Random Thoughts, Part 15
Posted: Wednesday, December 28, 2011
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
Holy Guacamole Batman! It's almost 2012
I really did expect to get the writing assignment from Wryte Stuff to come up with our predictions for 2012. But it was to write about a New Year's resolution. Pah!
Nevertheless, with 2012 right around the corner it's hard not to wonder what it will be like. My husband, Bernd, and I were talking the other evening (we actually do still converse from time to time) and I said that I didn't think it would get any worse than it already is, but that it wouldn't get any better either. He didn't disagree.
As for resolutions, I don't make them because I don't keep them. At least not the kind you ordinarily might make on December 31st. On September 30, 2003, I resolved to exercise each and every day. I've only missed a couple due to illness and then I made up for those few missed days by working out harder for a few days when I was once again well.
I truthfully think New Year's resolutions are silly. Better to just live well on a daily basis. Yes, I know, easier said than done. But there you are.
Weather Schmeather
There was a time when I thought that the weather didn't matter. I was much younger then. I've learned a thing or two over the years. Weather matters. Especially when it turns from 90 degrees and sunny to about 50 degrees, windy and raining cats and dogs in about two minutes, and you were dressed for the 90 degrees and sunny.
At twenty-nine years of age, freezing temps might not have been a problem. At fifty-nine I really feel it.
The other day while visiting the horses (you knew I'd have to sneak something about horses in here), the temperature was below freezing and the wind chill was taking it down close to the teens. I took my gloves off for a few minutes to hand out carrots and apples and before I knew it, I'd lost touch with my little fingers. I was sure that my ring fingers would go very shortly. I called it quits before that happened. But not before grooming the mud out of as many horses as I could. Clean and fluffy hair is warmer than mud caked hair.
I don't know how the horses stand it. Sure, they have run-in stalls with a roof, but it's totally open to the elements and the wind just blows right through. They've got their winter coats all grown out, but if they get wet, all bets are off. Brrr!
Later, when I was home again, it took me several long minutes under very hot water in the shower to completely thaw. On the way home, the heater in my car didn't even make a dent in the cold that had settled so stubbornly inside of me. I did, however, re-establish contact with my little fingers. Why again is it that winter is my third favorite season with summer coming in fourth? I may have to reassess the order of my preferences.
Auld Lang Syne
What is January first? New Year's Day you say? Well I say, yeah, so what. Can you be humbug about the new year?
Really, when you think about it, it's just a day like any other day. There's a first day to every season, a first day to every month, a first day to every week, a first hour to every day, etc., etc., etc. So why should the first day of the year be so special? And it's not sour grapes … really. Just because we don't go to parties on December 31st doesn't mean we miss that sort of thing. Really. Of course, it has more to do with no one inviting us than anything else. Our friends just know us too well.
A Woman's Place
Why is it that when we think of doing the dishes, cooking a meal, doing the laundry and the like, we think of a female performing those tasks? Then too, why is it when we think of mowing a lawn, changing the oil in a car, painting the stucco on the house, we think of a male performing those tasks?
Okay. Yes. I do know the answer to those questions. Couldn't you see that it was rhetorical? Here's another question. Why don't we change that perception? Maybe I'm a little out of touch (okay a lot out of touch on a lot of things but not so much that it matters … I hope) and just haven't noticed that it really has changed a lot in the last … oh let's say … twenty years, but truthfully, it just doesn't seem that way to me. Just try to read the previous sentence out loud in one breath. Goodness!
When Bernd and I first married, along with cooking, I really didn't know all that much about how to be a housewife. Now, Bernd had had his mother as a model of the perfect housewife … and she was. She had gone to school in Germany to learn how to do it to perfection. They had an actual school for that. I was totally in awe of her, but sadly none of her knowledge rubbed off on me prior to or after our wedding day. As a result, Bernd found himself participating 50/50 in all the normally wifely chores. But I also participated 50/50 in the normally husbandly chores.
I don't think there should be a woman's place or a man's place for that matter. I think we should each do what we are better at doing. And above all else what we enjoy doing … or at least are indifferent about.
Things I have Learned … Recently
I absolutely hate driving on ice.
Horses absolutely do not care how much time you have just spent grooming all the dried mud out of their coats. When you've finished, they will often immediately go lie down in the mud again.
I enjoy watching old black and white movies a lot more than I ever thought I might.
Nothing makes you feel quite as content as a good round of complaining.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)reads like my journals. thanks for the thoughts.Hi Jack.
I'll take that as a compliment.
Hugs,
Dianneyes...do
I agree that women and men are stereotyped, and some talents do not fall with our gender.Hi Elle.
I've often wondered if women are expected to do all the cooking for the family why are there so many male chefs ... AND ... why are they often considered to be better than female chefs?
Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting.
Hugs,
Dianne
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