Things My Mother Taught Me - BEFORE

Before breakfast you must make your bed.  Research now shows that bed-makers surpass non-bed-makers in accomplishments on a daily basis, as well as a lifetime basis.  A neat brain is an accomplished brain?

Before going out to PLAY you must change from your school clothes. This was a large part of her insistence on us looking presentable when we left the house to go to school, as well as SAVING on the replacement of “school clothes”  most of which were hand-me-downs from my cousin in Nebraska!

Before going to school you must brush your teeth and comb your hair.  Personal grooming was a life-skill before the term was invented!  My sister – 14 years younger - actually had perfect teeth, not one cavity until her adult years!  I only had a couple of fillings going into childbearing years, and one missing 12 year molar!  So My GUESS is genes and a Top Sergeant for a mother!

Before we get to PLAY, we must do our chores.   Mother grew a large garden and in the summer, we were garden SLAVES.  Pulling weeds, watering, and picking the fuzzy yellow caterpillars off the green beans were our lot during growing season, and picking was required if we wanted to eat all winter!  I still cannot eat a green bean without seeing those fuzzy caterpillars that I was required to toss into a can of Kerosene.

Mom also required that homework and chores be done BEFORE playing.  She had the plan in the summer that we would work like crazy for two days and then take a “sabbatical” / a day off to go to the library, the park, the tennis court, or the swimming pool.  We all learned to swim as she was never a great swimmer – good at dog paddling though!  AND Dad only learned to swim in our pool in San Jose.  He was deathly afraid of water, so he too approved and encouraged swim lessons.  THANK YOU Jewish Community Center of Greater Denver!!  The lessons must have been free there.

Before we went back to school after Christmas we had to write THANK YOU NOTES for any presents.  Just read yesterday that THOUSANDS of parcels are never received by the planned recipients as they are stolen from the porches of THOUSANDS of homes and apartment buildings where there is NO ONE at home during the day to receive packages!!  People wonder why they haven’t received a thank you?  It wasn’t rudeness but theft perhaps?  Even a text message that the package arrived in this day and age would calm a lot of fears, and hurt feelings.

So what prompted this reminiscence about Mom’s BEFORES.  I had the communion cloths waiting to be washed and ironed.  I thought beginning a new year on the first Sunday of January our church should have freshly washed and starched linen for the altar.   We only celebrate Communion on the first Sunday at our church.  So BEFORE I could starch and iron the extra long table cloth I had to mop the kitchen floor where I set up the ironing board on those VERY occasional ironing days.  Before I could mop the floor, I put the permanent press load in to wash.  Tidied up from breakfast, mopped and dried the floor.  But BEFORE the extra long table cloth I ironed my husband’s TWO shirts that, in my opinion, need ironed, and a handful of clean hand kerchiefs.  What a feeling of accomplishment!! 

THANKS MOM!

Interesting Conversations

As many in my age group,  I spend time in doctor's offices!!  My husband just had his FOURTH lumbar surgery.  Fortunately,  I missed his first when he was 13, but have experienced the PTSD that resulted, and nursed him through THREE back surgeries!!  

My Primary Care Physician gave me a lecture last week about not following through on recommended tests, mainly the Dexiscan that checks my borderline osteoperosis.   I remembered having had the test, so when the scheduler called I asked to make sure that I wasn't imagining things.  Sure enough, I had had the scan, but 4 years ago.  "Medicare pays for one every TWO years,"  so perhaps that was in fact cancelled, or ignored.   Gee,  I don't see my dental hygenist but once a year, or two, and certainly not every SIX MONTHS!!

Doc said there are two schools of thought:  ONE, don't see the doctor unless something is WRONG / BROKEN.   TWO, prevent major breakdowns by seeing the doctor for preventative tests and catch problems BEFORE they get to be catastrophic.   I commented that:  "this world is not my home, I am just a passin' through" and was obviously of the first attitude and he was working the preventative angle.  I thought his CNA would start laughing out loud;  perhaps she had never heard a patient question the protocol, or her doctor.

