On the topic of What do you do with all your spare time? Louise writes off the top, “This is what I can’t decide: -Whether I don’t have any spare time at all, or whether most of my time is spare time.”
Finding a bread recipe for which I have all the tools and ingredients took a bit of searching. No bread stone, stand mixer or even metal loaf pan at my disposal, I’m trying this one and using the dual cast iron alternative method because I also don’t have a dutch over. I’m suddenly craving yard sale season.
Last season I was moving into the apartment I am in now and I needed trash recycling cans. I was working full-time at that point so I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and struggled with the decision between the $50 single canister or the dual auto-opening $200 can for 15-20 minutes when I came to my senses and bought the $50 one. I carried that still relatively expensive trashcan around in my car for a good week, feeling not quite right about the purchase. Ahhhh… wait. I’m out $50 bucks and I still need another trash can? Then I remembered that yard sale season was approaching and I brought that trashcan back. .
It was a particularly magical spring. I devoted a wholeSaturday to the activity of finding trashcans and other things, did the mapping and everything and then I hit the motherhood- an entire subdivision of sales! Turns out it was an annual thing; they had a banner! I walked past house after house of friendly families and elderly home-girls, appliances and clothes, tools and sporting equipment, sun on my face, all for far below retail value, gently USED stuff! I had a full dopamine release, a feeling akin to orgasm, my legs got weak and I had to sit on a curb. I ended up with a nice tall white can for $3.00 another small stainless one, almost identical to the one at BB&B for $5.00 which I haggled down to $4.00 (on principle.) Im not going to pay $5.00 for a trashcan at a yard sale, common.
Its hard to tell how this pandemic will effect the yard, garage, rummage sale biz… will people be de-cluttering and cleaning or ware they finally using all of the stuff they never had time to for before, like Norwegian whisks and proofing baskets?
Louise goes on to say that since she enjoys everything she does, aside from cooking, and because it is all necessary to survival, “there is no demarcation between work and play.” Then she writes at greater length about smelting, or the process of catching very small sardine-like-fish with a short running season, at much greater length than she discusses giving birth. The bread came out just fine, a mere morning of light work between writing this and doing poorly at my boundaries by listening to the news and texting friends. Basically anything that is not looking for ways to make income or temporary relief from unemployment is considered spare time for me and like Louise I enjoy it all, most especially the cooking. I’m going to get to the whole income thing right after I finish detailing all my shoes and watching my favorite Vermont Hippie Mom friend make cookies on google chat.
