Are we the only household where conversations revolve around “nothing”? Once, we had a very lengthy one about baths/showers. There are two schools of thought. Well, three, if you count the people who don’t believe in taking them at all. I try not to associate with them, for the obvious reason, so we won’t cover them. They’re on their own. Probably literally.
One group takes their shower every morning. From what I know, that’s designed to wake them up and get them ready to face their day. In my opinion, that’s what coffee’s for. Ed and I fall into the second category. We like to relax every night with a bath. A shower if there’s hair washing involved, but whichever will happen before we go to bed.
I don’t understand the concept of morning showers. Is sweating all day and going to bed stinky a good idea? Sure, you can say you want to start your day clean, but if you bathe before going to bed, you won’t get dirty and sweaty during the night. Unless you were…well…you can fill in the blanks. With evening cleaning, your sheets aren’t covered in dirt because you’ve been digging in the garden. Seems the most logical choice. Easy solution would be to take a shower when you finished in the garden and another in the morning, but I’d rather drink water than waste it, so that’s a non-starter for me.
Some of our conversations revolve around House Hunters. Like most viewers, we turn it into a game by trying to guess which house they’ll pick. We’re about 50/50 on winning. What’s amazing is some of their choices. We watched one the other day where the woman had bad knees and insisted on a one-story house. I can relate to the bad-knee issue, which is why our room additions have gone out, not up.
They had their choice between a one-story, two-story, and 3-story. Guess which one they ended up with. Correct! Three-story. And, no, there was no elevator installed and not enough money left in the budget to put one in. We talked about that one for quite a while. Most of the shows feature someone who insists on having one thing, or not having one thing, in a house. If you play along, always bet they buy the house that absolutely doesn’t meet their criteria, because that’s what they normally end up with.
People make strange decisions. I cringe if a newscast features a story about soundproofing houses near the airport. I’ve mentioned that before, but I didn’t say that it would normally be accompanied with a 5-minute dissertation by Ed about how stupid the homeowners are for buying there in the first place.
One of the latest “problems” in San Antonio is pedestrians getting hit by vehicles, which generates considerable conversation in our household. Is it really a problem? Yes. Should the pedestrian be at least a little culpable? Absolutely. For some reason, the blame normally ends up squarely in the driver’s corner. Here’s a thought. If the pedestrian would cross at the crosswalk instead of crossing in the middle of the street, we’d have far fewer accidents. Really, isn’t that just begging to be hit? Kind of like buying a mobile home somewhere in the middle of tornado alley. You’re just asking for trouble, because we all know tornadoes have a built-in homing device for trailers.
Hurricane season is here, and I have a theory. Hurricanes enjoy wiping out expensive Florida houses. And, yes, hurricanes hit other places, too numerous to mention. But let’s focus on Florida. If you buy a beautiful estate on the ocean in Florida, it’s just a matter of time until you’re left with rubble. That should be a going-in assumption. But people seem surprised when their house gets wiped out. And they normally plan to rebuild. In the same spot. Does that even begin to make sense? On a recent issue of House Hunters, Ed was shocked when the husband was concerned about hurricanes and a beach-front home. Normally, that never comes up during the house-hunting journey.
Speaking of hurricanes, exactly what is a mandatory evacuation? When Dorian was predicted to hit Florida, the police went door to door, telling them to evacuate. One lady said she was staying. The police said, “Okay,” and left. If it’s mandatory, how come they didn’t drag her kicking and screaming to the nearest shuttle out of town? If I lived in Florida, which I wouldn’t, you can bet that when the newscaster said, “There’s a hur…” Ed and I would be grabbing kitty babies and leaving. We’d be halfway to Nebraska before we found out the anchorman was saying, “There’s a herd of cows on main street.”
If you live in Texas, you might expect to run into a tornado. If you’ve researched Montana or Wyoming for more than a nanosecond, you know you’re probably in for a harsh winter. Most states come with built-in problems, but you don’t normally go out of your way to invite trouble. I’d love to live on the coast, too, but in order to do that, I’d have to divorce Ed. He’d spend all his time worrying about getting hit by a hurricane, and I’d have to listen to it, like I do when one hits Key West, so nope.
One aside…please pray for all the people affected by Dorian. I can’t imagine how some are going to survive. Puerto Rico is still rebuilding after Maria, but it didn’t park on top of them. The Bahamas didn’t have it so lucky, and parts are nothing but rubble. It’s heart breaking to see the devastation.
People have been making strange decisions ever since Eve decided to eat an apple. And other people have been discussing their decision, either saying it was a good one or calling them stupid. If you listen to cable news, you know exactly how true that statement is. I try to avoid anything political in my posts because I get indigestion easily and I don’t need any more heartburn, but rest assured there are plenty of political conversations at our house.
But! I have noticed a growing trend in news. The choices people make are no longer a factor in deciding whether it was a good decision or a bad one. It appears that all choices are good, and we should support them, even though we might disagree. Group think is never a good idea, is it? Government shouldn’t have to solve all our problems and taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for our mistakes, solely because we made a stupid decision.
A lot of people have stopped taking any responsibility for their own actions. It’s too easy to blame the resulting problem on someone else, the government, the other side of the political aisle, their upbringing, or anything else but themselves. We need to reverse that trend. Not only is it not Biblical, but it’s stupid. Life isn’t designed to be lived by how many participation trophies we “win.” It’s designed to be lived by hard work, consideration for others and their viewpoints, and the consequences of bad choices. All while keeping your thoughts firmly centered on the One who made it all happen.
If you think a multi-million-dollar ballplayer taking a knee during the national anthem will change everyone’s mind, you’re wrong. It may change some, but the rest of us are smart enough to recognize the hypocrisy and discuss it. Here’s another thought. Put your money where your knee is. It’ll go a lot further. Just like “plane pooling” to a summit on climate change will have more impact than arriving in your private jet.
Life at our house is never dull. If we’re not laughing at a cat antic of some sort, we’re having lengthy conversations about “nothing” that would rival those you watched on Seinfeld. Is your house the same way? If so, leave a note in the comments about the latest inane conversation you had. Who knows? It may end up as a future blog post entry. If nothing else, rest assured Ed and I will talk about it. We can always use more “nothing” subjects to discuss.