{"id":84348,"date":"2019-01-19T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T17:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=84348"},"modified":"2019-01-20T11:26:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T15:26:07","slug":"lifes-tough-in-my-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84348","title":{"rendered":"Life’s Tough in My Neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

IMG_1921<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

IMG_1921<\/a><\/p>\n

First, let me say that I have to shovel snow today, whether I like it or not. If the “climate” is warming up, how come there are six inches of snow on my front steps? And how come the neighbors were out at 7AM with the snowblowers and other noisy things, rousing me out of a perfectly good winter’s nap.<\/p>\n

On the various weather maps that are intended to convey information to us peons in the outer darkness, it appears that the “storm”, which does not measure up to the 2011 blizzard that left cars buried in the northbound lanes of Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. It just doesn’t. However, if this is the worst winter can throw at us, I have popcorn and cookies, stories to write up, a new computer to mess around with, books to read and junk to sort out and decide what stays and what goes. The bulk shredding people like it when I show up. Cat food\u00a0 cans, being aluminum, can be recycled at $1.00\/lb around here. Pull the labels, rinse out, bag up and take them whenever there’s a chance.<\/p>\n

Winter days used to include starting a fire in the fireplace and making popcorn the old-fashioned way with a wire basket popper on a long handle. Nowadays, it’s either use the Whirlypopper or the microwave, and really, the Whirlypopper does a better job. We would also put hot dogs on a long-armed fork and toast the buns in a pan near the fire.\u00a0 Potato chips were just potato chips, not 24 different flavors including cilantro-lime-manganese.<\/p>\n

Sorting things out includes going through books my mother left behind, which includes “The New Story of the Ship’, published in 1936 with nice artwork and a fully detailed listing of the rigging for a brigantine. I think I’ll keep that. There are other such things. For some reason, she kept all my Dad’s high school Latin and Greek textbooks, some of which were published in the 1890s. I’m keeping those, too, mostly because it’s a reminder that “kids” had to use their brains back in those days.\u00a0 Not knocking the schools around here. They do push the kids hard in STEM classes. It’s just a reminder that the kids had their brains stretched a lot back then. When I was in the 4th grade, the teacher had us draw a map of the USA with all the state borders filled in and then add the state abbreviations. I’m not sure some schools even teach that kind of geography now, never mind how to read a map or navigate without a WiFi connection.<\/p>\n

Most of these books will stay here. The books I don’t keep will go to the library for their book sale room. I’m not nostalgic for the Good Old Days, just practical.<\/p>\n

If you want a real adventure to read through, get a copy of Henry Beston’s ‘The Outermost House’, published in 1928. It’s about his spending a year on the Outer Arm of Cape Cod, regardless of the weather, and his observations.\u00a0 His fianc\u00e9e told him ‘No book, no marriage”. Her stubbornness resulted in this small but fascinating look at the real world, something the ecohippies and Greenbeans miss entirely.\u00a0 To quote him, “The world is sick to its thin blood for the feel of fire before the hands.” Wiser words have seldom been put into print.<\/p>\n

There are also Peter Mayle’s gastronomic adventures through Provence in southern France.\u00a0 “A Year In Provence” is one of those stories that takes you along on a ride to truck stops where Madame runs the kitchen, the floor is always clean, and all the camioneurs<\/em> (truck drivers) stop for their mid-day bouts with chicken or beef and a good bottle of wine, followed by a brief sojourn with pastis<\/em> (anise liqueur).\u00a0 Mr. Macron is still going to put a fuel tax into effect, and les gilets jaunes<\/em> are now under the gun of the police. I wonder if Macron would miss the more respected wines if transporters of such things decided to not visit Paris.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the best things really are the simplest you can find: a good book, a large mug of a hot drink at your elbow, a plateful of cookies or brownies, and a snowy day, after you’ve shoveled that stuff off the front steps.<\/p>\n

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IMG_1921 IMG_1921 First, let me say that I have to shovel snow today, whether I like … Life’s Tough in My Neighborhood<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}