House Rules

The "Merry Minuet" from the Kingston Trio has been playing in my head.

They're rioting in Africa. They're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.

Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud.

And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.

They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man.

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Sheldon M Harnick
Merry Minuet lyrics © Alley Music Corp., Trio Music Co., Inc.

I did buy some new dress pants and a couple of sweaters. I have some blazers that I'm debating on. I bought a cute green-gray sweater and skirt set.

It's probably not too early to start thinking about movers, but the idea of picking a date makes me go "Ack!" I've picked December 20th. That gives me three weekends in December. It's on a Wednesday. Cleaners would come on Thursday, and I'd give the key to the estate sale people on Friday.

A poem that I had in the back of my mind poured out while I was taking a shower. I need a waterproof notebook. That reminded me that I want a waterproof phone case and dry bag for Kauai (ordered).

House Rules

I leave a light on at night
For my mom
Who died in April.
This is a house rule.
I buy my mom's
Brand of toilet paper
Instead of my preferred brand.

They say that grief is love
With nowhere to go.
But it does go
A million different ways:
Getting the waterfall in the pond
To go whoosh whoosh
As my mom would like it.
Straightening my mom's stuffed animals.
Saving every scrap of paper
With her handwriting on it.
Saving her voicemail messages
So that I can hear her again.
Clutching at any fragments of her
That I can find.

Time continues. The ivy on her house
Is gone now, the house's bones
Jutting out as if it was looking
for a new beginning.
Me, not so much. I'm up and down,
Planning trips for the future
Seeing flashes of my mom in the past
Wanting to be finished with her stuff
And dreading the final leavetaking.

I felt her presence three times:
On the moment that she died,
Once in her car, and once
Sitting in her yard. But she's gone
Now. Sometimes that's good
Like when I break something and know
That she would be upset.

I don't know how this will end.
I'll move forward into a new life
With new house rules.

©2023 Adrienne Radzvickas

The photography teacher moved the lesson to Friday. Just as well; I didn't get a chance to take a nap over lunch. I did nap and slept until 11 PM with a disturbing dream about being in love with a married man. I did do ten minutes on the rowing machine. Go me. I think that I've gained some weight, so that my weight-loss coach will be disappointed. Oh well.

This House Swallows Things

The outside painting is going to be expensive because he needs to fix rotting wood on some of the sills. I checked the account balance and found, to my horror, that I didn’t have enough money. I sent a panicked note to the trust, and they’re working on a disbursement, but it could take 10 days. I can send them bills in the meantime.

The life coach helped me figure out what I need to do with the house to be done in December. I want to do the kitchen this weekend so that I can get the house cleaned.

My scissors are MIA, so I placed a Meijer order that includes scissors. I have some coming from Amazon too, so I’ll be drowning in scissors, but that beats the alternative. My clothes are coming in, so I need scissors to open the packages! Got them and opened the packages. I got a really cute tweed blazer that would look great with blue jeans. I’m thinking that I’ll wear it to the onsite work meeting in November.

Yikes. Things are heating up at work. And there are a ton of meetings. I tried to get off of the phone with the weight-loss coach quickly, but she wasn't getting the hint.

I’m going to try L’Oreal skin care because, while I love the skin care that I’m using, it’s too expensive. No, actually, I canceled that order and am trying some items from DRMTLGY. It's still less than half of what I'm paying for the stuff that I've been using.

Did some emailing of house-related people.

I decided not to take a nap after work because I have a lot to do, but I'm yawning. I might make this an early night.

I got the kitchen table cleared off. Go me. But my glasses have vanished. I had them on earlier, but can't find them anywhere. And I already had another pair of glasses that had vanished. So I just ordered two more pairs from Zenni, rush delivery. And I ordered two chains for the glasses so that I can keep them with me when I'm not wearing them. Oh! I just found them! They were on the floor, which I swear that I looked at, but didn't see them. At the rate that I'm going, though, having two more pairs of glasses might not be a bad idea. I'm going to put a pair with the stuff for Kauai.

I'm going to go to sleep and get up early and get boxes and garbage out of the kitchen.

P.S. I found the scissors too. There are too many hiding places in this house.