Myriad of sounds are drowning my Sunday stillness!

Whatever happened to Sunday being a day of rest? It seems there is no longer a time when people chill out, gather with friends or relatives and just stop “DOING”.

I often wake up on a Sunday morning to the sound of someone mowing their lawn.  There was a time when lawnmowers were pushed by hand and the noise was actually mellow.  I think the only time you’re going to see one of those is if you go to the Smithsonian. Now even if someone has a postage stamp for a lawn their on a seated mower that a farmer might use on the back forty. It doesn’t end with that! They often follow-up with the leaf blower from hell. I believe whoever invented it had a sadistic mind and wanted everyone to go deaf.

There’s often sawing, nail guns, and loud music ramped up so that the person using the nail gun can hear it.  Recently someone was power washing their deck. The motor went on relentlessly for hours making me feel like I was having a hole drilled in my head. Oh, you’ll hear the usual excuses., “that was the only day we could do it”! But, I think that way of thinking is that of a culture that no longer values making Sunday  one of respite from the relentless pursuit of trying to work and doing chores. I realize there are still folks out there that make Sunday one that simulates the past, but they may be a dying breed. What I really think makes me crazy is those who embark on all of the above, don’t seem to think that they might have some neighbors that need peace and quiet. Neighbors used to value how they affected each other, but since we segued into the era of self entitlement, it becomes every man for himself.

You can see this thought process permeating a great deal of how we now treat one another. It really is part and parcel of a broader concept called civility.  After all shouldn’t I be able to rev the motor of my car at 7AM, or drown you in a myriad of sounds on a day you might like to enjoy being surrounded by stillness. Lots of luck, stillness is eventually going to be completely absent from our lives. You will probably have to tunnel down a mile in your back yard to get away from it. I don’t know about you but I’m going to start digging.

If I needed camouflage I’d buy some Army fatigues.

  I love summer! The warmth, the flowers blooming, barbeques, less heavy clothing, but then there’s also the beach and the possibility of wearing a bathing suit. As I’ve gotten older even thinking about a bathing suit begins to brings me close to panic. I always have a back log of suits from past years that looked half way decent. But age can start to shift our parts and what used to be at attention is often  at “parade rest”. I tried some of them on the other day and also went to a local department store to see what they had. The sales clerk assured me that the ones she chose were designed to hide flaws. In other words they were created to camouflage parts that we might not be happy with and enhance others. Now I don’t know about you but my perception of camouflage is clothing the Armed Forces uses to hide from the enemy in battle. In other words to become part of the background so that you blend in, kind of like a lizard. If that’s the case bathing suits should resemble sand and have shells glued on them. Couldn’t they have come up with another word. I really don’t want to hide anything I want it to go away. One of the things that might have made me buy one of the suits would have been a mirror that was “body friendly”. Give me a break, where do they find these mirrors. I think they’re all bought at a circus that’s going out of business. I know I’m short but somehow the mirror that I was looking in made me look like a pumpkin, round and stumpy. Others have made me look tall and thin. Now that’s the one I want to take home. It was then that I experienced an “AHA’ Moment!  It was time for me to design long-sleeved, ankle length suits. In fact that might be something a lot of women my age might like. They could be made out of a light material and have some strategic cutouts in places that still looked firm, like the underside of the wrist, or the middle of the back. It could actually be quite elegant. Swooping down the beach in a long gauzy attire might be quite exciting! Now that’s my idea of some really “cool” camouflage.