Well, last week I left off with my computer having Windows reinstalled and having to reinstall software. The computer is still not up to full working set up. I figure it will take at least another week.
I started installing software in, more or less, the order that 1 - I thought it was of importance and 2 - I thought I could install it myself. In addition to installing the software much of it needs to have its registration information given again (from the original registration of the software into this computer). Luckily when programs have needed to be registered I have made a record of the registration information which was given to activate the program - in one case of the “hidden” location the registration information (is validation the correct term) where the information has to be entered.
Installing software takes time - which is why the backups were made to begin with - and while the installations are being done I have been using my larger, slower, “kitchen” laptop to get some work done. I also, by hand, copied all of the entries in my Palm Centro to the organizer on this laptop so I was finally able to sync the two and not lose any entries. I am continuing to do so until the computer is setup and the software for the organizer, the sync program, and the sync program for my cell phone are installed on the desktop computer - they will be put in towards the end of software installation. Tuesday and Wednesday last week were spent installing software to the point that the computer was partially workable.
Thursday I installed my email software - a freeware program. I am not good at updating programs and was using a rather old version of the program. Husband told me to install the newest version. I did so. He then tried to copy my profile from the old hard drive to the new. It did not work in the program. He tried all kinds of things. Finally we reached the conclusion that old profile did not work in the new version of the program. We uninstalled the email program and installed the old version from my old downloads file. The program would not open. The computer thought the deleted version was still running. We rebooted the computer - 3 times; it did not help. Finally husband figured out what to do. So after about 2 or 3 hours of installing and uninstalling and rebooting, I finally had my email program back. I had only been checking my more critical email and the accounts more likely to have email, so for the first time since the previous Friday I finally checked all my email accounts. No surprises, thank goodness.
On Friday I tried to add 2 of our printers to my computer, the 2 I actually use on a regular basis. (We have a travel printer which was not of immediate need, a plastic tape label printer - I don’t think I have ever printed on it from the computer, a photo printer - only husband uses, and an older printer which still needs to run on a parallel port.) Our printers were purchased before my version of Windows. The disks therefore did not work. When I tried to have the computer add the printers, they were not listed. Panic set in. I then looked in the downloads file from the old hard drive and found - YES - the printer drivers!! We installed them and as of last Friday I can print again! Well, I guess, technically, I always could print by copying what I needed to print to a laptop, but who wants to do that.
Since then I have not had a chance to install more software. I am coping with the fact that my computer looks “wrong”. I don’t know how I had it set before, but buttons look smaller, icons look bigger. One button just looks wrong. Husband says to me that can wait until all is up and running.
On Monday morning we get not one, but two orders for our craft business. We have few enough orders that when we have one I have to remember how I do the paperwork for our records. Not only do we have 2 sales, but one of them is for multiple items - goodness knows how long since we had same - and is for our home state - which means sales tax was collected and I have to remember how I do an invoice with sales tax. All of this would be minor, except I am using alternative software, other than I normally use, for some of this as the software I normally use is not yet - let’s hear it - installed. I have a program which lets me write pdf files with multiple pages. The program I am using instead makes one page pdfs, so I have to start a folder to hold what is normally a single file until I can fix it. The software I use to print labels is not yet - let’s hear it again - installed. Husband manages to print a label on his computer with some program he has - we had to figure out which Avery label number the labels were. The orders went out on time, but I still have to get around to straightening out my records to what I like.
At this point husband suggests that I make a backup with the new backup program - so if anything happens as we go, we have everything to this point saved. Of course there are problems using the new backup program. I finally had to leave him working on it as I had to make dinner. He figured it out and I have a backup - which hopefully will work if I ever - oh, I hope not - need it.
Tuesday I went to work. No dealing with the desktop. I just had to use my work laptop - unchanged, everything as it was. What a pleasant thought. All went fine until I was done. I keep the info on a USB flash drive as I keep all my data on same and each client’s info is on its own flash drive so I can just bring that client’s info with me when I go to the client and I am always using the correct version of the info as it is on a specific flash drive. When I am done and about to leave the client, I back up the info to the laptop’s hard drive (and then again at home onto my regular backups). I finished work and went to back up the flash drive - I get message that the drive is full and it cannot be backed up. Panic starts to hit me. Then I think about it. I have about 3 backups at home from last month. I did not do that much work while here that I could not easily duplicate it next month if needed. I can deal with it. I come home. I put the flash drive in my desktop - as I thought, the drive is only about 1/3 full. All the work I did was there and it was easily copied to my backup. Okay, one problem easily solved.
When I made the list of programs on the old computer we realized that some software related to the processor chip was missing. I found the instructions for the software - which apparently is on the mother board disks. Husband installed the software for me while I was out today.
Today I had to go to a board meeting for an embroidery group I am treasurer of. Normally I am the most organized person there. I have notes and information - whatever might be needed. Between not being able to work on my computer and prepare in advance and dealing with this client and running to back up it’s data tonight, I am not prepared for the board meeting - or the errands I plan to run tomorrow around the meeting. I printed out a financial report and quickly made some notes on the back. When I got to the meeting today I explained, that they are about to see the other me - the one without her computer to keep her organized. Luckily, I still managed to come up with most of the info needed.