Before Medicare we had a $5,000 deductible Major Medical insurance policy as that was all we could afford, and we figured we could probably pay $5,000 on a credit card if necessary. 
So we prayed a lot that we would STAY HEALTHY, and stayed away from physicians.  It seemed to work,  better than NOW where since Medicare pays we get all these annual tests, doctor's visits, procedures!!

I do NOT take prescriptions for any chronic maladies.  Tom does, but I don't and I was so lax about pills I often skipped the vitamins until I found one of Tom's old weekly pill trays - too small for his needs - and started filling it when he filled his morning/evening tray each week.  I still will find days unemptied as I just FORGOT to take the 3 or 4 supplements for that day!   Freudian slip, I would call it!  So what is the purpose of getting a bone scan if you won't take the prescribed pill!!

Then there was the MONTH LONG Halter monitor and the stress treadmill last year to which I gave the heart PA a negative response.  Actually,  I gave him what he asked for.   He gave the distinct impression that I was a malingerer.   The 24 heart monitor gave the same indication that the previous test had - several years before - a very common heart arrythmya, more noticeable when I was laying down and trying to GO TO SLEEP, but it also happened during the regular day on a regular basis.   Nothing to worry and lose sleep about.  So I passed on the MONTH LONG monitor and the stress treadmill!!   I am definitely of the FIRST school of thought - if it ain't broke, don't try to FIX IT!!   

There are way too many older folk who want every little ache and pain fixed and the advertisements for medications on TV don't help that mindset.  OH MY, after hearing the avoids - why would any one put something that "could cause all that" in their body?!   The cost of medication would take a DRASTIC drop if they were prohibited from advertising PILLS on TV, radio, and every magazine that you pick up.  Two or THREE pages of warnings should scare users away, but DOCTORS are right up there with GOD - no one realizes that their continuing education is oft times paid for by the drug manufacturers - so if "good old doc" says this pill will help, who am I to question?

Another troubling question:  where do the unused pills go when the patient dies?  The hospice nurse in CO flushed them when Tom's mom died.  That was to avoid being mugged, as visiting nurses were in some locations, by people wanting to sell them on the street corner to support their drug habits.  BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WATER TABLE if the flush is into a septic system, and what must water treatment facilities in big cities have to do to cleanse the water of these ADDITIVES from upstream flushes?!

I must have too much time on my hands, or think I should be able to unravel all the puzzles in life like I do my knitting when I miss a stitch, or drop a stitch.  GOD is good all the time and I think that I will depend on THAT!

TRUSTING

TRUSTING

George Mueller maintained an orphanage in London for nearly 50 years on PRAYER ALONE.  He never sent letters asking for donations, never spoke at churches advertising his need for support, BUT he did spend an hour each morning praising GOD, reading his Bible, and resting in GOD’s loving arms, then he spent another hour – or more - listing his needs for his children THAT day – potatoes for the stew, and possibly a bone or some meat, vegetables, the number of loaves of bread, shoes and the sizes and the names of the children who had worn through their soles, school supplies, etc.   Then he was ready to thank the LORD, as well as the delivery person, as those items miraculously were delivered.

Today’s reading in a devotional titled “They Walked with GOD” was written by George Mueller.

Diary entry for October 21, 1868  - As the days come, we make known our requests to Him, for our outgoing have now been for several years at the rate of more than one hundred pounds (today’s currency =    ) each day; but though the expenses have been so great, He has never failed us.  We have been, as to the outward appearance, like the “Burning Bush in the Wilderness”; yet we have not been consumed.  Moreover, we are full of trust in the Lord, and therefore of good courage, though we have before us the prospect, that, year by year, our expenses will increase more and more….Earthly friends may alter their minds regarding the work in which we are engaged; but if indeed we work for God, whoever may alter his mind regarding our service, He will not.    

