If rigidness and inflexibility are signs of aging, I’m only 10 years old!

I have not blogged much about the current upheavals in my household, but it all started with a sudden dislike for the cracked shower door. Never mind that I had cohabited with it for 10 or more years,  last fall I decided it had to go, that the shower was to far off the ground and that, as a result, the shower room needed renovating. It wasn’t weeks thereafter that, having found a lovely tile, my thought process expanded to, "I'll do the shower new then wish that I had also done the bathroom next to it": solution - let’s do both.

If I was able to choose the tile, the appliances and faucets etc. in just under an hour the rest of the project did not run quite as smoothly. January 5 arrived and I had 5 men in two small rooms: two to undo the heating units, two plumbers and the tiler.  The tiling took two weeks and looks lovely. The plumber received all of the bathroom appliances and the toilet as promised however, the sink which I had meant to keep was fixed so tightly to the wall that they couldn’t save it – glitch number one going online the same morning and finding a double sink. Never mind that they had to also exchange the toilet as the original one was too high for the space, nor that they broke the bidet whilst fixing it to the floor – all that the first morning.

Glitch two – installing the glass partition on the tub had the plumbers cracking one of the tiles – fortunately the tiler was a lovely chap and came back the next day to replace it.

Glitch three: dust everywhere all the time, every day.  Who knows why I thought that a major renovation like that would be tidy…

But, by and all, the bathroom was ready with heating units re-installed a couple of weeks later. Ceiling painting and light fixtures still needed. Never mind accessories: that has become a nasty word in my vocabulary and merits a blog of its own.

Glitch four – the shower room sink, medicine cabinet and cabinet under the sink were not available or delivered on time although the company from whom we had ordered had said that they were. The shower stall had to be ordered once the receptor was installed.

Meanwhile as the two ceilings needed painting I foolishly decided that perhaps it was also time to paint the stairwell and all the doors and frames in the house: none had been done since May, 1981 and what with two sons growing up in said house and our normal wear and tear things were a wee bit shoddy – not that we noticed. Also in the attic the room that younger son currently occupies had lots of dings in the plaster so add that to the list.

Of course I also had no clue as to what that would entail and perhaps that is a good thing as it has been 6 days of dust, paint odors, handles and light switches taken down, doors as well sometimes missing. Poor younger son also had to vacate his room and as he would put it – his life.

Still today was to be the day that the plumber finished: painters here as usual at 8 – their last day.

Then the upsets, flexibility issues continued: I arrived home from coffee, plumber a no-show. Checked my e-mails and he had had an unforeseen impediment, could he come in the early afternoon. I answered that in a rush before leaving for lunch up the lake with a friend, leaving the painters to answer the door bell if ever - and the one painter's cell phone number to the plumber just in case (younger son also aware of the situation but leaving at 15:00 and I was not sure to be back by then thus the painter solution).

I enjoyed a lovely lunch with my friend in Morges (just the two times a half hour train ride to catch up on Monday's and Tuesday's papers was great), which I had fortunately not cancelled as when I returned home straight without any shopping it was to find still no van in the driveway.

No cell phone message. Younger son hadn't heard anything nor had the painters. Ah ha, there was a call on my fixed phone - he had called just past noon. Called him back only to find out that Getaz Romang still hadn't the merchandise, which they had said would arrive yesterday so he couldn't come and would do so tomorrow. This of course entailed calling the electrician who was scheduled to hook up the last bits tomorrow morning.

When the painters left I needed to dash up to another friends as she is having problems with her computer (after her granddaughter pushed something... the daughter had been able to at least turn it on and supposedly fix it the other day, but now she had no sound on Skype and couldn’t shut it down either). She had said no rush, but I know how I would feel in her position and what with my schedule changing hourly things that are done
are done is my current motto.

So tomorrow the plumber will come around 9, the painter boss as well to check the worker’s job, then the electrician in the early afternoon so that, barring any other upsets, my housemate and her husband will return to a fresh new house.

And I haven’t even mentioned the other upsets and schedule changes already this week.

Back to the original phrase: what with all the having to change, swap, re-adjust, re-schedule and in general be flexible I have had no time to “act my age” and settle into mundaneness: there are days when I would welcome a more even life, but that would probably be boring and heck who cares, the

SUN IS STILL SHINING.

It’s the little things…

Yes, this is a subject that I write fairly often about, nevertheless it can always be re-visited.

If sometimes it’s the little things – after many big things – that set us off, it is just as often the little things that make life easier or a day better.

Today, Monday, is a great reminder.

The sun is finally back: in itself no big news, but after our days and weeks of continual gray where even a visit to the mountains didn’t bring more than a couple of rays, it is a Big Deal!