I still have not hooked up the USB hub with my flash drives - archive, data, backup A and backup B and I am waiting until a few other programs are reinstalled and ready to use. For now I put the flash drives in and take them out as I need them.
Hopefully when I next post it will all be resolved - I doubt it though.
Have you ever been through a mess like this?
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Thursday, July 21, 2016
BEST LAID PLANS...
The reason for the title of this weeks post is that we had several things fall apart on us. We were to be away and I planned a part 2 of “Organizing and Storing in our Tiny RV”. We decided not to go away - luckily before I made up the bed in rather hot weather - hotter in the RV. This turned out to be even luckier because of what happened. The piece will be written and run at a later date.
In addition to backing up my data, mentioned in a prior post (Organizing Computer Files, June 22, 2016) I also back up my computer. I do this on a monthly basis. I back up the computer, using a software program, to an external hard drive. Currently I am using a newer, larger hard drive I bought for this purpose (monthly backups). I have been making a new back up of the computer quarterly, with incremental backups for the following two months - by this I mean I make a new backup in January, then add to that backup in February and March and then make a new backup in April, etc. I also back up to the older external drive quarterly - in January, April, July, and October - each time a complete new backup - just in case the drive with the backups ever failed. I hate loading software when I get a new computer and did not want to deal with doing so for lack of backing up my computer or loose anything in case of a problem with the computer’s hard drive.
So last Friday I backed up my computer to a new monthly backup on what I will call (external hard) Drive N - for new - with no problem. At the same time I back up my computer which is a desktop, I also backup each of my two laptops on the same schedule. I backed up my smaller, newer laptop before backing up the desktop computer to both hard drives with no problem. I then attempted to make the quarterly backup of my desktop to the other drive - (external hard) Drive O (for old) and the same software just used for the monthly backup, but could not make up a backup due to bad sectors. I tried twice and then decided that instead of panicking I would wait and try it again another day. My older laptop is very s l o w and I set it up to run the backup overnight. I did the monthly back of it to Drive N overnight that night - no problem.
Saturday night, over night, I set my laptop up and did a quarterly backup onto Drive O - again no problem. So now I was pretty sure that there was no problem with Drive O. I then tried to backup my desktop to Drive O - again, it could not as I had bad sector problems. On Sunday evening, just to be sure that the problem was the hard drive of my desktop, I attempted a new, complete backup of my desktop to Drive N - to which it had backed up on Friday with no problem - it also could not make a backup due to bad sectors on my desktop’s hard drive. So, I told husband and asked him what to do. He told me that I needed to get a new hard drive in my desktop. It would not be much of a problem as we had backups and they are relatively inexpensive. (Can you see where this is going?)
So he did some research on hard drives (he builds our desktop computers these days) and figured out which one we should get and we went and bought it. At this time we were still thinking about going on a trip this week. Luckily we decided not to go on the trip just as we were starting the restoration of the computer to the new hard drive.
We brought the new drive home and disconnected the computer from all its wires. He had the good idea to have me take photos with my cell phone of each of the connections on the back of the computer to aid in putting them all back where they came from. It is filthy with dust - I dusted it and after we open it, we vacuumed it and dusted the parts that did not vacuum inside and out.
He disconnected and removed the old hard drive and we set it aside. Relatively easily he wires in the new hard drive and it snaps into place. We have trouble putting the sides back on the computer (it is a tower) and then remember it has to be done with the case lying down. The sides go back on. We are aided in all of this as I have the instruction books from the computer case and the computer chip from when he first assembled the computer, set aside in a folder for my computer (there is a folder for each computer he assembled - 3 to date).
By now the office is a bit disorganized - large manila envelope with computer instruction folders, parts, wires, box to new hard drive, old hard drive, work I had planned to work on... all out and about on the floor and what was before clear space on desks and printers.
We put the wires back on the computer. We turn it on. I use a touch pad instead of a mouse for the computer - it does not work. We then spend 15 minutes looking for a USB plug in mouse, including a trip by husband to the RV in case it was there - he finds it on his desk attached to a Raspberry Pi project (very small computer and coding). (We have since bought a second such mouse to keep around for when we need one in a situation such as this.)
We hook up Drive N (remember both N and O are external drives), we put the recovery disk into the computer’s DVD drive and start the computer. It finds the internal hard drive, it finds the DVD drive, then it keeps spinning. Finally we give up. We shut down the computer . We then hook up Drive O, restart the computer, and it appears on the screen. He runs the restore software. We go to reboot the computer and see that it has been restored - the computer will not boot. Of course, we try turning it off and on several times before being sure that there is some problem.
He looks up on the Internet what to do if the boot manager is missing. Oh, so easy, just run Windows repair. Well, I have the disk, but - it is in the closet in the office, which has all sorts of items from our earlier efforts of installing the hard drive and the project I hoped to work on spread around the room and blocking the closet door. So all of this must be moved elsewhere (in a crowded bedroom being used as a library and an office for 2 people). The Windows disk is put in the computer. He follows the directions on the Internet - I sit at his computer and read him the command line. We turn off the computer - then turn it on - it does not boot.
