People have more discretionary income than they once did. When my parents and when I was looking at houses, one took what one got and made the best of it. I knew some pretty wealthy people and I can only remember one friend from when we lived in LA (she lived way up the hill in Beverly Hills) who remodeled her kitchen, and a friend in St Louis who had the world's smallest kitchen, 3 children and entertained and cooked nearly every single weekend. People just didn't spend money on such thing! They MADE them work! Now, a 5 year old kitchen in Darien CT is considered a "total gut job". I redid my kitchen of 32 years last year. Was it useable? Yes! Had I made it attractive? Yes? Could it be improved? Absolutely yes! And a new kitchen was on my bucket list, which at then age 72, seemed to have some "time relevance"! I have NO REGRETS! Moving my refrigerator made an enormous difference both in the function of the kitchen and in its appearance. When the main entrance into the kitchen feels "cramped" (because it IS cramped!", then that colors one's impression of the entire kitchen which was NOT cramped at all! Now, the kitchen appears quite spacious for an 11 x 15 ft kitchen! It has tons of counter space, good separation of work areas for multiple cooks, and the replacement of bottom cabinets with big drawers was worth doing even if everything else had worked perfectly. But redoing my kitchen was far from a "necessity". It was a luxury to which I treated myself and I have no regrets. I think at my age, I "earned" it by living for so many years with multiple kitchens that were anything but ideal. But even in them, I cooked fabulous meals and I never was beside myself every single time I went into my kitchen. It's all a mindset today.

I see social media as an "addition to", not an "instead of". I love texting, I have very poor hearing, especially on the phone, so texting is a blessing for me. I'm not apt to misunderstand what someone is saying, and no one is subjected to repeated requests to repeat something. It's also convenient. I can send a text when the thought hits me, knowing that the recipient can answer at their convenience. Same with receiving a text. My family, friends and I used email the same way before we all had smartphones. One sentence thoughts and ideas are sent as they come up. One doesn't usually make a phone call or write a letter to communicate a short thought. So for me, emails and texts have increased contact with others, not decreased it. I love Facebook! I also have a Twitter account and an Instagram account. I honestly can't remember the last time I looked at Twitter, don't care for it. I do look at Instagram occasionally, mostly to see pictures family and friends have posted. Pictures I probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. But I drop in on Facebook for a few minutes several times a day. I enjoy the jokes that are passed around, I like the news updates I find there, I've gotten several good recipes there. I even enjoy some of the political postings. And last, but certainly not least, I enjoy the brief glimpses into the loves of family and friends that I probably wouldn't get otherwise. It keeps distant family members and friends and I up to date with each other. There are several whom I probably would have completely lost contact with without social media. Does all this make me (or my friends and family) selfish, or self centered? Absolutely not! And I kind of feel sorry for those that think it does. You have no idea what you're missing out on! So many ways to expand your life! And for the record, I am another "Old Fogie", getting mighty close to the big eight oh mark. And ready to use and enjoy whatever new life adventure my limited physical abilities allow me to use. Yes, I love social media and am very glad it came into being during my lifetime! Rusty

In the name of brevity I left out a few things too. I shorted out my Dad's stove on the second batch of tomato sauce. Dad was gone at the time, before I picked him back up, but he kind of freaked. We got the stove working again, and I found out that burner was on its last legs, but my Dad had been babying it. So subsequent batches of tomatoes I did out on the patio using my butane stove, which was not very convenient or cost effective when the jars have to boil for 35 minutes to sterilize and seal, not to mention cooking the sauces . . . I got my white gas Coleman stove working so figured when the electricity/well pump came back on at the house I could use that, but when I filled up the tank with more gas, the whole thing broke down, won't hold pressure. Probably a gasket issue, but that's out for now until I can work in fixing it. For the next batches of tomatoes we are going to try using our gas grill. Now that the electricity is back on I can use water!! Lots of laundry and cleaning to do too, got very behind. Oh yeah, and we get our puppy Saturday . . . I was also still in the middle of puppy proofing the house . . . and yesterday I got randomly stung by a wasp by our tool shed. Having a pretty bad reaction, although it is just local on my arm, big red spot about the size of a small canning jar lid . . . and a wart showed up on my little finger. I have only had maybe two or three warts in my entire life . . . and I am in the midst of trying to figure out why I have weird nerve irritation on one of my major neural paths. Both my back and chest itch but absolutely nothing on the skin surface. It's from inside. Dr. said there is a major nerve group that goes from spjne to back around ribs to front so the two itches are connected. So now I have three itchy spots if you count the wasp sting on my arm. Distraction with canning keeps it mostly under control but still worrisome. We had a power outage the week before, for two and a half days then, so I had just moved all my stuff BACK into a clean fridge and freezer when the power went out again . . .

I probably go to FB about once a week, unless I need to contact the guy who has helped out A LOT with things here I can no longer do easily myself. As that is the quickest way to reach him. (Yes, I pay him.) I have never unleashed a photo dump... probably the largest ones have been 7-8 photos of the home construction process. Which I am glad I did as I lost all the other photos when my then-computer died a messy death. (Yes, USB drives are better friends....) I am glad for FB, even if I don't frequent it. Got back in touch with lost friends from ages ago; found out in a timely manner about serious illnesses and deaths of others - whose relatives wouldn't know I existed. Get to watch the creative endeavors of a cousin and her husband as they do them. And yes, I've found homes for things I no longer want here, that neighborhood people are simply willing to drop by and pick up from my porch when I let them know these are available.