I was not worth a plugged nickel yesterday.   In fact, I'm still wearing the pajamas that I went to bed in Saturday night.  I did manage to make a pot of chicken & dumplings for supper last night (had some for breakfast this morning).

Mostly, I read.  I typically do most of my reading on a Kindle in bed at night, but this Civil War diary is a paper book.  Before I got a Kindle, I had a couple of clamp-on book lights and could read a "real" book in bed at night, but the book lights have disappeared or quit working, so I am reading this diary in the recliner.

This is not the first Civil War diary I've read.  Thirty-something years ago, I forgot to send back the Book-of-the-Month Club card and subsequently received in the mail a copy of Mary Chestnut's Civil War Diary.  At the time, I was working for a law firm in Memphis and had two small children, so it took weeks to finish the book.  During that time, I went on a job interview with a law firm closer to home.  The lawyer who interviewed me was at that time working on a book about Civil War gun boats.  One of the first questions he asked me was, "Do you like to read?"  When I told him what I was then reading, he hired me on the spot.  However, when I turned in my notice to the old firm, they sweetened the deal, and I ended up not taking the job that was closer to home, something I've regretted over the years.  After all this time, I scarcely remember anything about Mary Chestnut.   

The woman in this current book is her early 20s and has about 4 different men wanting to marry her.  (Three of them are Confederate soldiers; I haven't yet discovered how many of them made it back alive.)  She spends her time sewing and cooking and such, but the family owns slaves (for now), so she is not working in the fields or doing other physically laborious jobs.  Her life is nothing like the life my poor sharecropper ancestors lived.  

The other two diaries I recently bought are written by women who, according to the introductions, were socially prominent.  Their lives won't mirror my ancestors' lives, either.  I've found another book (it's on its way!) written by a high-society woman who at least lived in the same vicinity as my ancestors.  Since I'm looking for speech patterns, maybe this one will be more helpful in finding "voice."  

  

'Nastics - November 10, 2024

Yesterday didn't turn out exactly as I expected.

The plan was to attend Granddaughter #3's gymnastics team's mid-day exhibition and then go to my brother's house to visit with him and his daughter and her family, who are visiting from out of state.  By the time the gymnastics performances started, the visit with my niece's family had been cancelled, so instead of heading to my brother's house, we took Granddaughter #3 and her family to a late lunch.  

The gymnastics exhibition was sweet.  About 20 little girls did the same routines, one after the other.  They flipped and tumbled and pranced.  So cute, especially the smallest gymnast in the group, who gave it all she had, seemingly without fear or nervousness.

Granddaughter #4 ("The Little Rotten Baby" from past posts) is also in gymnastics, but her age group did not perform.  It would probably have been like herding cats.  She did, however, pull off a couple of wobbly cartwheels on the sidelines between events.  At almost 4, she is still rotten.  Living in a house full of teen or pre-teen sisters, she picks up things.  After the exhibition, as we were standing around with her family, discussing what we wanted to eat, she asked me, "Do you have any cash?"

The Husband and I made it home about 4 o'clock.  I spent most of the afternoon reading Serepta Jordan's diary entries.  In one of them, she used her aunt's term, "pain under the apron," in reference to menstrual cramps.  Such phrases are just the type of gems I'm looking for.  

Long Weekend - November 8, 2024

Thank goodness for Friday, and for the long weekend ahead.  

It's been a tough week, physically tough.  I would like nothing better than to spend the next three days in pajamas, but that'll never happen.  A good chunk of tomorrow is already filled, first with a mid-day trip to the Big City to watch ten-year-old Granddaughter #3 do gymnastics, and then to my brother's house to visit with his family.  There's nothing in the refrigerator except pickles and jelly and some whisker-y carrots that need to go to the compost pile, so I ought to go to the grocery store at some point, but I probably won't.  There are too many other things I want to do, such as painting or reading.  

Over the past couple of weeks, three new books have come in the mail.  All three are diaries of women who lived in middle Tennessee during the Civil War.  I've been getting up early to read, mostly as research for my family history.  These three women are not related to me, as far as I know.  Most of my relatives in that era would not have been able to keep diaries, for most of them could not read or write and could not have afforded pencil and paper. I am just reading to see what life was like in those days, and how women framed their sentences.  

As for painting, I'd like to work on the tire cover that I bought for the Wrangler.  I'm doing it with oil paints, which takes FOREVER to dry, especially when the air is damp as it is now.  I started this thing a month ago and have been moving it back and forth between my craft table and various chair backs, trying to keep it out of the traffic so that no rug-rat - or grown-ass old woman - brushes against it while it dries.  There's not much left to do, really; I ought to just finish it.  It'll be such a nice surprise for that egghead who tailgates me all the way to work.  

I'd also like to work on some Christmas cards.  Watercolor.  I ordered some new brushes yesterday.  They won't arrive for weeks, but the old ones will hold up long enough to do the cards.  

