Miser family update: Old but functional

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family.  This week, we celebrated some of our oldest, yet still functional, items.  

 For example, 

• in that first photo, notice the old-yet-functional foot locker.  (It's about the foot locker, guys!).  That foot locker served in WWII with my father-in-law.  Now, with a fresh coat of lacquer and some wheels under it, it sees a more peaceable kind of use as our coffee table.  
• A gift from the same father-in-law is in my sister-in-law's photo:  "My dad gave me this electric pencil sharpener over 40 years ago when pencils were a thing!   When your pencil was sharp a light would come on. So very state of the art.  It still comes in handy."    (I'm not sure what she means by "when pencils were a thing"; in my household, pencils and pencil sharpeners get pretty much daily use!)   
• And L1 continues the furniture theme with a cedar chest from an antique shop that holds "so many blankets".   I asked if it holds dogs; she said no.

Our family also has some impressively old kitchen gadgets.  

• L2 kind of lucked into an amazing apartment that came furnished with all sorts of amazing things, including these "Irish leaded crystal and hand painted China".   I swoon.
• I-daughter uses hand-painted dishes that got passed down from two generations before mine, but neither of us can remember the original owner:  Nana?  Great Aunt Ruth?  her father's side of the family?   (Sisters: do you have a clue about this?)
• I "store" a pressure canner that a matriarch of our church got from her mother-in-law.  It's an amazingly durable thing.  She hasn't asked to use it in, oh, about a decade, but I haul it out several times a year to can turkey stock.   I also use the wooden springerle molds that my Nana got from her mother-in-law, so there's more than a century of use on those babies.
• Somewhat more recent, but still beloved, is Y's handy sidekick: "Started using 1L Nalgene bottles when my college gave them to every freshman. Although this isn't the original (one fell in a hospital toilet and then melted in the dishwasher when I tried to sterilize it), I don't go anywhere without it!"
• And of course, we can't forget Snakey and Baby, who get constant use as pillows, companions, and photo props. 

K-daughter is living a life with pretty much all-new stuff, so she didn't add a photo, but she did share the good news that, "I passed my crisis intervention test!!!  97%! Now working on restraints. Super fun".  Yay, K!

Speaking of functional, my guy went to the doc this week to check on how well his broken arm is healing up: does it need more fixing?  The verdict, "No surgery. No restrictions. No therapy."  My guy continues to fall in love with Strava, a bike riding app that gives him extremely useful information such as, on a recent uphill ride, "my best effort put me in 14,609th place of 17,836 riders", whereas going down the hill he moved up (down?) to 1,238th place.  

Another old-but-functional tool we've been putting to use is our democracy; N-son, my guy, and I took a short mid-week break to walk downtown and vote.  We cast our absentee ballots in a dropbox at the courthouse -- essentially no lines, and very very easy.  Yay!  Here's a photo of us on the way home (already well away from crowds, which is why my guy had removed his mask).  

And now for this week's interview, featuring not my oldest, but my first, child: the only homemade one.  Take it away, I-daughter.

What things were you doing a year ago that you're not doing now?

A year ago I was doing a lot more things with groups of people. I was working at the yarn store and teaching classes there (and using public transit to get there.) I was singing together with my chorus (we meet on zoom now, but it's not the same.) I was traveling for square dances, fiber festivals, and sometimes just because I felt like it. I was going to the theater all the time--in 2019 I saw more than 30 different live performances!

musical theater in the pre-pandemic 2018

A year ago my schedule was shaped by other people, so I was keeping a more traditional/expected sleep schedule. Now I sleep when I feel like it and I'm effectively nocturnal ;-)

What occupies your days, nowadays?  (Sometimes people ask, "what do you do?", meaning, "what's your job?", but many people in our family don't have traditional jobs or paid employment at all, so this is a more general question).

On a typical day, I'll sleep all morning (see above re: nocturnal). Then I'll do something to further my antiracist education and activism. I'm currently working through Rachel Cargle's "The Great Unlearn" and Monique Melton's 21-day Pursue Black Liberation Challenge.

Sometimes I get to do a social thing (zoom chorus, zoom Spinning guild, the occasional social-distanced knitting in the park.) On Sundays I walk with Mama. On Tuesdays I go to the library. I've joined 3 book clubs (Shelbey and the Bookclub on instagram, Dorothy Height bookclub with the YWCA, and Privilege to Progress' antiracist bookclub.) I've been doing a lot of reading.

 

And of course I spend a lot of time playing/creating with yarn.

 

Tell me a bit about your hobbies

I love to knit. (Big surprise, I know.) I knit all the time. I just made a new sweater (in 3 weeks and 2 days!) Sometimes I crochet. And I spin yarn. Covid scheduling meant that the Tour De Fleece* was held twice this year--once during the original Tour dates, then again when the race was actually held. I love to read. Sometimes I get too caught up in my knitting to take time to read, but if I'm knitting something simple and reading an ebook I can do both at the same time! This year I've been more intentional about seeking out books by non-white authors. Two of my favorite recent reads are Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. 

I also love to sing. And go to the theater (especially musical theater.)

*Tour de Fleece is a (yarn) spinning event inspired by the Tour de France. It's not a race; the aim is to challenge yourself. Spin every day of the tour, try a new technique, push yourself somehow.

When you treat yourself to a bit of "me" time or special indulgences, what does that involve for you?

Musical theatre with a friend. New yarn or spinning fiber, starting a new project. Cheesecake. Hugs. Presents. Chocolate covered cherries.

Five years from now, what kinds of things do you hope you'll be doing that you haven't done yet or aren't doing now? 

I hope I'll have gotten to meet my niece Alanna (and however many more niblings I'll have by then. Iolanthe would be a lovely middle name, ya know?)

I hope I'll have gotten my second tattoo.

I hope I'll be involved in the yarn industry again. (I don't miss Ewebiquitous, but I miss teaching and solving other people's yarn-y problems.)

I hope I'll be more hopeful about the state of the country.

Describe some of your favorite household gadgets or treasures. 

I have a bunch of very cool and useful yarn-related gadgets (like the scale for weighing my yarn to see how much I have left--which I use all the time! Thank you, cousins <3)

This year I've been especially pleased with my phone stand--hands-free Zooming, plus it holds the phone at a good angle for ebook reading (so I can knit and read!)

My sticker and stationery collection is a treasure. I love covering things in stickers! (Things like water bottles, letters to loved ones*, and my spinning wheel.)

*I promise I'm gonna write back soon, L1!

Are there any questions I should have asked you, but didn't? 

"What's a small thing you miss from pre-pandemic times? "

Earrings. I really enjoyed coordinating my earrings to my outfit. Now I mostly wear the same 2 pairs in my zoom meetings. (I have a pair that matches the rainbow birthday decor on the wall behind me when I zoom!)

And often don't wear them out and about because they tangle in my mask.  But I'm building a mask collection so I can coordinate my mask to my outfit instead. So stylish!

And that's the news (olds?) from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our functions.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.