Sherri Woodard Coffey

Pictures taken with phone

So, it’s Thanksgiving day and I’m busy in the kitchen, cooking and making the things on my list for the family get-together. The weather has turned cold—remember, it IS Texas, and cold is relative—and there is a possibility of rain. We need to have dry firewood, just in case. I go out to the studio, where the wood-burning stove is, to get the large brass bucket that I put firewood in. Two buckets are nested together, the top one holding kindling. I lift the kindling bucket out and pick up the bottom empty bucket. The empty bucket hits the yarn swift and ricochets back into my cheekbone. It hurt so bad, that I knew immediately there would be a bruise—and there was! Friday the red around my eye appeared and Saturday was a really colorful day! I have no concealer, but it would hurt too much to apply it anyway, so I just go out in public in my colorful self.

I have spent considerable time in the last few days looking at refrigerators, kitchen ranges, dishwashers, and mattresses. So many things to think about! The kitchen stove is the really worrisome item, as the current one is about 40 years old. Lots of measuring has to happen, as I learned when replacing the hot water heater and washing machine. Appliances are much bigger now and don’t always fit into the spaces allotted to them lo those many years ago. Do you know how hard it is to find a fridge that does NOT have those water/ice dispensers on the door? I refuse to have one of those. At any rate, I think I have made the decisions about everything except the mattress. That one is really hard! You can’t really compare prices because there are no apples to apples to compare. Each store has a model that has a different name. I checked Consumer Reports, and even they had a hard time! Maybe I will just continue to make no decision. Part of the problem is that I have an antique iron bedstead in a double bed size. I will either have to find a welder to see if it can be enlarged or get rid of the bed, because I plan to move up to a queen size mattress. What to do, what to do…. And then there’s the additional horror story of getting a new refrigerator and having to clean under where the old fridge was! I’m scared to even think about that one. At least the new refrigerators come with wheels so that one could slide it out for sweeping and mopping—that is if one was so inclined!