Tempers are soothed, moods are lifted, smiles come easier and Monday morning could almost be mistaken for the most wonderful day of the week. Note I did say almost.

But then there are the other little things that contribute the good times: two painters are on the job this morning, which means that my chances of actually seeing the end of the workers-in-the-house have risen exponentially. The plumber will be back to finish the shower Wednesday and the electrician on Thursday.  Housemate and husband return Thursday night, having missed all the inconveniences… lucky people.

Once the painters had arrived, it was off to pick up my mail and have coffee at the local bakery: good Monday morning as all three of my coffee buddies were there – what a welcoming committee. Such fun talking to them as all three are well-read, interesting and possessing tons of knowledge on most any subject including, but not limited to, local history, politics, languages, religions etc. When I neared the tables I caught the word “coffin”. Not perhaps the type of thing that one would expect that early on a Monday morning, but turns out that it was because of some obit that lead to the disclosure that one of the chap’s grandfathers had been an undertaker, in turn leading to wood and wood working, in turn to expressions for cigars – those that resembled the ancient long wooden “nails” used to close said coffins. During the short space of coffee that segued into local history, the cemetery, snow in the mountains, the sun, the wind (finally dying), grandchildren, upcoming elections, respect for the dead (it was decided that protestants basically forget someone the minute they are gone whereas other religions do tend to celebrate the dead person’s life more), back to local politics, families, challenges with deliveries and the like. Who said that women jump all over the place in their conversations – men do as well but all highly entertaining especially the ten minutes spent discussing comedians worldwide and how in the French language there is only word for all the different types of “love”!

Sun still shining.

Then lunch with younger son at our vegetarian restaurant was planned, however turned out that they are shut on Mondays so decided to try the Lebanese not far from there. Lady Luck was accompanying me as someone left their parking place as I arrived: in a neighborhood of the city where there are too few to start with and half of those are currently being used for constructions of various types, a real miracle.  Lunch was just as delicious as I remembered.

By that time there was no point in trying to start my taxes or other mundane chores so visited the local hardware store in hopes of bathroom towel bars and accessories. Also the painters had asked if I were changing the doorknobs – a thought which hadn’t even entered my mind (yikes). Felt very virtuous in that I found nothing better than I had seen anywhere else so can truly with a clear mind say that “no, I haven’t found any accessories” come Wednesday. My bathrooms will remain for the time being pure until such a time as something becomes obviously necessary – and then I have high hopes that what I need and like will instantly appear on a future trip.

It’s truly the little things – the SUN is still shining – that’s one day in a row, let’s see what tomorrow brings.

I would if I could…

Have a house pretty enough to show in the home magazines.

Have every room just the way I wanted, decorated, color coordinated and all that

Done miraculously without any input on my side, except to say – thanks – gorgeous when some interior decorator has read my mind and found stuff for nothing.

Have a place for everything and everything in its place.

Have all new sheets, linens, tablecloths and towels good enough for guests and pleasing

to me (I would of course have a guilty conscious – some of my towels are only 30 years old, the sheets even older - so would donate all used ones to some very worthy organization).

Have every room impeccably tidy at the end of every day, thus awaking to beautiful.

Have all my furniture and any wooden decorative items dusted and polished a minimum of once           a week.

Have all my windows permanently sparkling (o.k. I’d allow for the odd very rainy, windy day) thus      bringing the light better into the house or when the light isn’t needed in the summer at    least be able to see the colors through the windows.

But if I could, I would also want to:

Give everyone in the world enough food to eat, a family or friends to love, warmth or cold when needed, peace everlasting and joy for a lifetime.

So I will have to forget the "coulds" and the "woulds" and simply get on with:

Being out and about enjoying my life as I do,

Having coffee and meals with friends,

Travelling to new or much-loved old destinations,

Reading and e-mailing with family and friends,

Ditto for skyping,

Not spend a great deal of my time accomplishing the “I woulds” so I guess I’ll have to accept life as it is – a compromise in between I would if I could, and

I do when I can!

That being said the cupboards in the kitchen were washed down last weekend and I just emptied and de-frosted the freezer; three loads of wash are done and I made lunch out of leftovers.

Thanks, yes, I’ll take that pat on my back and forget, mostly, about the

I would if I could.

Balance - both

Mental and Physical

There are many expressions involving the word “balance”:

• To balance something against something else (to judge or weigh one thing against the other)
• To balance something with something else (a very hot drink with some ice cubes or hot chocolate with ice cream)
• To balance the accounts (either in book keeping terms or figuratively to get even)
• To catch someone off balance
• The balance of power
• Off balance
• Balance out
• Balancing (or juggling) act
• Strike a balance

And I’m sure there are many more. 

