BLOGAHOMA

Water Allotment

post by Muriel Fahrion

Not so unusual for pipes to freeze in January but it is a rare occurrence in Southwest Oklahoma, yet it happens. Yes, thank you, we did leave the faucet dripping but nontheless when the temperature plummeted to single digits the pipes froze. Our pipes are only minimally buried due our granite rock mountain terrain and any dirt we do have is not very deep. Optimistically, we believed,  just give it a day and it would thaw. January 2010 has turned out to have record cold temperatures for our area so unfortunatly it is day number four without water. We bought several gallons at the store but it amazing how much water we use. We resorted to melting down ice cubes from the freezer but that disappeared pretty quickly. We would have melted snow if there had been any left but it was gone after a 2 day thaw after Christmas.

Yesterday my husband, Michael, ventured out into the frigid air to borrow more than a cup of water, multiple gallons in fact (that is after the car’s steering decided it would unfreeze first). We have no large container with a lid but after asking several neighbors he found  the folks 2 house up who were not only willing to lend us water but also had a large container with a lid for the transport.  Handily these good neighbors also keep numerous plastic jugs to evaporate the chlorine before they fill their large aquarium. So armed with water from his hunting gathering expedition we were ready for a few more days.

The big container was to flush toilets that we replenished with gray water from doing dishes etc. We use a large stewing pot to boil the water and then to wash dishes. There was a baking soda technique I employed yesterday in the water just to see what those seriously green people were doing.  I washed my hair in the sink but once again catching the water I wet my head with to then rinse the soap out. Although we generally pay  attention to the weather currently I have been the suns cheerleader encouraging to rise to the occasion and bring us thaw. Michael has taken the neighbors up on letting him use the shower. I am using the “spot cleaning” method with a wash-bowl as they would have done before indoor plumbing.

The Lessons…. To conserve water is really a personal choice. For us it is not about the money savings since we never use over the minimum allowed so using less would not reduce our water and sewage bill. The experience of having no running water does show us that we can be resourceful and not complain about it. It proves that being friendly and helpful yourselves means that neighbors are very willing to come to your aid when you’re in a pinch. And when the water does return to liquid form we will greet it with a shout out.

I was surprised to read some of my FB friends disparage 2009. Yes there can be years that fall in the negative category no matter how you look at them. With so many years behind me now I understand that the mix is what life is about. A little sour with the sweet. To arrive at the net happiness derived you add up the moments. Photos, letters, Twitter, Facebook, but mostly my blog documents many of those moments and puts the year in perspective. If you graphed my year it stayed in the positve range with a few plunges that marked the passing of people in my life.

I lived 2009 with all the being I could muster up at any given moment. So I say, 2010 bring it on!

It happened that (one of several) serendipitous events for me this year was the interview, via Skype, with one Kirsten Dunst on Friday afternoon. Yes, THE Kirsten Dunst. It began with her friendship with Leith Clark the editor-in-chief of Lula: Girl of My Dreams the International very hip fashion magazine (out of the UK).  Leith and Kirsten discovered that they both loved the early childhood toy, Strawberry Shortcake and friends on which, as most of you know already, I was the concept artist, creating no less than 32 characters for the line. It must have been Leith that found me through the internet and  then she contacted me for a possible interview. I said yes, because that’s what I do, especially if it the publication is a brain child of the Strawberry and Care Bear generation. It wasn’t until a few months later that she said Kirsten Dunst was to be my interviewer. And I responded “which Kirsten Dunst?” I had in fact seen her in a few movies but it never occurred to me that it would be THE Kirsten Dunst but I came to find out that Kirsten is also a writer.

And so it came to pass yesterday, she at her office and me at home in my easy chair, dogs at my feet, Skyping from my Macbook. The interview, from this side of the screen, went great other than both of us energetically wandering off topic. Nonetheless a great connection personally though the digital connection had a few hiccups. Kirsten had me laughing and talking as if we just had not just walked or talked into each other lives.

I will only say that I was completely smitten by Kirsten.  And I will be listening to some of the music she recommended and watching some more of her performances on DVD. She suggested watch her in the “Virgin Suicides”. So I’m off now to the Hastings Video to pick up a copy.
…. I am back. Hastings does NOT have a computer base with searches other than by title. Nuts right! So they hand me this big telephone book sized reference that has movies listed by performers. The young man assisting me was dumbfounded to find Kirstin Dunst had 2 columns of movies to her credit. I was able to snap up Spiderman 1 (used) for $2 and the Virgin Suicides (new) for $8.

