I just had a few days visit from my youngest sister (aka my little baby sister) and her husband and my nephew. They had been going to stay at a hotel nearby because they didn't want to put too much on me. I had told her to stay with us and we left it up in the air for a couple of weeks. I finally told her - Linda, I want you HERE. If I get tired - I'll excuse myself and rest. I just want you here at the house. I HAVE the room.
So she allowed they would try it and if they felt they were too much for me they would go to a hotel. I won!!
Well, that is a good thing!. I know they had been worried about me and I had worried about how worried they were etc.
It was SOO good to have them here. My sweet husband is supportive and wonderful and he happens to be a man (Hallelujah!) and I sometimes need a girly girl kind of person around me, being extremely girly of a girl myself. I needed her here for a visit and I love my brother-in-law and nephew as well; it was all good.
I was able to share with her some of my feelings and fears about this new body and the limitations it puts on me; the way it damages my sense of my feminine self; how painful it is to look and see this very different physical aspect; the difficulty in holding on to the idea of "this is only a transition" even though I mentally know that it is, etc., etc., etc.
We laughed our heads off - but who needs their head attached? - and had a good time. She was helpful and funny and kind and watchful - she could tell when I did, indeed, over do and told me I was looking green around the gills. At the same time, she understood that sometimes you have an inner NEED to overdo it a bit just because you CAN!
I set my dishwasher to run at like 1:00 AM because - no one is up and about, it inconveniences no one, and when I get up I can unload the dishwasher and put everything in its proper place. There is a certain pleasure in doing that, valuing your useful possessions and caring for them.
My house is only a little over 5 years old. Linda (little baby sister) has more recently done a kitchen renovation and so her much older home has a newer kitchen than mine.
Mind you I LOVE having a dishwasher (having BEEN the dishwasher for a number of years) and I like my dishwasher just fine. So saying - I have, indeed, discovered some design flaws in the model I have. It has its "buttons" on the front. These are not actual raised buttons, they are flat touch sensors. Invariably, someone will put something in the dishwasher, shut the door and by the act of shutting the door, inadvertently push a button that you didn't mean to touch. However, you CAN program the thing to do any number of different functions, my own favorite being the whole run it at 1 o'clock in the morning when you are asleep and don't have to hear it.
Linda's newer model - which is blessedly quieter than mine - has the same option, however, her "buttons" are at the top of the door where you don't touch them inadvertently AND hers will retain its programming if you decide any time after you have programmed it to add something to the contents. Mine - no.
So every night I would program my dishwasher and then later have to program it again because something had to be added. Mind you, this includes myself adding something - but I am the one who is aware of its little quirks. So in the morning I'd get up - and having heard it make some noise in the night that indicated it had done SOMETHING - to find it hadn't run after all! What? I ascribe it to ghosts. This actually was pretty funny to me. The best laid plans of homemakers everywhere.
Advantage? Well, even though we would unload the dishwasher together, which enhances the experience, it gave us a little extra time to just go ahead and sit out on the porch (with blankets - it was CHILLY!! 49ish degrees!) and chat and watch the morning come up. The peace of my back porch is wonderful. I look out over our forest - the beauty of trees stretching as far as you can see, the birds chirping, the hummingbird battles - so lovely, so relaxing, so calming.
We had a great visit, a loving visit, a calming visit. And maybe the ghosts of the dishwasher helped....
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