The sharpening of the knife…

treesKkkkkk-shk. Kkkkk-shk. He’s standing behind me sharpening a knife. Oh don’t worry, he isn’t gonna stick it in my back or neck or anything. It’s the sound more than anything. And just something about knives in general, especially those big sharp butcher knives that slice up big hunks of protein and pumpkins and things. I use them but I am waaaayyyy careful with them.

Did the switch back to standard time throw anybody else off? There are a lot of folks who kvetch about switching the time back and forth. They are free to do that and I think they make some valid points but I like the “midnight sun” of summer and I also like the dark late afternoons of winter. One of my favorite ways of coping with darkness is to get outside and walk in it (it works for bad weather too). That said, I live in a neighborhood where it is safe to walk in the dark. That’s not a luxury everyone has. Back during the “energy crisis” of the early 1970s, I remember when a year when daylight time never went away. It was particularly interesting up there in the yooperland where the sun didn’t come up until something like nine in the morning.

Anyway, I was mildly thrown off this morning when I got up at 5:30 in the morning and somehow thought that it would get light sometime soon. Of course not! It didn’t even start to get light until close to eight yesterday. I had another hour or so to wait for dawn. I didn’t take my 0-skunk-30 walk this morning because we had a hiking plan going on, so I made breakfast! Eggs scrambled with spinach, garlic, and feta among other things.

brightonmapAnd here is where we hiked today. We took the Penosha trail, which is about five miles. A lightly strenuous five miles through glacial moraine territory. Constant up and down with little kettle lakes everywhere. I felt that good fuzzy “I got some exercise” feeling at the end but it wasn’t a death march. As you can see, there is quite an extensive system of bike trails there. I am so glad that they have created bike trails that are kept separate from the foot trails. We need both.

Back by noon or so and picked away at flinging throughout the afternoon. Quit reading if you haven’t already because my life is truthfully REALLY boring and from here on, we are swimming with my back yard shark… We’ve been using Mouse’s old bedroom as a dumping ground for The Comm’s stuff and I could NOT find my way forward with all of the stuff that was in there after my last trip to The Moomincabin garage. Yesterday, I moved “everything” out of that bedroom. When I say “everything”, I mean enough stuff that I could send Roooooomba in there to do her work. After I did that, I was somehow able to sort more stuff. We took three boxes of stuff to Kiwanis this weekend. I now have three more boxes for the next time we can get there. I had to clear the room to get clarity.

None of this stuff is fun, by the way. Five years ago, I would nonchalantly drive up to the yooperland and get there in time for lunch at Karl’s or Kenny’s Pitchen or wherever with my mom, Radical Betty, Cam, and Barb. Barb is the only one of those wonderful women left. They were my village. I think my cousins (on both sides) and I are paying that village forward into the future. We’re trying anyway. It isn’t always easy…

Welcome back to Eastern Standard Time and love y’all,
Kayak Woman

One Response to “The sharpening of the knife…”

  1. Margaret Says:

    I hate the time changes with a passion. It’s a lot of work for one hour. Plus, the nights will get dark early anyway because of winter. Getting home when it’s already dark (or getting there soon) is depressing.