I've missed blogging every morning.
My home-owner neighbors accidentally turned off the wi-fi before they went on an 8-day bike trip, so I couldn't write from home.
I blogged on my iPhone a couple times, but it was awkward, and once I lost a post in process. Blogger doesn't have a free app, and I didn't want to pay anything for it, not even $2.99.
(Has anyone here used it?)
So mostly I went without, and I discovered another reason to blog:
when I blog every morning, the self-reflection helps me center myself in my day, in my life. Without it, I feel just a bit fuzzy-edged.
It's not a moral reckoning, like the Ignatian daily examen, but it's related:
"Here I am, this is what I've done, what I'm thinking about..."
Blogging mirrors me to myself, which I don't get a lot of otherwise. As a longtime single person, I don't exchange reflections daily with a loving person, up close.
Panda Head
I don't get clear mirroring at work, either. But sometimes a coworker and I do connect.
One hot afternoon this week, Maverick––one of the older men with poor health––was working all alone on the donations dock. (This is practically criminal.) He's one of my favorite coworkers––we roll our eyes at each other about how crazy the workplace is––so I said I would help him.
[Entirely NOT my job, but, upside of lax management: I can do what I want.]
Man, it was hard, handling incoming donations! I felt slightly nauseous after an hour. (Reminder: drink water!) And half of it was garbage.
Like a lightly used pot scrubby:
But it was fun, too, working with someone simpatico.
A couple animals masks got donated, and I said, let's take our picture wearing these. Mr Furniture would never do this, but Maverick thought it was fun. I'm the panda with the camera.
Pandas Don't Drive Cars
People at work don't much get me, or, they get me wrong.
It's mutual--I often don't get them either. But I do try not to make assumptions, and that is not always mutual.
The other day a regular customer described me as rich. I must look like a rich, white lady to him, and to many of my coworkers too.
That's not entirely wrong:
it's a psychological/spiritual wealth to be able to choose to be financially poor––per the federal poverty level––as I have for most of my life (even counting money I inherited at midlife (thank you dead relatives!)).
I've got it good!
But this customer's (and clearly some of my coworkers') assumptions about the way in which I'm rich are wrong. They think, for instance, that being as educated as I am must mean I own a car.
Really, it means I can choose whether to live in such a way to afford a car. So, yeah, that's a kind of richness. A huge kind!
It's not bad at work, socially--often it's good!--but I'm a little lonely.
Panda Restoration
I'm not particularly into pandas, btw. They're not very interesting animals. But they're cute, so there are lots of representations of them around.
I am restoring a couple old stuffed pandas--probably from the 1960s.
Here's a panda I got at a garage sale. It weighed a ton...
...because it was stuffed tight with wadded up, shredded fabric:
This little panda had no eyes:
My home-owner neighbors accidentally turned off the wi-fi before they went on an 8-day bike trip, so I couldn't write from home.
I blogged on my iPhone a couple times, but it was awkward, and once I lost a post in process. Blogger doesn't have a free app, and I didn't want to pay anything for it, not even $2.99.
(Has anyone here used it?)
So mostly I went without, and I discovered another reason to blog:
when I blog every morning, the self-reflection helps me center myself in my day, in my life. Without it, I feel just a bit fuzzy-edged.
It's not a moral reckoning, like the Ignatian daily examen, but it's related:
"Here I am, this is what I've done, what I'm thinking about..."
Blogging mirrors me to myself, which I don't get a lot of otherwise. As a longtime single person, I don't exchange reflections daily with a loving person, up close.
Panda Head
I don't get clear mirroring at work, either. But sometimes a coworker and I do connect.
One hot afternoon this week, Maverick––one of the older men with poor health––was working all alone on the donations dock. (This is practically criminal.) He's one of my favorite coworkers––we roll our eyes at each other about how crazy the workplace is––so I said I would help him.
[Entirely NOT my job, but, upside of lax management: I can do what I want.]
Man, it was hard, handling incoming donations! I felt slightly nauseous after an hour. (Reminder: drink water!) And half of it was garbage.
Like a lightly used pot scrubby:
But it was fun, too, working with someone simpatico.
A couple animals masks got donated, and I said, let's take our picture wearing these. Mr Furniture would never do this, but Maverick thought it was fun. I'm the panda with the camera.
Pandas Don't Drive Cars
People at work don't much get me, or, they get me wrong.
It's mutual--I often don't get them either. But I do try not to make assumptions, and that is not always mutual.
The other day a regular customer described me as rich. I must look like a rich, white lady to him, and to many of my coworkers too.
That's not entirely wrong:
it's a psychological/spiritual wealth to be able to choose to be financially poor––per the federal poverty level––as I have for most of my life (even counting money I inherited at midlife (thank you dead relatives!)).
I've got it good!
But this customer's (and clearly some of my coworkers') assumptions about the way in which I'm rich are wrong. They think, for instance, that being as educated as I am must mean I own a car.
Really, it means I can choose whether to live in such a way to afford a car. So, yeah, that's a kind of richness. A huge kind!
It's not bad at work, socially--often it's good!--but I'm a little lonely.
Panda Restoration
I'm not particularly into pandas, btw. They're not very interesting animals. But they're cute, so there are lots of representations of them around.
I am restoring a couple old stuffed pandas--probably from the 1960s.
Here's a panda I got at a garage sale. It weighed a ton...
This little panda had no eyes:
Still in process, but now can see:
And now I'm off to watch the Women's World Cup semifinal, USA v France!
Understand completely about missing regular blogging...writing and reading of blogs too
ReplyDeleteNo wireless — as my granddaughter would say, about anything that’s not right, “Uh-oh.”
ReplyDeleteYou could make a hot spot with your phone, but that can use a lot of data. Another way to manage with the phone alone: Blogger gives you an e-mail address for sending posts to your blog (in the settings somewhere). You can send as a draft or as a published post. It won’t help if you want to include pictures, but for basic text it’ll work. I always send as a draft and then do any formatting needed (italics, etc.).
I haven’t tried recent Blogger apps for iOS. The old ones I’ve tried (one free, now gone; one cheap, also gone) were hugely disappointing.
GZ: It's a good thing, isn't it.
ReplyDeleteMICHAEL: Oh, thanks! I forgot you can make a hot spot with a phone!
And thanks for the other approaches,
which could come in handy next time.
(This happens every so often, for various reasons.
SQUIRRELS!)
I still think in non-computer terms I grew up with, in many ways.
I forget with computers, there are always lots of work-arounds.
Still, I liked not having the Internet at home, for a little while.