Reflections of My Life

Yesterday was some day! I hope today is dull, boring and uneventful.

First of all we are under a heat advisory. We are not used to temperatures in the high seventies, eighties and nineties in June. I mean there have been some Junes in the past that I had to keep my wood stove going for heat (previous home)! Not this year. So we are told to stay cool and if you don't have air conditioning to go across the street to the library. Be sure to drink! Stay hydrated.

Next thing that happened was we got a "Boil Water" Alert! For the next 2-3 days. They did a test on our city water and it had contaminates in it. So they were working on it. In the mean time we are supposed to boil our water for 1 minute before using it for cooking, drinking, washing dishes, washing our hands, etc. So extreme hot temperatures and we have to heat our water to boiling in our apartments............

Then in the middle of all that...........power went out twice yesterday! For just a few minutes each time and then went back on. I never found out why that happened. Here everyone is using their air conditioners and then heating water to boiling.........then no power! The fire station offered free drinking water but you had to get there in the hot sun to get it and you can only have 1 container. I didn't need it because I have drinking water delivered every month anyway. I never drink the tap water or use it for cooking but I do use it for cleaning and washing.

This morning I heated water so I could wash the supper dishes I didn't wash last night. Need to keep boiled water available so I can wash dishes as I use them. Then I went outside to the dumpster early before it got too hot and it was all ready 77 degrees. Staying inside again today.
 

Even though it has been unusually hot I have been okay with it. The air conditioning is not being run in our hall and it is not pleasant to walk out my door. But I can do what I have to do in the heat because I know I have a cool apartment to come back to. All I really do is walk out to the dumpster and today I will be getting a grocery delivery. I meet the shopper at our front door so they don't have to monkey with the intercom.

I make sure to drink my electrolytes and put my feet up as much as possible (before I die of boredom!). Yesterday again, I did not wash the supper dishes because by then I did not want to boil water again. So doing it right now as I write this.
 
Today I did something I was not planning to do. I don't even know why I did it. Something moved me to write a letter begging for forgiveness to my best friend (according to me) or ex-friend (according to her). We had been friends since 1972 when she became involved with my brother. After they broke up we were still best friends (he treated woman badly,,,,,,,never could be faithful to one until his present wife).

In 2007 I was at her house and got into a fight with her boyfriend. Actually he started yelling at me over religion (of all things!). I was angry at him and at her for not sticking up for me. I went home and wrote a blog post in anger (NEVER write anything in anger! You will regret it forever! I do). I mentioned some things in that post that I should have never done. She saw it and got mad at me and has never spoke to me since. Now what I wrote was all truth, but not the picture they show for the world. So it hurt her that I betrayed her. I understand. It was my fault for being mad at them.

So I came across some pictures I had of her. She was really close to my mother and when my mother died it affected her as if it was her own mother. We were always a part of each other's lives and I have missed her so much. Right after she got mad at me, I tried to get her to forgive me. I never blamed her boyfriend or her for it. I took all the blame. I do in this letter I wrote her too.

It was one of those things you regret forever and wish you could change that day. I can't. All I could do was write to her and try again. She doesn't have to see me or talk to me but just to know she will forgive would be enough. She probably will send the letter back return to sender. Or trash it. Maybe I shouldn't have put a return address on it.
 

I am not sure what I will be doing today. For sure making deviled eggs. I like to have them as a side dish at supper. As soon as my neighbors wake up I will be vacuuming. The last couple of days I spent most of my time unplugging my electronics and then plugging it back in. Last night I heard a huge crack of thunder and got up and unplugged everything. Then around 2 I woke up and got the air conditioner back on. I was hot!

I hadn't been reading much lately but started again a few days ago. Now I find I am reading two books at once. I do that often. One is a series of books that I have in my Kindle. It is true life series written by Wayne J. Lutz. The book is Up The Lake, British Columbia Stories. When I was writing my blog Solar Baby, I got to know his wife Margy on FB and she is still my friend there. They live in a floating cabin and their life is so interesting to me. I am reading this series for the 2nd time now. I bought a long time ago. Nice thing about the Kindle you can always go back to books you read before.