One instruction we find online says to reinstall Windows. We do so - which wipes out the restoration of the hard drive - computer now boots - yea! We reinstall the backup - it does not boot. We repeat this several times (we worked on this from around 3 pm to after 8pm- Chinese food for dinner as no time to cook).
As he has been doing the research for this online he finds out something important - the backup program, a popular (paid program, not freeware) has a reputation for not working. He had a problem when he tried to restore once before, but found that there was a problem if the backup or restore was done using USB 3 connections - so we had been using USB 2 connections. He reads that a newer version of the program does not recognize drives bigger than 5 TB, maybe it did not work at all with Drive N as this is an older version of the software and the drive is 4 TB, while Drive O is only 1 TB?
We finally give up. He reloads Windows and now I must find and reinstall all my software. Luckily the data, which was on a USB flash drive is intact as are the backups of it as they were on same and were done with different software so my data is all intact. I realize as I start to install software that much of my software is freeware and the downloads are on the old hard drive which was replaced. I did not anticipate needing to replace any of it by hand and so I also did not anticipate needing to get it off the drive before we took it out of the computer. While the programs could be downloaded again, many of them are older versions of the programs because I did not like the updated versions (and in many cases neither did husband), so I really need access to the old internal hard drive we took out). I asked husband if they could both be in the computer (extra empty drive bays in the computer anyway) - he said they could not as they are both drives which boot the computer and it would confuse the computer.
Today we went out and bought a case to convert an internal hard drive to an external one - so I can access the files on the old hard drive for whatever I need and is on parts of the drive which is still good. I then loaded more programs onto the computer with more to come.
I sat and checked my email and did other things on my smaller laptop while we were doing all of this installing and reinstalling the backups and Windows. I went to check my main email account. I changed the password a few months back - I know what it should be but that does not work, so I couldn’t check my main account - even worse, I had to hope that I checked that account with my bigger, older laptop - luckily I did and tonight - after not being able to check email yesterday or today on this account (I don’t check on the weekend) I was able to check email on this account. I still have to send an email to a friend for her birthday - which ended a little over an hour ago - as I did not have her email address other than in that email account.
I use very old software as a calendar/address book/todo list - an organizer program. I also use my old cell phone, a Palm Centro, as a PDA around the house as it syncs with this software (my current cell phone does not work with the todos section and I tend to only use same for home chores, so I sync both cell phones to the organizer software. When I start using it again, since it is being reinstalled on the computer I will have to overwrite the Centro - so I cannot make any entries or changes to same until they are synced again or I will lose any changes made on the Centro.
I cannot wait for all the software to be back, changed to how I like it to be (and you may know by now that I am picky and don’t like change) and it all to working as it used to be again.
I have learned that, unfortunately, one does not know that one’s backup software will not work until it is too late. We will trying another program which seems to be better liked and seems to work from now on.
While we were installing Windows and the backup Monday I also managed to start sorting through computer program and printer manuals back to I don’t know when. I pulled 3 large books (from when software came with large manuals) and some smaller ones. The 3 large ones I am going to donate as they are for programs not all that old and might still be used, the others have gone in for recycling. There were others I would have pulled out to toss, but they are for games that husband bought and I will have to go through them with him - I never toss or donate anything of his without his permission. I do now have the books to the printers on top of the others (they are lying down on the shelves) so they can be easily reached as they are still used when something goes wrong or needs to be reset.
In addition to backing up my data, mentioned in a prior post (Organizing Computer Files, June 22, 2016) I also back up my computer. I do this on a monthly basis. I back up the computer, using a software program, to an external hard drive. Currently I am using a newer, larger hard drive I bought for this purpose (monthly backups). I have been making a new back up of the computer quarterly, with incremental backups for the following two months - by this I mean I make a new backup in January, then add to that backup in February and March and then make a new backup in April, etc. I also back up to the older external drive quarterly - in January, April, July, and October - each time a complete new backup - just in case the drive with the backups ever failed. I hate loading software when I get a new computer and did not want to deal with doing so for lack of backing up my computer or loose anything in case of a problem with the computer’s hard drive.
So last Friday I backed up my computer to a new monthly backup on what I will call (external hard) Drive N - for new - with no problem. At the same time I back up my computer which is a desktop, I also backup each of my two laptops on the same schedule. I backed up my smaller, newer laptop before backing up the desktop computer to both hard drives with no problem. I then attempted to make the quarterly backup of my desktop to the other drive - (external hard) Drive O (for old) and the same software just used for the monthly backup, but could not make up a backup due to bad sectors. I tried twice and then decided that instead of panicking I would wait and try it again another day. My older laptop is very s l o w and I set it up to run the backup overnight. I did the monthly back of it to Drive N overnight that night - no problem.
Saturday night, over night, I set my laptop up and did a quarterly backup onto Drive O - again no problem. So now I was pretty sure that there was no problem with Drive O. I then tried to backup my desktop to Drive O - again, it could not as I had bad sector problems. On Sunday evening, just to be sure that the problem was the hard drive of my desktop, I attempted a new, complete backup of my desktop to Drive N - to which it had backed up on Friday with no problem - it also could not make a backup due to bad sectors on my desktop’s hard drive. So, I told husband and asked him what to do. He told me that I needed to get a new hard drive in my desktop. It would not be much of a problem as we had backups and they are relatively inexpensive. (Can you see where this is going?)
So he did some research on hard drives (he builds our desktop computers these days) and figured out which one we should get and we went and bought it. At this time we were still thinking about going on a trip this week. Luckily we decided not to go on the trip just as we were starting the restoration of the computer to the new hard drive.
We brought the new drive home and disconnected the computer from all its wires. He had the good idea to have me take photos with my cell phone of each of the connections on the back of the computer to aid in putting them all back where they came from. It is filthy with dust - I dusted it and after we open it, we vacuumed it and dusted the parts that did not vacuum inside and out.
He disconnected and removed the old hard drive and we set it aside. Relatively easily he wires in the new hard drive and it snaps into place. We have trouble putting the sides back on the computer (it is a tower) and then remember it has to be done with the case lying down. The sides go back on. We are aided in all of this as I have the instruction books from the computer case and the computer chip from when he first assembled the computer, set aside in a folder for my computer (there is a folder for each computer he assembled - 3 to date).
By now the office is a bit disorganized - large manila envelope with computer instruction folders, parts, wires, box to new hard drive, old hard drive, work I had planned to work on... all out and about on the floor and what was before clear space on desks and printers.
We put the wires back on the computer. We turn it on. I use a touch pad instead of a mouse for the computer - it does not work. We then spend 15 minutes looking for a USB plug in mouse, including a trip by husband to the RV in case it was there - he finds it on his desk attached to a Raspberry Pi project (very small computer and coding). (We have since bought a second such mouse to keep around for when we need one in a situation such as this.)
We hook up Drive N (remember both N and O are external drives), we put the recovery disk into the computer’s DVD drive and start the computer. It finds the internal hard drive, it finds the DVD drive, then it keeps spinning. Finally we give up. We shut down the computer . We then hook up Drive O, restart the computer, and it appears on the screen. He runs the restore software. We go to reboot the computer and see that it has been restored - the computer will not boot. Of course, we try turning it off and on several times before being sure that there is some problem.
He looks up on the Internet what to do if the boot manager is missing. Oh, so easy, just run Windows repair. Well, I have the disk, but - it is in the closet in the office, which has all sorts of items from our earlier efforts of installing the hard drive and the project I hoped to work on spread around the room and blocking the closet door. So all of this must be moved elsewhere (in a crowded bedroom being used as a library and an office for 2 people). The Windows disk is put in the computer. He follows the directions on the Internet - I sit at his computer and read him the command line. We turn off the computer - then turn it on - it does not boot.
One instruction we find online says to reinstall Windows. We do so - which wipes out the restoration of the hard drive - computer now boots - yea! We reinstall the backup - it does not boot. We repeat this several times (we worked on this from around 3 pm to after 8pm- Chinese food for dinner as no time to cook).
As he has been doing the research for this online he finds out something important - the backup program, a popular (paid program, not freeware) has a reputation for not working. He had a problem when he tried to restore once before, but found that there was a problem if the backup or restore was done using USB 3 connections - so we had been using USB 2 connections. He reads that a newer version of the program does not recognize drives bigger than 5 TB, maybe it did not work at all with Drive N as this is an older version of the software and the drive is 4 TB, while Drive O is only 1 TB?
We finally give up. He reloads Windows and now I must find and reinstall all my software. Luckily the data, which was on a USB flash drive is intact as are the backups of it as they were on same and were done with different software so my data is all intact. I realize as I start to install software that much of my software is freeware and the downloads are on the old hard drive which was replaced. I did not anticipate needing to replace any of it by hand and so I also did not anticipate needing to get it off the drive before we took it out of the computer. While the programs could be downloaded again, many of them are older versions of the programs because I did not like the updated versions (and in many cases neither did husband), so I really need access to the old internal hard drive we took out). I asked husband if they could both be in the computer (extra empty drive bays in the computer anyway) - he said they could not as they are both drives which boot the computer and it would confuse the computer.
Today we went out and bought a case to convert an internal hard drive to an external one - so I can access the files on the old hard drive for whatever I need and is on parts of the drive which is still good. I then loaded more programs onto the computer with more to come.
I sat and checked my email and did other things on my smaller laptop while we were doing all of this installing and reinstalling the backups and Windows. I went to check my main email account. I changed the password a few months back - I know what it should be but that does not work, so I couldn’t check my main account - even worse, I had to hope that I checked that account with my bigger, older laptop - luckily I did and tonight - after not being able to check email yesterday or today on this account (I don’t check on the weekend) I was able to check email on this account. I still have to send an email to a friend for her birthday - which ended a little over an hour ago - as I did not have her email address other than in that email account.
