Monthly Archives: November 2024

Putting the NO in NOvember

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November is a great time to start saying no to things that aren’t important or that don’t fit in with your life plan. It is NOvember, after all.

It doesn’t have to be drastic but small changes can be beneficial. This week has been challenging because I was overbooked and torn in a few directions every single day. With plans of some kind every night this week, there wasn’t much downtime or even time to keep up with daily chores.

Thankfully, every week isn’t like this in my world. The busyness did make it easier to say no to doomscrolling or to following a routine just because I usually do it.

Lately, I find my attention span suffering because there are lots of things and people at the ready to take my brain by the hand and lead it away to what they want me to do. How DOES one concentrate in that environment?

Today, I’m saying no to almost everything. I slept in. There are a few chores to be done. At some point I’ll take a shower and put on clean pajamas because, after all, I’m not saying no to personal hygiene!

Eventually, I will prop up my sprained ankle and read or watch a movie. I bought a new puzzle aimed at keeping me still. Perhaps that’s in my future as well.

I’m starting to transition into a quieter season of life as I lean into the colder, shorter days of winter. We’ll call this day one of appreciating how the cooler season can contribute to mental health and overall wellness.

Enough about me.

While my story may sound relatable, your story is probably completely different. What should YOU be saying NO to this NOvember?

We are nearing the end of the month but it’s never too late to start! Is it an expensive vice like vaping or energy drinks? Should you be saying no to the PTO president who has learned to guilt you into submission because the other parents scatter into the wind when there’s work to be done?

Maybe there are tasks you do because you’ve “always done it that way.” Now that’s a terrible phrase. And just how much time are you spending binging tv or scrolling on your phone when you could be playing with your kids, traveling or doing all the things you say you want to do?

What is it that’s distracting you, eating up your money and robbing you of precious time? Life is so short. Bad habits, energy thieves and people who steal time will make it seem shorter.

Time is a trickster. We all get the same 24 hours in a day but, when you’re little, the days feel so long and like they’ll never end. Christmas will never come when you’re a kid and it’s only June. As you age, time speeds up until life feels almost like a runaway train. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Time will continue to march on with or without permission. Saying NO to what we can allows us to say YES to what matters most. In my case today, that will be my mental and physical health. My yes may be different every day and yours may as well.

It’s Saturday, friends. It’s as good a day as any to start saying no!

Happiness Is….

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Happiness is old barns, pretty pictures, long drives and Fridays. It’s making it through another long day and knowing the weekend is near.

You know the drill, friends. Go forth and live a good life. Happy Friday!

Home Study, Appliance Repairs And Changing Times

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My dad is a notorious packrat. In his 74 years on this earth, I’m not sure it ever occurred to him to throw away or get rid of anything more sturdy than a gum wrapper. It comes in handy for the rest of us though as we often come begging for a tool, a scrap of wood or a knob for a forties era radio cabinet (true story).

So I wasn’t at all surprised when he handed me this publication – a 1969 brochure for the National Radio Institute’s home study training program called “Servicing Electrical Appliances.”

This 28-page piece claims the program is for beginners, experienced technicians and homeowners alike. There are some great photos mixed in with testimonials and descriptions of appliances students would learn to repair. From clothes dryers to vacuum cleaners, the course even covered air conditioning and small gas engines. 

Every community across America once had a little shop where you could take your toaster, blender or television for repair. It wasn’t uncommon for those folks to make house calls to work on your deep freeze or washing machine. You can still typically have a repairman come to your home for large appliances but it’s so expensive that it’s often cheaper to just buy new then to pay for parts and labor on your six year old clothes dryer. 

I know many people who have replaced refrigerators, washers and dryers every few years for the last decade because, while more technologically advanced and more expensive, the machines don’t last. Personally, I have a washer and dryer that are far more than twenty years old and dread the day I have to replace them. They’re basic, non-computerized, made of metal appliances that just keep going.

When did it become more efficient to throw away a toaster then to have it repaired? When did it become more important to have a computerized dryer than one that lasts?

