Month: January 2022

The End of an Era

On By SandyIn Business, Change, FoodLeave a comment

Our county just passed a referendum allowing the sale of alcohol by the glass in restaurants that do 51% of their business in food sales. You will also be able to purchase liquor by the bottle. Bars will still be prohibited. The intent of those who sponsored the referendum is to open the county up for development. I’ve heard that Cracker Barrel is one business that has expressed interest. We were one of the last mostly dry counties in the state.

I was a bit ambivalent about the vote. I am not opposed to drinking alcohol, only drunkenness. My Taller Half hasn’t had a drink of alcohol in decades. We have several bottles of good liquor in the cabinet, but I’m on so many medications, I haven’t had a drink in years. No one wants to encourage drunk driving or drunkenness, but anyone who really wants liquor can just cross the county line to find it. Besides, you couldn’t buy liquor here, but the police reports show you can still buy meth.

My problem is that we like the quiet here, and development is not something that thrills us. Our house is a short block from the county highway that runs through town. Before The Big Storm, we never heard the traffic noise. With so many trees gone, we can now. You can still see stars here at night, hear the birds and the crickets. That may change.

Development means more traffic, more light pollution. If it gets too developed, maybe a developer will want to buy our house and 3/4 acre, and we can take the money to relocate to a more rural part of the state … though few more rural places exist. And since we only have about 3,500 people here now, it will take a lot of development to make Pixley anywhere near as big as anywhere else I’ve ever lived … although MTH lived in a much smaller hamlet in Western New York in the 1970s. At least when friends come to visit, we’ll have more options for where to take them out to eat. Right now, we have two Mexican restaurants, a barbecue place, and a Waffle House, the one that actually closed for a day or two after The Big Storm.

Change is hard, and its size is part of what attracted me to Pixley. But more businesses means more jobs and less poverty, and that’s hard to oppose. Slàinte mhath!

Of Cartwheels and Carts

On By SandyIn Growing Older But Not Up, StormsLeave a comment

About thirty years ago, I was walking along the beach with a friend. As we walked and reminisced, I got it into my head that I should do a cartwheel. After all, I had been able to do them easily when I was young. My mind remembered how to do it, how it felt. So I tried it, and I discovered that while my mind might remember how, my body did not. Years, pounds, and babies had changed things. It did not go well. Everything hurt, and I learned a valuable lesson. I might think I can do a cartwheel, but I cannot.

This afternoon, I had finished loading my car with groceries and put the cart in the corral. There was a tornado warning and a severe thunderstorm warning for our area, and I had a long drive ahead of me. I was organizing things in the car when I saw a cart, probably my cart, rolling quickly towards a shiny black pickup truck. I didn’t think. I dashed. Or, at least, I tried to dash. My brain told my body to move quickly to stop that cart. My upper body responded, and I leaned into it, arms pumping, trying to catch the cart. My legs and feet said, We’re sorry, but this service is unavailable at this time.

I realized too late, when my body was heading toward a 45-degree angle with the ground, that I can no longer dash. At that point, my goal was no longer to save the truck but to avoid a pavement facial. Somehow, probably with angelic assistance, I managed to stay upright long enough to catch the cart, inches from the truck, and then to catch my balance. As I turned back to the cart corral, all the other carts were blowing toward me. A woman who witnessed the whole thing looked at me in shock.

I thought you were going to face plant.
`
So did I.

I’m so glad you didn’t.

So am I.

By the time I got into my car, my lower back, my neck, my right calf, and my right shoulder were aching from whatever they did to keep me from landing on my face, and I was reminded once again that I can’t do all the things I think I can.

The drive home was uneventful. The three turtles weren’t on their branch. The water is too high. The storms have mostly passed, and now we have nothing but cooler weather ahead of us. My entire body hurts, but it could have been much worse, so I am content. Growing older isn’t easy, but it is better than the alternative!