Earthly friends may lose their ability to help us, however much they may desire so to do; but He remains throughout eternity the infinitely rich one.  Earthly friends may have their minds after a time diverted to other objects, and, as they cannot help everywhere, much as they may desire it, they may have to discontinue to help us; but He is able, in all directions, though the requirements were multiplied a million times, to supply all that can possibly be needed…

In this latter point of view I have especially, during the past forty years, in connection with this institution seen the blessedness of trusting in the living God alone.  Not one nor two, not even five or ten, but many more, who once helped me much with their means, have been removed by death; but have the operations of the institution been stopped on that account?  NO.  And how came this?  Because I trusted in God, and in Him alone.

Between a ROCK and a hard spot

So, for 25 years I have been “just keeping the credit card number until we check out the cabin after you leave.”  I rarely have to charge for cleaning or breakage as MOST people are aware that they are using SOMEONE’s Mountain Home and they treat it gently.  I have had to charge for broken windows on three occasions in the SAME WINTER, and for the SAME CABIN!!  It was an icy year and those “snow balls” were more like baseball-sized ice balls!!

I have also charged on two occasions that I recall for CLEANING!!  One was a ski team who stayed here for a Jr. Race Team Race at Dodge Ridge.  They did NOTHING and I charged them for cleaning, including all the beer bottles on window sills and tables, cigarettes in a NON-SMOKING cabin, and food crusted dishes  on every flat surface!!  I also sent a note criticizing their “drinking on the job” when they had children other than their own IN THEIR CARE with the credit card receipt!!

The other cleaning charge was an Easter Weekend when ALL THE FURNITURE had to be moved and vacuumed under thanks to the Easter Basket HAY!!  It was EVERYWHERE!!

I hesitate to run a second credit card amount after the person leaves as they ALWAYS call me to complain that “we left it cleaner than when we arrived” and then I am called a lier and reported to the credit card company who, of course, always believes the card holder and never the merchant who takes the card.  So it ends up costing me fees for the rental, fees for the cleaning charge, and fees for reimbursing the complainers!!  

This new attitude regarding using the property of others leaves me scratching my head.  One of our owners said that she always pays $150 cleaning fee when she rents a place, a house, a condo.  And the most popular question I am asked when people call to reserve a cabin is:  Are there any extra fees?  To which I reply, “Not if you leave the cabin CLEAN, just the way that you found it!!”  I also send an email confirmation with our expectations.  While it isn’t a SIGNED CONTRACT, they can’t say that they didn’t KNOW what we were expecting, unless the email is not shared with all the people IN THE CABIN!

SOO, my cleaning staff has been leaving a COPY of that information under the key in the cabin where it can be seen by ALL.  STILL, no one wants to be Cinderella!!  Not even the person whose card is “on the line” for the cleaning charges/ damage deposit!!  No, they take photos when they arrive and claim that is what it looked like when they LEFT!!  What a scam!

We do allow pets in MOST of our cabins so vacuuming is an important part of the cleaning before the group leaves, as is wiping up the kitchen appliances as well as the floors, except the bathroom(s)  My cleaning agency is paid to change linen and clean bathrooms and we EXPECT the other cleaning to be done by the guests on the way out the door!!   So if people are RUDE and ignore the requests/ expectations for CLEANING the cleaning agency actually has to do MORE than they have scheduled time and staff to do!!  It is not fair to them, and it delays the readiness of the facilities for the next guests.

SO they bill us for MORE than the normal cleaning charge for that cabin because they had to DO MORE!!

Enter the cleaning deposit problem, the credit card charges and the keeping of the “security deposit” or at least a part of it!!

I even had an owner say that they had never been required to do the floors, whereupon I FOUND a 1983 price sheet with the line “Housekeeping is required; the cabin must be left the way you FOUND IT!”  In other words CLEAN, even the floors, and most especially if you are some of our “PETs are members of the family” guests.  It would be nice if a trip to the groomer was part of the preparation for a trip to someone else’s mountain home!!

I wonder if I am just getting OLD, or if attitudes really have changed.  LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS – www.mweathers@mlode.com.  I know that NO ONE LIKES CHANGE, except a wet baby!  But perhaps it is time to charge the cleaning fee as part of the rental amount!!

