Several months ago, when I first realized we would actually be building a house, I began looking for storage solutions to make my life…AND MOVE…easier. This is a Rubbermaid box I found at K-Mart or Wal-Mart. It is called a Keepsake Photo and Media Box. It helped me get all my music organized and confined to one place. The boxes hold 27 DVD’s or 32 CD’s or 15 VHS tapes. I used mine to hold my CD’s. I bought 12 boxes and labelled them according to type: Christian Men, Christian Women, Christian Group, Oldies, Pop Men, Pop Women, Pop Group, Instrumental, Christmas, Children, etc. Then I sorted and loaded.

When we started building the Creek House, Don wanted a nice sound system in the house. That was fine with me, but waaaay over my level of understanding. I have just loved my old CD player that I could load 5 CD’s into at once. I could carry it around anywhere I wanted to go. Then I learned how to load CD’s onto my laptop and listen from there. That’s worked well for me, also. Now, I don’t know what all is involved in this sound system that runs through this house…but, it must be a cool thing. I have seen too many folk’s eyes light up when they see all the guts of the thing. I know where it is…and I know it has many parts…and I know there are many lights on it and words scrolling by. And, the sound can come out in any room I want it to…if I knew how to make that happen…which I don’t. Which is why I love my old ‘boom box’. I know just how it works and just where to whack it when it jams up. We have an understanding.

The young man who has been working in our house on this system for the last few months told me it was possible to load all the CD’s that I have into this system. Then, when I want to listen to one of them, I can just pull it up on the keypad wherever I am in the house. They would also be listed by artist or album title, or genre. “Excellent,” I said. He promised that he would give me all the lessons I needed until I learned to work it. I did not realize that I would be investing so much time in getting to the ‘listening’ part!

It turns out that before we could load them into the music system…they first had to be loaded onto the computer…then transferred to an external hard drive…then into the system. That, my friends, is about 3 steps too many for me. Anyway, for the last month I have been ripping CD’s onto my laptop…everytime I opened the computer. Every. single. time. And, I have finally finished! That would be 12 boxes full. That would be 12 boxes X 32 CD’s in each box! That would be approximately 384 CD’s! But, I am finished. Done!

Now, Alex takes my computer, and he puts them onto the external hard drive. (I went to the store with a note in my hand saying what to buy…I really have no idea what an external hard drive is.) Next they will be loaded onto the system and forever more I will have my music at my fingertips…or at least at my keypad. And, I will listen to beautiful music through the speakers that dot every ceiling in my house.

I remember the first transistor radio that I had. I thought it was the grandest thing that I could listen to all the cool music on the radio from this little box I held in my hand. I discovered that I could even turn the volume down very low and put it under my pillow and listen to it all night…or until the battery died. That was a rude awakening for me when I discovered that to be able to listen to the music…you had to buy the batteries. And to buy the batteries…you had to have money. And, if you were not wise enough to save some of your allowance…you were doomed to a life without the glorious sounds of 60’s and 70’s pop music. Bummer! My parents were very good about teaching us and showing us these hard life lessons. And, my little sister would NOT let you listen to her radio…even if she was not listening to it!

I remember 8 track tapes and how excited I was to have a tape player installed in my car. 8 track tapes cost more than batteries. Funny how the older you get, the more your toys cost, huh? Then the cassette tapes made the 8 tracks obsolete. And it was oh, so much easier to carry around the little cassettes. Then, there were the Walkmans, and the CD’s and the ipod…and on it goes.

Today, I asked some of the kindergarten students what they got for Christmas. Several of them got ipods! I told them I had one, too. I did not, however, tell them that I did not know how to work it! It baffles this aging brain of mine to think of how they will get their music when they are 50…plus. What will be the next big thing to make our music available to us? If we knew, we probably could not even fathom it.

Oh how far music has come since someone long, long ago first noticed the sound the wind made as it blew across the top of a reed growing by a stream. Music…we gotta have it…one way or another.

This ‘moving’ thing is getting expensive! Things you don’t think about before you move in. Light bulbs, certain type of picture hangers, bathroom supplies. Then there are door mats.

Let’s see…let me count…10!…there are 10 doors in and out of here that need mats. Well, I bought 1 real nice mat for the front door and 4 more for the other doors.
I thought that would be enough. That was before I counted the the doors. Not too bright…I know. However, the 4 mats that I bought won’t work because they slip when you walk on them. So, I guess it IS a good thing I did not buy 9 of them!

Yesterday, I picked up a new mat for the outside of Alex’s apt. because when Scooter and I come in from our nightly strolls through the forest…sometimes, our feet are wet. I checked to be sure this mat was rubber on the bottom…so it would not slip. Adam was here when I got home and was helping me with my packages. “I hope you got a better mat than those others,” he said…as he was removing it from the car. Next words…”Mom, you bought the same mat!!!”. Yes, I felt very, very dumb. And, I’ll admit I did not check to see what I had bought before I left. But, I did check to be sure I was buying one that would not slip…so I thought. At least I only bought 1…which makes a total of 5 slippy, unusable mats at my house.