I use very old software as a calendar/address book/todo list - an organizer program. I also use my old cell phone, a Palm Centro, as a PDA around the house as it syncs with this software (my current cell phone does not work with the todos section and I tend to only use same for home chores, so I sync both cell phones to the organizer software. When I start using it again, since it is being reinstalled on the computer I will have to overwrite the Centro - so I cannot make any entries or changes to same until they are synced again or I will lose any changes made on the Centro.
I cannot wait for all the software to be back, changed to how I like it to be (and you may know by now that I am picky and don’t like change) and it all to working as it used to be again.
I have learned that, unfortunately, one does not know that one’s backup software will not work until it is too late. We will trying another program which seems to be better liked and seems to work from now on.
While we were installing Windows and the backup Monday I also managed to start sorting through computer program and printer manuals back to I don’t know when. I pulled 3 large books (from when software came with large manuals) and some smaller ones. The 3 large ones I am going to donate as they are for programs not all that old and might still be used, the others have gone in for recycling. There were others I would have pulled out to toss, but they are for games that husband bought and I will have to go through them with him - I never toss or donate anything of his without his permission. I do now have the books to the printers on top of the others (they are lying down on the shelves) so they can be easily reached as they are still used when something goes wrong or needs to be reset.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
DID NOT FALL BEHIND THIS WEEK - CAUGHT UP A BIT INSTEAD
Well, here it is another week gone by. Time to write again.
First a bit of how I am writing and posting this blog. The first few posts I wrote in advance as this is at least my third attempt at a blog (on varying subjects) and I figured if I kept 3 weeks ahead I would be fine. Of course like, I am guessing, most of you, I used up the 3 posts and now post week to week. I have a reminder on my calendar for Tuesday night to write the week’s post so I can post it on Wednesday night (which is generally around midnight Wednesday into very early Thursday morning) which give me a chance Wednesday night to proof read it again or write the post if I did not get to it Tuesday night - which happens much too often. So, if you are coming to see read it, it is posted by early Thursday am Eastern US time. If you sign up to receive it weekly in your email it seems to arrive late Thursday.
It was another week of getting very little done as I get sidetracked from doing things by husband and by “emergencies” which arise. But I did get some tasks done. Repeat tasks such as bill paying, laundry, dish washing and such get done ahead of lesser tasks. They are necessary to keep the house and us going.
I had left the bed made up in the RV for our next trip, but the generator needs to be worked on by a mechanic and he needs access to the air conditioning switch inside the RV - over the bed, so I had to unmake the bed yesterday - about an hour of wasted time to do so, get the bed itself disassembled and covered with plastic covers to keep it clean. When we go away next, there will about another hour putting it all back together and making it back up - I had hoped to avoid this work as we had only traveled on our last trip for a few days and our next 2 trips are of even shorter duration. As long as I took it apart I will wash the bed linens. For each of us there is a large laundry bag which holds a blanket, pillows, and mattress cover from half the bed (since it is made up as if it was two adjacent twins) - marked so I know whose is whose - since someone other than us will be inside the RV, the laundry bags are sealed in plastic bags.
The bank statements for us and for the two non-profit organizations of which I am treasurer this past week and all the statements have been reconciled and filed away. I actually got the stack of items on my desk waiting to be done back down to what I needed to do about 6 months ago. I am sure it will grow again.
I started working on a corporate income tax return due out by September 15 - maybe it will be out early for once and not at the last minute.
We have started calling up and changing our mailing address for our various financial mail (bills, statements, and checks to deposit coming in - nothing fancy) to our Post Office box as a way of dealing with our mail going astray. I am calling and changing each as I go to pay the bill or deposit the check. I figure when we go to the banks we will change the mailing address there. Husband has taken care of a couple of items which are his. We may have a problem in winter or bad weather as we will need to get to our PO box, but we can always call and find out how much to pay and where to send it. We pay our bills the old fashioned way - by check and mail. This has helped us, in at least one case, avoid having our info stolen from a company which was hacked.
I have not finished putting away the food from last week’s trip - I have it in plastic boxes which snap closed and it is mostly the same snack food we eat at home, so I have been using it up bit by bit instead.
I did 4 loads of laundry last week to catch up on our clothes and towels as I had done it early the week before to go away with all clothes cleaned. I did not change the bedding as since we had been away, we used the bed over 2 weeks the equivalent of sleeping it in for just over one week - a big time saver - and, as I told you, I hate sheets.
I went through my food books last night - cooking and diet - and sorted out 27 of them to donate. Mostly these are in reference to diet related to a condition we both have and are no longer needed by us as we know what to do. Other books were ones which seemed like good ideas or were gifts or for foods we no longer eat. Don’t worry - there are still lots of cookbooks on the shelf - but I did manage to get it down to one shelf so there is lots of room in the bookcase for crafts books. The cooking books are on the bottom shelf as they are not used often. Some of them I know I will never use, but they are sentimental favorites and one is a “Gone with the Wind” cookbook, of no real use, but I could not part with it. I kept the cookbooks for an assortment of types of cooking we like and a couple that we have never used, but still sounded interesting. I put the ones we are keeping back on the shelf in sections based on what they are for - with a stack of assorted types of paperbacks facing forward to save room and make them easy to see.