Of course, if there is a cleaning fee no one will even empty the trash on their way OUT or clean up after their pet.

VACATION vs road trips

Vacations are planned – tickets purchased, itineraries laid out, number of nights in each location and staying WHERE?  Points of interest are noted, and any reservations made for these highlights, books taken to be read, stamps for the post cards, and most important THE ADDRESS BOOK packed.

Road trips are much more spontaneous.  An idea pops into your head, an emergency occurs, a week opens up and the car has gas in it and off you go.  You stop when you need to, you go until you drop, you accomplish the intended purpose.  It is all very serendipitous.  The person you drove across four states to check up on asks:  “What are you doing here?”  The highlights are the daily “THERE are all the antelopes”  “Hiway 14 is CARPETED with purple asters and yellow wildflowers” and “Wow, that is FRESH snow on those mountains!”  

This last ROAD TRIP will be remembered as the THUNDERSTORM trip!  Daily car wash, bug removal from the windshield!  I have never used the HIGH speed on the wipers as much as on this last 9 day excursion!

We left home because it was a slow week at our Resort, the temperatures were too low to allow us to do any of the SPRING PROJECTS.  Tom was scheduled for cortisone shots in his back and then SUMMER would be here – our busiest season!  He was in pain, but no more so than he would have been sitting at home being frustrated by the weather!!  Distraction is often the best medicine for pain!  GOD is good, all the time!  EVEN WHEN THINGS DON’T GO THE WAY YOU HAVE PLANNED.  Go ahead and make plans, GOD has a sense of humor - HE created the duck-billed platepus and the amazing DNA spiral ladder!!

GOOD TO BE HOME and Tom survived the trek and the shot, so far at least!

SNOW, snow go away, come again another day!

As a child I sang the "Rain, Rain go away" song as I loved to be outside!  Being STUCK indoors was a punishment!  Sitting still and reading was not in my skill set YET! I didn't learn to knit or crochet until I was an adult.  NOW,  I do have the skills and desires to be still and the aches and pains of changes in the weather causes my body to agree that sitting in the rocker is to be preferred to sliding down hills or rocks on my backside, climbing trees, or riding my bicycle.  My mother told me for YEARS about the camping trips where I wore out my blue jeans sliding down sloping rocks with my brother and my cousin Tom.

This year however, after a winter of SNOW, to wake up to the pretty white dusting two days in a row - maybe you only call TWO INCHES a dusting after a winter of ELEVEN FEET of snow!!  I have been nagging my overworked husband about the THREE snow blowers decorating the space between the fir tree and the shed for a month now, but he has been putting the swimming pool back together after its winter hiatus.  His remark is "I have some repairs I have to do before I put them under the building!"  Now those snow blowers are decorated with SNOW.  Appropriate perhaps.

I sent a text to my friend in Southern California, my former housekeeper, about the snow yesterday.  She replied that she remembered a July 4th weekend when our guests wanted to use the pool and I had made them sign a "waiver of responsibility" since there were several inches of snow on the pool deck!!  That concrete deck can be very slippery when wet, let alone covered in snow!  I had forgotten that episode, but it certainly sounds like ME, the queen of SAFETY!  I have been know to stand over a puddle at the supermarket until the employee arrives with the mop and the yellow "BEWARE slippery floor" sign.  Tripping hazards get the same vigilante coverage.

Oh well, at least we didn't have a power outage last night so the circulating water should have protected the plumbing and equipment.  I didn't even mention that thought as we were going to sleep at 32 degrees last night, just prayed for some Divine Intervention in the power department!  

As I mentioned in "The Resort Years" the pool is an enigma all its own!!  But I kept track last summer of all the wet bodies who did enjoy it, including our own, and it is an attraction here in greater, downtown Strawberry - population under 100 except on Holiday Weekends - where the women are strong, the weather unpredictable, and the kids have to be driven to school in Tuolumne, Soulsbyville, or points west since Twain Harte School District chose to CLOSE OUR SCHOOL five years ago!

Until next time, HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU!