Still, the end result is that it looks "on" when it's off, and it looks "off" when it is on medium. I have to read the control setting by the back end, not the marked end.
I have light switches in "odd" places in the lowest level of the house, particularly in the laundry room and the crawl space. Every time a new HVAC or plumber has to work down there, I have to show them the ropes. Amazingly, the firm I hire is pretty good at both staff retention and at sending the same techs to addresses, so yesterday, the gent who came out had been here before, and knew where those switches are. Good memory, mate.
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Another very mild for January day. I did not take an outdoor walk, though, having errands to run. I worked out with the trainer in the morning. Then took short trips away from home to acquire new brush heads for my Oral B toothbrush, batteries for the kittie's laser mouse pointer, fill the car with gas before the cents off expired (only about half a tank to top off). Came home, recharged a bit, then went out for groceries.
While I was in the grocery store I missed the reminder call for Wednesday's blood draw, and called them back from the produce section to confirm that yes, I plan to be there. It should be interesting, seeing what impact my two plus months of intermittent fasting has had. But I won't have the results until Monday when I see the doctor.
Reading report: White Rage
White Rage, by Carol Anderson, has entered the history lessons that cover years that I have been alive on the planet, in my reading journey. Growing up as a little white girl, sheltered from a lot of knowledge, this part of history was not even something I thought about. But the whole chapter on Burning Brown to the Ground, on how integration of the school systems was resisted was eye-opening. Oh, I'd read around the edges with Hidden Figures both the book and the movie, but the implications for the vast majority of children of color just were not part of my "umwelt" to borrow the term from An Immense World, about the limitations of experience.
A snip of personal memory comes from my five year old self, who did not understand the meaning behind the float the local teenagers put me on for the Kids Day parade in 1957. I expect more memory bells to be rung in the next chapter, on the Civil Rights movement.
I came to the conclusion early into this read that the difference between this book and the one I read earlier in 2022 is one of purpose. White Fragility was written by a white woman (Robin DiAngelo), and is a consciousness-raising book, mainly for a white audience. White Rage is a history lesson, of the parts that are NOT emphasized to white children. Written by a woman of color, it contains raw facts (with the footnotes). It also contains some assumption / interpretation of the motivation behind the facts, with quotations of decision makers included.
In an earlier chapter, I did find one reference to the 1919 lynching of a black man in Omaha, which did not quite line up with what I remembered from a letter from my Grandfather home to his parents. This sent me to looking up my sister's transcription of his letter from September 1919, and also the original newspaper reports. My grandfather had "stayed well back" and was reassuring his parents that he was NOT part of the mob, but it was clear that he was a witness to the violence that was reported in the book!
Of course everyone will draw their own conclusions from reading, but I would recommend both books. The advantage of having family letters and personal experience to draw from makes history more alive. And you know what they say about history: if we fail to learn from it, we may be bound to repeat it.
Hope everyone is doing what you can to take care of YOU, best can do, one day at a time! Because while none of us can solve every problem that's out there, we can do our best to be kind, not just to others, but to ourselves. Take care of that one and only body you've been issued in life. Be patient with yourself, and know at the end of the day that whatever effort you made today was worth it, and you deserve a good rest.
Life is good. Spark on!
✨💖🔥
Quirks, you say. We have a well that provides our water. Every time a plumber asks where the water shut off valve is, I have to tell them that it's in the breaker box on the pole. That produces lots of head shaking.
ReplyDeleteI remember the water fountains. The signs were just being removed in our area when I started high school. As I recall, there was lots of tension. As with the remarks made today, I think a lot of the "uptown" kids were parroting their parents. We lived in the country and my folks kept us home for a couple of days.
Uptown had an infamous lynching tree. In 1918, a German immigrant was hanged because of anti-German sentiment. The hate never changes.
Yeah, that breaker box on a pole would qualify, in a specifically "farm life" kind of way.
DeleteI never encountered signs on water fountains, etc., but probably this was due to where I lived. Only recently did I discover that while Nebraska was entered into the Union as a "free state" there were slaves brought into the territory. That brought me up short... I had always taken pride in John Brown's cave, which was a way-station in the underground railway, or so I was taught as a child.
You a right about hate... it may change its target, but it remains an evil in whatever form it takes.
PHOENIX1949 here
ReplyDeleteQuirk: we enter from the garage through the utility room/pantry to the kitchen. The light switch is across the room (not far but enough to trip on something, i.e., furchild's toy or furchild). Solved: installed a motion sensor bulb in the ceiling fixture so as soon as we open the door we have light.