Would you like to know what we talked about? Well, you will just have to wait and read the article when it comes out, stay tuned. Oh yes, for all you Shortcake fans their will be a wonderful treats in store in the next Lula edition. Lula is a gorgeously put together magazine with a very creative edge.

In these days of recession and cutbacks with the economy is at a standstill one area of my life that continues to be a growth industry is my family, especially my maternal side. Now at 265 (with news of 2 more from my sister’s family coming next year), the count of direct descendants for my grandparents, Lucille and Aloysius Wunderle, is mind-boggling. It started in 1917 with grandma’s first born, my Uncle John, now 92. Mathematically it worked out to nearly three new members of the family a year. Jumping forward to 1941, when the first grandchild was born, and dividing the number by the 68 years that has passed since the average is 3.72 per year.  My grandparents had 10 but one of their daughters had 11. Of the grandchildren the largest family is 6. The families are generally smaller but most of them are still having children.  In the mix includes seven adoptions just among my branch.

I am not the keeper of the family records merely an instigator who asked that a roll call be made.  Aunts & cousins came back with the numbers. Because I can name all of my Aunts & Uncles and their spouses, my 6 siblings and their spouses, 43 first cousins, my 26 nephews and nieces and 29 great nephew and nieces I will give myself a star.  But it isn’t about remembering names it is about being part of the troops my Grandparents began. From what I have learned from my Facebook connections the Wunderle family lives up to its name, a family of Wunderkinder. a fun loving, life enjoying, hard working and emotionally generous group. This last year I encouraged the family jump on the Facebook train and now randomly peak into their lives, if only to see the latest grand nieces and nephews, and first cousins 2 times removed and what they are up to not to mention the kitty and pooch parade that are part of the families.

On my paternal side (Norris) my sibs and their offspring are probably 2/3rds the count. There is a handful on Facebook and from what I can have discovered, they too, love life, family and travel. I feel I have some strong genetic links to the Norris side. My love for writing is one and maybe this whole thing with statistics and analyzing comes from the Norris side. As the Norris side originated in Minnesota and most moved to the West Coast I know less about them. Thanks to cousin Bobby I have pictures and stories that keep me linked in.

At bedtime my mother had me and my six siblings say, what I have discovered, is a 18^th century prayer….

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

We would end it with the “God bless Mommy and Daddy, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and cousins and all”

Now I understand why we didn’t bless them by name….we would have never got to sleep on time.

Wrapping my head around “quirky”, a word that recently used by my friend who really knows me. I had imagine that quirky was something I had grown into but no… she said that it is who I have always been.

I like to believe I am ruled by logic. Logic however can be manipulated fairly easy. So I can make collecting staplers, concocting a lunch based on color or traveling to Irish town because it has the same name as our dog, Doolin fit into my logic box, I am clever that way.

It stems, I imagine, from my aversion to routine and mundane. I rarely do anything the same way twice. Duplication is hard for me. Can draw, can’t trace. Can make exotic gelatins but don’t expect them to be the same the next time around. What routine I do own has a lot to do with living with husband that puts enough routine in our life not to rock the kayak and the dogs who know what we should be doing and when. I am not however “off the wall”. I don’t make dramatic turns causing things and people go off kilter. I am not crazy just quirky.

I continue to write this as I sit here in my sock monkey pajamas (Goodwill find) and non-matching curry colored t shirt and brown and tan striped socks. I drink my coffee out of a 1930’s restraurant china cup, Shenango Inca Ware cup to be specific. Nothing in my house is as you might expect. When people walk in the door their eyes get bigger and they smile because it isn’t anything they expected. Not the arts & crafts door not the icon on the wall not the guns hanging from the staircase nor the pottery amassed across the unconventional mantel. When I was in my mid 20’s I wore an oatmeal color t-shirt in to work that read “Run of the Mill”. It was from an old Quaker Oats factory turned shopping center. An art director from another department stopped on the staircase and commented “you my dear, are the furthest thing from Run of the Mill”.

So who would have guessed that the one of the most changeable woman you might ever encounter does not change her quirky stripes.