9/11

With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks coming up, I have been  considering my fourteen year old grandson and thirteen year old granddaughter.  They have grown up under the shadow of the 9/11 bombings.  I remember at the time of the bombings, letting them know just enough to answer their questions about what was on the news, without letting them know so much they would be frightened or fixated on it.  After all, they were toddlers, but very bright for their ages.  And here it is ten years later and we are still dealing with this evil that is trying to poison the world.   I wonder how all this will color the children's lives.

 I grew up with the threat of nuclear attack, but that threat seemed rather remote, to be honest.  It had never happened in the USA, so it did not seem imminent.  I have read plenty about the sword of nuclear attack hanging over the heads of people of my generation and how it supposedly made us fearful, but I have never met anyone who felt that way. Even the air raid drills in grade school did not make us dwell long on the threat. That is not to say we did not realize there was a serious threat, and we paid a lot of attention to crises that might trigger an attack, but for the most part, it was not anything that had a deep conscious affect on our daily lives.  Of course, we did not have all the news coverage on television to keep the issue in front of us, that exists today. Also, we had leaders who were committed to preventing any such attack, so we could feel fairly secure. (One could argue their policies but we did not experience a nuclear attack.)

 I would like to think children are too immature to realize the full extent of the threat of terrorism.  But I know that children not only can perceive threats,  but can be traumatized by them even more than adults.  I hope that we can find a solution to today's terrorist threats (which, indeed, could include a nuclear disaster) and our children can concentrate on growing up safely in a saner world.  My guess is, however, there always will be some type of danger, other than the usual drug and violence issues (which are bad enough!), to deal with.  Seems where there is no evil, there is always someone to create it. You know the old political science theory about vacuums being filled.

I am ending this post now because I really want to go on  a political rant.  The reason I am not doing so is those who understand our situation, already agree with me and I would be preaching to the choir. Those who do not agree are too damned niave to understand.  You can substitute your choice of words for niave.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

When I started this project, I did not think that two weeks later I would still be switching the study and sewing room.  What I have discovered is that once items are taken out of their rightful places in closets and cabinets, they seem to take up about five times the space and are much more difficult to put away!  I always knew I had enough fabric to open my own store, and it did completely fill a walk-in closet, floor to ceiling, plus numerous plastic bins.  Seeing as how the study has the same size walk-in closet plus floor to ceiling cabinets, logically, most of that fabric, once moved to the study, should fit behind doors, thus eliminating the need for all those plastic bins.  That would leave me more floor space and I would not be all cramped up when quilting.  And the room would be neater (in theory, anyway).  And all the stuff that was in the study, which I had just recently gone through and whittled down, leaving empting shelves there, should not only fit into the sewing room closet, but there should be empty shelves left there also.  However, logic does not seem to work in this case.  I am pretty sure that the fabric overflow in the study closet is due to the difference in shelving configuration.  That being said, there are all the cabinets, so why am I having problems fitting all the fabric into the study?  Furthermore, there are more shelves in the sewing room closet than the study closet, so why don't I have even more empty space in there than I did when those items were in the study?  This is not too problematic though because once the dining room is prepped to become the new study, some of those items will be moved from the closet to the dining room.  Then that only begs the question, "Where the heck am I going to put all those dishes that were in the dining room???  I have one china service for 32, one for 16, one for four, plus a ton of odds and ends.   (The reason for all the china is I want to leave my daughters and granddaughters full sets when I go to the big quilting room in the sky.  I know they will love china that has to be washed and dried by hand rather than that cheap stuff you can toss into the electric dishwasher. Everytime they use it, they will think of me and smile.) Plus I still have not figured out what to do with the extra furniture.   Who said life after retirement was simple?

Normally, I would not find this a topic of conversation except to another fabricholic, who probably has had a similar experience at some point in her addiction.  However, because I live with DB who has no such addiction, or any addiction that takes up enormous living space, I feel guilty causing him to have to climb over, around and through tons of stuff to get to the computer.  This mess does not include the mess in the dining room, where I have emptied the contents of all sideboards, etc. in preparation for having new flooring installed.   I can hardly bear to walk through that room, but there is a small, clear path that allows me to be able to do so, if I want to.  That is not the case with the study or sewing room. So I guess, even more than my frustration with the mess is my feelings of guilt for keeping the house looking like a tornado has come through.   This guilt is made worse by the fact that DB has not complained even though I know he must be bothered by it.  Sometimes I wonder if he purposely keeps his mouth shut just to make me feel guilty.  He knows me well enough to know if he carped, I would not feel any need to rush getting this put away because I would be ticked off at him.  This way, I feel guilty and have a sense of urgency that the speed in which I get the job done belies.  Fortunately, DB has had a few distractions, such as stress at work, and Millie the Squirrel, to help keep him from focusing on my mess. 

Finally, though, I think I am near the end of the transfer of most items, leaving only the big pieces of furniture to move.  All I can say is, switching rooms better be worth it because I sure as heck am not going to switch back again.  That horse done left the barn.