It’s a lovely gray and rainy day around here, perfect for two people who said, “Let’s just hang out at home today.” So far, it’s a slow rain, though we might get thunderstorms tonight. We did manage to sneak in a walk this morning before the skies opened.
Sometimes this kind of day makes me just plain happy. The small vintage lamps are turned on, because it’s a holiday there isn’t as much traffic as usual, the house seems cozy and warm and my nesting needs and love for my home is at maximum fulfillment.
(We celebrated 14 years in this cottage on August 30th. Imagine, two people who rented most of their lives living in a cottage for 14 years!)
All that being said, I know for some people who are facing the wrath of Hurricane Dorian, this feeling of well-being is not the case. I’m thinking of all of you and praying that you remain safe.
On this Labor Day, I always mention the power of labor unions. My husband belongs to three unions and has been a union member since he was 20. My father belonged to a union before he became management. My brother belonged to a union.
We need them more than ever.
I hope you have a lovely holiday today.
It’s still summer, by the way. I’m not saying goodbye to summer until the calendar tells me it’s autumn.
The winner of Barbara’s extra copy of The Overstory is Melanie of Mel’s Comfy House. Congratulations! Melanie, drop me a line with your mailing address and phone number.
Happy Monday.
Sounds like a lovely rainy day indeed. We’re much the same here up north. I hope you enjoy as we are. Rick’s baking foccacia and practicing his guitar, I’m reading and painting and all’s right with the world.
Enjoy your day, Jeanie.
UNION – YES!
YES.
Big fan of Unions here, too. My father was in the Musicians Union…and Jim and I were Teamsters…lol. Women are paid equally in the Teamsters Union!
Can’t believe this myself…but we are down on moisture, and could use some rain. Everything is so dry…we actually have been watering our pine beds. Hopefully tomorrow we will get some.
Enjoy your day! ;)
Hope you get some rain, Donnamae. We could use a bit more than we’re already received today.
I firmly believe in the importance and power of unions, now more than ever. Reagan did the country a terrible disservice and we are still suffering for it. Unions are another form of checks and balances. I woke up this morning grateful that our home was not in the eye of the storm. I’ve been to the Bahamas. There is nothing to them but flat limestone and a few trees. My heart aches for the residents and animals who have no high ground to retreat to. Of course, I’m thinking of the US Coastal residents, too, but the Bahamas are particularly vulnerable and lacking resources. I still don’t know how to live in this world where there are so many tragedies every day. I guess it was always thus, but the ever-present media overwhelms my ability to cope. We should follow you lead and take our tranquility when it comes.
I feel so much for those residents of the Bahamas. Virtually no protection.
Endless bad news; shootings, hurricanes, endless crap coming from the White House…it never stops.
Never has, I guess, but I recently read something by a woman who is a medical intuitive among other things and her perspective is that we have moved into a cycle that is influenced by Kali, the goddess of destruction and rebirth. I don’t know about the rebirth element of Kali, but I guess the old must be torn down ion order to rebuild. Somehow this philosophy eased my mind a little in reminding me that nothing lasts forever and that someday there is hope we will move into a more healing place again. I think of you and Don and your friends down the road and others who work to make oases of peace in their homes and the land that they care for and I’m so grateful for that. The good ripples out. The earth needs custodians. I’m grateful for your care.
Thank you, Nora.
Always been a bit of a tug-of-war with me and unions. My husband belongs to one and is overall (enthusiastically) pro-union, but I personally come from a long, long, LONG line of independent store/shop owners & vendors (as far back as my great-grandfather and grandfather, and including my father; lots of uncles and great-uncles; multiple cousins) who were & are anti-union/non-union. I’ve never, myself, been a union member of anything. This is making me want to review American history on labor. When I was doing the laboring, before I got sick, with 25 continuous years of working outside the home without any significant break in employment, I surely did enjoy my 3-day Labor Day weekend holiday, though. Workers deserve it!
My hands are so shot from unpacking, condensing, repacking and moving boxes over the past many days as we continue to ’empty’ the house and work on it ‘from the floor up’ (my husband is painting a door as I write), that I can barely use a keyboard. I already had considerable carpal tunnel issues.
It’s so nice that you’re enjoying a lovely weather day at the start of September. Unfortunately where I am in SoCalif, our temps are increasing although we’ll stay in the humid 90s today. I am so over the weather here but I know I’m lucky compared to the Eastern Seaboard and the approaching hurricane. Prayers to all.
Enjoy your holiday day-off, Claudia. You and Don are both hard workers. Give each other a toast as you spend the day together in your cozy cottage.
I don’t see the conflict. There is room for unions and independent shop owners. Look, my husband has the protection of a union – if he didn’t he would be working endless hours on set or in rehearsal without a break and without overtime – we wouldn’t have the health insurance that appeared out of nowhere when Don reached the age of 66. We are so grateful.
I, on the other hand, have no union to protect me. I have no agent. And I had no union to protect me when I was a faculty member at two major universities. I envy Don’s union status. Truly.
We just went out to buy groceries and it’s very humid out there.
I dunno. I guess my ancestors and relatives encountered conflicts ‘boss’ vs employee. Unions seemed to be an interference, although I’m speaking in generalities without facts. I’ve never known anybody in my wide circle of ‘family’ (most all but dead now) to be a ‘bad boss’, but who knows what-came-up-when. I’ve (myself) never owned a business or company and, as said, have never been a union member of anything. It’s just that I’ve got this indoctrinated ‘stuff’ in my head from years and years of one mindset (an influence of ‘others’ around me) although I try to see both sides. I definitely respect my husband and his positive opinion of unions.
