CATCHING UP A BIT AT LAST

Well at last I feel as if I am catching up a bit.  While we went last Saturday to a woodworking show in New Jersey, I managed to have enough time at my computer to help me catch up several things - I even managed to prepare a partnership tax return for a client and it is going out in the mail tomorrow. We finally picked up my replacement eyeglasses and I am getting used to darker frames than I had before - I see them when I look through the glasses - I swear the frames were lighter in color when I picked them out in the store.



I finally had a chance to scan into the computer the papers I copied while we were replacing the scanner and getting it going.  I hate doing things twice, but had to copy and then scan the copies as there was no other choice.  At least the scanning is finally done.

I change the bedding weekly, but I change the bedding’s “underwear” once a month.  The under covers for the pillows get tossed in
 the laundry with the regular bedding for the week, but the mattress pad is too large to do so and is a load of laundry on its own.  I finally managed to get it washed and dried this past week - it has been sitting in the sorter in the basement.  I also did a load of jeans last week I save them up as I don’t have enough in a week to justify another load of laundry.   I also had a number of sweatshirts to be washed, so I did two loads of clothes last week.  This week’s laundry is humming along right now - the clothing load is washing, timer on my cell phone set to remind me to do down with the downstairs towels so I can do a load of towels next.

I packed up the “soft” Christmas decorations.  This is an assortment of stuffed teddy bears, reindeer, a doll, stockings, hangings, and other similar items in Christmas theme which have been out - two of the bears are actually Chanukah ones.  They all go in a plastic box together in the basement.  I have also started taking the packed boxes of Christmas tree ornaments down to the basement - when I go down to switch laundry loads, another of the four boxes will go down.  When I am done with those the box of living room decorations and the box of kitchen, dining room, front hall decorations will follow.  I take them down in order as this way the tree ornaments are on the bottom of the stack of boxes as they will come out last next year.  I still have my teddy bear Christmas village to pack - when these boxes are all down - it will be time to take it down (okay it is past time, but it is our favorite decoration so it comes out first and goes back last). 

The woodworking show was a nice change for something to do for the day.  Mostly the same vendors are there year to year, although a lot of the regular vendors have dropped out over the years or combined, and the new vendors tend to not be actually wood work related (leaf screens - not really related, investment company - definitely not related).  It is an extremely LOUD room as vendors have not only their power tools going, but vacuums and they all are on microphones.  In the early days of husband’s woodworking he would have had a list of things to look for and buy, but he has most of the equipment he needs, he does less woodworking (although he still owes me the replacement bread drawer for the kitchen) and we have no money to spend on it.  There is no reason to add to the clutter in the workshop with unneeded additional tools.  Okay, there was something which caught his eye.  Two vendors (new ones) had similar items - it lets one hookup a tool to one’s computer and it will carve designs into wood automatically on its own.  But they are thousands of dollars and there is no place to put them.

After the show we went to a chain craft store as it is on the way to where we go for dinner while in New Jersey as we don’t have a store from this chain near where we live.  Did not buy anything, but nice to look - they are suppose to be opening near us sometime this year or next, I am sure that anything nice will not make it here, but it is nice to plan.  Husband particularly likes the yarn at the store - much bigger and nicer variety than we have here.  This is another place where we could buy a lot of items - but we don’t as we don’t have room for it all.       

We warped (set up) the loom again for husband to work - this time he is making a spring colored table runner.  We had problems getting it set up - not sure why, we should know what we are doing by now, and he had to take part of it out after he started weaving as is went on an angle.  He was annoyed as he considered this a simple project to do and relax while he did it.  During the week we finished washing the last few items he wove.  The items have to be washed to change the weaving from yarns to fabric.  They are hand washed and then laid out flat to dry on a rack in our studio so there are days between the washings to allow them time to dry.   

We did have a computer problem yesterday.  We suddenly lost access to everything on our home network - we could still print and scan, but if we tried to access the server drive - or each other’s computers - the entire setup to do so was gone!  Husband figured out it was somehow related to the installation of the new printer unit and finally managed to get it up and working again.

This is school vacation week around here.  It was started in the late 1970's for the school districts to save money on heating costs.  When husband worked at an non-profit with a school year schedule and we still stayed in hotels, we would often go away for part of this week as it was easy and cheap to get hotel reservations in nearby states (okay, Pennsylvania) as elsewhere there is school after Monday’s holiday.  We are thinking of trying our one day trip to same again this week - third attempt’s the charm?

We have had mostly wonderful weather the past week - when we went to the woodworking show we actually left our jackets in the car and just wore sweatshirts as it was in the low 60Fs.  The weather is suppose to continue.  I hope that none of you or yours have been caught in the tornados in Texas or the raining and flooding in California this past week.

Well, that was a bit of a ramble this week.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Don’t forget to look at all the possible reasons for a problem.

I have posted about replacing the hard drive on my computer late last year.  I am still finding software which was not reinstalled - I start to do something and whoops!  I also had a problem with a program we reinstalled.

I do not commonly use Word for my word processing.  I use another less popular program.  I also use an older version of it and do not want to switch to a newer version both due to cost and I am concerned that if I use the updated version it will not have same controls and functions as the verison I am using now.  There was an update (actually a few updates) to the program which also have to be reinstalled.  The program is, of course, no longer supported by the manufacturer. 

One of the problems I have been having - even with an update installed - is that I cannot import the address books - and here I was so careful to back them up at least quarterly up until the hard drive was replaced.  Husband came up with the idea of installing the program on the XP virtual drive of my computer (it is on the Windows 7) as XP existed when the program was written and & did not.  The program did work fine on & before the change of hard drive.

It worked - the installation program now is no longer partially greyed out.  So I went to import the address book data files to the XP installed version.  Now being how I am, I have several address books in the program - one for family and friends, one for clients, one for one of the clubs I am in, two for the other one (members and non-member contacts I need), Internal Revenue Service returns for assorted returns - some for several different states, my home state tax department, a general “other states, and lastly an “other” - this last for anything which does not by who it is fit into the other books - such as bills we pay on a regular basis, etc. 

