Idle Chit-Chat

Can I even chit chat idly? Everything I see and say these days feels tinged with Important History.

Little Everyday Things of no-particular-importance continue, as always, of course. 
I love the reminders of that in the WWII  home-front diaries of the English Mass Observation Project.
People would write things like, 

"Terrible! Mrs. Smith was killed in an air raid last night.
So excited to have an egg for tea! We got it from Jenny, whose cousin does day labor on a farm."

I'm paraphrasing, but it truly was that sort of thing.

And for me, now, too:

"So upset, my coworker went into hiding.
Happy! this morning I found a bunch of bananas on the bus stop bench."

Both ^ really happened to me. 
You know how you write about Something online, and then, because tech talks to other tech, that Something turns up on your other social media, as an ad or a recommended video or whatever?

Well, one evening during our coldest snap, I was talking on the phone to bink, saying I've been out of bananas for a few days, and I don't want to make a grocery trip in the cold, and I miss them.
I freeze them when they get ripe, and use them to sweeten my oatmeal.

The next morning, I walked to my bus stop and there on the bench was a bunch of bananas!
 Frozen, of course.

I guess someone got them from the nearby food shelf and then didn't want them? Or had too much to carry and left them?
But I like to think it was (as a coworker said) Google Universe.
"I hear you!"

Let's see... what of no-importance is going on?

I took most of this past week off work,
 since I slipped and fell on ice (frozen water) coming home Monday.
I was worried I'd sprained my wrist, it hurt so much in bed, but it must have been a bruise because by Wednesday it was back to normal.
Whew.

Marz and I had plans on Thursday, so I'd already taken that off, 
and yesterday, Friday, I didn't want to go in. 
Just didn't want to!
So I didn't.

I'd used up most of my paid-time-off for jury duty, so I'll have to work make-up hours next week, or take it unpaid... 
So, work, probably.

I'm being more frugal these days . . . or trying to be. 
Something always comes up.
I wanted to treat Marz when she was here, for instance, and we went out for meals.
HAPPY to do that--a fun spark in trying times––
but I need to commit more firmly to frugality.

I want to commit, too!
It's a fun game--there's lots of free stuff to do in town--especially now it's warmed up to double digits above zero. There's an outdoor dance party during the Super Bowl at a nearby park, for instance.
And frugality now will pay off when I am old.

Wait. 
I am old!
Next month, the big SIX FIVE.

Those of you who've gone before me, isn't it ... odd?

I certainly do feel "oldish" (that could be a Netflix series!), 
but that specific number is so iconic (at least in the US--is it elsewhere, where retirement age differs?), I don't associate it with me.
But here I am.

I have no plans to retire--besides not being able to afford it, I don't want to. I don't have the structure families impose, and I wouldn't do well with endless unstructured time... PLUS no-$$$ for activities, trips, etc.
If I wasn't paid for my part-time job at the thrift store, I'd have to volunteer there.

I hope my body holds together for another good long while. 
The job is very physical--stooping, lifting, carrying, twisting and turning.. It helps me stay strong, but also can be dangerous.
We shall see.

I think of my friend Deanna who just died--
she was only a few years older than me.
If only we knew for sure, we could budget accordingly. 
LOL

I went back and read the last emails Deanna and I exchanged. When I heard she'd died on Wednesday, I'd felt bad that I hadn't answered her last one, written just after ICE killed Renee Good.
  
(Or, I hadn't replied in time. I had replied this past Sunday, but she declined so fast, she wasn't checking her email. 
Ha. Take that, google. Death wins.)

Rereading our last two emails though, I was relieved and grateful--mine had clearly been a good-bye email, 
and she had responded in kind: 
"my time is short".
And thanks for all the fish!

I wish I had thought ^ to use that line (from Hitchhiker's Guide--she was a fan)--but I DID say in plain English, 
you have been a good friend to me; 
I am grateful for and will always remember our long conversation.

Nothing like death for clarity.
Except people do still pussy-foot around it, 
so I'm glad she and I had jumped on the moment to say,
I LOVE YOU.
We both said that.

I would regret it if I hadn't.

Well, not sure if this (love and death) counts as inconsequential. 
I would say it (love) is of utmost consequence, and cannot be legislated out of or into existence.
But it (death) is also the most everyday of things.

Let's see. What else...?
I will get ready in a little bit here to go to Needlework at the library. Yay!
I'd gone last week and no one was there:
 it was the fifth Saturday of the month, and we meet first and third.

After the group, I'm going to watch the Olympics at a friend's. She's making chili. Yay, again!

I'm also going to pick up this library book:
I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor (2023), by Andrew Boyd, serious prankster.

I love the main title: I Want a Better Catastrophe.
Climate (and other) catastrophe is guaranteed. How we approach it matters. 
Remember Zorba the Greek, "The full catastrophe"?
We olds can see that. 

Keep your chin up, and keep walking, like Aloka, the dog on the Buddhist Peace Walk.
goodgoodgood.co/articles/buddhist-monks-peace-walk-aloka-the-peace-dog

This life?
 . . . The whole thing is a catastrophe!

Thanks, anyway?

And, I love you.

I love you!