Upgrades

Erin and I started this morning laughing at ourselves.

More than ever we realized that as life changes some things remain the same:

A negative plus a negative equals a positive.

I intentionally leave things out of place to annoy myself so that I’ll remember to address that task. Obsessive almost to the point of Compulsive Disorder, for years this worked for me.

Erin and I both practice this technique but routinely pick up after one another resulting in, “where in blazes is my stuff?!”

Everything Old is New Again.

Sure, shortly after I arrived here I yukked it up when Erin placed the vintage flip-calendar by the television set. I remember thinking, “She’s so old school. My cell is the best organizer ever…”

Several forgotten appointments and two months later, we both appreciate the gleaming chrome calendar daily. And yet we only today noticed step-by-step instructions to operate the calendar that anywhere else would be intuitively obvious:

After Two months of turning the calendar thrice daily (once away and then twice toward) it has become our daily inspirational reminder:

 

Food Processor

Making cole slaw for Sunday dinner, Erin asked Ellie to grate some baby carrots.
“No problem,I’ll have it in a minute.” the younger, techno-savvy sister replied. She immediately began taking the 1980’s food processor from the cupboard. Ten minutes later, she was still looking for one part to enable the grating device.
Meanwhile, Ellen wordlessly took the cheese grater from among the other vintage devices displayed on top of the cabinets and began grating the carrots with it.

Fifteen minutes later, Ellie called to Mom, “Where is the pin for the food processor?” After a few more moments Mom replied, “Honey, I haven’t used it in so long I honestly can’t remember. I just use the flat grater that’s in the utensil drawer”

From a few feet away Erin smiled silently as she put the completed slaw in the refrigerator.

From my seat at the island counter I swear I heard Erin thinking, “Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius.”

“History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NLT)

Images courtesy ABSFreepix and E.V.A. Lambert
Roadrunner Clip courtesy Youtube

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In The Zone

“You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of Sight and Sound but of Mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”*

*

Working without Wi-Fi or an internet connection in my new home often feels like I actually stepped out of the truck into the Twilight Zone. Things that I once used and rarely noticed before, essentially took for granted, are not available now and I must hourly or daily readjust my movements in their absence.

For instance, we have basic satellite television service, but no DVR. When I settled in to relax a minute with Erin on the first evening here, not pressing a couple of buttons to view my recorded shows we missed while on the road was a shock. The cable network now determines when we see our preferred programming. And without internet access we can’t log on and live stream. Simply shocking.

Every few minutes I grab one of my cell devices or open my laptop and almost immediately Vision blurs, my ears detect the slightest ringing and eerie distant music, and I initially feel light-headed. In nanoseconds I must adjust to the feel of actual paper, reference books and that landline handset for reference.

Even after I remember I can go to the library that’s a good stretch of the legs away to reconnect with cyberspace and the blogosphere, the world around me seems to move slower and slower while I gather my bag to leave.

Now, two weeks since I left Texas, we are still reorganizing and juggling everyday items to fit our combined 50 pounds of stuff into our 20 pound sized home. What I once considered necessities have taken on whole new definitions while I utilize actual antiques in the kitchen and bathroom for the time being, but mostly for the challenge.

Used to glass shower doors, I won’t soon forget the sensation of a shower curtain billowing against my ankles for the first time in decades. Eeek!

However, I am amazed at how quickly I adjust to heating water in a teakettle rather than the microwave, making coffee in a French press rather than the Keurig. More astounding, I actually put oil and kernels in a pot (matching the lid first) and shaking it over a gas flame to make popcorn. And, oh the delight of melting and then drizzling butter – bomb diggity!

Sure I’d like to open the cupboard and see my dishes that have been familiar for years, or see my cosmetics in the medicine chest. On the other hand, I can practically feel the presence of my things, safely stored in the garage until we make space for them – and may actually need them. They seem to call to me every few hours, “don’t forget me…”

 

<em>”… the world that was, and the world that is, or the world that will be… In the Twilight Zone.”</em>*

“…but we have this treasure in Earthen vessels, that the Excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” 2 Corinthians 4:15 (NKJ)

 

*, **Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone TV series 1959 – 64, images courtesy photobucket.com bucket.com