I started importing the address book data into the program - the first book comes in and we are  excited that it worked - problem solved - and then I go to import a second one - it goes through the entire process, but there is nothing in the address book after it is done.  I try again - same thing.  I then turned on my work laptop and try to import to it - after all, I have been able to import two books to it in the past. It also would not import the next book.

Husband, always looking to make me happy with my antique software, was going crazy searching the Internet and we were trying all sorts of things.  Finally he asked a question which resolved the problem (at least as far as importing to the XP installed version).  “Let me see the backup data.” 

Ah, we had been assuming this was a program software problem.  No.  When I went to show him the data, there was none in several of the last set of backups - hence the program had imported the data, it is just that there was one.  Why did we not think to look for an alternate reason the information was not importing?  Why did we just assume (and you know what happens when one assumes) that it was a software problem?  I went to the backups before the one I was importing from and all the data except from two address books imported!  The other two books had not had their data properly backed up since 2015!  So I imported the data from the last backup from 2015.  (I am so glad that I keep the old versions of the backups!)  I will have to do a bit of updating - for example the two clubs I have books for have each gotten some new members since the backups were made - but I would have had to do so anyway as the most recent backups were before this also. I at least do not have to sit and enter over 100 addresses again.       

We will also try this update on the Windows 7 installed version in case it corrects the import program for same also.

So, if something does not work and what you try to do to fix it does not work, think what else could be wrong - it could be something even more simple than you thought it was.   

TRYING TO CATCH UP

Well, the storm hit last Thursday.  It was not the largest snow storm that has ever hit this areas, but it did drop over 14 inches in some areas.  Husband and I went out in the late afternoon to clear our driveway.  It was still lightly snowing and at first husband was just going to clear enough for us to be able to back our car out of the driveway.  I should explain, we do not back our car out of the driveway as the street is much too busy for us to do so, plus we have trouble seeing up the road when we are pulling out head on as there is a curve in the road and lots of cars (something new the past 6 or so years) that block the view of the curve.  So we were going to do this in case of emergency before we cleared the entire driveway.  Husband kept going however, and we cleared the entire driveway.  We were lucky - one of our neighbors cleared part of our driveway before we went out.  Not sure why - it is not something he normally does, but we greatly appreciated it.  We were using our new snowblower and the snow was too deep in some places for it to work, so I walked along cutting off a section of snow and knocking it over so husband could use the snow blower on the snow.  When we finished we had two problems - the front steps were covered in deep snow which had been blown there and access to our heating oil pipe (for delivery) was also buried in snow.  I cleared the steps, while husband cleared a path to the oil pipe.  Our first major snowstorm and we managed to clear the driveway in an hour.  The additional snow that fell as we were working was very lightly and melted quickly with salt. 

I hope that any of you who might have been hit by the terrible weather this past week - the snow and wind in the northeast US, the tornados in the Lousiana/Mississippi area, or the floods and broken dam problem in California (if I left your weather problem out, I apologize, know you are included) are safe.

We were able to go out on Friday, but decided to pick up dinner locally rather than drive to where we normally go as the roads were icy.  Managed to catch up on some of the assorted paperwork and housework I am behind on.  During the afternoon we went out and bought another bag of melting salt.  We had used up the last of one bag and husband did not want to run out - we had 2 full bags, by my estimate enough for at least 6 storms, but he does panic over snow, so we went to 2 Home Depots and a Lowes to buy a spare bag.

Saturday was a normal day - mostly out of the house and dinner (at Ikea cafeteria - great value) and movie out.  Ah, normalcy so great to have once in awhile.

Sunday husband decided that rather than drive out to where we normally go, we would go to more local stores of the same chains - big mistake, everyone seemed to have decided to go out!  We worked on setting preferences in my computer for the new printer again.  I did not put out the garbage Sunday night for Monday morning as we were having an extremely windy day - lots of wind gusts at 50 mph.  I

Monday we had a short day as we had a board meeting at night for a group we are on the board of, so we had to finish up the afternoon chores early to get there and then it took up most of the evening.  This laptop suddenly had a problem with my Internet software and the rest of the night was used up with husband attempting to uninstall, giving up on same, and reinstalling the software. 

Yesterday was .... Valentine’s Day!  We had a fairly normal day and then treated ourselves to dinner out - at Ikea again.  We have a tight budget.  Plus no dressing up.  No gifts.  I strongly believe that the giving of gifts does not prove love.  It is the day to day fixing of computers, making my ancient software and laptop work, helping my husband with his weaving when he needs the equivalent of “an apprentice”, and so on which does. 

Today we changed the oil in the snow blower - it is new and hit the time it said to change the oil.  We are not used to doing such things, but thought we had thought it all through.  We had a disposable pan to drain the oil into.  As we started I thought to put down a large piece of cardboard from the box the snow blower came in to prevent oil on the floor.  Husband did not put on his disposable gloves - he was using a wrench to remove the plug to let the oil out of the blower - he scraped his finger rather badly.  We had to stop and run in and deal with it.  We then finished the job.  The dirty oil is in the bottle it came in and we will bring it to the local service station who told us they will take it.  When we went back into the house husband had bled through his bandage.  We cleaned his finger again and put on more antibiotic gel and I bandaged it tighter - he did not need to bend it as he did when we were doing the oil - so far it has not bled through and it has been hours, so I guess he does not need stitches.

How does all this relate to organizing?  Well, like everyone else there are weeks everything goes well and lots get done.  Other weeks - such as the past few - too many things go awry and little gets done - just the minimum.  How bad did we get behind?  While we don’t buy Valentine cards for each other - we do buy them for my family and husband’s nieces.  When we came home from dinner on Valentine’s Day we suddenly realized - we had never even bought cards for them due to all the confusion.  He sent a text to his older niece apologizing to the two of them and I sent an email to my family doing the same.  Next year this will not happen - we will be organized enough to buy and send the cards - I put it in my computer organizer to remind me!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Okay, now you know not to try to reinvent the wheel, but to also think outside the box if something is not working. I wanted to point out that sometimes odd things can improve what your organizing, but there may be a learning curve for you with change.

First - growing up I had full size drawers in my dresser.  I had a dresser with my underwear and my socks (stockings, related).  When we married my dresser had only 3 full size drawers, the others were half size drawers, so thinking logically, I put my socks in the top half size drawer and my underwear in the drawer below it.  I went along this way for years - well over a decade. 

One day husband, who has all full size drawers in his chest which matches my dresser and therefore has socks and underwear together, asked me why I have my drawers set up so that every day I have to open one drawer and then a second drawer.  I thought about it.  I have types of socks I commonly wear - stockings and other types of socks are worn much more rarely.  Similarly I have kinds of underwear I need to take out the drawer daily and other kinds of underwear which I need rarely.  I thought and thought.  I then put the socks and underwear I need daily in the small top drawer and the rest of both categories in the second drawer.  It has been some time since this change - sometimes I still forget and open the lower drawer to get what I need, but I mostly have gotten used to the change and it is more convenient.

Second - I don’t know if I have mentioned this but last year husband made me two small replacement drawers for the kitchen.  We had mice and they were through the drawers.  As a combination of being grossed out at using the drawers, even after they were sanitized and cleaned for cooking related items, and the fact that the drawers might very well date back to when the house was built in the early 1950s and were not nice to begin with, he made me new drawers. Basically this is a matter of making boxes the right size and then we attached the drawer front which had not been exposed to the mice - but were cleaned and sanitized anyway.  (There is still the bread box drawer where we found the mice to be remade.)  Most of the items in the drawers were thrown out unless they were impossible to replace or expensive (and since they were small drawers not much was the latter).  One drawer again holds my dish towels.  The other I had to figure out what to use it for.  I rearranged some items between my “silverware” drawer, which has all manner of small kitchen handheld items (this is elsewhere in the kitchen and not where the mice were) and some items which had been in this drawer or replaced what had been in this drawer.  For the most part I have had no trouble adjusting to the change - except one item - scissors.  I have a large pair of utility scissors which were in the silverware drawer.  I realized that some items belonged in same and not in the small drawer and moved the scissors to the small drawer.  Great idea.  I also moved the flashlight from the silverware drawer to there and some other non-food use items - no problem with any of those.  So when I need the scissors I open the silverware drawer, swear, close it, and then open the correct drawer.  I am doing this less and less though.  (By the way, I was looking for a small squarish box to hold items in this drawer and a similar one to hold items in the silverware drawer and found a small lidded plastic box during back to school season in a dollar store and I took it apart - the lid sits upside down in one drawer and the bottom in the other drawer - both perfect sized and $1 for the box!)   

So think about where you keep things and why - there may be a simple change which can made a great difference in your day - just remember there might be a learning curve if you have had something someplace for years and change where you keep it.
       

STILL ANOTHER WEEK OF COMEDY OF ERRORS

Have you ever heard - when it rains - it pours?

Well, last week I told you about the death of our printer all in one and how lucky we were not to have a fire as a result.  On Thursday, the day after I posted, we went out and bought the new all in one.  We went right away as there was a sale on the unit through last Saturday.  We also found out that there was a $50 credit if we traded in our old printer - in addition to saving money, by doing so we avoided having to go to a recycling event when next the township has one or taking the printer unit to the town garbage department as it is electronics and cannot be put out with the regular garbage for pickup.  We took it home and set it up.  Husband put the software on his computer to see that all worked.  It did. 

A day or so later we put it on my computer - the main program I use for scanning does not work with it and when I scanned with one of the other programs I have - it did not scan usable and the software seems to be set to legal size as the default - have to reset that and set up presets to use it - so everything I copied in the interim as I could not scan it, is still sitting waiting to be scanned into the computer.  But hey, this is all normal with computer stuff - right?           

Friday night we had dinner out and then went to Barnes and Nobles as we normally do.  As we were about to leave the store as it was closing, I was waiting for husband to join me by the door.  I noticed my eyeglasses were dirty and, as I have done for around 55 years that I have worn eyeglasses, I breathed on the lenses and started wiping the lenses with my shirt.  I suddenly found that I was I holding the eyeglasses by the frame with one hand and the lens I was wiping with the other hand.  Yes, my eyeglass frames broke. 

Now, these are not new frames, but I really hate buying new eyeglasses.  I hate it so much that a pair of eyeglasses which broke last summer has still not been replaced.  Why do I hate replacing my eyeglasses?  I like glass in my eyeglasses as opposed to the common plastic lenses.  When last I purchased eyeglasses only one location around here still used glass lenses.  So I anticipated having to probably change to plastic lenses.  (If you wonder why I prefer the “heavy” glass to the plastic - the glass does not scratch - none on this old glasses’ lenses, while a pair I got through our old insurance company about 3 years ago has many scratches on the lenses.  In addition the “visual acuity” is better with glass.  Also having worn eyeglasses since second grade, I am used to the heavier glass and the plastic feels strange - my first 2 pairs of eyeglasses were not even break resistant as such had not yet been invented.)  The pair I broke has progressive lenses and they are not cheap.  (The pair I broke last summer had progressive lenses which also switched from clear to sunglasses - even more expensive.)  So I was not happy about needing to get new glasses - even more unhappy than I was about getting a new printer unit

Husband stuck this eyeglass frame together, as he did with the one last summer, with that “it’s not a glue, the light makes it work” stuff they sell on TV - we bought it at Walmart. It did fix the frame last summer for a couple of months and then it no longer worked.  So we knew we could not depend on it. He told me that we were going the next day (Saturday) for new glasses, I wanted to wait until after the weekend as generally stores are not as busy, but he insisted.

We first went to the last store I bought eyeglasses in - the one that had glass lenses when no one else did anymore.  (Okay, I know that one can get glass lenses by ordering online, but I don’t order something as simple as tissues online, so I am not going to order eyeglasses online and hope that they are measured correctly.)  This store is part of a chain which was taken over shortly after I bought my last pair by another chain, so it was very different when we went in.  For one thing, one can no longer buy a pair of eyeglasses - one has to buy 2 pairs as the pair one buys comes with a second pair free - and there was a $50 off sale on the 2 pairs.  When I saw this sign about 2 pairs, I started thinking that maybe I could replace both pairs.  I presumed that the free pair had to be single lenses (no progressive, no bifocal) and figured I would ask about paying the difference on the lenses or I would get a spare pair of distance glasses for the car - when the glasses broke it dawned on us that if husband was not driving I would have had to drive home at night with my sunglasses so we decided it would be good for me to have a distance pair in the car - just in case.  Temporarily now I have a pair I use for 19th century reenacting in the car - especially since I don’t know how long the fix to the lenses will hold.

We looked around and it was obvious that the frames were priced so that they were at least double the normal price to cover the cost of the second pair of glasses.  We managed to find one frame which was in our price range (the second pair would be a real problem) and I approached a staff member to ask about the glass lenses.  I got a luck and a reaction as if I had asked if they made eyeglasses for Martians.  She checked with another staff person - I think he was a manager - and he said he was not sure if they could get them anymore.  I had to fill in all the paperwork for him to check.  They could get them - $500!!  I thanked them and resigned to getting the plastic lenses left.  Husband had thought the price was not a problem - but he thought I would get both pairs of the progressive lens eyeglasses for that - I explained that I was pretty sure the “free” pair would be single vision lens. 

We moved on to another chain eyeglass store.  We used to go to another store in this chain before glass lenses became a problem and had been extremely happy with the other store - but it was now closed.  The frames here were even more money, with the exception of a single rack hidden in their work area (this is a fact, not an exaggeration).  We left. 

Husband said to me that since I was stuck with plastic lenses we should look in Costco and Walmart on Sunday when we went to both as we normally do.  (Only one Walmart around here has an eyeglass department and it is the one we go to on Sunday as it is near the Costco and the Bjs we go to then.)  He mentioned that my sister had been very happy with eyeglasses she got from Walmart.   I pointed out to him that the Walmart’s eyeglass department is closed when we go there - so off we went to same to look. 

The frame prices were much better in Walmart and I we found several frames which are the style I like.  Okay, at one point I was suddenly finding lots of frames I liked, but they all seemed a bit wide.  I brought one to husband and mentioned this - I was looking at the men’s frames.  Typical, I always know when I have hit the men’s shoes department (as opposed to ladies) as I start to find shoes I like.  We finally settled on a frame.  I went to employee to get a price (we planned to look at the glasses in Costco the next morning before deciding).  The young woman employee (staff here was much nicer than in either of the chain eyeglass stores we had been in) started asking me about which coatings I wanted.  I explained that I normally buy glass, but no one has them....  She priced them for in glass!  The last time I bought eyeglasses I had asked there and was told that they did not sell them so I was happily (for once) surprised.  I ordered them.  Husband pointed out that they had very low price on their cheapest eyeglasses and I ordered a pair with plastic lenses to keep in the car - 20% discount as I had bought the other pair.  I do not have either pair yet, but I am sure they will be fine.  Either way you will hear about them.

Today I went to NYC to a client.  The ride in to the garage I use normally takes me 45 minutes, the ride home 2 hours - plus a short subway ride each way.  In Queens on the way to the garage there was a crazy - or lost - 18 wheeler driver.  I was in the right lane and he started making a right turn from the center lane, cutting in front of me.  In addition he had made the turn at the wrong point of the intersection so he could not pull into the cross street as the cars on the far side heading out of the street were in his way.  I looked up and thought my car was about to destroyed as the side of the trailer was moving towards me.  I backed up as far as I could.  A man appeared - he may have been with the truck driver, more likely he was from a near by gas station - and had the cars behind me back up so I could back up further.  The first car in the cross street who had been waiting to pull out when the light changed had backed up as far as he could and he made a U turn - oh, by the way, I am not sure that the cross street he was turning into was not a one way street the opposite way.  Somehow he finally made the turn - missing me by less a foot!  Not a great start to the work day. 

Coming home every main road had at least one accident on it - no, really, even the ones which were not ones I could use to drive home and even roads in the surrounding states and north of NYC.  I generally use secondary roads to come home as it is during rush hour (I go in after rush hour in the morning), but had hoped to come on a main road as I finished an hour early - noooo, the secondary roads as usual.  It took me almost 3 hours to get home.  I did make one stop though along the way home to walk a bit and stretch my legs and use the - well you know. 

Now today was a beautiful day.  It was in the 60Fs and almost springlike - record breakingly warm in some locations for the day.  We are currently waiting for snow.  Once again, originally it was an inch or less, which became 6-10 inches as of yesterday and now there are blizzard warnings, schools announced as of this afternoon and early evening that they will be closed tomorrow - we are now, as of the 11 pm news, expecting 10-12 inches or more.  Husband is in a tizzy - he does not like snow as we have to clear the driveway, as well as he is now always afraid of losing our electricity.  (We lost it in major hurricanes - Sandy being one of them - a year apart, and a day after we got our electricity back after Sandy - we lost it in the nor’easter that came through.  Understand we had a devastingly major tropical storm and just over a week later had a major winter storm.)

If you are in the path of this storm - stay safe.  If you were hit by the recent tornados in Louisiana and Mississippi - or any other of this odd horrible weather patterns we are having - I hope you and yours are alright.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK (formerly of the day - makes more sense if I only list one thought a week) -

This week’s thought is the direct opposite of last week’s thought.  Last week’s thought was not to try to reinvent the wheel - ie. if a way to do something exists don’t try to come up with a new idea.  This week’s thought is to think outside the box.  (Yes, I know both are cliches.)

How can I now be suggesting the opposite of last week?  Well, sometimes one works and sometimes the other does.  If you have looked for an established way to do something and have not found one or are not are happy with what you find - look elsewhere.

