June-July 2020 What Happened to the Phrase " An Inch is as Good as a Mile"?
We were driving today and as I turned the corner the Admiral exclaimed " You came pretty close to that curb!" . My brain was immediately reminded me of the moment when I was a teenager riding along with my mom and she came scarily close to a parked car, and I said " you sure came close to that car!"And she said " An inch is as good as a mile". At the moment I did not think so but I never forgot that moment. Today I repeated that phrase to the Admiral " An inch is as good as a Mile!" She did not think so either.
I have been pondering that phrase all day and so I googled the phrase to find its origin, I had already imagined several scenarios where it would have applied to my parents generation. This proverbial expression, first recorded in 1614, is a shortening of the older form, “An inch of a miss is as good [or bad] as a mile of a miss.” https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-miss-is-as-good-as-a-mile.html
Well I imagined so many instances where the phrase was entirely appropriate for a generation that survived so many challenges especially World War II. There must be thousands of men and women that narrowly escaped certain death. My father was a highly decorated Army Air Force pilot that was known to fly supplies to South Pacific troops and landing on dirt fields among enemy fire to deliver supplies to those on front lines. An inch was a welcome instance.
In 2020 6 feet is now known to be to close and some are advising 15'! We have developed a bubble of sorts, now being called a Pod so that we can continue seeing our close family here in Austin. We marvel at how we imagined that as we left Seattle we were pretty sure we would return within two months and three months for sure. A plan was spawned to rent an RV and we would ride along with our daughters family back to Seattle avoiding the risk of hotels and pubic bathrooms. By the first of June the reality was overwhelming and so we switched gears and made a decision to not renew the lease with our tenets in our Austin house
The tenets were given a 60 day notice and we would be moving back into our old homestead August 1. June was spent making plans for completing any necessary renovations in the month of July so that we could move in July 1. We soon found out that since so many are stuck at home with no where to go for summer vacation they are all doing some type of renovations and all the skilled essential workers in Austin are booked weeks out.
The last time I painted the entire interior of our Brookdale home was over 10 years ago as we were preparing the house for lease. Fortunately my son Graeme dedicated his weekends and he brought along one of our granddaughters Ella and Liv each time to help paint, pressure wash and act as a lock smith as well.If I remember right we spent around $5K getting the house ready to lease, the renovation and move in expenses were more than double plus the scheduling of a plumber, handyman, and pest control guy added to the stress of having strangers in your home during a pandemic. A month was almost not enough time but we got the house in good enough shape to move in and we could spend August finishing up the details.
. Learning to live where the Inch has probably disappeared for a very long time and Love is more about Distance
PS: Of good note, our tenets of 10 years were able to buy their first home, good things evolved for everyone.
