Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

With our son-in-law's help, we took the memorial bench to a canning shop we've used before for our dining room chairs, and though it will take 5-6 weeks to be repaired, I felt relieved. All this damage is going to cost us a fortune, but we are well aware that structural damage to the studio or house wwould have been horrible, so we are calm and grateful. Our insurance inspector is not coming out until a week from tomorrow, but it is highly unlikely they will pay anything. We're just going ahead to replace what we've lost, but we are keeping the broken bridge, birdbath, hammock and pots here for him to look at. Today is another sunny day, and I hope to take a walk to purchase valentine cards and a tee shirt for my granddaughter. Also birthday cards, as this is a month of birthdays for our family. And I'm thinking shepherd's pie for dinner, so I'll stop at the store to get peas, an essential for the recipe. It is great to see the canning shop is still in business. There is an older couple and a couple of younger people as well, who I assume are learning the craft. Just seeing the wonderful old furniture, lovingly being repaired, is warming. I feel that way when I see a shoe repair shop or a clock repair place. I'm nostalgic. I used to always take my shoes to repaired, as well as handbags. Now I hope people recycle them to charity shops, but I'm afraid we are in an era of trashing. I still spray my shoes with weatherproofing and polish them when they need it, but my husband doesn't care for his shoes. Eventually he buys a new pair and treats them badly until they are embarassingly scuffed. I don't know if we were raised differently or he just can't be bothered. I love old things and have "vintage" clothes and shoes and bags. A boiled wool Mexican jacket I've owned for fifty years, and I have another wool coat I call my "Kim Novak" coat. I have no idea if my kids or grandkids will want them, but I hope someone does. It's history, and I believe there are still historians out there.