“Where there’s stubbornness, there’s hope.”

(You may quote me)       

Well, folks, I am ever-hopeful.  Which I suppose means I also am ever-stubborn.  But sometimes it works for me.  Take, for instance, my telephones. (If only someone would.)  I’ve never been good with telephones.  What’s to be good with?  I hear you ask.  You just pick it up and say Hello.   Well, that was in the Olden Days.  Some of you may recall– I’ve mentioned this before–when I was eighteen I was traumatized by exposure to an old-fashioned (it was new-fashioned then, of course) hospital switch-board, which I had to operate everyday during the regular switchboard operator’s breaks.  I’m telling you, this was one of the Ernestine “one-ringy-dingy, two-ringy-dingy” switchboards, with cables all over the place that the operator (me!) had to connect up so the right two parties were speaking to each other.  A person in one part of the hospital couldn’t just dial up an extension number and speak to someone in another part of the hospital.  Oh, no.  All calls were connected by the Operator (AKA: me).  But I digress.  I’m sure you get the picture.    

Since that time, I’ve never been able to master the slightest variation in the telephone system.  By ‘system’ I mean handset, not Ma Bell and AT&T…  Anyway, I’ve always been something of a liability in the offices I’ve worked in (Thank Dog I was never a secretary or receptionist.  I would have failed the interview the minute someone asked “Can you use a telephone?”–not that anyone would ever ask such a dopey question).  As I was saying, telephones have always been my nemesis.  Oddly enough, I took to computers quite easily in the slightly-less-Olden Days.  Nowadays, the phones are in a whole ‘nother realm of complexity.  A minefield for a phone phobic like me.  I’ve had a series of phones in my house which I never managed to operate fully.  Don’t get me started on cell phones…

Not long before I left last September to go overseas, I acquired yet another new system. The T-Hub.  This one is actually a bit of a computer/phone hybrid.  A waste of time, really, if one already has computers.  But I got it, and tried to operate it, but never quite got the hang (hang-up?) of it.

The T-Hub

 I lost a lot of calls, and all messages.  (That wasn’t the reason for my trip, however.  I can’t work the phones there, either.)  Anyway, Heather–my friend who was staying in my house while I was away–couldn’t get this one to work properly either. In the end, she abandoned it and re-installed one of the previous sets. That seemed to work for her.  But since I’ve been home, I’ve been thinking perhaps I should have another go at the T-Hub.  So that brings me–at last–to the point of this whole ramble.

Well, I did it!  And I’m using it!  So far no hiccups.  It did take a while, and I still have some contacts to add, but it seems to be working.  I called myself from my cell phone to be sure.  (No, I didn’t answer myself, Smart Alec.)  I haven’t yet left myself a message–baby steps, I think.  Maybe I’ll tackle that one tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’ve had another victory of the Make Something Work Again variety.  In fact, it was my success with the bread machine that spurred me on to tackle the T-Hub.  Here’s what happened:  A few weeks ago I set out to make some cinnamon rolls.  I usually use the bread maker to get to the dough stage, just for convenience.  Well, when I went to get the dough out to make the rolls, I discovered the machine had stopped and not mixed the dough properly.  It was a mess.  It turned out that I had inadvertently included the flour scoop in with the other ingredients in the machine’s container.  Well, it didn’t like that.  I figured it was cactus, and nearly bought a new machine a couple weeks ago, but was put off by the idea of spending the $$ without really knowing if the bread maker would work again.

So I tried it.  I made some cinnamon rolls again, this time omitting the scoop, and– voilà!  Cinnamon rolls!

Fresh from the oven

And now for my latest victory over…well, over things that threaten to defeat me.  I recently bought a new bed, which was delivered yesterday.  (It is divine!)  Before I could have it delivered, however, I had to clear the way for it.  That meant moving my very heavy Tempur-pedic bed downstairs, with all of its electrical bits that raise and lower the head and foot–a mess, really.  

Those memory-foam mattresses are heavy suckers, I can tell you!  The bed frame was a little easier, at least easier to hold on to. But the coup de grâce was the mechanical/electical gizmo.  That nearly killed me.  In fact, I’ve only managed to get it downstairs and into the sewing room.  Re-assembly of it all will take another burst of …stubbornness.  Or a visit from my TreeChange son, Adam.  It can wait; my new bed is nicely set up.  

Hmmmm.    I feel a nap coming on…   Catch y’all later.                       MM