So it was more or less a typical week around here. A bit of decluttering, a bit of organizing and much wasted time.
First a bit of how I am writing and posting this blog. The first few posts I wrote in advance as this is at least my third attempt at a blog (on varying subjects) and I figured if I kept 3 weeks ahead I would be fine. Of course like, I am guessing, most of you, I used up the 3 posts and now post week to week. I have a reminder on my calendar for Tuesday night to write the week’s post so I can post it on Wednesday night (which is generally around midnight Wednesday into very early Thursday morning) which give me a chance Wednesday night to proof read it again or write the post if I did not get to it Tuesday night - which happens much too often. So, if you are coming to see read it, it is posted by early Thursday am Eastern US time. If you sign up to receive it weekly in your email it seems to arrive late Thursday.
It was another week of getting very little done as I get sidetracked from doing things by husband and by “emergencies” which arise. But I did get some tasks done. Repeat tasks such as bill paying, laundry, dish washing and such get done ahead of lesser tasks. They are necessary to keep the house and us going.
I had left the bed made up in the RV for our next trip, but the generator needs to be worked on by a mechanic and he needs access to the air conditioning switch inside the RV - over the bed, so I had to unmake the bed yesterday - about an hour of wasted time to do so, get the bed itself disassembled and covered with plastic covers to keep it clean. When we go away next, there will about another hour putting it all back together and making it back up - I had hoped to avoid this work as we had only traveled on our last trip for a few days and our next 2 trips are of even shorter duration. As long as I took it apart I will wash the bed linens. For each of us there is a large laundry bag which holds a blanket, pillows, and mattress cover from half the bed (since it is made up as if it was two adjacent twins) - marked so I know whose is whose - since someone other than us will be inside the RV, the laundry bags are sealed in plastic bags.
The bank statements for us and for the two non-profit organizations of which I am treasurer this past week and all the statements have been reconciled and filed away. I actually got the stack of items on my desk waiting to be done back down to what I needed to do about 6 months ago. I am sure it will grow again.
I started working on a corporate income tax return due out by September 15 - maybe it will be out early for once and not at the last minute.
We have started calling up and changing our mailing address for our various financial mail (bills, statements, and checks to deposit coming in - nothing fancy) to our Post Office box as a way of dealing with our mail going astray. I am calling and changing each as I go to pay the bill or deposit the check. I figure when we go to the banks we will change the mailing address there. Husband has taken care of a couple of items which are his. We may have a problem in winter or bad weather as we will need to get to our PO box, but we can always call and find out how much to pay and where to send it. We pay our bills the old fashioned way - by check and mail. This has helped us, in at least one case, avoid having our info stolen from a company which was hacked.
I have not finished putting away the food from last week’s trip - I have it in plastic boxes which snap closed and it is mostly the same snack food we eat at home, so I have been using it up bit by bit instead.
I did 4 loads of laundry last week to catch up on our clothes and towels as I had done it early the week before to go away with all clothes cleaned. I did not change the bedding as since we had been away, we used the bed over 2 weeks the equivalent of sleeping it in for just over one week - a big time saver - and, as I told you, I hate sheets.
I went through my food books last night - cooking and diet - and sorted out 27 of them to donate. Mostly these are in reference to diet related to a condition we both have and are no longer needed by us as we know what to do. Other books were ones which seemed like good ideas or were gifts or for foods we no longer eat. Don’t worry - there are still lots of cookbooks on the shelf - but I did manage to get it down to one shelf so there is lots of room in the bookcase for crafts books. The cooking books are on the bottom shelf as they are not used often. Some of them I know I will never use, but they are sentimental favorites and one is a “Gone with the Wind” cookbook, of no real use, but I could not part with it. I kept the cookbooks for an assortment of types of cooking we like and a couple that we have never used, but still sounded interesting. I put the ones we are keeping back on the shelf in sections based on what they are for - with a stack of assorted types of paperbacks facing forward to save room and make them easy to see.
So it was more or less a typical week around here. A bit of decluttering, a bit of organizing and much wasted time.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
ORGANIZING AND STORING IN OUR TINY RV - PART 1
I have mentioned that we have a VERY small RV. We went away for Independence Day weekend in it. We spent 6 days and 5 nights in what is basically, as my husband sometimes refers to it, a large metal can.
Life in this RV has to very organized or it becomes a giant problem. Items have to be stored in such a way that they will stay in place while we are driving. Roads around here tend to have lots of potholes and lots of repairs so it is a bumpy ride. While the cabinets and cubbys come with devices on them to hold them closed, we found that the drawer (notice I said “the drawer” as in the only one - technically there is a shelf which also moves like a drawer, but there is only one drawer) kept opening when we bounced. We would be driving along and we would hear different odd sounds than ones we normally hear and I would turn around and the drawer would be open. My husband finally figured out a way to install heavy duty hook and loop tape to keep it closed. The drawer holds an assortment of small items that might be needed to be at hand.
