So with my rushing life, here is the next installment. For better or for worse, the papers on the washer and dryer are signed. I can only guess how this week will unfold.
I am still trying to understand the oven, but have figured out how to turn it on, which is useful. Can't quite figure out the timer, will need to study the book on that one. So far I can get timing but then it turns off the oven when it goes off.... It is a lovely thing, white, with two oven lights (old one hasn't had a light work in almost 20 years) Makes the room look bigger and because it is bigger, will be easier to cook with. Has self cleaning feature, which I have wanted ever since we rented a place with one. Thermostat seems to be right on. I am enormously grateful for this luck. My mother in law stepped in and baked almost half the order for her darling boy while he was otherwise engaged. Today he came home and baked almost the other half. Peace in the valley. Not many days left, so I am profoundly grateful. We always seem to have an emergency when some appliance dies. Although the dishwasher died in the mid-80's and I only got another in the mid-2000's. But i love it too. I am equally pleased with the new air conditioners we got a couple years ago (old one still worked but after 20 some years not too well) I love the controls, things that can turn themselves on and off. I do appreciate that. I love my microwave that replaced the old Kenmore. I hate the new vcr we got this year, with a passion, but there are not many out there anymore to pick from. The new DVD player is a piece of garbage. We are using the one we bought B's dad when they first came out, as his dad got a complete new entertainment center. I now use the newer one to play CD's when I exercise. But it only likes certain CD's, picky darn thing...
I am just realizing that in the past five years we have had quite a lot of new stuff. I would guess that being married over 25 years has something to do with this. That and the fact that electronics date so quickly. I figure I have put enough money into computers and cars in our married life to have easier paid for our children's education. Which is why they have to pay their own way....
Hmmm, what is wrong with this picture?
I have noticed a trend. The people I know who had to pay their own way after they left home, have made sure their kids didn't have to. The people like us, who had parents help them, seem incapable of helping their kids. On one hand, I can see that our kids have grown to be responsible, money wise adults, compared to some of the ones who had the parents shelling out every five minutes. But I do wish I could have done more for my kids. I can't help but feel it is somehow our fault that we do less well than expected. We could never have anticipated in the 80's that we would not do better, that we would, in fact, do worse. Call it inflation, bad luck, a combination of the two, coupled with some bad decisions. But some of our decisions have been good ones, and we never think of those. We obsess about the bad washer, but forget all the good faithful appliances that lasted for decades.
I guess this leads to the usual,my obsession with the negative. I am trying so hard to be less negative and more positive, but it is not easy. I seem to be a complainer by nature, and I don't know why. My parents and in-laws are the opposite of this. Stiff upper lip and so on. My mother said, never complain, never explain. I seem to be constantly doing these things. My in-laws say the secret to a happy marriage is to keep your mouth shut. But I am a talker. (can't you tell?) I would guess that there is no one right way. That we are all on the planet in our various personalities, with our various flaws, trying to make our way as best we can.
My generation seems obsessed with self-help. We keep trying to re-invent ourselves. past generations just took themselves as they were. I really have to wonder what we are doing to the next generation. I think I am just starting to see and possibly understand as our children move into adulthood.
We all come with baggage to adulthood, and maybe we spend our whole lives trying to unpack.
I am still trying to understand the oven, but have figured out how to turn it on, which is useful. Can't quite figure out the timer, will need to study the book on that one. So far I can get timing but then it turns off the oven when it goes off.... It is a lovely thing, white, with two oven lights (old one hasn't had a light work in almost 20 years) Makes the room look bigger and because it is bigger, will be easier to cook with. Has self cleaning feature, which I have wanted ever since we rented a place with one. Thermostat seems to be right on. I am enormously grateful for this luck. My mother in law stepped in and baked almost half the order for her darling boy while he was otherwise engaged. Today he came home and baked almost the other half. Peace in the valley. Not many days left, so I am profoundly grateful. We always seem to have an emergency when some appliance dies. Although the dishwasher died in the mid-80's and I only got another in the mid-2000's. But i love it too. I am equally pleased with the new air conditioners we got a couple years ago (old one still worked but after 20 some years not too well) I love the controls, things that can turn themselves on and off. I do appreciate that. I love my microwave that replaced the old Kenmore. I hate the new vcr we got this year, with a passion, but there are not many out there anymore to pick from. The new DVD player is a piece of garbage. We are using the one we bought B's dad when they first came out, as his dad got a complete new entertainment center. I now use the newer one to play CD's when I exercise. But it only likes certain CD's, picky darn thing...
I am just realizing that in the past five years we have had quite a lot of new stuff. I would guess that being married over 25 years has something to do with this. That and the fact that electronics date so quickly. I figure I have put enough money into computers and cars in our married life to have easier paid for our children's education. Which is why they have to pay their own way....
Hmmm, what is wrong with this picture?
I have noticed a trend. The people I know who had to pay their own way after they left home, have made sure their kids didn't have to. The people like us, who had parents help them, seem incapable of helping their kids. On one hand, I can see that our kids have grown to be responsible, money wise adults, compared to some of the ones who had the parents shelling out every five minutes. But I do wish I could have done more for my kids. I can't help but feel it is somehow our fault that we do less well than expected. We could never have anticipated in the 80's that we would not do better, that we would, in fact, do worse. Call it inflation, bad luck, a combination of the two, coupled with some bad decisions. But some of our decisions have been good ones, and we never think of those. We obsess about the bad washer, but forget all the good faithful appliances that lasted for decades.
I guess this leads to the usual,my obsession with the negative. I am trying so hard to be less negative and more positive, but it is not easy. I seem to be a complainer by nature, and I don't know why. My parents and in-laws are the opposite of this. Stiff upper lip and so on. My mother said, never complain, never explain. I seem to be constantly doing these things. My in-laws say the secret to a happy marriage is to keep your mouth shut. But I am a talker. (can't you tell?) I would guess that there is no one right way. That we are all on the planet in our various personalities, with our various flaws, trying to make our way as best we can.
My generation seems obsessed with self-help. We keep trying to re-invent ourselves. past generations just took themselves as they were. I really have to wonder what we are doing to the next generation. I think I am just starting to see and possibly understand as our children move into adulthood.
We all come with baggage to adulthood, and maybe we spend our whole lives trying to unpack.
posted by Diana @ 10:09 PM
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