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Saturday, April 24, 2021

And look, it's Saturday

 Whenever I think I should write another post, the thought is crowded away with another, what on earth should I write of?  There is a new normal for all of us, deadly stifling, stifling difficult to write about. What new subject to whip to life this time? Oh, yes, it is Saturday!

I went to the grocery store this morning. I've made my life incredibly easier these last many months by shopping for a month of groceries in one go and enlisting Laura to carry it up the steps. Then she cleans my whole house and does her laundry in the time it takes me to shelve the goods.

Sometimes we have a five week month. Actually, four times every year the "month" is five weeks. That's like leap year; it's necessary to keep the world on schedule. And for old retired people, all the scheduled money comes to the bank sometimes four weeks apart, and sometimes five. 

The rent payment may be late this month; I'll make it the same day May funds become available. Since the business disordered management cannot move to the modern world of electronic funds, it arrives at the whim of the post office. Sometimes the payment is a week early, sometimes a week late. 

I will not budge and move funds from savings to pay the rent on time. It's far more satisfying to see if Theresa has the nerve to assess a late fee, whereupon I will report her sins to New Jersey and the late fee is erased. As long as she continues smoking and the smell oozes from every orifice of that building, I'll be safe from late charges.

Where was I?

I went to the grocery store. Now I'm back. The extra loaf of bread and pound of butter are shelved. How I need a haircut. Monday.


Here is the amaryllis we're tracking for the Weaver. When I shelve mine, she'll shelve hers. Mine had five leaves. In turn they drooped to the table, turned brown, completely limp and snapped off at the bulb. The next leaf to go will be the one on the right. It will be awhile; the leaf feels sturdy to me.

My job for the balance of Saturday is to hem the black towels. Not the fun part. At the end of the first weaving project you learn now it must be finished. The several hundred raw threads from each end must disappear somewhere. Sigh.

Then back to weaving. I've scheduled a run of dark grey towels next (bobbins already wound!), and I'll finish the warp with lavender. And that's what I'm doing on Saturday.

51 comments:

  1. My Amaryllis is in bloom now, no leaves yet. It has 2 stems ,each with 7 flowers. Think it must depend when you start encouraging it to grow. I live about 150 miles south of Weaver.
    Kathy

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  2. Mine has five leaves left and they are all drooping but totally green. I shall follow your advice. I haven't watered it for weeks. But thank you Joanne for keeping me in mind.

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  3. Hari OM
    Meanwhile, I decided to take on the challenge of trying to keep alive a store-bought peppermint; the kind you buy instead of cut fresh herbs. Six weeks in, we seem to be making friends... It's good when there is not too much to report and daily life can take precendence, is it not?! YAM xx

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  4. I need to do a grocery order! I'm still avoiding going into the store which is silly since I have been fully vaccinated. I've discovered how much easier it is to have a personal shopper. More expensive, but also very convenient.

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  5. Early Sunday here.
    I love that Laura assists - and could do with her services here.
    Looking forward to seeing the new towels too.

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  6. How delightful that you two older ladies are sharing the Amaryllis plans- so many thousands of miles apart but friends. I love it. I also love reading both of your blogs!

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  7. Rainy here so I'm doing things like repairing overalls and making soup.
    I love the way you and Laura have worked things out.

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  8. I buy my butter from Costco and freeze it. I've read you can freeze it up to 4 months. I know I've frozen it for longer than that though. And we always freeze bread too. Your Laura is such a gem!

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    1. I always buy my butter on sale and freeze all but the pound in current use. It's worked out great.

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  9. busy busy being creative. I've forgotten how to do that it seems. guess I'll relearn when it gets too hot to work in the gardens.

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  10. As a teacher and now a retiree, I have always lived on monthly pay. I do remember some groaning when those 5-week months came along. Strange that I don't notice any more.

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  11. What I notice about five week months is if it's five Wednesdays. That means five new comic books days at the shop. Yes, I'm foolish that way.

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  12. When I was a wage slave, we LOVED the three paycheck month. It was silly, it was the same yearly salary, but it really did feel like extra money. Now it all comes in via the interwebs on the same date of each month.

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  13. I think the new towels of lavendar and gray will look spectacular. You have your grocery shopping down to a fine art!

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  14. I hope that you let Laura know how much you appreciate her - and I am sure the feeling is mutual.

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  15. yep it is Saturday, all week , everyday has been Tuesday so this comes as a surprise to me. I never know what day it is.

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  16. Well it’s Sunday morning here, the bins will go out later. When they get emptied (and the truck doing that is noisy enough to be heard) I’ll know it’s Monday:)
    For some reason no matter where I worked I was always paid fortnightly, never weekly or monthly so on retirement nothing changed. Our ‘government donations’ arrive in the bank account regularly at two week intervals. We’ve learnt never to go grocery shopping on pension Thursday though, supermarkets are chock full of old people :)

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  17. I do like the Amaryllis Report. I'm looking for Phase Two when it starts to grow again.

    I'm very glad you have help bringing in the groceries.

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  18. It's wonderful that Laura can help you with groceries. It's getting the groceries in the house that really wears me out. You seem to have had a busy Saturday. I'm not crazy about hemming anything! But at least you know when you are done you can start that new batch. I enjoy following yours and Weaver's amaryllis. You could write "The Amaryllis Diary" and others could learn from it!

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  19. There's always some challenge to face like paying rent. I'm not that well organized to just shop for groceries once a month!