We all know the concept in organizing of items should be stored near where they are used. Sometimes this does not work in our RV. I have to fit the items to be stored to the size and location of the space. Once the bed is made up - and it stays so for at least an entire trip, if not two or three short trips in a short amount of time - we cannot easily access two of the cubbies both of which are located over the sides of the bed. Therefore while it makes no sense to store one’s spare shoes over the bed - that is where they are kept. In the back of this long cubby, which is on the “kitchen” side of the RV I keep a spare backpack (I forgot mine on a trip and need it when we are away from the RV and cannot easily get back to it during the day), some plastic covers for the bed and “car” seats, shower shoes (for using the showers at RV parks), a spare pair of slip on sneakers for me (in cold weather we can’t use the toilet in the RV and this way I don’t have to deal with shoe laces if I have to “run”), and the shoes we bring with us for the trip. Unless it is a longer trip I wear either a pair of sneakers or shoes (which can be worn in the rain) and bring and store the opposite pair. Husband will also wear a pair of sneakers or shoes and store the opposite plus another pair of shoes. We will put some of the plastic covers on top of the shoes to keep them from bouncing around and making noise. Generally if we need different shoes for change in weather I take them out in the morning before I am out of bed and put the pair each of us had been wearing away in the cubby so this space we cannot easily access when out of the bed is a good use of the space.
Over the opposite side of the bed I keep spare bedding in the cubby (on the “toilet” side of the RV) and there are the entertainment controls - cable/antenna connections and switches and related. They are at the front of the cubby right inside the door of it where they can be reached while standing at the foot of the bed (these came installed here, although we have added some additional items). The spare bedding is in further (these two cubbies, unlike other cubbies are long and extend further towards the rear of the RV) as if I need to access them I will be taking the bed apart and will be able to reach them.
In front of the cubby with the shoes (on the “kitchen” side) is another cubby - same door and opening, but it does not extend in any direction and is therefore maybe half the size of the rear two. In this cubby we keep items we need to be able to reach when getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. It is also located over the bed, but since it is at front of the bed, it is easy to reach without climbing on the bed. Our first night in the RV we had to keep taking things out, putting them away, taking out something else, etc. to get ready. As a result of this I came up with the idea of a plastic box each. We each have a flat plastic box with the personal items we need at bedtime and in the morning - hair brush, comb, tooth brush, toothpaste - I keep my cell phone cords in mine, husband does not keep his in his box, and such. These stay in the RV all the time. There is a third box which goes back and forth to the house each trip - our medications and small items which need to come out to the RV for the trip are in this box. At night I take out the 3 boxes. Husband’s box goes to the right side of the kitchen counter (on the glass of the stove) and all his needed items for preparing for bed will go on that side. My box goes on the left side of the counter (which is an actual counter top section and is on the side towards the bed) as does our checkoff list, refrigerator thermometer and some other items for the evening. I will take out the “day of the week” box marked with, of course, the day of the week which has our pills for that night and replacement pills for those used during the day and morning pills for the next day. (Sunday box, for example, has the pills which we will deal with Sunday night - Sunday bedtime pills, replacement pills for those used Sunday during the day and needed for Monday during the day, and Monday am pills.) I put the pills we are taking at night in two plastic bottle lids (because they are the right size and shape and they were kept for free when their bottle contents were used up and their bottles tossed) and place the lids on the counter. I get out my pocket pill box and get husband’s from him and replace the pills used. When we take our night pills the bottle lids are put back into the box and the box goes back in the cubby - while the other two boxes stay out to be used in the morning. Husband has the day of the week pill box for the morning on his side - he takes his pills and puts it on my side of the counter (did I mention the only sink in the RV is in the center of the counter, between our two sides?) for me to take my morning pills. The box is then put back into the box it came out of.
Also in this cubby is a SMALL plastic crate which holds husband’s electric shaver and some other items we need - including a very thin tarp, which folds down to nothing, to put on the bed if we have to get on it in our street clothes (including for emergency shoe changes) as we did not like going on the bed in street clothes before we had bed bugs, and certainly not after.. We keep a plastic shower curtain folded in this cubby on the top of the other items - when it is not in use it helps keep the other items in place. It is used when it will be raining during the day. I cover the rear end of the bed (which is the head of the bed at the rear of the RV/van) so that when we open the rear doors during the day the bed will not get wet.
Oh, my, an article already and we have only covered what is over the bed. I guess this will be Part 1.
Understand that everything in the RV has to be secured and in a specific spot so we can easily find it and then after being used it is returned to it’s spot (unless it is disposable) so we can find it again and so that it will not go bouncing when we drive - or flying around when we stop, start or make a turn.
