Crumbs

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Still life: Bottled Water. 2007.

We’ve been thrown crumbs here. Crumbs of water, crumbs of fabric, crumbs to run our lives, and we have grabbed them and run with them.

Part of the problem is that we live in an aging condo community that’s run out of money. Who would have thunk it, for when we bought here it was among the richest condo associations in the country. The association had won a lawsuit against the builder, and in the last few years spent it all fixing construction errors that led to disaster. Mind you, we would have spent less if our managers had kept a running total. They didn’t run a spreadsheet on our expenses, so we ran out. Goodness, gracious.

This week, plumbers went to shut water off to one building to install a water shut off valve, and one of our pipes broke and three of our turnoff valves bit the dust. All at the same time. Kaplow…crumbled. At least they let us know about the initial turn off. Usually I don’t fill all containers in the house with water, but this time I did for some odd reason. Bathtub, sinks, cooking pots, you name it, G and I filled them with water. Thinking the water crisis over at the end of the first day, I emptied the biggest pot. I was going to empty the others but didn’t get to that task early enough. Off the water went….again. And this time the water stayed off until this morning. We’ve been drinking water crumb by crumb from bottled water cases through out this water crisis.

I met the nicest lady late last night. We both found ourselves marching down the center of our main street together in our determination to see what was going on. I knew where she was heading. Side by side in the dark by a mountain of mud, we introduced ourselves.

“I’m Georgette in 1234,” I said sticking out my hand. Around here we seem not only to have names but numbers.

“I’m Gloria, 22560.”

We both stared into the dark. Strange sounds were coming from a blackness at the foot of a building. G climbed over the mud and said something down into the dark. Far below ground, deep into the hole, a plumber worked with only the tip of his head showing.

“Is someone bringing you light?” I asked.

“And food?” G asked.

The kid was kind as explained what had happened, why it was taking so long to repair, and gave us an estimated time to finish.

“I’d hoped to do laundry,” Gloria told me. “It was my day off.”

Such sad frustration.

I had worked hard on that new first quilt block yesterday, and I never quite got the feel of a giant 18 wheeler in fabric. No matter what I did, it still looked like a doodle. When I photographed the block, I stood on the bed and wiggled….which made the image crummier.



I obviously need to think of these as doodles and as flat out amusing. If I do, it’s going to be a fun, colorful, amusing quilt….but not at all realistic. If I can keep that thought in mind. I’ll be just fine.



Maybe I will take up creating Crumb Quilts. as one friend is doing. Perhaps I will just call this one my crumb quilt as it is has been created from the crumbs of so many lives….and so many crumbs of water.

More crumbs wait for me in each day. Positive crumbs if I take them that way.

A nice old Chevy truck came rumbling by me at the bus stop last week. I gave the white haired old driver a thumbs up, and he came around the block to show me the vehicle. It wasn’t very good close up. Yesterday a dashing young biker on a beautiful HD, said, “Hey babe,” as he rounded the bus stop corner. I grinned back at him. Made me think better of myself, he did.

I’m forcing myself to stay in the now. Positive stuff, now. Anticipation is certainly my enemy with the next homestand a ten day stretch of standing. I’ve been thinking about this since I first read the schedule. Dreading this. I have to stop. I do work this coming Sunday at the Chargers Season Opener. Are those words capitalized? Do I care? I only care in that I’m stuck way off in a far corner, at the mouth of a ramp, and I can take my food and water with me. I’m a crumb in the great loaf of football, paid well, and I like it that way.

I have a nice, wonderful, mountain of books to read these next two weeks too, and these will help me get through to my upcoming part time work. I’ve got “Her Royal Spyness” by Bowen….fluff indeed. Kathy Reichs new “Bones To Ashes” and “Truck, a love story” were purchased last night, and “Lord Darcy” by Randall Garrett may be slightly fluffy, but the imagination to create this alternative world filled with magic and mystery make it a must read. In my case, it is a delightful reread. Nothing crummy here at all.

Food, food, wonderful food….and that didn’t include buying chocolate muffins, chocolate brownies, or any other chocolate in any form at Costco yesterday. Oh, I’m proud of me. I’m back on my real life food of veggies for breakfast, half a whatever for lunch, and real food for dinner….which of course isn’t getting the ballpark weight off. But I didn’t buy chocolate and only ate half of desert tho all of my one slice of pizza at Costco. We didn’t buy the whole pizza, mind you.

“Old thinking,” G reminded me as we licked crumbs from our fingers.

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Me: Two plus hours to get to the Costco in the valley via public transportation. The river area is beautiful. I bought two books. Ah it’s me of too many books in the first place.

G: Looking and sounding really great. Weight loss becomes him, and I need to get pictures to prove how georgeous he is.

Duck: With G’s change of hours, we visit him so very late now. He’s missing his friends.

Friends: Need to call those friends of Duck’s who do not have email.