The Husband's cousin David (Cousin Roger's brother) gave me a very cool gift this week, a sewing basket that belonged to his mother or grandmother.  It is a cane basket, darkened with age, shaped like a shallow bowl, with a flat detached lid.  It contained supplies for hand sewing.   The bottom was full of old buttons.  It looks really cool on the sewing room shelf.

Nanny just called to report that there's a strange truck "with some kind of government tags" parked at the end of her driveway.  She said the windows were too dark to see inside, and that she'd pecked on the window, but nobody answered.  She'd written down the license number.  There was talk of loading the shotgun.  I went outside to eyeball the truck while on the phone with her but didn't recognize the truck and didn't see anyone inside it (the windows certainly were dark!) or anywhere around. I told her I'd keep an eye out.  When we hung up, I took a picture of the truck and walked around the back to take a picture of the license plate.  It was a temporary tag in a car dealer frame, not a "government " tag.  I sent the pictures to Son #1, suspecting it is his stepson's truck.  Sure enough, it is.  The driver is most likely stalking deer in the woods behind the house.  I called Nanny back and told her to unload the gun.   

It's almost margarita time.  

Progress - November 7, 2024

It's a little nippy on the back porch this afternoon.  Cloudy and damp. 

The birds are talking amongst themselves, as are the frogs in the pond and in the trees.  I don't hear any squirrels barking.  They're probably busy burying acorns while there's still daylight.

One looks for peace where one finds it, eh?

I made good progress at work today.  Finished 2012 and started on 2013.  Some guys came and hauled away two huge stacks of crushed banker box lids, so the workroom is a little neater.  

And tomorrow is Friday.  Yay!

And Monday is a government holiday.  Yay!

Election Day - November 5, 2024

Not gonna lie, I'm nervous about this election and its aftermath.  There is more than enough crazy on the loose these days.  The scary thing is that it only takes a few to screw things up for everyone.

This will drag on for days, weeks, months.

I'm weary of it.

I'm also weary of this work project.  

The 2010s are done, and the 2011s are stacked on the tables, waiting to be sorted.  I fear I have not left room enough to work in the "mystery" files.  

Tomorrow, I'm going to skip one or two file cabinets and hope for the best.

Monday Funday (not!) - November 4, 2024

I so wanted to shoot hooky today.

But I also want to get this freakin' project done, so I dragged my butt to work.

The 2009 files were on the table, waiting to be sorted.  By 10:30, I was ready to move them into a cabinet drawer.  On my way to the cabinet, I glanced at the 2010s, thinking I might be able to finish them today.  To my horror, the cabinet drawer I opened (third from the top) was full of 2005 files. 

I said every cuss word I know, and some I didn't.

The bottom drawer was empty.  

How in the hell did I just flat skip a drawer? 

You realize what had to happen, don't you?  

I had not packed the file drawers tightly to account for the "mystery" files that must eventually be worked into the system.  But the 2005 files only took up two drawers, and there was no way they'd absorb a whole 'nother drawer full.  I had to empty a drawer, which meant emptying ALL the drawers in ALL of the cabinets, one drawer at a time.

Cuss words flew all afternoon.  

Heaven only knows if those files made it back in the drawers in the right order.

The one bright spot in the day was that someone came looking for a file and actually found it. :)

I said, "You put that right back where you found it when you're done."

As soon as I got the 2010 files stacked on the tables (yes, I double-checked ALL the drawers), I high tailed it out of there.  

I was on feet for 7 straight hours.   Everything in/on me hurts.  

Fall Back Day - November 3, 2024

The Grandson called Friday afternoon, wanting to hang out with us this weekend.  When The Husband got home from work, we picked the young'un (now 17) up, took him to dinner, and brought him home with us.  

Saturday the menfolk worked on the Cherokee.  Between finding the part (a thermostat), installing it, and putting everything back together (which required another trip to the parts store), it took nearly all day.  We were intending to leave the house about 5 p.m. to watch Granddaughter #2's band march in a competition, but were a little late by the time the menfolk got the grease off of themselves.

#2's band came in third.  :(

It was late when we got home, and we all went straight to bed.

The menfolk test-drove the car today.  It didn't over-heat.  Problem solved, hopefully.

When they got home, they discovered that the leaf mulcher had been delivered to the front porch.  As we were assembling it, The Husband got a phone call from Son #1's wife.  Axel (the aged, sh*thead Rottweiler) has been feeling poorly.  Earlier this week, the vet didn't hold out much hope for his survival, but Son #1 could not bear to have Axel euthanized.  The vet gave Axel a couple of shots, and they brought him home.  Today, he is worse.  The Husband, The Grandson, and the Daughter-in-Law have taken Axel to the vet.  

Axel won't be coming home.  :(