A Belated Farewell to 2023

Last updated on January 6, 2024

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Everybody has already moved onto 2024 and I am still mentally stuck in 2023. I am running behind like always. I still haven’t let go of the old year, too much has happened and while not all might be worth sharing, I will do it anyway. 🙂

The workman’s compensation nightmare came to an end in May

My husband’s workman’s Compensation claim came to an end in May 2023 and we couldn’t have been more thrilled -and more scared. After four years we wondered, “What now?” Which was quickly answered with “The sky is the limit” to be translated to “As high as you can fly in our age.”

72 hrs. after my husband was allowed to work again without restrictions, he started his new job and from this moment on it seemed the universe had pity -or mercy- with us because everything seemed to fall into place now.

Within six weeks my husband was back to working 50 hours/week. His eyes were sparkling again, and in just a few weeks his mood went up from ‘grumpy’ to ‘Silly happy.’

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Women’s 50+ hiking group

The group started in February 2023. We went hiking and walking and enjoyed the outdoors together. Every tour is between 4 – 8 miles and we have lots of fun. No more restaurant visits, we are older Energizer Bunnies.

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Talking about children and grandchildren is taboo. It’s us ladies and only US. We believe we are still worth being the center of attention and there is much to talk and laugh about. Also, religion and politics as subjects were considered taboo, but somehow it seems we all think alike anyway and we curse in the same direction.

We made it now to another winter, still going strong and still hiking with lots of enthusiasm.

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The dumbest customer in 2023

I don’t like to use the word dumb, but sadly in this case, no other word seems adequate enough.

“Hi, do you do lampshades?” (No “hi” no “bye” straight to the point)
“No, I do not. I restore and upholster furniture.”
“I need my lampshade done, can you do it?” (A very quiet sigh on my end)
“No, sadly I cannot. As I mentioned before, I restore and upholster furniture.”
“So you cannot do my lampshade?”
“I don’t know how else I can explain it… ” I said, trying somehow to make her understand.
“So you are not going to work on my lampshade?” (Another sigh on my end “Do I risk it?”)
“You got it right,” I managed to say
CLICK she hangs up! (Sigh and cursing on my end)

I do wonder, do people like her call the butcher and ask him to bake a cake?

An Honest Customer

I got off my high horse -workwise! I needed a new commercial sewing machine and decided to take more ‘normal’ projects in, not just antiques or all the broken pieces people have stored somewhere. Consumer behavior has changed with the ongoing inflation. People are more careful with money. Instead of buying they keep what they have and make it look new. Good for me! Right from the start in January 2023, I got more calls to ‘redo’ and upholster living room sets and I jumped on it like a frog jumps onto a lotus flower.

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I quoted reasonably. I try to be affordable without shooting myself in the foot. A couple of weeks later I met Desiree, a very nice woman who had sent me pictures of her living room. A chaise, a large ottoman, and a couch -all in desperate need of some TLC and new fabric. The fabric they had chosen was gorgeous, and the project was fun.

Eight weeks later they came by to pick up their new living room. I gave them the invoice and rounded down -as I always do- when I customers pay the end balance in cash. We talked for a while and then they left. Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on my door and when I opened it, I saw Desiree and got all worried that something was wrong with their truck.

She handed me $1.58. “I saw we didn’t pay it all,” she said and tried to hand me a dollar bill and some change.

I smiled. “No worries, I change the invoice in my system, I always round down when people pay in cash.”

She insisted on paying me. She had told her husband to turn the car around because she felt she owed me a little bit of cash.

I took the money because I understood her thinking. We talked about it and both agreed. Honesty doesn’t have a price or a limit. If I give a silver lighter or jewelry back to the customers (you won’t believe what I find when I take pieces apart) then why do they look at me funny when I return nickels and dimes, as well as small dollar bills.

In 2023 the biggest lost item inside a couch was a brand-new iPhone. The customer was surprised that I gave it back. I wasn’t! 🙂

The dollar bill is under my monitor at my desk. A good reminder!

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Best movie 2023

“Nyad” on Netflix. I thought I knew the story, turns out I didn’t know it at all. Diana Nyad and Bonnie Stoll. What interesting characters, what a friendship, what an accomplishment at an age where we are considered to be TOO OLD. Jodie Foster and Annette Benning give both great performances in a true-story-movie everybody should know.

“Hey Hollywood, in case you still give Oscars out for talent hand it over to Annette Benning, please.”

Most-played song on my playlist 2023

The African rhythm got stuck in my head.

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Best Book 2023

“My Name is Barbra” by Barbra Streisand

I actually got the audiobook version. What a treat to l listen to Barbra Streisand talking about her own life? I had totally forgotten what a risktaker she was (is). A very special treat for a fan of her music and a longtime follower of her career.

“Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge” by Simon Winchester

Get it, read it, enjoy it, love it. It’s very well written.

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Favorite picture 2023

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Our Vader, a year old in this picture has become quite a ball player. We always wished for a dog who would play ‘fetch’ and now we have one that is obsessed with everything that rolls and could be thrown.

His ball toys are everywhere, in every color. Outside, inside even in the bedroom. He pushes them onto our laps at times when he thinks we might need a break. Here I am, sitting on my sewing machine and there he comes with a ball full of slobber and he gently places it in my lap. How could anyone resist this face? I can’t. I have gotten quite a swing. I throw the ball through the open sliding glass door, over the gazebo, over the bushes into the driveway. Drives him nuts because he can’t catch it midair. We are seriously debating getting him a ball machine -one for dogs.

Favorite Food 2023

Buddha bowls, even for breakfast and Japanese soups. This healthy eating is fun if you do it right.

Best thing I did in 2023

I gave a customer a discount just because a voice inside me told me so and without thinking I offered it on the phone, before I got to know her. My quote had been a bit over her budget and I loved the project. I NEVER GIVE DISCOUNTS, yet I did and I wasn’t sure what drove me to something so out of the ordinary. I didn’t regret it, but wondered about my sanity quite a bit. Here I am working overtime to get the new commercial sewing machine I dreamed of, and then I give discounts? I don’t make sense.

A couple of weeks later, she told me something that made my blood freeze. It was on the phone and I hoped I could hide my shock and disbelief. I know it had left me speechless and I can only wish that she didn’t hear it. If she did, she was kind enough not to mention it. She had recently lost her husband, at a church potluck. He choked on a piece of meat and died right there. The Heimlich Maneuver had been tried numerous times, but they didn’t succeed and when the Ambulance came they were too late. A few minutes, a blink of an eye. Life!

All I could think of was how will she ever get these images out of her head?

When we hung up I turned around in my chair and looked outside. I do that when I am lost in my own mind. When emotions roll over me when I am in the middle of digesting something that I have seen or heard. Life! Will it ever give me a break? I think I have seen it all, have heard it all, yet it still can make me speechless.

I couldn’t have given a better person the discount, or couldn’t have chosen a better moment to show some kind of out-of-the-ordinary generosity. My goodness, I got lucky! No regrets still on my end.

So that pretty much sums it up.

A few walks, good food, lots of work, a silly dog, a happy husband, a new sewing machine. Lots of music and movies and in the end a quiet Christmas in 2023.

2024 I dare you to top that (nicely and gently please!)