Then today, coming home, I stopped in at Lowe’s to get a floor cleaning kit for stone floors. This is a different one than the one for the hardwood floors that I bought last week. Who knew? Thinking smart…I said to myself, “THINK…what else do you need while you are here?” And, I answered, “MATS…that do not slip!” So over to the mats I go and find a very fine selection. I checked this one and that one and then another one and tried to be sure they would not slip. I even put them down and tried to make them slip. They did not. Feeling very pleased with myself, I bought 3 mats and the floor cleaner, and headed home. I have no idea why I only bought 3 mats…it just felt like a good number at the time, I guess. Taking them out of the car, I thought, “These are some very fine mats…those guys will be impressed with my excellent shopping skills.” Adam looked at the mats…then he looked at me. The look on his face was not ‘GEE! MY MOM IS AN EXCELLENT SHOPPER! SHE BOUGHT SOME VERY FINE MATS!’ No. No, that was not the look at all. It was more of a ‘WHAT PLANET DOES MY MOM COME FROM? SURELY IT IS NOT THE ONE WHERE GROWN UPS KNOW HOW TO BUY MATS!’ kind of look. He took one of the mats…and walked to the garage door. Laying the mat down, he showed me in one quick move just how badly it would slip. I can assume the other 2 will do likewise.

And so, I will take those very fine mats back to Lowe’s tomorrow…and I will not…under any circumstances buy another one…of any kind…ever. Unless I can find this one:
Then, I’ll have to get it so they can laugh while we’re giving them ‘the slip’!

…to Adam. Isn’t this heading pic fabulous? It is one of my favorites. Adam continually scouts out places that are undergoing renovation or are being demolished…looking for the unusual or interesting. He was so taken with this place which was actually in our deteriorating downtown area, that he and Suzanne contacted a local bride they had shot recently to come and have another pic made there. She was excited and so were they. He went down to check his lighting before she came…and it was already torn down…gone forever…except for this wonderful pic. They were all so disappointed. It is actually the space between 2 old buildings they were taking down.

Thanks, Adam, it looks terrific!

Today’s the day…I have to get back in the routine of school. Wow, much has transpired since we started Christmas vacation. I sort of wish I had another week..or month!
By the way…it IS warm enough to wear short pants here today!

By the way #2…I WILL get the Christmas header down soon…my computer mastermind of such things has been very busy…watching washing machines! 🙂 Love you, Adam!

Every time we return to the former house, we find dirty clothes! So, my new washer and dryer have been getting a real work out! It is one of these new front loading kinds, and so far, it seems to be working well. I never seem to see any water in the clothes, however…so I’m not sure what it uses!

Today, Adam came by and visited with Alex for a while, then I heard him call me from the other room. “Mom, have you watched this washing machine work?” he said. As a matter of fact, I had not. I just throw my clothes in and leave…believing it will do what it says it will do! But, I got up and went into the laundry room. There, sitting on a step stool right in front of the washing machine, sat my 33 year old son. Head in hands, he was watching the washer as it went through the cycles. I laughed and asked him if he knew how he looked sitting there in front of a washing machine fascinated by its operation. He laughed and said that he had just never seen one like this before. Then he began to tell me the things he had observed sitting there…and I found my self getting pulled into this show in the laundry room. Yes, I pulled me up a stool, too, and together we sat there amazed at how this thing was cleaning with so little water! It turns one way and stops and then turns the other. He discovered that the timer that sets at the beginning of the load, does not just count down. It adds minutes sometimes, too. Why do you suppose it does this? Do you think it senses the clothes are not clean enough? And how does it know this? I suppose it must be like those electric blankets that ‘sense’ when you are warm enough and then turns itself down. That kind of thing just rattles my chain. I know when I am warm enough and I think I know when my clothes are clean enough. Or maybe I just always thought they were.

Oh, well, this is waaaaay more thought than I ever wanted to be giving laundry today. But, the point of this post is not what the new washer and dryer can do. It cleans and dries clothes…that is enough for me to know. But, this boy of mine…the one who is most like me…has my temperament…and my eye for the unusual. (Yes, there are some ‘not so great’ qualities he got from me, too…but, let’s just not think about that. M’K?) He took the time today to sit and marvel at the intricate working of a machine. Something about that fascinated him. Something about the workings of it intrigued him. And, I am proud as can be to say that he took the time to sit right there and marvel at it for a little while. Don’t we all get so caught up in our busy-ness that we have little time left for WONDER? Do we just let it all pass us by, and accept that it is something new…but, forget to marvel at the minds of men and women who continually reinvent the products we use?
Do we think we will seem ‘childish’ if we express that wonder?

Well, Adam, never, never, NEVER lose the sense of wonder! It will keep your mind alive…it will make your soul sing…and it will bring a smile to your face. Thanks for reminding me of that today.
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EDITED TO ADD: My sweet DIL just told me that this washer ‘knows’ that the soap is not out of the clothes and that is why it adds more time. Maybe I am using too much detergent. Thanks, Suze!