storyteller

I have just realized that I am old, I do not know when it happened and I do not know how it happened. But I had another birthday in July…I am now 51 and I am really starting to feel it all over.  I see the gray in my hair, and grab the hair dye…just realized I have been doing that since I hit 30, now the color won’t take as well as it used to.  I used maybe 2-3 bottles of hair dye a year back then. Now I might as well buy stock, so the dividends can pay for the amount of hair dye I use in year.

Now back at the beginning of summer I decided that the Kitchen in my home needed to be painted.  I will explain a little so just bear with me, I live in a very roomy trailer nestled in the woods out away from town roughly 10 miles back on a dirt road in rural AR. It was a repo trailer we were renting, well we bought it last October just before I lost my job at the chicken plant.  Ironic isn’t it! 

Well now we had lived in this trailer for years and the Landlords liked us and knew we were dependable and on time with the payments so we did a lease purchase and get the land too…not a bad deal.  But in all this time I had never been a stay at home kind of gal, I was always working, being truck drivers we were away a lot of the time.  We only came home 4-8 days a month, I would do  regular   light cleaning as soon as we would get home and shopping for food, then do everything else to get ready to go back out. 

I hired a gal to come in to do major cleaning while we were gone every 2 weeks.  She would do the scrubbing down, vacume, major dusting, curtains and wipe down the walls and such. She did a pretty good job. And 2 years ago we got off the truck to work local. And we are now home, all the time.  He got his job at the Quarry, and I got mine at the plant and then lost it, now I am looking at the walls which are ugly…because I am now looking at them all the time.  Dirty, Dingy, and UGLY the kitchen had a print on that washable old wall.  We had the Floor taken out and totally replaced and put those self stick tiles down(that’s another story all it’s own) so the kitchen had to be done the walls do not match the floor.

Since I am working Part-Time I have time to paint so I proceed to get the paint and take on this monster to slay.  My Kitchen is huge, I did not realize how big it was until I had to paint the ceiling which took 3 coats of Killz. So my neck was hurting from looking up, and my shoulders from the activity, then I also have carpels tunnel syndrome in my wrists (both of them) have had it for years.  My wrists resonate pain up into the elbow that has tennis elbow.  Don’t know how I got that working at the Chicken plant, haven’t played tennis since I hit 20 years old. From the elbow it shoots pain, both arms mind you up into my shoulders which were already hurting anyway….well it seems that it was too much for my system to handle and my back muscles were having sympathy for the shoulders which were screaming at the wrists to KNOCK IT OFF!!

So being stubborn to not give into the pain I am feeling I proceed to paint, and paint and paint, and do a section at a time in the course of a week and My wrists rebel for several weeks. I have now used 3 gallons of paint, 6 rollers, 2 disposable trays numerous throw cloths, and eaten two bottles of of 50 tabs each of the all day pain killers which aren’t…….and now the wrists are swelling, my knees are swelling, and bruised from being down on the floor, my arms hurt, my shoulders hurt, my head hurts from bumping it on the underside of the counters or cabinets, and I have now got a stabbing pain in the center of my back which now is shooting pains down into the knees which are flattened from being down on the floor……OUCH!!! my foot is cramping too!!

Oww,clomp,oww,clomp,clomp that is me trying to walk to the shower to get the paint out of my hair, off my face and I do not dare touch anything because it seems I am wearing as much paint as my walls are. I think the paint lid is gone, I can’t find it anywhere and I look down it is stuck to my calf where my sock is stuck to my skin!!

Now this was the point at which I decided I am too old for this crap and I am not done yet…OMG  I have to paint all the Cabinets too I am tired of wood paneling cabinets  in the kitchen. Well at least I don’t have to worry about falling too far to the floor and I do not need a ladder just my step stool. I wonder how many bottles of Alieve I will need to get when I finally get to paint the Living-room which is just as big as the Kitchen?  That is how I realized I am old, And my better judgement says to call a painter to avoid all this hype.  Martha my hat is off to you, you are a better woman than I am.

hope you all got a giggle

just another one of my true stories!

I am back for a second chance, I am sorry I was away for such a long time.  I know that I missed writing and have decided that is what I really like to do.  So I have come back and am going to try even harder.  I want this to be about storytelling to keep people coming back to see what develops……I have alot of personal stories that should start off with “you are not going to believe this” or “boy have I  got one to tell you” .  Now I think I can pull that off, I always can find a story to tell.  But this past year I have come across some very interesting people who also have good stories to tell, and I have paid attention. 

I have been working in a Tobacco Store only part-time and I certainly have met some really strange people that live in this little town.  I have also met some really nice and sweet people that like to talk, and share, and that you can kid around with them.   And sometimes you can clearly see that someone needs just for someone to listen and be a shoulder to lean on.  We talk about a variety of things in the store not just tobacco prices, or brands, or evils surrounding tobacco.  I get to meet new arrivals too.  I love it when the customers bring in the little bundles who have just joined their families….or when the single dad brings in the 3 year old that likes me and wants to give me a hug. Or when one of the children, or grand kids, that just started kindergarten wants to bring me a picture they drew in class just for me.  And I love it when my manager brings her 3 with her, and I get to see how much they have grown since the last time I saw them.  The oldest of which is 16 and not stuck up as most 16 yr. old are.  I think she likes talking with just about everyone and is so much like her mom, it is scary.  They are like 2 peas in a pod which they will never admit it to each other.

The thing that strikes me the most about working there is the fact that If I miss a day by trading days off with one another our people who regularly see us notice>>>If I am sickly they notice.  Recently my Doctor changed my medicine for high blood pressure and I am having all sorts of problems especially going pale and being dizzy, more so than usual.  The regulars….. they noticed and said something to the manager that she should keep an eye on me.  How thoughtful is that?  Or sometimes the customers will offer to go and get us something to eat especially on the weekend shift because they know 10-12 hours straight with no breaks and no one else in the store there is no time to get a bite to eat.  I have had several people offer to go to local fast food to get me something>>>you look pale and need to eat.  They do it to the manager too, she is so skinny and needs to eat.  They do not do it to get anything in return, that is what blows my mind in this day and time.  They do it to be good to us, and they say it quite matter  of fact……”would you do it for me if you thought I needed it?”  I say yes, and they say “I know you would, cause you are just that kind of person”  Let me tell you that makes me feel so good, and I do like this job.