A few years ago we put in an LED motion sensor fixture in the garage too which is awesome compared to the single bulb we used for years. Last year we added motion sensor bulbs in each of our closets.
My Grandfather I lived next door to was born in 1878 in NC and traveled all over the U.S. before he was married in 1911 and traveled some after that homesteading in NM following by scouting CO for potential land before returning to TX. I have 50-pages typed, single-spaced transcriptions of correspondence between he and my grandmother written between 1908 & 1921 that have great insight into both of their attitudes toward people met in their travels as well as costs of land, livestock, seeds, telegrams, train tickets, etc.
A Great-Grandfather of some degree donated farmland to build a town in the area (designing the layout) and the name was chosen to reflect a very stately tree's use off the main road out of town -- Lynchburg, TN. His brother-in-law was the original owner of the Jack Daniels Distillery (in a dry county to this day). I didn't have that information when I visited Lynchburg and the Distillery on a road trip.
My German immigrant ancestors wanted no involvement in the War Between the States (Civil War an oxymoron) but were forced to choose sides here in Texas depending upon which army was in their area. My Great-x2 GF was on the Union side (versus being hanged by recruiters) and two of his brothers on the Confederate side. By the end of the War he was in a Confederate outfit and one of his brothers was in the Union ranks (versus being executed by firing squad after being captured -- spoke multiple languages, was a traveling merchant familiar with multiple States trade routes and his wife pled for mercy along with silver coins from her family). Their other brother was in the same Confederate unit the entire war. Wonder if they ever shared war stories or just went on with their lives.
That is a fascinating family history. I imagine there were many who did exactly as you describe, not just during "the war between the states" but a few generations earlier during the American revolution. "Go along to get along", depending on the Army in residence.
DeleteWe may not think about it very often here in the US, but consider the nations where we have had military presences, the decisions the locals have had to make, of a similar sort.
I think it's important to understand one another's perspective, in order to the to the point of accepting that we are all human, and all capable of both good and evil impacts on others.
I do believe soldiers of all stripes have much in common with one another, and can share a lot of similar stories. My son recommends recovery from war by being with other veterans and having those conversations. I was listening to Prince Harry talking about why he shared about his war experience, and he said it was to enable other soldiers to feel that they were not the only ones.
My light to my closet is on the outside wall instead of inside the closet. I have to put a smaller dresser there so I don't hide the light. It drives me crazy because of the wasted space.
ReplyDeleteI applaud you for reading about the history of hate in our country. You're right if we don't learn from the past we just repeat it over and over.
It can be very difficult to read this stuff. It must have been much worse to live through it. And as uncomfortable as it may make us to learn these things, it is important to do so, again, for learning.
DeleteYes, our house has quirks, too. Outlets in odd places, but the previous owner was an engineer, so I surmise he did his own handywork!
ReplyDeleteIcy and rainy, so no long walk outside today.
Hope your IF has a positive result on your labs!
Here’s to a wonderful Wednesday
Barb
1crazydog
I am smiling reading about previous owner being an engineer. Our old house in NY state was previously owned by an electrical engineer, so I totally get it. They seem to think they know more than the licensed electricians. My cousin the electrician would disagree.
DeleteHave a great Wednesday!
Your picture on the float echoes my creation of dressing my DD2 as Harriet Tubman, including enhanced pigmentation, for her school reading project. Something I'd not dream of doing now. Perhaps to rectify my actions, I've visited several Harriet Tubman Historic sites and learned more about the courageous lady.
ReplyDeleteQuirks! I utilized my stove control with 1/2 a knob for about 15 years. I got a new one then spent a day wondering why I hadn't done it before!
And if I were a politician I would have to resign for having worn black-face when I was four. But it was honestly well-intentioned. The fact that the high-school kids next door were pushing for school integration was a good thing, the fact that they won first prize for their efforts, also good. Interesting side note: one of those teenagers, now an old lady, showed up at Kevin's graveside service, remembering having baby sat for us all as kids.
DeleteI'm willing to bet that your honoring Harriet Tubman in your DD2's reading project was similarly well-intentioned, btw. We only start our education when we become aware, right?
New one? As in new knob? Or new stove?
First the knob. A few years later I got a new cooktop!
ReplyDeleteI tried to find replacement knobs several years ago, and failed in the mission. Oh, well!
Delete