I wonder when the National Radio Institute saw the writing on the wall that the neighborhood small appliance repairman was going the way of the old wringer washer. Wonder what happened to all those people who gave testimonials in the brochure, saying how this course gained them side gigs, promotions and raises that gave them hope for the future

We spend so much money buying shiny new things that will just be discarded because it’s more appealing to shop than to fix. I think history will judge us for our appetite for cheaply made junk piling up in our landfills. 

Meanwhile, send good vibes to my washer and dryer because I really do want to keep them!

Tupelo Honey

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Last week I found myself with a group at the Tupelo Honey location in Columbus, Ohio. This restaurant chain started with a single location in Asheville, North Carolina in 2000. There they gained a reputation for their farm to table scratch cooking.

Today, Tupelo Honey has locations in the south and far beyond, including in Yankee cities like Columbus and Milwaukee.

The food was plentiful and tasty. They are known for their fried chicken but they do have a couple of vegetarian and pescatarian options. I wanted a little more protein than I could get from the vegetarian dishes so I opted for a grilled salmon that came with roasted veggies and a delicious creamy quinoa. I need to reverse engineer that quinoa because it was the best I’ve ever had.

I also ordered biscuits with blueberry jam. They call them Biscuits For A Cause and the proceeds go to employee relief and development funds. That’s right, friends. I took one for the team and ate biscuits to help others.

The blueberry jam was delicious too.

The atmosphere and food were good and I would absolutely return sometime. Find a location near you and check out the menu here!

Also, if you read the name and immediately thought of the Van Morrison song – this is for you!

The Starkness Of Fall

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I live in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio where we have countless visitors come for the fall foliage. The trees are mostly bare now so the flow of visitors has slowed some, leaving the trails pleasantly quiet. 

While the brilliant golds and reds of fall are gorgeous, I think there’s still something beautiful about the landscape after the leaves fall. It’s stark and basic. It’s quiet and calming. The beauty is subtle but lovely, even on a gloomy day. 

This is one of a series of photos made on the Moonville Rail Trail over the weekend. We had the trail mostly to ourselves except at the end when we arrived back at the historic tunnel where people gathered to ghost hunt. I wondered if they would venture out of the tunnel to appreciate the starkness of the transformed landscape. 

For their sake, I hope so.

A Stroll Through Woodland Cemetery

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Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum was founded in 1841, winning them a reputation for being one of the oldest and best rural garden cemeteries in the country. At over 200 acres, it’s too much to see in the afternoon we had to explore last week. With over 3,000 trees, it’s one of the more impressive cemeteries I have seen in person.

The fall foliage was mostly golden and was completely breathtaking. 

You enter through a Romanesque gateway that was completed in 1889 alongside a chapel and office. We didn’t stop at the chapel but I wish now that we did to see the original Tiffany stained glass windows. Another trip. 

There are some interesting people buried here including Julia Reichert who I wrote about last week. The Wright Brothers are buried here along with their younger sister Katherine who was a suffragette and an important part of her brothers’ business. She deserves a story of her own.

Poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, humorist Erma Bombeck, inventor of the folding stepladder John H. Baisley, inventor of the Yellow Pages Loren M. Berry and freed slave and writer Jordan Anderson are among the notable people who lie at rest here. For every one of the well known individuals buried here there are thousands of normal people, souls who lived quiet lives for whom the bell tolled but there’s no one left to remember them. I suppose that’s why some of the wealthy have enormous monuments and obelisks to grab your attention as you drive or walk through. They’re hoping to outsmart short memories and the unforgiving march of time.

We parked near the Wright family plot and explored from there. It’s interesting that the fathers of flight, the people responsible for one of the most important inventions in world history, are buried with a rather humble marker.

It wasn’t lost on me that they are buried in the flight path of Wright Patterson Air Force Base as we watched from this hillside as military planes took off and landed. It made me wonder if Wilbur and Orville Wright ever imagined how prolific flight would be, how enormous the planes could grow, or how they could be used as weapons of war and tools for peace.

It was quite an experience to stand here and contemplate these questions.

If you like cemeteries as much as I do, Woodland is worthy of your time. I hope to return another day and perhaps in another season when we might see snow or spring blooms.

Want to see more? Check out Make The Journey Fun on Facebook. I’ll share some more pictures!