What I'm reading Wednesday...

The Spanish Flu Epidemic and Its Influence on History

by Jaime Breitnauer

I have found myself thinking of my father even more than usual since the Covid-19 pandemic started...like every time I wash my hands.  My father was a very thorough hand washer, and he made sure we knew how to wash ours as well: soap and water, palms and backs, between each finger and above the wrist.  For my whole life I thought he just didn't like his hands to be dirty.

But since the pandemic started, and the constant reminders to wash our hands, I've wondered if his habit had roots in instruction he had during the 1918 pandemic.

My father turned 8 years old in 1918.  Now I can imagine that he might have had lessons on thorough hand washing in school.  It could have been at home, but I think a school teacher would make more of a lasting impression.  He also was never without a handkerchief...they were what I learned to iron on...but all men carried handkerchiefs, right?  

Here's a public health poster from that pandemic that might tell us why all men carried handkerchiefs:

Interesting reading.

 

 I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird

and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. 

                                                Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Frugal Friday File 2021, week 14...

use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without

Successes:
1.  I took advantage of a free one-hour introduction for an online series of classes.  It didn't inspire me, wasn't presented in a way that seemed to mesh well with my learning style, and I kind of found the presenters irritating.  Didn't feel the need to go any further as a paying subscriber.

2.  I'm trying to empty my email inbox daily by moving things either to the trash folder, or if it's something I need to keep I move it to another designated folder.  If it's something I need to keep for an indefinite period of time and maybe act on, then I flag it for action and leave it in my inbox so I see it regularly.  Wednesday as I was doing this I unsubscribed from at least ten commercial lists, and changed email preferences to receive only monthly updates from about four others.  That should save me the time it takes to go through daily email.  Frugal?  Well it is of my time, and fiscally frugal if it means less chance of making impulse purchases.

3.  However I didn't unsubscribe from Kindle Deals.  One of which listed a new Kristin Hannah book (The Four Winds about the Great Depression) at $14.  But instead of buying it, I went to our library's ebook-lending site and reserved it.  I was a little down about being 31st in line, but then saw that it was on 9 copies, so it should go pretty fast.

4.  We have three freezers.  The one in the kitchen attached to the refrigerator, a chest freezer in our laundry room, and an upright freezer in the garage that holds only Carey's work meals.  At least that's what I thought until very recently when I took a couple of meals to the garage for him to take to work and discovered three to four large packages of boneless/skinless chicken breasts and some frozen vegetables.  It seems when he "helps" me put groceries away, Carey puts frozen items in the garage freezer when he thinks the laundry freezer is too full.  What's the problem here?  Only that he never mentioned this to me, so when I go to get chicken out of the chest freezer in the laundry and don't find any, I think we are out and buy more.  Now that I have made the discovery, I see a lot of chicken meals in our future.

5.  Kasey was not only able to book appointments for her AND her father to have the J&J one-shot vaccine tomorrow, but she is picking him up and driving him to the city for it.  YAY!  She is the good child this week!

What I'm reading Wednesday...

 

Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira

This is a sequel to My Name is Mary Sutter by the same author.  That one was about a midwife who nursed in the Civil War and learned a lot of battlefield medicine and surgery.  I really enjoyed My Name is Mary Sutter, so am looking forward to this one.

As usual I have barely started it.  Mondays used to be exhausting...well, they still are...but now it's Monday AND Tuesdays.  CRUSHING!  

Today was better.  Some things still didn't get wrapped up, but at least I got a chance to catch my breath now and then.  And I think I have enough energy left to soak in a long bath and read.  :)

A small daily task, if it be really daily,

will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

                                       Anthony Trollope

 

The Frugal Friday File 2021, week 13...

 

Successes:

1.  I didn't buy a new Easter outfit.  (Remembering the Easter dresses, shoes, hats, and bags of my childhood with fondness...I can almost smell the new smell as I type this...but that's not my thing these days.)

2.  Wednesday I received phone call from the plumbing company asking if I wanted the bill for last week's water tank installation mailed or emailed.  I asked if I could just take care of it by phone and have them email the receipt.  I charged it to my credit card.  Normally I would write a check, but this was a BIG bill, and I at least wanted to earn the credit card points for it.  Today I transferred the money from our bank account to pay off the amount charged to credit card.

3.  After last month's high electric bill, this month's mild temperatures brought what I suspect will be the lowest bill of the year.

4.  Gave Rudy a home pedicure.

5.  Eating out of the freezer and pantry this holiday weekend.

The Frugal Friday File 2021, week 12...

 

Successes:
1.  Payday...yippee!

2.  We have a new 3,000-gallon water storage tank as of a few minutes ago.  The previous tank had a critical fail (leak) develop in its wall.  Replacing it was not cheap, but I had been setting money aside for it, knowing that it was inevitable, so it is not a devastating blow nor one that had to be paid on time with interest.  Having a water well requires regular maintenance, but happily Carey can manage most of it, and we don't have water bills to pay.  I heard recently that water bills from the local water service company can run several hundred dollars a month in our area.  I was shocked.

3.  I received four lovely letters in the mail recently.  The price of a stamp is SO worth the joy it brings!

4.  We are having breakfast for supper tonight.  The eggs are fresh layed and free from our non-sanctioned neighborhood chicken wrangler.  The fig preserves are a real treat that I am looking forward to on fresh hot biscuits.  The preserves were a barter from a dear friend.  In exchange for my homemade masks, she sent me delicious homemade fig preserves.  My favorite!

5.  I recently discovered that our library offers Kanopy streaming of movies, documentaries, etc.  Nice to have another frugal option for entertainment.  These days I am missing movie-theater popcorn however.