Thursday, Friday, joy abounds

Thursday evening brought a lovely holiday surprise  

My great favorite and thank you so much, dear giver. 

On Friday, after many reminders, to make sure I would be present, at home, in person, with all the documents, fobs, everything, car emptied, all diamond rings removed from under the seats, Buyer David showed up bang on time. 

At first I saw him driving right past the house.  This routinely happens the first time anyone visits, because instead of the street being numbered odd one side, even the other, the quirky builders numbered the housed sequentially. 

Sooo people think they are looking at the side they want and suddenly they aren't. Number 65 is next door to 66 etc.   It's baffling to newcomers.

Anyway I talked him in, and it went very smoothly. All the paperwork was fine, and when it came to title signing, where any mistake voids the title, he filled out everything except my signature. Many, many papers to sign, I've sold a house with less paperwork. 

The offer was considerably higher than their estimate, and much higher than the other offers. This was clearly a good time to sell a good car. In the middle of it I even got a text from a neighbor who'd seen the company car, to make me an offer. Too late! I wouldn't sell to a friend anyway, it's a business transaction I'd rather not mix with friendship.

So now it's out front, plateless, the plates now in the house, the car not my property. I'm carfree and carefree. Check deposited, and now there's funds for ride services. One hour start to finish.

Then there was clerical work, to cancel the auto insurance and set up a refund, cancel AAA, find they won't refund because I should have canceled before November 1, arghgh, inform the HOA of the situation so nobody reports it as an abandoned car, and they were fine. 

No more worrying about tire pressure, nonstarting battery, weird alerts, moving in snow to let the plow in, it's lovely. 

Happy day everyone, I hope you can give up a burden of any kind, it's great.

Misfits and they slipped on the bananas

The squirrels were out Thursday morning to check on the pumpkin seeds. Word has got out.

This is a favorite food and they lost no time in finding and setting up to guard and eat them. 

Thursday the misfits insulated bag and ice block went out early, good thing because the delivery came very early shortly after nine am.

And, yes, we have no bananas. They were supposed to appear on top of the box in some fancy bag. 

I wonder if the drivers didn't get the message, since for years they've been delivering just a box. I reported it and their system must be blinking, because they only credited me with one bunch, instead of both. No doubt they'll fix this. They're good about it.

So, extra canned goods for the food pantry, cranberries for next week's sauce. I'll make it ahead and freeze it, not knowing when we celebrate this year, HS always working Thanksgiving.  

Here's the cranberry sauce in progress

Garlic paste because it's so useful everywhere I use garlic.  Spinach and parsley for greens, to be added into tofu, see it there, dishes and other things. A bunch dropped into hot soup is good, just wilts it enough. 

Apples as usual, blueberries for desserts and maybe muffins this week. Sardines for quick protein sandwiches. Diced tomatoes get in everywhere. One of my easy meals, really more assembly than cooking,  is chickpeas and tomatoes heated together with seasoning. It works like a stew, spinach gets in there, too. 

Thursday early the car buyer called, wondering if I'd like an earlier appointment, he had cancellations Thursday. But I left it at Friday, not wanting to be rushed. I didn't want to be wrangling groceries and the car sale together.

About anniversaries: I remember none of the dates of death of any relative other than one brother when I was young, and Handsome Partner, because that was also Handsome Son's birthday. I remember everyone's birthday though. I think it's better to remember them then, anyway.

Happy day everyone. It's okay to remember or forget, often it's not our choice.

Quiet Wednesday

 Wet cold windy weather, just right for reading and making soup.

I made a large pot, enough for about eight meals, of pumpkin (off the front step), sweet potato, yellow potato and leeks. Seasoning was berbere, turmeric, seasalt, smoked paprika, cumin. Added whole milk and called it cream of all-the-above.

With broiled whole-wheat spread with butter and garlic paste, it worked out well. Plenty more in the freezer.

I've been surprised to find I like the Ruth Galloway series of mysteries. I'd expected books about an archaeologist to be set in Egypt for some reason, to me the most profoundly boring of settings. Sand, heat, camels, hard writing, no. I don't like any of the Christies set there.

Then I find she's in Norfolk, and there are interesting characters at work, sometimes so many I have trouble with who's who, but I like it a lot. 

It's very cinematically written and I wonder if there are TV series about the books. It would lend itself to long shots of sea and sky, car chases, hair raising kidnappings, nice dogs, cute kids, druids, the pitch dark scenes beloved of TV producers, the lot. No doubt I'm the last person to discover I like this writer.

I have a small personal milestone to mention. Usually November is a difficult month for me, containing two late sisters' birthdays, the 7th and the 17th, and my parents' wedding anniversary, the 18th. This year I decided I'd mourned long enough for people who didn't value me as I valued them. And it went very smoothly. I got past all the days. Dues paid. Probably about time, too.

Happy day, everyone. It's okay to decide how much is enough. Sez Ted and Big Ursy 

And I'll purr to that sez Fluffaluffagus

Rimbaud, colored vowels, Textiles and Tea

Tuesday morning the sun, which had now swung right around, was casting great shadows through the trees onto the fence.

After that the wind got up and it got very wintry cold 

More about synesthesia, now in US spelling, in response to S. When I first realized my experience wasn't universal, was in my last year of high school. We got a new French teacher, new Oxford graduate, Daphne Nutbrown, great name and interesting teacher. 

This was an advanced class, doing explication de texte, a kind of close analysis, and she introduced us to Rimbaud's poem Voyelles,  on the colors of vowels. Here's an extract

I was thrilled about this, though my own colors were different, and plunged into discussion. I noticed a couple of other girls looking completely baffled, then one said "I've no idea what any of this means".  