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  20. Smokers are the WORST! (says an ex-smoker herself, LOL!)

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  21. Hubby does the shopping, when work done I just want to head home.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  22. So glad your relationship with Laura continues. She is a help to you, and you are a help to her. She is a constant in your life.

    Love,
    Janie

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  23. You've had a busy Saturday. I sort of took the day off. It's necessary once in a while.

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  24. Do you only get paid once a month? We get paid once a fortnight here, so when months have five weeks it works out to getting paid three times a month twice in the year. That "extra" payment is the one I set aside for emergency money.

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  25. Do not put too much effort into thinking about the topics to be written in the posts
    . You have the talent to be interesting even in the small and trivial details of everyday life.

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  26. I've noticed, since retirement, that I have to make an effort to identify what day it is. They all seem like Saturday. Since the pandemic struck, I've done monthly grocery shopping. I think it has saved me money - I have to use more pantry items at the latter part of the month - and keeps me safer. I am not a fan of grocery shopping anyway. If winter ever leaves and the ground warms up, I can get my garden started.

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  27. When you say 'the Weaver' I don't know if you are talking about the one who weaves grass or one of your kind.

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    1. It's the Weaver of Grass. I must ask about that. I guess it's from the nest making method of her beloved birds.

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  28. Darling Joanne,

    Well, it always seems to us that you have plenty of interest to say. Indeed, even after our short absence, catching up with you has been breathtaking. Such a whirlwind of activity from where we are looking!

    We were delighted to read that you are participating in fairs and are already gathering your equipment for the events. The work you produce is always so pretty with carefully chosen colours and all beautifully finished that we are sure that there will be plenty of interested buyers out there.

    These days of isolation have certainly changed the days of the week for us. To ring the changes, after our weekly session with students where we support them in making university applications, we call it the weekend. Because it happens on a Thursday and because we have never really warmed to Mondays we call the weekend from Thursday evening to Tuesday morning. The week really does fly by in that way!!

    We do so admire all of you who are so capable with houseplants. We have never managed to keep a single one alive for more than a few days.

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  29. I don't understand why the whole pension payment/rent payments are not all electronic at this stage of the technological game. Mine are all electronic.

    You pack a lot into your days, Joanne, more than I could manage. Well done. And I know sometimes a blog post seems like nothing to say, but yours are always interesting.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. The manager of our park does not have electronic banking. Everything is a check she takes to the bank. So though every other creditor gets an electronic payment, from my bank to theirs, the woman who manages the park probably can't figure that out. She's still in the dark ages, and carts checks to the bank. Even I don't do that!

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  30. In the early days of blogging (2004, for me), a friend said:
    "If you can't think what to post, just post a link to a news article!"

    And I've found that I'm never able to stop there.... there's always something of interest--"How we get groceries during a pandemic."

    I like reading abotu people's everyday lives, anyway:
    It's the stuff of history!

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  31. You're always doing something. You and Weaver remind me of each other. You have your lives ordered to suit you.

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  32. I can't wait to see how the gray and lavender towels turn out.

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  33. You had better lend me Laura. Shopping is one thing....dog food, people food...all the usuals, but coming home at lunchtime and having to sort out lunch, freezer packing, fridge packing and shelf packing all at once is a nightmare.
    Why not shop in the afternoon? Because the main shop is in the capital, 90 minutes' drive away and our driver and general factotum leaves off work at 3.00 p.m.

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  34. Our rent is set up through the bank as a standing order. Just put the name of the person you're paying, the amount and how often. Then you can forget about it, I do like that system. Same with the utilities too.
    Enjoy your day.

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  35. Everything here goes a little quiet mid-morning... the PO, grocery stores etc. ... so that's when we head out!! Luckily there are two of us to manage things... but since neither of us is "in" house cleaning I wish there was someone to do it!!

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  36. I'm glad Laura can help you with this necessary work, Joanne.

    Do you use straight pins or quilt clips or something else to hold your towel ends in place as you hem them? Inquiring sewist minds want to know.

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    1. I run the cut edges through the serger to protect the cut edges, then roll the serged edge and sew it down. No pins involved; it's a simple rolled hem after the serging.

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    2. Ah, serging - the magic solution. I wish I had a serger, although it would probably frustrate my limited patience. Thanks for explaining, Joanne.

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  37. I finally had a haircut on Friday, my first haircut since November 20. I was very glad to get rid of all that spare hair flapping round my face. I can't be bothered with long hair.

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  38. Sure sounds like you keep plenty busy. I hope you are having a nice relaxing Sunday. :)

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  39. Your grey towels will sell well as that has been and still remains the color of everything. My daughters home, like so many, is different shades of grey with only white being the accent color.

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  40. You had a busy day by the sound of it Joanne.

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  41. I don't miss smoking, but I do sometimes miss doing something with my hands. Your hair has a nice bit of wave to it. :)

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  42. I had an amaryllis surprise me once by blooming 3 or 4 years after the initial bloom despite my sporadic care. I kept it alive, just barely, and was rewarded. Theresa is in New Jersey and she collects your rent? And she smokes? I feel like I’ve probably missed a good story somewhere

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  43. We snuggled on the couch with the kids on our Saturday and watched movies. It rained all day and we finally got a break from Mother Nature today. Hope your haircut went well and I think Theresa deserves what she gets. Enjoy the rest of your week.

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  44. If I didn't have G to do what Laura does, I would be in such trouble. HUgs.

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