I do remember, from high school, because I had an excellent U.S. history teacher who taught us about the turn of the last century and the institution of child labor laws, the monopolies of certain, new big industries as the nation became increasingly ‘urbanized/industrialized’ and how there needed to be many types of control, one being that workers weren’t abused and had rights. (Makes me think of the subsequent century with the internet and how it was like the Wild Wild West and how a lack of ‘controls’ with a whole new way of doing business resulted in cyber theft and all kinds of bad stuff along with the good stuff.)
My own grandfather himself was a victim of child labor when he was in New York as a Dutch immigrant, put to work in the textile factories upstate when he was age 9 to 14; he really never had a childhood again, and breathing in cloth fiber (big spools of thread) and whatever-else-terrible environment he was exposed to for 12 hrs a day, 6 days a week as a child indoors in a factory (the noise also affected his hearing), altered his health with heart and lungs for the remainder of his life. Always breaks my heart to see photos or learn more about child coal miners, too; wasn’t just in the U.S. back in the day, but England, too, and I’m sure other places, going ‘way back to the late 18th century.
Again, your posts do this to me all the time, I want to do some reading to refresh my brain on labor. You know those wonderful little books you introduced us to from Vegas, put out by the Oxford press? As I combed thru hundreds of their titles online, there’s one on ‘Labor’ which could be good to get. OMG, they are delish; there’s one on ‘Banking’ I want to find as well. It cold be that these ‘short introductions’ are all my brain can take at the moment. “Law”, “Economics” – – dry subjects that tune me out fast, yet I feel I need to be better informed, on everything.
As I learned, after your Vegas post, about these ‘(very) short introduction’ books, they also have boxed sets of subjects, like each with a different theme (five or six books in a box I think): Ballot Box (politics, democracy, capitalism, etc); Brain Box (consciousness, intelligence, evolution, etc.); Basics Box (philosophy, math, psychology, etc.); Picture Box (art, architecture, design). Fascinating. (And they don’t take up much room on a bookshelf either!)
You’ve got me thinking about those little books again! I should have bought some that day!
End of our long ‘conversation’ here but just wanted to say that I’m struck too by the beautifully-colored covers of these paperbacks. Just glad to find out about them; affordable, too!
I just might have to buy some!
Love your black eyed Susan photo! Ours remains a tiny plant with no flowers, but at least the rabbits haven’t eaten it.
Thank you, Judy!
It’s rained every day for the past week here and definitely feels cool. I even had a hot water bottle last night 😀. I’m not going to complain though when there’s far worse weather happening in other parts of the world, especially Hurricane Dorian.
I’ve been in a Union since I was 16 years old and been on strike for the right cause, often when I could ill afford to over the years. I remember back in the 70s when I was a teenager and the male library managers insisted on women wearing skirts/dresses to work. This was the era of thigh length fashion and lots of people don’t realise how physical library work can be. There’s climbing ladders with an harmful of books, bending down, carrying heavy boxes etc. Not much room for modesty! It’s also jolly cold during Northern winters !
Anyway, one day the female cataloguer who was in her thirties arrived in trousers and was told that she and any other female member of staff would be sent home if it happened again.
Considering all the workers were young and female, we organised a secret rebellion and all turned up to work the next day in trousers!
It was worth it for the look on the library manager’s face. A victory for the workers! The compromise was smart trousers only, everyone agreed and wears them to this day.
Happy Monday
Good for you! I love that you wore slacks in solidarity with each other and that you won! Bravo!
I can’t believe I am the winner of The Overstory! I am *so* excited. Just made my day. Thank you so much. And thank you to Barbara, too. Like I’ve told you, this book has been on my to-read list for a long time. I will email you my mailing info.
Of course it’s raining there – it rained on and off for the past couple of days here, so it probably moved your way. It’s sunny here today and about 81 degrees. At first we had no plans, but decided pretty much at the last minute to invite some family over for an impromptu BBQ. So we’ve been busy cooking and cleaning up until now.
I’ve never been in a Union, but Brian is as a 911 dispatcher. Brian’s recently had to call on them for a dispute at work, so thankful they are there.
I received your info, Melanie, and have forwarded it to Barbara. Congrats!
Unions have done so much for the worker’s in this country. Enjoy your day. xo Laura
They have indeed! Thanks, Laura.
sounds like a lovely day … rainy and being able to stay home … and you being at “maximum fulfillment” on love of home and puttering around there! :)
sunny and about 85 degrees here. i don’t like the earlier sunsets any little bit, but am sure ready for the cooler temperatures!
hej, claudia or anyone else … have you seen “mrs. wilson” on pbs? if so, did you like it? think it’s a short three-hour mini-series, but just wondering what you thought of it and if you found it worth watching. thanks.
hope you have a nice night.
kathy in iowa
I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard good things about it.
Yes…I have seen Mrs. Wilson. It’s quite good…based on a true life story of the lead actress’ grandparents. It is well acted…worthy of PBS. I think you will really enjoy it Kathy! ;)
thanks, claudia!
kathy in iowa
xo
to donnamae …
thanks for the scoop. i will check it out. and wish all shows would be as you said … worthy of pbs.
and wow to be able to act part of her grandparents’ history!
hope you are having a nice night!
kathy in iowa
Every employee owes a debt to the efforts of unions. It was unions who negotiated the standard of the 40 hour work week, overtime pay, child labor laws. Organized labor speaks with a louder voice than a maverick disgruntled employee. May we all never forget the historical struggles for the rights of workers, or the brave heroic women and men who risked so much to advocate for the cause.
Couldn’t have said it better, Leslie.
Even after i became a supervisor then a manager, i always supported the union and its members.
As did my Dad. Good for you, Wendy.