to have that time back again so vividly – when arms were wrapped around my neck and a small head rested on my shoulder. I’m just sayin’ that I would like a regular subscription to that dream. 5-Reasons-Why-Pregnant-Moms-Ignore-Advice-Lift

Just Peachy…

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So, my employer takes full advantage of anyone going from Atlanta to Sarasota on I-75 in June and asks them to turn off at Georgia exit 142. Five miles west is Lane Southern Orchards.  The family has been operating their store/packing company for five generations and it has become a very impressive place, and a wonderful side trip for travelers.  Early peaches are being sold now and that is what my employer wanted me to get for her.   I had to get a couple boxes for myself as well.

We had some vicious rainstorms during our travel that day and got to Lane Orchards just in time to load up the peaches and have supper at their cafe. My salad was so big I had to divide it into two meals to conquer it.  And of course, we had to have peach cobbler, with ice cream. Of course. The husband’s only complaint was that there was too much peach and not enough cobble. I didn’t mind that.

This is the second day since we bought the peaches and they are just starting to get soft enough to enjoy eating.  They are soooooo good and if you are local to me you are probably going to want to stop in at my place and have a peach. Do it. I don’t mind.

I'm giving them a prize for having the neatest, cleanest, prettiest place around... just sayin'.
I’m giving them a prize for having the neatest, cleanest, prettiest place around… just sayin’.
This is a variety called Carored and they are perfect looking peaches!
This is a variety called Carored and they are perfect looking peaches!
I am full after about a third of this Lane Cobb Salad.
I am full after about a third of this Lane Cobb Salad.
Warm peachy cobbler, melting ice cream, already half gone.
Warm peachy cobbler, melting ice cream, already half gone.

 

Things Men Talk About

Shirleyjdietz3 Comments
a man to man discussion
a man to man discussion

This morning  I asked my dad to tell me some things about his dad, my grandfather.  I had been thinking about how much I remembered my grandmother smiling, talking, laughing, working, but very little about my grandfather.  I wanted to know what his sense of humor was like, what his frustrations were, what mattered to him.  Strangely, my dad could not think of anything specific to tell me, but he was willing to think about it and get back to me.

As I retreated to a chair in the corner to empty my inbox (groan, 3000 emails 20 at a time…) dad and my husband started talking.  This has happened before because the two of them have some things in common that they like to discuss.  Of course I am not saying that these are the only things men talk about – I am not privy to much of that, nor do I want to be.  Here are some things that they love to talk about:

– it starts with my husbands plans to fix my daughter’s situation getting hay for her horses, talk turns to trailers to haul things

– machinery, specifically things that have been used in the past and abandoned out in machinery graveyard

– machinery, how it was transported to far away farms

– machinery, at what age they learned to use it

– machinery, near accidents that people had with it

– hay, machinery used to make it

– hay, how much faster it could be made as machinery improved

– combines (as if you could not guess, a combine is a machine)

– straw, and what they used it for

– machinery, how a tractor was made from a truck and what it was used for

– rocks (?) and how you get them out of fields, presumably with a machine

This conversation lasted at least an hour and they both enjoyed having a chance to talk and share stories.  And I realized as I listened from my hidden vantage point that I was witnessing something important about men, and their differences from women.  I’m not sure exactly what that was but it has something to do with machines… just sayin’.

Rain

Shirleyjdietz2 Comments
brook overflowing
brook overflowing

Last night we all were awakened by a single thunder clap that was awesome in it’s sound level. It was exactly 3:59 a.m.. I always check the time when some singular event occurs just in case it becomes important (I do have a dramatic imagination at times). There was rain after and wind but thankfully, no tornadoes. This morning my nephew and I took a walk over the greenspace surrounding the condos and checked out what the weather had done.

My family’s property is basically a sandy wetlands in a river basin. In wet seasons the area watershed runs right through it making a couple little ponds with streams connecting them. The ground has been soaked in the last couple of weeks by a significant snow melt and plenty of rain so today the water is high, the streams are full and overflowing the walkways and bridges. Canadian geese are swimming over what is normally dry ground. We had to choose our way carefully to avoid wading.

The trees are not leafed out yet – so different from just half a state away. Soon there will be a warm day and all will change quickly. We are hoping for a day to plant the garden, even though there is still danger of frost.

And there has been another change – in our family dynamics. A favorite aunt has passed away yesterday morning. Family is gathering and we will go to a service on Saturday in the southern part of the state. It is one of those times that will be a landmark in our memories, the sadness mixed with the comfort of being together. Into each life some rain must fall, and it does, and it did.

the rain has to go somewhere

the rain has to go somewhere

dandelions, a sure sign of spring
dandelions, a sure sign of spring

 

To Travel Well…

Shirleyjdietz2 Comments

There is definitely an art to traveling well.  On this trip I am trying to get a good report card, one that has “travels well with others” checked.  I know how to get along with myself in the car – that has never been a problem. In fact, I love getting behind the wheel and just going until the urge comes to stop and see something, or maybe just to keep going until the car runs out of gas.  But as in life, so in travel when there is more than just me. Time to adjust to another.

Do you travel fast, leave early, still going late? Do you travel cheap or first class? What are your feelings about fast food?  How big is your bladder?  All these questions are areas in which differences can pop up, and they will (and they have).  But in my 40 years of studying the husband and his changing preferences I have a pretty good idea of how we differ and I am determined that he will enjoy this road trip with me.  I might have pushed the envelope a little this morning when my phone alarm went off at 5 (which I cannot figure out since I have never set it for 5 on a Sunday morning).  I couldn’t sleep any more so I got up and turned on one small light at a time and read, showered and started packing up. I figured the gradual, incremental waking up activity would make it easier for him as opposed to jerking the covers off, screaming and shaking.  He did wake up and we are almost ready to go at 7 am.  This is an improvement over yesterday when it was more like 9.  Our 30 hour trip is on it’s second day.  We are still alive, well and in fairly good spirits.  So far, so good, Just sayin’, I’m going to make this a good trip, Lord willing.

 

we found one for $40 and there were no bed bugs
we found one for $40 and there were no bed bugs

Scary Plans

Aside Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

I like to plan. Really, why not? The future is like this blank canvas on which something will be painted, or the blank sheet of paper on which something will be written. Why not choose what I’d like to see there and then have something to work toward? And I like plans that are a […]