Adjusting to life in the city

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I continue to be amazed at "city life." The people are different, the sounds are different, the sky looks different and the thunder and lightning sound different. Even the birds sound different.

I love the sound of a train at night, and we can hear the train whistle way in the distance at night. Reminds me of when I was just a kid there in Fort Scott. At one time we lived close to the train tracks. It was on Sixth and Ransom. I loved to hear that ole train whistle. My mama didn't like living so close to the train tracks, because the black coal smoke would send up plumes of awful black smoke and her white clothes on the clothesline would be covered with coal smoke. 'Course I was just a kid and I wondered why she would get so upset over a little ole black smoke. Now that I have aged (considerably), it all makes sense.

Being a woman, I seem to get mixed up in my directions. Where we lived for 47 years I knew my directions and never had a problem, at least around our farm and Pittsville.

I have to really concentrate and set my mind to it, to figure out which direction I am going in Marshfield where we have moved. This must be a "woman" thing. I am sure men would never have a direction problem. Or if they did, they would never admit it. I think Bob would drive miles out of the way before stopping and asking directions to where he was going. Poor, pitiful thing.

Bob has had some health issues and hasn't felt like driving for awhile, so I have been the chief driver. Bob is an excellent driver, but his back seat driving leaves much to be desired. In fact, it down right stinks.

As we continue to get settled in our new abode, I find I have given away things that I now wish I had. Or I have trouble locating things that I need. But, to be honest, it is amazing how, with just a little ingenuity I can make substitutes work quite well.

As I have mentioned before, there are quite a few boxes out in our garage that I haven't bothered to open, unpack and put away. I am sure I will find some of the things that I have been looking for. Then again, I will probably be taking some of the things to the thrift shop.

The stove and refrigerator are furnished here, and I have yet to learn how to set the timer on the stove for a certain amount of minutes when I am baking and want to change temps after a certain time. I finally solved that problem. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a timer. Great invention and works perfectly. If I had one of the grandkids around and had a problem like that, they would figure it out in very short order.

It has begun to rain with lots of thunder and lightning, so I will bring this to a close and jump into bed and cover up my head. Just a figure of speech. I am sure if I tried to jump into bed, I would break my leg.