Rocking and Rambling

I am so glad the weathermen keep getting the predictions all wrong for my area. Company arrived and that's been fun. I've probably talked their ears right off. (Oops!)

For some fool reason I decided to redo the patio and the parking arrangement of my wheel estate. I had forgotten how much work that can be, but it was fun work more or less. I love to spend every moment I can outside enjoying al fresco living.

Thanks to the generosity of an angel, I am now swinging away in a rocking chair again. While I try to settle my addled brain and improve the body, rocking is such a wonderful healthy past time. It eases stress, improves circulation and very often causes spontaneous smiling.

Aaaaaaahhhh... life is goof.

Speed backwards...

Growing up in the 60's my family acquired a rustic cabin in the mountains overlooking a curvaceous river full of rocks. 33 steps made of big singular river rocks were carefully embedded into the earth to reach from the driveway to the tiny cabin above perched on the side of a steep hill.

At the time they bought the place, it came fully furnished with an eclectic assortment of creature comforts including 6 rocking chairs in various sizes and shapes.




Many happy evenings were spent on the screened porch, listening to the raucous sound of the cicadas and the babbling river below while swaying back and forth in rocking chairs.

Speed forward...

I can't believe I lived my life without rocking chairs for well over two decades. Living on boats doesn't afford much room or need for a rocking chair. Even ashore on tiny islands, for some obscene reason, rocking chairs were not available for sale. That is a strange phenomenon I never figured out.

Careening around in my wheel estate, I have often dreamed of rocking chairs, looking for a folding type one that I could use outside, then store away when it was time to drive. For my birthday this year I ended up with the world's greatest folding rocking chair. Barely 5 weeks later, a visitor accidentally managed to break it up while doing something rather silly. That make and model was so wildly popular that I could not find an identical replacement. Amazon had a vendor listed who would only sell a batch of four rockers, not one lone rocker. (Go figure...)

I tried repairing the busted rocker with help from other friends, but the steel frame had been bent and we didn't notice that until much later. After the first repair, it rocked uncertainly for awhile, then our repair fell into disrepair unceremoniously in the blink of an eye.

Time goes on...

Ironically an angel from half way around the world sent me the gift of a rocking chair from the USA Kmart mail-order department. They had a totally different type of folding rocking chair, but it did look positively divine. A week later it arrived in a huge box nearly destroyed due to complete disregard for proper packing. Matter of fact it wasn't packed it all. Imagine a tea cup without packing thrown into a box the size of washing machine then shipped to your door. This flat folding rocker was tossed without so much as one square inch of packing material or cushioning into a box the size of a jumbo refrigerator. You could have fit 6 folded rockers (with no padding or protection) into that huge box and still had room left over for a huge ice chest.

Round and round I went on the phone with Kmart, until finally with great effort they agreed to replace it but only if I drove to Kissimme, Florida and prepaid for the 2nd rocker now while they "held it". I pointed out that was a 14 hour one-way drive from my current location!

Eventually they worked it out for me to exchange it at a store about an hour away from me. I mentioned I would be driving a motorhome to accomplish this, and it was too late in the day to go out and do that,  but frankly they didn't care. It was my only choice as they decided they couldn't be bothered with properly packing up another rocking chair for safe arrival to my current address.

Yeah, I am still scratching my head over that one. What kind of company goes into the mail-order delivery business then refuses to use any sort of packing material so that the final product arrives in one piece?

The heat and humidity set in for a few days, I had to do my volunteer duties during the super busy Independence holidays. I forgot to drink enough fluids and suddenly binga-banga-boom, I was in no shape to drive anywhere or do anything. I was dazzled and confused. Having learned my lesson (it's that time of year) I am now super careful to try to keep pouring down plenty of fluids in this erratic heat wave.

Finally a week later, I felt sturdy enough to break up camp, drive the motorhome and go exchange the damaged rocking chair.

Upon arrival at Kmart the lady behind the customer service desk dashed away just as I was approaching pushing a cart with the mangled rocking chair. About ten minutes later, she reappeared. While trying to process the pre-arranged exchange Kmart's computer began balking at such a tedious mundane task. Try and try again, she couldn't cajole it to spit out the paperwork to effect the exchange nor would she allow me to leave the store with the new replacement chair. Finally 3 employees spent nearly an hour banging away at the cantankerous system which kept emitting horrific screeches. Their computer simply wanted me to pay for both rockers and go away with only one. By now, I had unfolded the new rocking chair and sat down. I was beginning to think Kmart was my new home.

At that point, one of the harried employees demanded to see my driver's license.

Good grief, you need proof of a driver's license to sit in a rocking chair? I hope I don't get an excessive rocking ticket over this!

Finally after about an hour, I was cleared for take-off.

It's a mad mad world out there.

But I am loving this rocking, easing my stress. God bless angels (and I am so sorry the devil has cursed computers...)


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SHOP AMAZON 

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