When it comes to astrological signs I always thought that those sharing the balance sign were level-headed, balanced out, in balance, but many of these people themselves have informed me that no, it really means that they are either up or down and very rarely “in balance”.

Personally I have been lucky in that my temperament is rather balanced, I don’t experience many extreme highs or lows. My mental balance is good (o.k. friends you can stop laughing, the fact that I at times do the unexpected or act goofy has nothing to do with the mind – just my character and so much more fun than “being an adult”).

My physical balance however, has had problems in the past… half of that due to the fact that my head (or at least eyes) seem to always be in the stars instead of on the rocks in the path, the uneven streets or those vicious sidewalks and curbs. 2014 was a very good year in that I did not once sprain an ankle!  And actually, my physical balance isn’t that bad given that 99 out of 100 times even if I do trip, I managed to catch myself so rarely end up on the ground – or when I do, it is mostly graceful enough that I don’t hurt myself: I fall well.

But yesterday thanks to a friend's e-mail (bless you E!) I discovered true balance.

All credit to the “artist and magician” that is Michael Grab:

http://www.boredpanda.com/gravity-stone-balancing-michael-grab/    or

http://www.gravityglue.com/

Baby steps or…

Clean up that desk!

Having spent approx. 10 days not accomplishing much, I decided that perhaps if I took on a small task it would motivate me enough to continue with the larger ones so this morning I took on the mess on my desk.

10 this morning - the mess

13:45 - tidier

Note that there wasn’t a ton of items/papers/things, but that in order to not simply pile them all to the left on my “important” pile I did have to sort, toss or put away enough items to necessitate some thought and decisions.

Having accomplished my goal am I ready to expand? Well not really.

Decided that Albert Einstein wasn’t all wrong so to those who say that a neat desk shows an organized or “neat” mind, I reply

Highlight’s Antonyms

If I can look back over many highlights in my life

• Learning to read
• Getting my first library card
• Having a complete and stable group of friends in both school and church
• Getting to move to Hawaii for three years
• Going to boarding school
• Doing two of my university years in France
• Returning to Switzerland
• Meeting and marrying my husband
• The birth of my two sons
• Surviving two bouts of cancer
• Traveling to many wonderful spots on this earth (so many that the list would take up too much space here)

Those same highlights also had their antonyms in the many losses along the way.

Family alone:

• My mother-in-law in 1975
• My favorite aunt (and who’s name I share) in 1980
• The youngest German brother-in-law, 1992
• My father in 1998
• My husband in 2000
• The oldest German brother-in-law in 2001
• My sister-in-law’s father, 2004
• My sister’s father-in-law 2006
• My mother in 2009
• My sister-in-law’s mother in 2009
• My little sister in 2012
• And those for whom I don’t remember the year: my mother’s oldest sister; my father’s two sisters, brother; my cousins, a favorite German aunt and uncle

If I list them it is because they still live on in the hearts and thoughts of those who loved them.

Today in particular we remember my husband – the words that he wrote upon the death of his mother “Liebe ist Zeitlos” became our motto for those who left us thereafter.

Love is indeed timeless, an entity that continues with or without the object of that love. If we have and share love with many in our lifetimes, there is perhaps no other love as great as that we claim for the spouse: that person that we choose to share our lives with, our strengths as well as our weaknesses, for a time walking side-by-side. No matter the length of time, no matter the outcome (divorce or death), the love that made us willing to compromise with another human being in order to be at their side, the love that we nurtured for that period of precious time remains.

It’s the first day of something…

Or, when one doesn’t feel like blogging.

Here we are at the beginning of a new month: January having disappeared before I even got around to writing (read finishing actually as I did make a start) the Christmas letter – it’s going to be one of those “Christmas Letter for Easter” years, I just know.

One feels that something should be accomplished, however due to the fact that

• It was Sunday
• It was trying to snow (had it been trying to be sunny, I might have felt differently?)
• Tomorrow is Monday
• This coming week has many bits and pieces, some fun, some not so
• I should have called/written or otherwise contacted too many people that it was un-motivating

I decided to practice the following

“A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -Joseph Addison, writer (1672-1719)”

In my own way:

Something to do – cleaned the tops of the kitchen cupboards then wiped down all the kitchen cupboard faces as well (from the bath renovations the dust has filtered throughout the house and now that there is no more drilling, etc. figured that it was time to start and remove the first layers!)

Something to love – the cats: hey it didn’t say someone to love and although cats are actually living beings, I reckoned that “books” or “reading” probably wasn’t exactly what Mr. Addison meant.

Something to hope for – a new day, more tomorrows, more energy, more, simply more!

Meanwhile I did add happiness to this particular day with my flowers, showering in my new bath and lunch with my younger son.