HOLIDAY DELIGHTS

Enjoyed some special time with my son this past holiday season.   He surprised me taking a flight here, since I chose to stay put in sunny Southern California.   Resolution of some of those pesky problems that occur with my home ownership benefited from his attention -- such as addressing drippy faucets, assisting with security screen door selections, back patio refurbishing, performing digital guru functions breathing new life into my old computers.  Delightful phone/text/Face Time conversations, videos, from the rest of our small family highlighted holiday time.

Mostly, while my son was here, we indulged ourselves with lots of laughs, good conversation and food fare at a variety of area dinner restaurants as I didn't do any cooking.  Lunch a couple days involved the requisite visit to favored In 'N Out Burger whenever my children visit.  My son kindly sent gloating snapshots to his envious east coast sister who had specifically instructed she didn't want him sending her any such photos.  Timing of follow-up on a medical issue I've been tracking, coincidentally allowed him to be present and meet with my doctor, too.   Especially when you’re a widow of my age, I think it's good when a parent's children and doctor can meet one another, especially under ordinary circumstances.  

Prior to my son's visit I had been disheartened as had thought my fairly new clothes dryer seemed suddenly to not function as I tried to restart it several times when I discovered the towels were still damp.   Had never been unable to re-start it before.   Also a new dishwasher purchased earlier in the year had covered dishes with a black film that could only be removed with some abrasive scrubbing but serviceman couldn't come until after the holidays.   Additionally, one commode wasn't refilling after flushing due to tank mechanism malfunction.    I certainly was glad to not be hostessing a family gathering, I must confess.  

The dryer became a non-issue, I discovered to my chagrin, when my son suggested maybe I simply had not held-in the start button long enough -- exactly!  I'd never made that faux pas before.

Oh, did I mention Christmas my ancient, in digital world terms, laptop and net book had both crashed, independent of each other, though previously scheduled posts did continue to publish.

Following my son's departure, my dishwasher presented the first service man, middle-aged, a perplexing problem.  He left with one of my Corning Ware dishes smeared with a resistant-to-cleaning black film after reporting, "In my forty years I've never seen this problem before."   I'd received no feedback by the end of the week, so I phoned my longtime independent appliance store. No answers were forthcoming but we made arrangements for another service person to investigate the problem the first of the next week.

I decided I no longer needed to preserve all the blackened dishes I'd saved from the two earlier dishwasher actions, since service people had that one dish to examine. Over the next several days, 'cause I work best in spurts and don't welcome standing at a sink for long periods of time, I soaked several sink-filled batches of dishes, then scrubbed them clean.  This week in preparation for the new serviceman,  I accumulated a few new soiled dishes, intentionally dirtied a few more, to put a minimum number as guinea pigs into the dishwasher cause if they didn't get cleaned properly I wanted as few as possible to scrub.

The new much younger serviceman arrived with my still soiled Corning Ware 1 1/2 quart cooking dish noting, "In all my years working I've never seen this problem before."  Deja vu!   We discussed various issues, then he simply started the dishwasher.   He recommended I run sink water until it's hot before turning on my dishwasher.  Given our drought concerns I'll be capturing this early run of cold water to pour over a fern outside my front door that I have to water by hand anyway.

Periodically, as the dishwasher proceeded through its cycles the serviceman checked the water temperature as he had done earlier with the sink water faucet.  Temps were all fine.  He left after an hour with the dishwasher still completing it's long wash cycle, then sanitizing.   Later, job completed, I held my breath when I opened the door.  Voila!  Perfecto! The dishes, glasses and utensils sparkling clean as they should be.  So...I still don't know the source of the black film.  No, it wasn't mold.  I just hope it never returns.

The sometimes circus-like, and more worrisome serious aspects associated with the preparations for the incoming new U.S. government administration has been  hard to ignore.  During this time avoiding the continuing flamboyant, braggadocia -- a true example of the ugly American --  has been almost impossible.   I continue to be repelled by a leader who flaunts reasonable expectations he follow ethical and moral practices demonstrating his clear lack of conflicts of interest with his businesses, refuses to release his income taxes with a meaningless excuse and now presumes to say the American people don't care -- basically, he's saying, "Trust me" -- but he's a snake-oil salesman I am likely to least trust.   Also,  his mendacity, his proclivity toward pettiness, grudge-holding and retaliation against anyone disagreeing or critiquing him -- just to name a few troublesome character traits are repugnant. The thought this person represents me to the rest of the world is embarrassing to say the least.

All that said, I will continue to support our democratic republic and oppose all that is threatening.  I look forward to the future.