Wednesday's Words on a Friday

 

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by Elephant's Child and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. cold 2. rugmaker 3. guiding 4. Thursday 5. forever 6. both 

and/or: 

1. farm 2. lights 3. club 4. end 5. moth 6. away

Here is my story:

It is a cold Thursday afternoon as I sit typing this, using a list of words provided to me. I’ve just arrived home from the shop and as I locked the door behind me, it began to rain. “Good timing,” I said to myself. When this goes to air tomorrow, I will have lived here in this box I call home for eleven years. The longest time I have lived anywhere.

I remember the day I picked up the keys for a “walk-through” to see if it was acceptable to me. My older daughter was with me and we both agreed it was liveable, although smaller than any place I had ever lived in. She drove me back to the Housing office where I handed back the keys and signed the papers. It would be ready as soon as the painters had been in to “patch up” the walls and trims.

I had counted lights while I was there (4) to be sure I bought enough new light globes since I planned on switching them for a stronger wattage. The end of the week rolled around and I picked up the keys again, with my niece this time. I had intentions of cleaning this flat over the weekend, then moving in on Monday. Niece had other ideas, she had already booked a trailer and with help from another friend, they moved me in that very same day.

After guiding the furniture into what I hoped would be permanent placings, (ha ha) I sent both niece and friend home and set about unpacking. I did the bedroom first, always a must, as I would need somewhere to sleep when the tiredness of moving hit me. With the bed made, I set up kitchen essentials: kettle, toaster, coffee mugs and spoons. I had an esky (portable cooler) filled with things from the fridge and put those back in right away, milk, cheeses, a half dozen eggs.

I sat with a cup of coffee, looking at where my furniture was, knowing that even more things were going to have to be given away to the nearest thrift shop, the kitchen cabinets were, and are still, woefully inadequate. And there was no linen closet! There still isn’t. Where would I put one? To me, this was not home. For me, a home is always a house, preferably a big old farm house, but I would make this box home, with my familiar things around me.

For years I continued to buy lottery tickets whenever I could afford them, but time passed and passed and no big win ever has come my way, so I am resigned to the fact this three-roomed box may now be my forever home. I am used to it now, just as I am used to being restricted. Smaller rooms crowded with necessary furniture means taking smaller steps. No running down a hallway for me anymore.  I had unrolled my favourite old rugs only to find they were too big for my tiny kitchen and too small for the lounge/dining room.

I wondered briefly if I could play rugmaker and stitch together a couple of smaller rugs, but I know myself well, so rolled them back up again and stashed them in the top section of the wardrobe. They’re still there. Probably moth eaten by now, but I don’t care to look and find out. I still hope to join the “millionaires club” some day, but for now enough clothes and food, plus a safe roof over my head will do. 


Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this beautiful written vignette from your life.

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    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child; after I published I had second thoughts, did it sound sad? Did it sound like I was whiny? I do still miss having a house.

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    2. NOT sad, or whiny. Factual, and yes there is a tinge of sadness - which is right and proper.

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    3. Elephant's Child; thank you.

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  2. So glad you had help. Moving is a bear. Know what you mean about downsizing. I did the same thing and while it seemed cramped at first, every cleaning day I pat myself on the back for making a wise choice. I play the lotto also but have had your luck. Still it is fun to hope.

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    Replies
    1. Arkansas Patti; I've always had help with moving and I don't mind moving. The best part for me is the unpacking and putting things back where they belong. But usually I have more space, this time I had to give away or pack away a lot more than I first thought. a few years ago I was lucky to be able to secure one of the empty garages, so I moved into it things that had been stacked up in the back porch.

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  3. Replies
    1. Jenn Jilks; thank you. I hoped it wouldn't read as sad or whiny.

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  4. I would be ceriously interested in buying a so-called Tiny House.
    But oh, where to put my 4000 books.
    What made you move into this box eleven years ago?

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    Replies
    1. Sean Jeating; I was living in a larger place, but the rent was getting too much and I was working much fewer hours due to physical injuries, so I appealed to the SA Housing Trust, where I'd had my name on the list for quite some time. this flat became available and I took it at a rent I could easily afford, then when work became too much I retired. I gave away five bookshelves worth of books right before I moved as I knew there wouldn't be room for them. Gave away the shelves too, my daughter has those now.

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    2. I hoped you would not consider my question too indiscrete. Thank you for answering. And yes, I wish your "physical injuries" are scarred. The peace of the night.

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    3. Sean Jeating; my physical injuries are much less since retiring as I am now able to stop and rest whenever I need to.

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  5. This is not whiny or sad. This is life, and sometimes things are hard, and we adapt.

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    Replies
    1. messymimi; thank you and you are right, we adapt whenever we have to.

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  6. Just the facts, Ma'am! It doesn't read as whiny or sad. You don't need to be running down the hall! There's a lot to be said these days for a safe roof over one's head, and proximity to transportation and the shops.

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    Replies
    1. Val; thank you. I do miss having enough space to run if I want to, or more correctly, to dance around to music that I like without bumping into furniture. Proximity to transport and shops is a bonus. Something I wouldn't have in a big old farmhouse way out in the country.

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  7. I do understand your longing ... that's what I read here, not whining or complaining, but a longing to stretch your wings again.

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    Replies
    1. Charlotte; thank you. I do long for a house and more space. Room to spread out.

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  8. Sounds like a true story, too!
    hehe. 1995. Woolies. We looked for an Esky. Too long to tell here, but we have two now in the house (the other from 1999).
    I always use one when I defrost the freezer.
    We have three rooms, too. I never had more. First apartment was one room - never again!
    hehe, I would not care about moth-bites, either - not in rugs. I saw them sadly in the socks Ingo´s late Grandma knitted for us and put in lavendar or such, something against moths.

    Yes, we - in the Alstom-team - joke, too, about lottery wins.
    I played once, had to ask for directions on how to do that and won nothing. Done. The dream is still there sometimes, but as you wrote - I am happy with what I have (mostly).

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    Replies
    1. Iris Flavia; eskies are good for defrosting the freezer, I used to do that too. .I'm used to having more rooms, bigger rooms, twice I have lived in homes with five bedrooms and a big family/rumpus room as well as a living room. more to clean, but better than being cramped up in my opinion. Although I don't want that many bedrooms now the kids all have their own homes, I would like at least one more bedroom and maybe a proper dining room. I may be wishing for too much, but dreams are still free, right?

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    2. Dreams luckily are free! I am still sad that at first I had no work experience and then we "forgot" about moving to Australia till we were too old (you (luckily?) really have a strict system).
      And now with the masks... Ingo yesterday said he does not see us coming back for visits any time soon. It stays a dream....
      Do you have a balcony?

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  10. It was cold when River went to see the rugmaker. There he was guiding his needle through the hessian base fabric. It should have been finished the previous Thursday but it seemed to be taking forever. However both of the peacocks were completed.

    He lived on an old farm far beyond the lights of the city though once he ran a gambling club in Sydney. That all had to end when he was targeted by the mafioso. As he worked the stiff thread, a moth was drawn to his hurricane lamp. He batted it away and told River that the rug would be ready in the morning.

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    Replies
    1. Yorkshire Pudding; that was nice, thank you. I might like a peacock rug, hung on the wall as a tapestry.

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