Let’s use doing the laundry - yes, the same laundry that last week I did not “reinvent the wheel” to find something to sort it into.  I don’t hate doing the laundry (other than sheets as I mentioned in a earlier post), but I don’t love it.  I also do not like getting up and out of  bed in the morning.  So I wash and dry the laundry at night.  It generally takes me two nights to do this - I don’t start until husband has gone upstairs to the computer after dinner and the 11 pm news. (Right now I have the load of towels in the washer and the load of regular clothes in the dryer.)  I put the dried laundry in the basket and bring it upstairs when we go to bed.  When I do the regular clothes load I lay husband’s shirts across the rest of the laundry in the basket.  His shirts are the most likely items to wrinkle.  When we go up to bed I take the basket up with me.  I hang up his shirts before we go to bed to keep them from wrinkling.  The next morning after he is up and out of bed and at his computer (he is working when he is at the computer, which is why he is there so much) I take the basket of laundry to bed and sort and fold it.  My shirts - generally tee shirts so wrinkling is not really a problem - are tossed to the foot of the bed.  The rest of the laundry in the basket is folded (my socks are rolled, his are folded - it is personal preference) and put in stacks around me on the bed.  When I get up the laundry is put away except for my shirts.  Oh, if there has been a load of jeans - not done weekly - those are also tossed to the foot of the bed.  I will hang my shirts and the jeans that night when we go to bed - and generally there is more laundry done the second night and another basket to sort and fold the second morning - this one primarily bed linens and towels. 

This is not how one normally does clothes, but it works for me.  Although when husband first left his job and was home I did find out that 1 - he does not like having laundry folded and stacked on him while he is asleep and 2 - when he rolls over all the laundry has to be folded again. :-)

If we did not think outside the box - husband would not have his loom in our living room - no place else to set it up and use it. 

In our RV we have particularly learned to think outside the box as storage is limited and items must be stored where they fit and where they will not be moving around while the RV is in motion - hence our shoes are stored in a cubby (with a door) over the bed.  They only need to be reached (generally) in the morning and at night when we are getting up in or going to bed in, the bed and keeping them here leaves places which are more easily accessed free for other items.

So, if you need to find a way to do something first look to see if there is a common way to do it, then look for alternatives - no matter how the alternative is.

                       

WHAT A WEEK - AGAIN!

This was another whirlwind week of not much done. 

First - more Christmas followup.  I have packed most of my bear figurines from the living room and will soon put out my February bear figurines from the same set.  Large Santas and elves stored away on top of the main tree’s box and the basement was put back into order so that all could be used again down there.

Last Saturday night after we came home from the movies husband went upstairs to go online.  I was in the kitchen downstairs on this laptop doing the same.  Husband came running down the stairs a short while later.  He asked me if I was cooking anything as he smelled something burning.  I was not and went upstairs with him.  At the top of the landing I smelled an electrical burning smell. 

When we went into the office I knew it was coming from my side (the nearer to the door side) of the office.  I unplugged everything plugged in on my side.  We waited and the smell cleared up.  I then started plugging things back in, one at a time.  When I plugged in the printer the smell came back.  Unplugged it - smell went away.  We took out the paper tray and the toner cartridge and looked - nothing stuck inside.  We left it unplugged to explore what could be the problem.  After looking online and contacting the manufacturer we determined that the printer was no longer safe to use.  If plugged in the burning smell returns - blowing out of the side vents.  We were lucky that we were home when it started and we got the printer unplugged before it or anything else caught fire.

Now, we do/did have another printer set up in the room - it just costs more per copy - so that is not a problem.  It is all in one so we also lost the scanner, copier and fax.  Well, I also have a copier - it predates the computers but still is used and works well.  That left the scanner and the fax lacking.  We each have a scanner from before this one.  Husband went to set his up  - it does not seem to work with Windows 7 (or 10).  He managed to get it up and working with an older computer he still has set up which has Windows XP.  I have not tried to set up my older scanner yet - it will probably have the same problem and need to be set up to use with my laptop if we don’t replace the all in one now.  The fax function - well, we only fax a few times a year - mostly for medical matters so I am not as worried about same.

Husband immediately went out to buy a new unit - we saw what he thought we should get - a duplexing color laser all in one unit, which also duplex scans.  Pricey, but it is for my work.  Then he read the reviews and it did not rate well - actually none of the units seem to rate well.  He was in a hurry - I told him we should wait and take our time.  While in an office store over the weekend we saw a similar model - except it has no color.  Husband’s printer prints color, but he has not been happy with the color printing, so he was happy at the thought of a different color printer.  But, if we get the same unit without the color it is half the price - so that it was what we plan to go with. He took the old unit downstairs yesterday - we get a credit if we trade it in towards the new one.  Important - we made sure that there is nothing in any memory that might provide personal information to anyone - I checked with the manufacturer on what needed to be cleared and how to so so.  Tomorrow we plan to go and buy the replacement unit (on sale only until this Saturday and it will double in price if not bought by then).   I am sure setup and getting to know the new unit will take awhile. 

I also had my embroidery group meeting this week - I am on the board so I have to prepare a report for the meeting and it was my turn to bring snack - so yesterday in the (relatively light) snow we went out and spent an hour buying a small cake and a box of small doughnuts for me to bring. 

After the meeting I returned our soda bottles accumulated since the last meeting for their deposits and switched my offsite flash drive at the bank vault.  I tried to visit a couple of stores we don’t go to.  The craft store is now primarily a clothing factory.  The “new” supermarket has already gone out of business.  I did buy some canned tomatoes on sale.

Right now I should be doing the laundry and running my suitcase heater (stuff I brought to the meeting today and mail that has come in from people) but I had two new things tonight to deal with and if I did what I am suppose to do also - my head would explode - and I had to get my post written for tonight.

I use my old cell phone, a Palm, around the house as a PDA as my newer phone, a Blackberry, does not work for the “to dos” with the software I like.  I sync one and then the other with the same program in my computer.  The Palm would not sync.  I tried various things - including using a spare sync cord I have and trying to sync it with this laptop - but the computer does not “see” the Palm.  Too much going on right now.  I will work around this and not sync it until I figure out what is going on.  I may need to use husband’s old Palm which matches mine if mine is broken.  For now - I will not go crazy and get upset - I will use the appointments section of my Blackberry to deal with new items to do and to record what I have done when I am not at my computer until I figure it out. 

