The wind has been blowing most of the time ever since I moved in with my daughter Jane almost a month ago. The first day it was a matter of taking flight from winter snowstorm conditions too severe for this old bod to survive alone. I am lucky to have my strong friend Carmen with her four wheel drive SUV and her two equally strong visiting sisters to rescue me and my cats and dogs and enough essentials to get along.
Right after that the shock of the sudden changes and exhaustion set in, slowing the moving process down almost to stop. I hired a helper twice to do heavy lifting, but helpers cost money I can't afford. Our next door neighbor, Ed, has a flatbed trailer and moved one load of heavy things like my refrigerator and two freezers and miscellaneous other heavy things I can't throw away. He also wants to move my trailer so as soon as the wind lets up a little we'll have a go at it.
Meanwhile I have been making trips back and forth with as much stuff as I can lift and carry alone. I think two more trips will do it. But the wind makes things so much harder. I'm thankful that the temperature has risen into the 50s so I don't have to bundle up with my bulky warmest jacket. And inside, with the help of duct tape and blankets draped in front of the door, we can keep it above 60 degrees. The landlady's main man left places for a lot of fresh air to condition us. Thank God for duct tape!
I live where there used to be many gold seekers wandering through the rocky peaks and 30 miles away down in the desert. Those old prospectors may have called the wind Mariah, but sometimes I call it something else that I spell with a lot of !!x*#!@**s . (Now how did I turn it blue? I didn't mean to. Don't click on it!)
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Comments: 19
Isn't it crazy how life can roll along so evenly for awhile, long enough that you almost wonder if it will always be level and then SLAM! It's been one heck of a winter here in NA.
Yes, cardboard and ductape. Bungy cords are pretty essential too.
Frost up here on the other side of the Grapevine this morning. The furnace died on Saturday during the start of this little cold snap. Poor ma was buried under blankets and woolie clothes, red hat end still her cheeks had a sharp red flush. Bed bound is tough in the cold. I adore being outdoors in the cold with lots of work to keep you doubly warmed. Middle path though, right?
Hang in there, and keep a kindly pace Gal.
You ke
Vivian - A flag, that's what I needed instead of a blue word!
Elmo - Well, at 86 I am face to face with that big rest we all get eventually. I guess battling the wind is better.
DesertDarlene - Jane and were in El Cajon yesterday and it is an altogether different climate. It was so hot!
Leave it to you to stumble on such useful information. I haven't known how to create a link in a comment since about 6 updates back. Reminds me I want to go and research that. Gather's help is outdated in some places, so you have to ask at the help desk group but I tried during Christmas and never got an answer. oh well, the bigger Gather grows the less well it works. But it's worth more money and that's the American way, right?
I'm so understanding of your feelings after moving. I've been in my newly remodeled senior housing apartment now since Oct. 28th and I can't seem to shake off that "what am I doing here?" feeling. Nor can I get organized and sort to get rid of more stuff that can't fit in here. I wander about, get bogged down in sadness and loss when I try to sort photos, or possessions that were mine when the kids were small, or were my mother's things. Some of my newly found cooking gadgets were actually my grandmother's first. She died when I was seventeen and my mother used it all until she died when I was 57, then it was stored away and now I have it all back at 68. I thought I would relish this but it is quite a burden of emotions right now.
I spend a lot of time listening to books on tapes from the library. It soothes me and takes me away from my current reality. My favorite for this is Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer. Kingsolver does the reading herself and uses several different southern accents and one eastern accent for her characters. If you ever want to just escape for a while, I can highly recomment this book read on tape. I'm having problems with my eyes and it's nice to be read to.
They Call the Wind Mariah
Away out here they have a name for rain and wind and fire.
The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe and they call the wind Mariah.
Mariah blows the stars around and sets the clouds a-flyin'.
Mariah makes the mountains sound like folks was out there dyin'.
Mariah. (Mariah).
Mariah. (Mariah).
They call the wind Mariah.
Before I knew Mariah's name and heard her wail and whinin',
I had a gal and she had me and the sun was always shinin'.
But then one day I left my gal.
I left her far behind me
and now I'm lost, so gol' darn lost
not even God can find me.
Mariah. (Mariah).
Mariah. (Mariah).
They call the wind Mariah.
Out here they have a name for rain and wind and fire only.
When you're lost and all alone, there ain't no name for lonely.
And I'm a lost and lonely man without a star to guide me.
Mariah blow my love to me. I need my gal beside me.
Mariah. (Mariah.)
They call the wind Mariah.
Mariah!
Mariah. (Mariah.)
They call the wind Mariah.
The Kingston Trio:They Call the Wind Mariah
When I lived up the cost in Port Hueneme near Point Mugu, my old Uncle Harold came to live with us one winter. On January 1 he asked me when Spring came there. I told him to look out the window at a big fat Robin on our lawn, and told him "Today, Uncle Rosie."