The Caregiver’s Tales: A Blog

I love context. And I had a good example of it this morning. I was feeling overwhelmed by the world and wished I could enjoy the bliss of ignorance. Then I wondered about the genesis of the words and looked it up. There was Thomas Gray’s poem, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, and right at the end I read this: “…where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.”  It’s a poem on the innocence of youth, and they’re ignorant of what’s to come. I don’t believe Gray intended them as words to live by.

I’m here to testify that a shower head soaked in a solution of citric acid will come clean. All it took was time, hot water and a teaspoon of the main ingredient, which can also be used in canning. Interesting. Household ingredients. I’m adding it to my official house cleaning regimen. Another tool to combat hard water. And now that you have my household tip for the day, I don’t have much else to say.

Walked out onto the porch last night and took a big drink of the dark sky from the big dipper hanging low in the east. I remember as a child finding great pleasure in being able to spot the dipper and its cousin, the little dipper. Then later in life Orion’s belt became the night sky feature with which I was most familiar. Why it drew my eye, I have no idea. All I know is that last night I was happy to be reminded of my childhood.

What I did this weekend. Watched a sunset. Watched it rain. Listened to music. Visited with friends. Thought about my two boys having a weekend together. Slept late. Fed the cats. Made plans. Talked about the missing. Talked about the living. Drove a back road. Simple things. The pleasures of life.

It’s fun to have company, especially when it’s a child, and he brings his guitars, and he helps with a plumbing project because that’s fun, too. So, yesterday evening I managed to get a new faucet installed in the guest bathroom, troubleshoot a toilet issue, learn three new chords, and have a pizza and beer. And speaking of children, earlier in the day I got a call from my daughter who moaned about missing out on the music.

I’m still popular in China, although I have no idea why. I probably could do something about it, but what would be the point. So, far they mostly appear to be reading my blog. I’ve detected no attempts to hack the site, although maybe it’s already done and these hits are simply a means for covering their tracks. If they’re bots, they sure are taking their time, which would seem to defeat the purpose of a bot and why so many. And what are they doing with the data?

I feel fairly centered these days and satisfied, too. Although, it gives me pause sometimes to write about it, because I know I’m running in a universe of people who are reasonably well off, and in some cases better than that. So, I can understand why someone with a harder life might say, of course you’re satisfied. Who wouldn’t be? And I would take their point.

I’ve been having fun with smart light bulbs. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but fun for me. I have them in three rooms now, the living room, the kitchen, and the bedroom. I’ve even created scenes with different colors and brightness’s. They all have names and I call them by voice, there’s normal, evening, morning. Now that I think about it, I could give them fun names, like Skip, or Buster and treat them as pets.me, and I suppose that’s all that matters.