Tuesday - after Columbus day in These titles mean nothing.
- Oct. 11, 2022, 11:01 a.m.
- |
- Public
I sit here and watch the world crumble.
My corner’s not. that bad. It’s semi-good. But the rest of the world is not much fun to look at.
I’m reading a Tracy Kidder book. Strength in What Remains
It came out in 2009. It’s about a survivor of the African genocide - a Tutsi medical student - ‘a member of a people forming a minority of the population of Rwanda and Burundi, who formerly dominated the Hutu majority. Historical antagonism between the peoples led in 1994 to large-scale ethnic violence, especially in Rwanda’. He gets to New York city and has good luck - or as good a luck as is imaginable. He is a real person. I haven’t searched for him or even for his history beyond the quote I lifted above. I remember when it was happening. I don’t know what the situation is now. And now is 11 years after the book came out. Kidder is a good writer.
I watched most of a documentary about the homeless in Seattle.
Less hopeful than the book - of course. It seemed to say drug addiction is the common denominator. And of course we know how we are with out own addictions. There is no answer to seek lovingly or otherwise.
The picture below is of the combine being fixed. It’s right front drive wheel came off right there as it entered the field in front of the house. Through a neighbor Jim found a mechanic with a friend with a service truck with a lift and they came Saturday and replaced the wheel’s hub in an hour or two. It was a lucky break. See the bend in the metal work above the wheel. Jim feels bad about that. The burn spot from the fire a couple years ago is on the other side.
Combine is back at work. That’s what counts mainly.
I went with Jim to the combine parts recycler/junkyard in Fort Atkinson last Thursday. I sat in the sun in the pickup while the deal was made. It was a pretty time, full of fall, and purpose. I looked out the window at myself in the rear view side mirror and I was shocked at how old I looked. Mirrors have always been my friends. I can lift my chin or play with my gaze, think happy thoughts, and be satisfied, even pleased with the way I look. But there is the junkyard parking lot, there was nothing attractive about me. I said to myself, is that the way it’s going to be from now on? Is it only old age ahead of me? Or age’s even less attractive partner?
Oh well, we stopped for lunch at the sports bar we like in Decorah. I had a bowl of chili and a glass of Diet Pepsi. Well I was away from home,, and my will power is in decline. We also stopped at a farmer’s candy store - not real candy - just self-indulgent stuff. Jim bought a jack and some other stuff I can’t remember and I got a bicycle horn to put in the basement on my walking route. Toot toot. On the way into the roundhouse and Toot Toot on the way out. I’ve done some walking but not as much as I should.
Maybe today will be a good day. There will be mail. I need to get a letter to Katie off. I guess I do have a purpose in life.
gattaca ⋅ October 11, 2022
The combine is a mechanically complex machine. As an engineer, I find this type of machine to be fascinating. The complexity of all the gears and other moving parts cooperating in unison is in someways like a song.
Of course, as you know, the machine requires periodic maintenance to continue to operate in that kind of mechanical harmony.
woman in the moon gattaca ⋅ October 11, 2022
OH my god combines are factories and they are Barbie dolls. My son is so proud of his and when it's hurt, he is too. He had a story about that wheel involving bearings and somesuch but I do not remember it well enough to begin to tell it. He gets to take the old hub back for partial credit and that might mean another lunch out for me.
noko ⋅ October 11, 2022
There are a lot of women involved in running Rwanda now. It has changed in many ways. Incredible hardship does that. The combine is impressive and it is good that this fix was available but I am a bit sad you felt old in the parking lot. You are still the girl from 1961.
woman in the moon noko ⋅ October 11, 2022
thank you
Just Annie ⋅ October 11, 2022
My corner of the world is not crumbling, either, but it sures seems like the rest of the world is. I am discouraged and I feel helpless.
And remember, some walk is better than no walk!
ConnieK ⋅ October 11, 2022
I guess if it had to give, better it breaks down nearer to the house. I'm okay with the old bat I see in the mirror. Not beautiful, but oh, so much wiser, which is, in itself, bittersweet.
NorthernSeeker ⋅ October 12, 2022
I'm glad the tire was fixable. The mirror has never been my friend but I try to accept what I see.
woman in the moon NorthernSeeker ⋅ October 13, 2022
It wasn't the tire. It was the whole wheel coming off the axle. We got a new one - a new used one - and the same wheel and tire went back on the combine. Doesn't matter, there will be something else to fix pretty soon.
Jinn ⋅ October 13, 2022
Maintenance of combines and other farm equipment is serious business. They cost as much as houses ; more sometimes . :-)
woman in the moon Jinn ⋅ October 13, 2022
Tell me about it.
There is a lot to maintain and fix on one. And they work INTENSIVELY for a short time of the year. It would be like training for a marathon that ran one day - which I guess they do.
Jinn woman in the moon ⋅ October 13, 2022
:-) . I remember .
Serin ⋅ October 16, 2022
I'm glad he got on-site service. Though I imagine that's not unusual
woman in the moon Serin ⋅ October 16, 2022
If this hadn't worked out I'm not sure what would have happened. I know there would have been a way to fix it. I mean stuff like this happens. Someone from town would have come out. There really wouldn't have been any way to move the combine - wrecker? crane? combination of the two? I mean.....
I should have gone down and looked when they were doing it.
I just read some pieces of a novel called Water for Elephants - it's about a circus menagerie and it's got animals and suffering - or maybe what has to be done. I know about animals. I justify their lives in various ways - you've heard me do it many times, but boy this book is hitting me. Circus goes broke, they have to dispose of the animals - what does the elephant do? As in how is she trained? She stands in the menagerie and takes candy. How can you justify the existence of someone/something that stands in the menagerie and takes candy?