Reflections on another day at home

Well, there's freezing rain coming down this morning, and my fear of falling on ice is going to keep me inside for the time being. So I thought I'd share some random thoughts,  tips, and discoveries from my journey so far towards a simpler, more local lifestyle.

I don't miss the air traffic and accompanying noise. We lived near the airport in Cleveland, which was a good thing back when Tom was doing frequent business travel, but some days, our house was directly in the path of landing flights. And we would always know the exact moment when the Blue Angels came screaming in from Wright-Pat for the Labor Day Air Show.  Here, there are a few small planes and helicopters around, but the skies are much more quiet. On a clear summer evening, we can sit in the yard and look up (several miles up) and see lights and contrails from the flights heading south from perhaps Toronto to Margarita Land.


We're definitely closer to nature here. I never, ever in Cleveland walked out of a restaurant to discover a dead deer in the bed of a pickup parked next to my car. In all fairness, when I lived in Cleveland, I didn't frequent restaurants where most of the other patrons were wearing camouflage and blaze orange, either.

I live in a town where a stranger can be flagged down in the middle of the street and become an instant hero. This happened on Christmas Day when a disabled WWII vet was trapped inside his burning apartment. His neighbor could not get through the locked door and ran outside frantically seeking help. The stranger stopped, kicked in the door, and pulled the trapped man to safety.  Although I think I've always lived in places where people looked out for one another, it bolsters my faith in humanity to know that it happens here too.

DRYER BALLS. Wow, that's really random, isn't it? I discovered that two of these little babies, which cost about seven or eight bucks and last (they tell me) a couple of years, eliminate the need for fabric softener/dryer sheets by fluffing the fibers in your clothes, reducing static and drying time. Obviously, this is for people who haven't gone one step further by hanging their laundry on a clothesline to dry.


The "advantages" of a large metropolitan area are not all that. We aren't the kind of people who need crowds, but when we want to venture out here, there is a wonderful variety of activities available. Spectator sports (minor league, which translates into less expensive and more accessible), restaurants and coffee shops, art galleries, theater, music and ballet, the wineries and the brewery, everything outdoors, and if you crave a "higher level" of culture (and want to pay for it), the Chautauqua Institution provides world class fare every summer.  The rest you can get from television, if you must.

Walls aren't just for painting and hanging pictures anymore. I'm learning much about vertical storage.

Are shopping malls dead yet?  I would so love to see these dinosaurs transformed into indoor versions of Main Street USA, with local businesses selling useful goods and services. Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Holidays are better when spent with family. We're already working on plans to make that happen next year.