Yesterday Bean asked me how we danced “back then”. I showed her a YouTube video of American Bandstand from 1967. She watched, she looked at me and she said “that’s weird”. Well, thank you very much. Not as weird as today, I thought.
I am on a Facebook group titled “born in the 50’s, raised in the 60’s”. I have to laugh because every time I see a post I have either used the product, had the shoes, created mile high hair or SOMETHING of the era. It all feels so familiar and normal.
However, things are changing for me, gradually and mostly out of necessity. I can’t dance like we did “back then” and it seems there are a lot of other things I can’t do anymore either. So, adjustments have to be made. Some I just think are fun to do.
Let’s start with laundry detergent. I broke my wrist in May. They said in a year I would be able to do 80% of what I normally do. That is not easily interpreted until you actually put it into practice. There are a lot of things I can’t do and I don’t think that is going to be different in May. One thing I can’t do is open the jars of laundry pods. They are big and awkward and I just can’t do it without using bad language. So, I am giving this a go—
It is a little box of cute little strips of paper, or something, embedded with detergent. You just throw it in and wash as usual. It is supposed to be eco friendly and fragrance free. I can see it being good for travel if you need to rinse out something in the hotel room. Easy to carry. Am on my second load right now and I will let you know how it works. I had thought about going back to making my own detergent but that requires soap grating, unless I want to use my food processor and I don’t think so. I don’t think I want to use a hand grater either. Hopefully these little strips will work.
Another thing I have been doing is making my own foaming hand soap. I don’t need to do this but using liquid Castile soap and water is pretty cost effective. I did have to buy the bottles but that isn’t a recurring expense and my husband actually likes it, which is a are occurrence.
Another thing that has changed about my life is reading. I have always been an avid reader, always have a book going. I love physical books. However I have run out of space so I have moved on to ebooks and a cute little kindle. Well I tend to haul the kindle with me wherever I go as well as my iPad. Lots of schlepping of devices and chargers and such so I have also decided to pare it down to one thing. So, the iPad won out. I have the kindle app on it and I subscribe to kindle unlimited so I can actually read a lot for free. That is good because if I don’t like something to can just return it and not have wasted money or bookshelf space. It is different from overdrive as well as there are no end dates. You can keep it as long as you want.I talked to my eye dr about reading on devices and he said it is fine. I still read on the little kindle when I read in bed. The kindle and the iPad sync up so you go between the two. I resisted at first and have done lots of research to dissuade me from using a device but I just can’t give it up. It is too convenient and easy to obtain reading material in this time of being stuck in the house.
So yes, times are changing but it isn’t all bad. Age and circumstances beyond our control are forcing some changes but if you keep an open mind and are willing to try new things you might just like it.
In the words of the famous Jack Sparrow ”the problem isn’t the problem, the problem is your attitude toward the problem.”
Gotta love Johnny Depp!
4 comments:
You are making the best out of these changes! I had seen those "paper" pieces of laundry detergent, but they were spendy. I use a variety of products each time I wash (I'm OCD about it), and I buy the smallest of each size, so it is NOT cost effective. But, it's lightweight! I buy very expensive cat litter, because I can't lift or handle the regular litter. So, the expensive lightweight litter wins and my pocketbook loses! I'll make it up somewhere else!
I haven't heard of strips of paper embedded with detergent but it sounds like a good idea. I hope you'll post more about that once you find out if they really do the job. I find there are more and more things I find difficult. Like lifting my big heavy cast iron frying pan. I love that pan ( in fact I have 3 cast iron pans. 2 big and one 8"). But they are so heavy. Twisting open jam jars or such is painful and I leave those kind of jobs for my DH or one of my sons (if they're around).
Hi, Holly, you know, I think it is all relevant. The laundry strips are speedy but it is just two of us so that helps. If the kids were here I wouldn’t be buying them. They seem to work pretty well and the clothes come out of the washer smelling really good, even for fragrance free.
Hi, GM, yes the cast iron skillets are one of the things I talked to the physical therapist therapist about. Two I can manage and the big one takes two hands. But it always did. It hurts though and I suspect that it is always going to hurt because in addition to the break, I have severe arthritis in that hand that I didn’t know I had. I know it now though and that isn’t going to change either. So, I will just k,eep on accommodating.
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