And Just Like That

 

...seemingly endless summer heat has been replaced by torrential rain and gale-force winds. I definitely don't mind cooler temperatures and am sure that it will be warm again at the beginning of October at the latest, but right now it seems like winter has come and the weather forecast with likely flooding in several parts of Austria is pretty scary. My parents still have not been able to repair the water damage in their basement from heavy summer rain last August so I am mostly relieved that their area is being spared (for now) and less concerned about myself. I saw a cartoon last year that showed a family watching the weather forecast with hands partially shielding their eyes like you would watch a horror film. Yep, it definitely seems like that these days and this - man-made- volatile weather is not likely to go away anytime soon.

The Challenge

 

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions and yet I have already decided what I would like to try next year: I will set myself the challenge ideally not to buy ANY new clothes or shoes for as long as possible, ideally the whole year. Every month without buying anything (other than replacing things that break where I don't have a backup) will be a success. I don't actually think that it is that difficult and am already looking forward to a) rediscovering things in my substantial "archive(s)" and b) finally tackling all those sewing projects that I've been meaning to get around to for, ahem, years actually.

This idea is a "byproduct" of my recent e-mail purge when I unsubscribed from so many marketing newsletters. I do most of my shopping online and it is often triggered by nothing more than boredom and attractive offers that feel too good to pass by. I will try to resist the urge and not seeing those e-mails will definitely help.

I mentioned my plan to a colleague who is less than half my age recently and she told me she could never do that herself because "I can only wear my clothes 3 times max. There is this energy that prevents me from wearing them more often". Erm, okay. I definitely don't have this type of problem and actually love combining things I have had for decades with more recent acquisitions. 

And, no, I am NOT planning to stock up on things before January first, either, like a friend thought I might do ;-)

OMGEEE

 

They say that mothers immediately forget the pain related to childbirth once they hold their newborn baby in their arms. Maybe this is the case with all painful/disturbing/uncomfortable experiences? On my recent e-mail-folder-purge I came across newsletters by retailers promoting their clever ways to provide a comfortable and seamless online shopping experience during lockdown and also many e-mails reminding me (as a ticket holder for an event for example) what "G-rules" were in place at the venue. In Austria, the Gs stood for "genesen" (recovered from the virus, i.e. you got naturally infected) "geimpft" (vaccinated) and "getested" (able to show a recent antigen or PCR test, depending on which was required). 2G meant it sufficed to be recovered or vaccinated, 3G meant that on top you also had to have a valid negative test result.

I actually had to google what the difference between "G and 3G was again (wasn't sure if the test or the vaccination were the critical third element) and also couldn't remember for a hot minute what those more accurate tests that I took dozens of were called again. How can this be when it dominated my life a little over two years ago?!? Last week was Highflyer's and my second wedding anniversary and we were still a little anxious that our wedding with around 100 attendees would cause a Covid cluster. Luckily quite a few people had Coronavirus shortly before and we don't know of a single infection in the aftermath, phew.

I decided to keep a handful of those e-mails as a reminder of those crazy times anyway.