I paid some bills due out tomorrow and did some follow up to today’s meeting and made dinner.  During dinner husband says to me “You know that day trip to Pennsylvania I wanted to take a couple of weeks ago - maybe we can go Friday.”  My brain starts whirling - nothing major to do, I will just ignore the Palm problem a little longer. We can buy the printer tomorrow - even if we don’t get it set up, we will have bought it while it was on sale.  Uh, oh, there were other bills due out Friday and over the weekend and I need to transfer money to our business account - went upstairs after dinner and paid the bills and wrote a check to the business account - have to deposit it and another check tomorrow.  Soda on sale - we have to buy by Saturday when the sale ends - either tomorrow or Saturday it is.  So, I got downstairs much later than normal to write to all of you after a week of basically “treading water” to keep from falling behind and basically said to myself - “the laundry and the heating of the stuff can wait”.

I did clean the upstairs bathroom rather extensively last week.  I even got down on my hands and knees and cleaned around the edges where the floor meets the walls.  We have rather small bathrooms.  I have to lie across the (closed) toilet bowl to clean behind it - on an angle to one side and then again on the opposite angle to the other side.  To clean between the sink and the tub  I have to climb into the tub and lean out - but only slightly or I would hit my head on the sink.  Hah!  That’s when I bruised my knee - it was during cleaning the bathroom - I knew I would remember where the bruise came from!

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.  What I mean by this is that if something exists to use to do something or there is a good way to do something - don’t try to come up with something else.

I used to sort my laundry on an old bed sheet on the floor of the basement.  After we had mice husband said that it was too disgusting a place to sort the laundry.  I kept trying to figure out what to use instead.  I brought a tray table over near the washer and was balancing laundry on it for awhile as I tried to figure out what to do. 

Then one day it hit me - something exists to sort laundry into - it is called “a laundry sorter”.  You know, those frames with 3 bags hanging from them that one sorts laundry into.  How could I not have thought of same.  I never used one as I do not sort laundry in the typical way.  I normally sort the laundry by throwing the clothes (except jeans and other heavier items) into the washer, then a pile of towels, a pile of bed linens, then jeans and the heavier items into another pile.  Sometimes for various reasons there is more laundry and more piles. 

So now the clothes go into the washer as before.  The towels go into the front section of the sorter.  The bed linens in the next section.  The final section gets jeans, sweatshirts, etc.  The items in the last section are not necessarily washed every week. I hold them for a fuller load - I will do a load of jeans or I will do a load of heavier clothing such as sweatshirts as needed. 

So the idea is that if there is a way to do something, use it - don’t try to come up with a new way to do it. 

CIRCUMSTANCES CAN CHANGE WHAT I CAN GET DONE

First a followup - I now have the ornaments off the main Christmas tree, the studio tree, and the tree in the dining room which had all ornaments from Colonial Williamsburg.  (We have been members for a couple of decades and get one each year.)  The ornaments are boxed and ready for storage.  The trees are taken apart (artificial trees), boxed and stored in the basement. I also stored the decorations from the kitchen, dining room and our entry hall (one box total) in their box.  Living room is next.

I started thinking about how much more cleaning, organizing and cleaning up I used to get done and tried to figure out why I don’t get more done now.  Now I realize what I used to do would be much too little for many people, but it kept our house clean. Lately I only get the basics laundry, and changing bedding and towels, done.

When we were first married, husband would come home on Friday afternoon exhausted and go to bed early and I would clean our tiny apartment while he slept. Not too many rooms to clean and a time to do so. 

After we moved to our house I did not do a good job of cleaning - big house, my work load increased - then I started reading books about organizing.  We go to Barnes and Nobles weekly and I was bored and found out that there were books about organizing.  At about the same time we were on the board of a crafts organization which rotated the board meetings to different board members houses - I really needed to get the house in some semblance of order.  Then again we had saying in the group of kindred spirits - “Have the board meeting at your house, better you should clean then me.”  I started reading the books while we are at the bookstore - I read fairly quickly and would finish about a book a month.  While much of what was in the in the books did not apply to me, they did give me impetus to work at organizing and cleaning the house.

The schedule I came up with was that I used to clean the floors and dust the upstairs the first Wednesday of the month. On the second Wednesday of the month I would do the same downstairs and clean the bathroom downstairs.  On the third Wednesday I would again do the upstairs and clean the bathroom upstairs.  On the fourth I would again do the downstairs floors and dusting and clean the kitchen.  I did this for over a decade.  Now, I don’t get to anything that it is not urgent - WHY?

Again there was a change in my life.  My husband is home all the time now!  When he went to work I would clean upstairs in the morning on the weeks I did same and the downstairs in the evening while he was upstairs.  Now he is with me all the time and I have no more mornings as we get up late (and go to bed late) and he is around most of the evening.. 

Also we have the RV stuff in the dining room half the year - next to impossible to clean a floor covered with boxes.  Now we have the loom and it’s stuff in the living room - yes, it is now back and set up since the Christmas tree came down last week - again hard to clean around it. 

I used to food shop on Mondays and do a fill in on Fridays for the weekend if needed.  Husband hated food shopping so I did not want to need anything on the weekend when he would be home.  I also would make sure that I would not need to food shop while he was on vacation from work (his place was on a modified school year, several one week vacations).  Now we shop willy nilly - barely a list in my cell phone, no set day and we can end up food shopping 3 -5 days a week.  Last week we had a day when we spent an hour and half in 2 supermarkets - and bought maybe 6 items - he likes to go up and down aisles and see what there is - looking for the magic healthy, tasty, low in carbs meal he will love, which is he is sure exists somewhere.  I used to go out on Tuesdays - Thursdays for a 15 minute trip to and from the post office (check our box and mail anything to go out) - now we go out for at least an hour a day - wandering in one or the other of 3 stores.  All that time which could be used at home to get things done - gone.

So, life changed again.  So I have to come up with new plans for cleaning the house - because it needs to be done more often.  I am thinking of trying Tuesday nights instead of Wednesday days.     
Of course there still exists the problem of trying to clean while husband is home - clean a bathroom and he will need it and just try to dust his computers and desk while he is working at them.                    