Life in this RV has to very organized or it becomes a giant problem. Items have to be stored in such a way that they will stay in place while we are driving. Roads around here tend to have lots of potholes and lots of repairs so it is a bumpy ride. While the cabinets and cubbys come with devices on them to hold them closed, we found that the drawer (notice I said “the drawer” as in the only one - technically there is a shelf which also moves like a drawer, but there is only one drawer) kept opening when we bounced. We would be driving along and we would hear different odd sounds than ones we normally hear and I would turn around and the drawer would be open. My husband finally figured out a way to install heavy duty hook and loop tape to keep it closed. The drawer holds an assortment of small items that might be needed to be at hand.
We all know the concept in organizing of items should be stored near where they are used. Sometimes this does not work in our RV. I have to fit the items to be stored to the size and location of the space. Once the bed is made up - and it stays so for at least an entire trip, if not two or three short trips in a short amount of time - we cannot easily access two of the cubbies both of which are located over the sides of the bed. Therefore while it makes no sense to store one’s spare shoes over the bed - that is where they are kept. In the back of this long cubby, which is on the “kitchen” side of the RV I keep a spare backpack (I forgot mine on a trip and need it when we are away from the RV and cannot easily get back to it during the day), some plastic covers for the bed and “car” seats, shower shoes (for using the showers at RV parks), a spare pair of slip on sneakers for me (in cold weather we can’t use the toilet in the RV and this way I don’t have to deal with shoe laces if I have to “run”), and the shoes we bring with us for the trip. Unless it is a longer trip I wear either a pair of sneakers or shoes (which can be worn in the rain) and bring and store the opposite pair. Husband will also wear a pair of sneakers or shoes and store the opposite plus another pair of shoes. We will put some of the plastic covers on top of the shoes to keep them from bouncing around and making noise. Generally if we need different shoes for change in weather I take them out in the morning before I am out of bed and put the pair each of us had been wearing away in the cubby so this space we cannot easily access when out of the bed is a good use of the space.
Over the opposite side of the bed I keep spare bedding in the cubby (on the “toilet” side of the RV) and there are the entertainment controls - cable/antenna connections and switches and related. They are at the front of the cubby right inside the door of it where they can be reached while standing at the foot of the bed (these came installed here, although we have added some additional items). The spare bedding is in further (these two cubbies, unlike other cubbies are long and extend further towards the rear of the RV) as if I need to access them I will be taking the bed apart and will be able to reach them.
In front of the cubby with the shoes (on the “kitchen” side) is another cubby - same door and opening, but it does not extend in any direction and is therefore maybe half the size of the rear two. In this cubby we keep items we need to be able to reach when getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. It is also located over the bed, but since it is at front of the bed, it is easy to reach without climbing on the bed. Our first night in the RV we had to keep taking things out, putting them away, taking out something else, etc. to get ready. As a result of this I came up with the idea of a plastic box each. We each have a flat plastic box with the personal items we need at bedtime and in the morning - hair brush, comb, tooth brush, toothpaste - I keep my cell phone cords in mine, husband does not keep his in his box, and such. These stay in the RV all the time. There is a third box which goes back and forth to the house each trip - our medications and small items which need to come out to the RV for the trip are in this box. At night I take out the 3 boxes. Husband’s box goes to the right side of the kitchen counter (on the glass of the stove) and all his needed items for preparing for bed will go on that side. My box goes on the left side of the counter (which is an actual counter top section and is on the side towards the bed) as does our checkoff list, refrigerator thermometer and some other items for the evening. I will take out the “day of the week” box marked with, of course, the day of the week which has our pills for that night and replacement pills for those used during the day and morning pills for the next day. (Sunday box, for example, has the pills which we will deal with Sunday night - Sunday bedtime pills, replacement pills for those used Sunday during the day and needed for Monday during the day, and Monday am pills.) I put the pills we are taking at night in two plastic bottle lids (because they are the right size and shape and they were kept for free when their bottle contents were used up and their bottles tossed) and place the lids on the counter. I get out my pocket pill box and get husband’s from him and replace the pills used. When we take our night pills the bottle lids are put back into the box and the box goes back in the cubby - while the other two boxes stay out to be used in the morning. Husband has the day of the week pill box for the morning on his side - he takes his pills and puts it on my side of the counter (did I mention the only sink in the RV is in the center of the counter, between our two sides?) for me to take my morning pills. The box is then put back into the box it came out of.
Also in this cubby is a SMALL plastic crate which holds husband’s electric shaver and some other items we need - including a very thin tarp, which folds down to nothing, to put on the bed if we have to get on it in our street clothes (including for emergency shoe changes) as we did not like going on the bed in street clothes before we had bed bugs, and certainly not after.. We keep a plastic shower curtain folded in this cubby on the top of the other items - when it is not in use it helps keep the other items in place. It is used when it will be raining during the day. I cover the rear end of the bed (which is the head of the bed at the rear of the RV/van) so that when we open the rear doors during the day the bed will not get wet.
Oh, my, an article already and we have only covered what is over the bed. I guess this will be Part 1.
Understand that everything in the RV has to be secured and in a specific spot so we can easily find it and then after being used it is returned to it’s spot (unless it is disposable) so we can find it again and so that it will not go bouncing when we drive - or flying around when we stop, start or make a turn.
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