by jphilo | Dec 1, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
Gravel Road posts have been a bit spotty for a few weeks. Here are the top 10 reasons why.
10. Two to three hand therapy appointments a week.
9. Fifteen minutes worth of hand therapy exercises every two hours during the day.
8. Christmas shopping and present wrapping.
7. Thanksgiving baking and cooking.
6. Hours and days in a carbohydrate stupor after the Thanksgiving feast.
5. The Grandbaby’s arrival which led to quibbling with the Man of Steel about who’s turn it was to play with the little guy.
4. Spending time with our kids.
3. Watching Baby and marveling over his new skills: hand clapping, food smearing, and flashing a most disarming grin.
2. Nursing the cold Baby passed along when he planted a huge, slobbery kiss right on Grammy’s lips.
1. Feeling all mopey while doing piles of laundry after the kids and grandbaby went home.
What’s eating away your time this holiday season? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Jul 27, 2015 | Family, Uncategorized
Home. I’m finally home after several weeks of travel. All to see family. All of it good. But I’m glad to be home and in one place again, with time to think and reflect and process the experiences.
And to do laundry.
Because our very precocious and gifted almost 4-month-old grandson proved to be very adept at peeing on my lap. By the end of 6 days of snuggles, the little rascal had soaked through his diapers and every pair of pants in my suitcase.
And that’s saying something.
Because I’m one of those people who throws in an extra of everything. Just in case. And then an extra extra of everything. Just in case the just in case extra of everything might not be enough.
And it wasn’t enough.
Which means I now need to pack an extra extra extra of everything. Just in case. Or–paradigm shift–I could do laundry at the grandson’s house. Why didn’t I think of that before?
I know why.
Because I’m too busy thinking about that sweet little boy who found his fists this week, learned to put them in his mouth, who grasped his rattle for the first time, who cooed and smiled at his grammy, and stole her heart.
And her mind.
So she paid scant attention to the time or the gleam in his little eye that means, “I’m going to pee now.” Which is why every pair of my pants came home pee-soaked and pee-stained.
And I came home happy, exhausted, and utterly content.
by jphilo | May 10, 2012 | Out and About, Three Thoughts for Thursday
We arrived home safely yesterday evening from a road trip to see our Ohio kids. The four days with them flew by. But since our return, the boring business of unpacking, sorting, laundry, plant-watering, grocery shopping, and figuring out what I was working on before we left continues with no end in sight. All these menial tasks left plenty of time to think up this Thursday’s three road tripping thoughts:
- Surely some mechanical person could invent a washer/dryer unit to attach to car engines. Travelers could start a load during every potty and gas break on the trip home, fold clothes in the back seat, and check laundry off their to do list when they pull into the driveway. YES!
- There’s nothing like entering the house after a long trip and realizing the cleaning lady left shortly before you came home.
- No matter how hard I try, I’m not a good packer. How could I know there wouldn’t be time to read the two books tucked in the suitcase, but that the Road Kill Cookbook and Granny Clampett would have come in handy after Hiram nailed a possum strolling across the highway?
Have you been traveling lately? What thoughts do you have about your adventure? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Mar 21, 2011 | Current Events
With the earthquake in Japan, the air strikes in Libya, and March Madness some topics of national interest have been overlooked by the media recently. To be specific, the completion of our new first floor laundry room. My January 20 blog post recorded the commencement of the project, and a mere two months later, the job is done.
Which must be a relief to those of you who’ve been waiting with bated breath to hear more about the earth shattering adventure. To be honest, I a little chagrined by the fact that this breathtaking ecological story (the new washer and dryer are energy efficient) hasn’t been all over Facebook, Twitter, and the greater blogosphere. I guess my natural humility and lack of self-absorption simply kept me from uploading daily photos of the progress. That and the fact that the new laundry/half bathroom is so small it’s really hard to take pictures. To get today’s shot, I had to stand on the toilet – lid down, of course. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I freely admit that my propensity for vertigo when perched on anything taller than roller skates has a great deal to do with the poor journalistic coverage of this major event.
To make up for my alarming lack of journalistic commitment, Hiram and I hereby invite you to the christening of the laundry room this Tuesday evening. We will break open a new bottle of detergent in honor of the event and read aloud from the instruction manuel in preparation for the the launch of our stackable washer and dryer. Refreshments will not be served, but you’re welcome to stay and chat until the laundry folding festival begins.
For those of you who aren’t afraid of heights, feel free to bring digital cameras and take pictures (in shifts since the laundry room only holds 2 or 3 people) of this breaking news story. You can even use my computer to upload them on Facebook, so the people who can’t attend don’t feel excluded. Consider it your journalistic duty to humanity.
This kind of breaking news can’t be squelched. It must reach the common man!
by jphilo | Apr 15, 2009 | Daily Life
This morning dawned bright, clear, and chilly. During the first two hours of daylight, the sun chased the cold away and ushered in perfect spring weather.
Since Wednesday is laundry day around, I quickly stripped the beds and gave the washing machine a work out. Then I pegged everything, including the handmade quilts (lining side out so the pieced side won’t fade), on the clothesline. Between the light breeze and the sun, they’ll be dry by mid-afternoon.
Hanging the laundry outside is a lot of work – trips down to the laundry room and carrying up baskets of heavy, wet linens, and wrestling the wind while pegging them to the line. All that happens before, what is for me, the drudgery of all drudgeries, making beds. Only my desire for a foretaste of heaven motivates my lazy soul to go to so much trouble.
The air in heaven, I think, will carry the fragrance of clean sheets dancing with the breeze beneath a springtime sun. And tonight, when I crawl between the air-sweetened sheets my lungs with fill gratitude. I’ll fall asleep bathed in the simple pleasure of a most fragrant aroma. Heaven can’t smell better than that.
