Saturday, January 22, 2022

SATURDAY MORNING RAMBLINGS

 




It is nineteen below zero outside, thankfully no wind.   My furnace is running constantly using fuel, but our house is warm.   Central Maine Power just doubled their rate for power consumption and my light bill jumped from $100 to $140 for the same amount of energy consumption last month.   The cats are in bed with my wife.  They always dive in as soon as I get up to feed them.  They are big cats so they take up my side of the bed.  

 

I have been nursing a cup of tea and thinking how comforting it would be to light up my pipe, which has a prominent place on my bookcase.     We quit smoking in 1986, but I have always missed my pipe.   A pipe is more than smoking, it is a familiar friend.  Only someone from my generation could understand that.

 

Our Cuisinart pressure cooker is twenty-nine years old.  The gasket has become brittle and needs replacement.   The pressure cooker is stainless steal and otherwise fine, but Cuisinart no longer produces this model or supports it.   I did an extensive internet search and the only pressure cooker gasket that would fit our unit is available in England and cost 28 pounds plus shipping to the U.S.   Therefore, I have retired a perfectly good pressure cooker and replaced it with an electronic model that is computer controlled and does everything automatically – except it will, in no way, last three decades.   There will probably be a new-improved model out within the next five years. 

 

I am on the extinction list.   I have come from a different time and don’t actually fit this era.   My values are different.   I don’t do text messaging and only carry a cell phone when I am traveling – and then don’t turn it on.  My favorite handknitted wool sweater is forty-six years old.  My L.L. Bean coat and Moose River hat are over twenty years old.   When I was growing up men carried pocket knives – I do.    I don’t like impermanence; I don’t like things that are designed to be replaceable.    I still use an analog wrist watch, and have, and sometimes use, the pocket watch of my grandfather.

People of my generation are mostly gone, but some how I hang on. 

 

Don’t get me wrong.  Life is worth living: sex is great, good food is great, Scotch whiskey is great, fresh tomatoes are great, cats are great companions…

 

Did I run and am I tired?

the Ol’Buzzard





4 comments:

  1. Hey! I have a twenty year old L.L. Bean coat, too! For what it's worth, we don't purchase L.L.Bean anymore because their prices have sky rocketed and shipping costs (and return costs) make it ridiculous. But I still wear my coat. -Jenn

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  2. I still wear an analog wristwatch too -- a large plain one with big numbers so I can see them, LOL!

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  3. A watch?...I thought you were relaxed, I have no need for a watch anymore...It's time for you to set yourself FREE!
    If I'm late for anything I'm sure someone will let me know..(;+)......Or charge me $$$$$$$,

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  4. ok...worth a shot..give me the number of the ring and all the information..I may have a way to get it..

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COMMENT: Ben Franklin said, "I imagine a man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false."