These days (since after the big election but before the coronation) I’ve been pessimistic about my life for a year I imagine I will not see through to the end. I’m 69 and in the best physical shape I’ve been in since my 20s. Yes, my hearing is not as sharp. I miss 60% of what I hear on the radio sometimes. If I am five feet or closer to the person speaking to me, I usually don’t ask the person to “say again, please?” And often it’s easier to nod my head and say “wow” or “oh, right” if I’ve heard enough to suppose that’s all that’s appropriate. I have two expensive hearing aids which I’ve not worn since before Christmas because: 1. I misplaced them and didn’t find them until I found them in a shirt pocket a week ago. I know the batteries are dead. I have batteries at my airport museum office, but I’ve not bothered to put new ones because they won’t help matters much. 2. I think my hearing will be okay until it’s time to “go.”
My eyes are okay. In November when I got around to renewing my drivers license, I passed the eye exam at the license bureau, I passed by a hair. I’m “street legal.”
For the past year, I’ve not had a working kitchen faucet. I’ve carried dish washing and coffee water from bathroom to kitchen in gallon glass jugs (washed, of course) that once contained Carlo Rossi Burgundy, the least-expensive wine I can find.
— I had new year’s resolved to stop buying wine, but a depressing encounter with a new friend Sunday led to my “re-thinking” of that vow. I bought a fresh gallon going home from the airport. —
Things were okay with the “krippled kitchen” arrangement, but it was depressing. Just before December 31 of 2016, I discovered a water pipe in my basement crawlspace had burst from the cold weather. To avoid paying for an emergency call to a plumber I trust (Mike Williams Plumbing) I waited until January 2 to call to get it repaired. I also did something I should have done after the first time the pipe burst several years ago: had the man wrap the problem pipe with heating tape. I could have bought heating apparatus (tape) at the hardware store, but I didn’t think I could successfully install it. That’s something of an un-truth; I didn’t consider looking into what I’d have to do to do it myself. Even though friends told me I could do it, I didn’t even try. While the plumber was here, after he fixed the leaking pipe he also turned on the water line that went up to my kitchen. That line had been turned off a year ago by a friend of a friend who stopped an earlier leak on the same pipe. While plumber was in the house Jan 2, after he turned on the kitchen faucet and I discovered the return of running water to my kitchen (Huzzah, Huzzah), we also noticed the faucet was worse than I remembered, and he replaced THAT as well. All of this to save the expense of another service call. It made sense. I’m glad I took the flying leap. It will all be paid for by the end of March. All that crazy progress January 2 without residents living in the upstairs of my duplex (I live on the ground floor). It made no sense at all, but I had access to capacity to pay, and even though I’m paying interest on the loan, I’m also enjoying water that comes from my wonderful new faucet.
I’m ignoring MANY other bills beyond utility and telephone during this time. I am eating exceedingly modestly, but I’m not going hungry. I don’t resent people who eat more than a meal a day regularly. I’m glad to be losing some weight. I’m a long way away from “thin city.”
I have much more UPDATE to share and will try to do that later this week. In my next post, I’ll include pictures from home.
Thanks for reading this.
Live long . . . . . . and proper.
Honey & Quinine 