I need to get the food shopping back on a schedule also.  We have had a shake up here in supermarkets which has made food shopping even more confusing.  The store I shopped at since we were married as my main store, was taken over around when he quit his job.  (Understand this was a mutual decision based on his being horribly burned out at the job and he works from home now.)  He was just starting coming food shopping with me then and he pointed out that we went to the market I had been going to and then to one from another chain as “mine” never had what I wanted any more. So we started just going to the “other” market. Since then the food markets here have changed.  The chain I used to go to and another chain owned by the same company are gone in bankruptcy.  In their old locations new markets are opening - several are upscale ones with food bars - too expensive unless there is a sale to buy food there and the food bars never look properly tended - another one of these (which will be the third chain like this around our area) will be opening in the fall.  The chain that was my alternate has opened a second store a little further away from us - in a better area with better parking so he is not as upset about going there as before.  And Walmart opened a “Neighborhood Market” here.  Our Walmart stores have small food sections.  They are not the huge food markets or stores that they are elsewhere (and are not open 24 hours).  This store is food and what one would normally find in a supermarket, but still not the size of the food departments in Walmarts in other areas nor do they carry everything the other Walmarts (or other supermarkets) carry.  To give you an idea - this store does not have a bakery - just items baked elsewhere and brought in; the deli counter never seems to be open - we wonder if we have to ask to have it opened. 

I need to start looking at the circulars and matching items to my list again.  I used to have a list on the fridge - who ever took the “item” which brought quantity left to the point where we needed to start looking to buy it, would the add the item to the list on the fridge. Now I put it in a “BUY list” memo in my cell phone.  We always seem to be in a rush, so I buy what we need NOW and wait for the rest.  I do try keep up my coupons - but our diets and lives are such that, combined with less coupons being delivered, and the fact that we buy some stuff at Costco which does not accept coupons, and that we buy a lot of store brand items, we use a lot less supermarket coupons than before.  (Though, last week the supermarket had brand name chicken soup - you know the brand - on sale for 49 cents with their store card and I had a coupon for $1.50 off - that was a good deal!)  I keep my coupons and store cards in the car so if I need something - it is just outside the store in the parking lot.  (I keep store cards we might use when traveling in the RV and some of them also in the car, and I keep store cards that are only local also in our van - just in case).  The coupon holders come with us on trips.  I have one holder for regular and store coupons and another just for a large hardware chain which puts out constant coupons (I am guessing you know which one I mean).  I bring them into the house once a week (okay, I mean to bring them in once a week, sometimes less often and sometimes I add or remove in the car while husband is driving) to pull out old coupons and add new ones.

Sometimes outside forces throw me off schedule.  I just put out two and a half weeks of the kitchen pail garbage (meaning most of the first floor garbage).  Why so much?  Well, our garbage pickup is on Mondays and Thursdays.  I normally put the kitchen garbage out on Sunday night for the Monday morning pickup.  Monday last week (the 16th) was a legal holiday and there was no pickup.  So, I planned to put it out on Wednesday night for Thursday - I forgot. We had a nor’easter here and the winds were suppose to start Monday morning.  I did not want my garbage flying all over and did not put it out Sunday night - and I left the second week’s garbage bag in the pail in the kitchen as there was room in it and it did not smell.  So, tonight I put out both bags for pickup tomorrow.  I also have a mostly full bag of trash in our office, with smaller bags to be added to it from our bedroom and upstairs bathroom, but that can go out Sunday for Monday pickup next week.  We don’t fill the office pail as quickly and it is mostly just paper. I also have two and a half weeks of recycling to go out - three weeks by Monday night when I will put it out for Tuesday pickup.  Since Monday the 16th was a holiday, I forgot to put out the recycling for Tuesday.  Then this past Monday/Tuesday we were still dealing with the nor’easter, so the recycling is sitting in the porch waiting to go.  I will make two stacks of papers and use a larger box to put out the cans and bottles and they will be gone (well, at least as of now they say next Sunday to Tuesday should be nice weather).  I put my newspapers out in cardboard boxes which we have gotten things in and recycle them at the same time.

I am trying to get back on some sort of schedule as I used to be to get it all done.  I have writing my post for this blog down for Tuesday night - so it can be posted very late Wednesday night -which might technically be early Thursday morning.  Many weeks I write it on Wednesday night.  This week I was good and wrote it on Tuesday night, then thought about it, and revised it before posting it - it is much less rambling than it was as I originally wrote it.
   
Do you have a schedule or just do what you can when you can?

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING - Any step forward is better than none.  I mentioned previously to change one thing and follow through on it. It took almost 29 years in this house - along with 9 years of stuff from our apartment and over 25 years of stuff from before that to get us to where we are.  It will not be gone quickly, even allowing for the fact that some of the stuff has already been gotten rid.  But any step forward is that much less to do afterward. 
   


           

TAKING DOWN CHRISTMAS

Last Thursday we had a nice day - not too cold and no rain or snow, so we took down our outside lights and stored them in the 2 plastic boxes we keep them in.  Husband climbed up in the garage and put the boxes away.  I also brought in our poinsettia and he stored them with the lights. 

What poinsettia outside in the cold in winter - how can it survive?  We have 3 holders in front of our house for flowers in pots.  We had given up trying to grow or keep growing flowers in the garden in front of our house.  We buy flowers in summer - we learned to buy geraniums as they last from the spring until they die from the cold as winter comes in.  But in winter the pots were empty.  We bought several fake poinsettia plants and put them in a set of 3 pots we bought for them.  Husband filled the pots with insulation foam which comes in cans and expands to fill the space they are in - we added some fake, thin garland over the foam (which set itself permanently into the foam) and we have lovely “poinsettia” to put out for Christmas. 

This year a number of houses still had their decorations up as of last weekend and we would not have rushed to shut off and take down the lights as long as others were lit, but figured that we would take them down while weather permitted.  Based on this logic, our lighted wreath (artificial of course) between our doors is still up and lit - this is the first year we had this wreath and will store it in our basement with our other “in the house” decorations as opposed to the shed where our other outdoor decorations are stored.  We have also left the battery operated candle lights in the windows for now.