Then I realized most of the group agreed with her. Oh. To me it seemed obvious. I remember being amazed in my turn! Up to then I'd never discussed it, any more than you discuss other senses, so normal. I thought. But Daphne was on it, and her colors were different, too.

About what senses are involved for me -- some, not all, of them. Every sensation or sound doesn't have a corresponding reaction. Many sounds evoke color and shape, color evokes taste, but taste doesn't evoke anything, names evoke color, shape, movement. Touch doesn't evoke anything, I think. 

So that's my best try for now.

I decided to skip the knitting group this week, a weird superstitious feeling that I'd rather not drive the car, just in case.  I wanted it to be in good shape for Friday. 

And I thought I'd wait on a ride service till next week, when I'll drop off food then go to the library to pick up my expected book and attend the group, all in one sequence.

Also I'm hopelessly congested, sneezing coughing. No it's not a cold. It's boyz with toyz.

Six guys with noisy tools and vehicles rounding up leaves and filling the air with dust and mold spores. I skipped walking, too. That's not fog, it's dust.

Textiles and Tea featured Andrea Blackmon, multi talented crafter, who aside from weaving, beading, crocheting, doll making and quilting, teaches weaving to young students with a range of learning issues. 

Here the focus was on her own work which she has exhibited, and these pieces are from a joint exhibit with another weaver based on squares. Her smallest one, the beaded tree, is 4" and her largest is 30" square. 

She uses a table loom, and it needs a skilled weaver to grasp what she said about weave pattern and structure. There's a lot of double weave here. 

On the right the image is by her colleague 

This is front and back of the same piece 

Happy day everyone, do what you can, don't pressure yourself the way I do!

Windy walking and car bids

This morning was a two hat day, wrist warmers and gloves, extra socks. It's not the temperature so much as the wind, blowing hard. It made clouds scud across the sun and I got pictures like this, taken seconds apart 

Now shade, now sun.

The pond is looking wintry,  most of the leaves gone, you can see how small it really is.

It's a lovely scene year round.

Then the morning was taken up with car business, calls needing more info including the VIN, crikey where's that written, and once I'd given all the items, they upped the offer. Evidently my car has a posher trim than at first appeared. I also got a text with an improved offer from the dealership.

I think used cars are in short supply so I may do well out of this. The process is that someone comes to the house Friday morning, inspects it, takes a test drive, checks the paperwork, makes an offer. If I accept I get payment right away. Then the car stays with me about a week while they set up transportation for it. 

At that point they remove the plates, which I have to return to the DMV, and take the car. Then I'll call the auto insurer to report it's done and claim the prorated refund on my insurance.  And figure out who else needs to know.

Then I will stop thinking about cars! I've learned quite a bit, and that's fiiiine. I'm doooone. I was amused when they asked me why I was selling the car, and I explained I'm very old and giving up driving. Little pause, then awwww, I understand! Unspoken: poor old soul.

So the poor old soul made pumpkin spice, it being the season. And used a glass AsEver jar to store it. 

When this week's groceries arrive, there will be pumpkin puree for making oat and pumpkin flatbread, and pumpkin spice is needed, too. I know, the excitement's almost too much. 

Happy day everyone, get a walk, even a short one, even if it's cold and windy, or at least get a while outside just breathing. Even in the Southern hemisphere, I hear, it's not very summery yet.

Begonias, synaesthesia, car to go

Today I invited a neighbor friend over for tea and cake, and we spent the afternoon reorganizing the known universe. She's a serious introvert and lovely woman, so the deal is that if it's not a good day, just say, no problem, no persuasion. Today was good though, so she enjoyed the sweet potato etc cake. I always hugely enjoy her company.

Later Gary came dashing over to arrange foster care for this begonia, which he grew from a cutting I rooted for him. I'd prune it to keep it bushy but he loves the height, so I'll refrain.

He'll be away two weeks starting Wednesday, so it needs watering in his absence. He's got a visit set up for the other plants but this one needs more care. 

On Janice's blog on Sunday, she mentioned synaesthesia. Since I'm one of the fortunate people to have this in many forms, I thought you'd like to see this.

He sent me this signed paperback of Musicophilia after I'd read the hardback and been in correspondence with him as a result. Here's the footnote about our exchanges.

what a nice man he was, very interested in my observations, some of which had been dismissed by other doctors. He pretty much sums up my experiences very succinctly here.  I felt honored that he gave my ideas serious attention. He really was a lifelong learner.

Synaesthesia is a real gift. When colors have literal taste, music has colors, names and numbers trigger color, movement and shapes, your world is so rich. The same effects have been triggered throughout my life, unchanging, as far back into early childhood as I can remember

It does have a downside -- clutter literally interferes with my hearing and creates physical stress, and some colors -- purple, some browns -- cause me nausea. But mostly it's lovely. And the passage of time has a kind of scrolling effect, rolling left into the past and right into the future. Each century has a blocky shape, too. 

Speaking of the future, I've arranged for a car buying company to come to the house Friday (crumbling dark green material, curving down, fyi!), to check out and buy the car. They can do all this on the spot without my having to go to a dealership.

They already gave me a decent price estimate, based on my reporting.  So I'm hopeful that this will go well, and I can start using rides. I already signed up with a preference for women drivers. 

Happy day everyone,  enjoy your day, whatever's in it. There's bound to be something nice, even if it takes a bit of finding.