The other book I am reading is (another one for the 2nd time) a soft cover (physical) book. The Lymphatic Code by Leslyn Keith. It is about using a ketogenic lifestyle to promote overall health and wellness and a robust lymphatic system. I am considering starting a sardine fast (per Dr. Annette Bosworth) to improve my metabolism and other issues. Stocking up now.
 
Happy Birthday my dear friend, Kat! I hope you have a great day, and I love you ❤️!

You know, about the letter to your friend (ex friend?). At first, I was going to say "I hope this has a happy ending", but whatever happens now isn't as important as the step you took to apologize, again. Whatever happens happens. You were very brave to reach out. You made a mistake. Forgive yourself. You are a wonderful, beautiful person.
 
katlupe said:
After having seen my old house on Sunday, I was thinking about how different my life was living there. I was thinking about how I never felt clean. It bothered me so much. I washed my laundry outside in cold (extremely cold because I pumped it right from a shallow well) water. My hands would hurt from the cold water. Sometimes I would try to heat water and have to carry it outside but it was too much for me to do. If I ended up leaving the laundry in the water for very long (hoping it would warm up some) the laundry would get a sour smell to it. I hated it.

Then having to hang the soaking wet laundry on the lines was a horrible job once our pulley line was taken down (husband took the tree down it was hooked up to and never put anything up after that). The lines were out back between two trees and I had to carry the laundry out to them. Soaking wet meant they were heavy. I truly love the laundry room in my apartment building. I appreciate it very much.
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I did the laundry for my young family of six in tubs of cold water. My hands never stopped hurting during and after those years, and now have severe arthritis in both hands.
 
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CathyHorn said:
Happy Birthday my dear friend, Kat! I hope you have a great day, and I love you ❤️!

You know, about the letter to your friend (ex friend?). At first, I was going to say "I hope this has a happy ending", but whatever happens now isn't as important as the step you took to apologize, again. Whatever happens happens. You were very brave to reach out. You made a mistake. Forgive yourself. You are a wonderful, beautiful person.
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I still haven't sent it. I am on the fence about it. I know she could ignore it and throw it away. Or she could write back and tell me to stay away from her. Either of those things would not change the way things are now. OR........she could write back that she forgives me and we never see each again. At least I would feel better myself. Still not sure what I will do.
 
gruntlabor said:
I did the laundry for my young family of six in tubs of cold water. My hands never stopped hurting during and after those years, and now have severe arthritis in both hands.
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So many people I am friends with through the homesteading community romanticize washing your laundry by hand, pumping water from a pitcher pump and hanging laundry on the clothesline. They aren't doing it so they have no idea how difficult it was. Maybe if I had been in my twenties it would have been easier.
 
katlupe said:
So many people I am friends with through the homesteading community romanticize washing your laundry by hand, pumping water from a pitcher pump and hanging laundry on the clothesline. They aren't doing it so they have no idea how difficult it was. Maybe if I had been in my twenties it would have been easier.
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Our mother, when we lived in Alberta in the early 50's, had to get water from the well to wash clothes in a galvanized tub. She had one of those wood/glass washboards. The washboard was still used once we moved to Vancouver, and did the laundry using the bathtub.

We take our washers/dryers for granted.
 
Pinky said:
Our mother, when we lived in Alberta in the early 50's, had to get water from the well to wash clothes in a galvanized tub. She had one of those wood/glass washboards. The washboard was still used once we moved to Vancouver, and did the laundry using the bathtub.

We take our washers/dryers for granted.
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My mother too had a galvanised tub and washboard , and we were still doing washing like that in the tub until I was in my early teens

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and we had a wringer clamped onto the side of the sink..
 
RadishRose said:
Kat, I think the storm system that passed through your area was on the way to my town! In fact, we had thunderstorms the past 3 evenings in a row and a tornado touched down near a town not far from me last night.

Yes it's early for these heat waves.
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I hate the thunderstorms more than a blizzard! We had a tornado warning one county over last night too.
 

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