Last Saturday we were to have “a trace to an inch of snow, which will not stick to paved surfaces”.  We went to a shopping mall about a half hour away, just to walk around someplace different for a change.  When we left a couple of hours later, there was at least an inch and it was sticking to paved surfaces except for main roads.  We decided not to go out to dinner and movie, and brought in Chinese food.  Afterwards I started taking down the ornaments from the main Christmas tree and the studio tree.  (The ornaments for the studio tree are stored with those for the main tree as I switch which handmade ornaments go on the studio tree each year.)  This was 2 days early, but husband is itching to start weaving on his loom again and we need to get rid of the tree to have enough room to set the loom threads up.   I filled one box of 4.  On Sunday evening I filled a second box.  On Monday another.  Tonight I filled the last box.  Well, they are not really filled as there are assorted ornaments - as well as the angel on top and her two angel friends just below her (all stitched by us) to be stored away as the last items off the tree - which have to be put into ziploc type bags for storage.  I have also been reminded that when I took out 2 bulbs from the tree lights (all of which still have to come off the tree) to plug in decorations, I dropped one.  So I am missing a bulb.  I put a white bag tie around the bulb holder so I can find it easily to deal with this as we put away the lights - spare bulbs and holders in the basement.  The rest of the decorations can take a little longer as they won’t be in his way.

Some thoughts on storing Christmas decorations - Some items I keep in the original box - these include ornaments which are special and come with a special box which one wants to keep.  The general fill in ball ornaments and such I also keep in their original box (or combined into original boxes as some have been lost over the years) as they keep better in same.  The assorted odd ornaments we have bought are combined into small boxes.  Each box has a list on the outside of which ornaments go into that box.  Breakables are wrapped in paper in the box.  The boxes vary from small gift boxes, tree light boxes, outer boxes that boxed ornaments came in, Christmas card boxes (the ones which have a cardboard box and cover), and so on.  This gives extra protection to the ornaments.  Some ornaments go into ziploc type plastic bags - fabric ornaments, some wooden ones (wrapped in paper) which husband turned on his lathe, a few odd ornaments (woven wheat, teasel animal...) .  The boxes, loose ornaments and plastic bags go into the 4 large plastic boxes, with some of the soft ornaments going into the box the tree is kept in if they are bulky.

The ornament boxes are numbered 1 to 4 and contents are put on the tree in that order.  By which, I mean the ornaments in box 1 are the ones I want to put on the tree first.  They are the nicest ones.  Box 1 also has the angel for the top of the tree and her two “friends” and the hooks for the ornaments.  (I have green wire ones which are pliable, they work amazingly better than the traditional ones as they can be bent in a variety of shapes.)  Box 4 has the “fill in the spaces” ornaments and the “icicles” to fill in empty spots also.  Putting them away is done in any order.  I have more of these large plastic boxes to hold the rest of the decorations.

Have you put away - or at least started to put away - your Christmas decorations yet? It is always so sad to “see them go”.  I know some of my neighbors have Valentine decorations up already.

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
Time is fixed - but it can be amazing how much more I find I can do in the same time when I have to.  I try to use short periods of time - perhaps we will be going out for dinner and husband is still upstairs and I have 5 or 10 minutes - I try to find something to do or at least start doing, whether organizing related or not in the time I have.  Small pieces of time can add up.       

A LITTLE SNOW

Last weekend we had our first snow of the year - okay, the year is not even 2 weeks old yet.  The only other snow this winter was very light and mostly melted before we woke up.

When husband went out to work and my time was my own, in winter I would plan trips to clients on days it was not snowing and stay in the house when it did and get all sorts of things done with the time I was “stuck” in the house.  No more.

My husband has become terrified of snow storms.  In the past he did not particularly like them, but now he is terrified. 

When we first moved into the house we were (relatively) young and had a driveway which was one car wide and 2 cars long, so we would park the two cars in line with each other, towards the bottom of the driveway and clean the snow behind the back car and between the two, and a path to the cars - no problem. We had a snow blower, but rarely used it.

After living in this house awhile we realized that we needed to be able to drive either car out of the driveway and we could not park either in the street and figure they would survive (we lost 2 side mirrors on the car we had in the street from the cars driving past - over the speed limit).  So we had a semi-circular drive put in.  Understand, our property is not big enough for same, so we now have about 90% of the front of our house paved - which means that any snow which is cleared off the driveway has to go onto the 10% of the front. 

At first we dealt with the snow the easy way.  I had a small 4 wheel drive SUV and he had an all wheel drive van, and the snow was just about never, if ever over, say 8 inches at a time - mostly less, so we did not clear the snow and just drove through it.   

Then came the year we were snowed out of the house - yes, snowed out.  We left on a trip to Williamsburg, VA in early December.  At home there was to be light flurries so we thought nothing of going away.  While enroute we heard about the snow falling at home and it was getting worse and worse.  Not wanting to go back and drive in the snow - we drove on.  While in Virginia we kept trying to find out about the snow back home.  At that time the Internet was relatively new, but the hotel did have wifi, and we checked the home television stations’ and the home local newspaper’s website.  The local paper from home was showing interesting photos of the midwest not home!  I tried calling my sister - she said it varies all over the area.  I tried calling my next door neighbor, an older woman, she said that she had not been out and didn’t know it snowed a lot.  We tend to arrive home at night when we travel and were concerned, since a foot plus of snow was being mentioned, about if we would arrive home and not be able to get into the house.  We were to stay Monday night in Pennsylvania on the way home.  I suggested to husband that he call into work and extend his time off a day.  This allowed us to stay in Pennsylvania an extra day - they were saying that Monday and Tuesday were to be warm and we hoped the snow would melt - as well as we could come home in the afternoon and have a chance at dealing with the snow.  It worked.  There was still a lot of snow, but with the help of all wheel drive, we were able to drive up the driveway. 

Husband never wanted this problem again and we made arrangements with our gardener to clear the snow for us in winter.  When he left his job and we could not afford the gardener, we hired his former secretary’s brother in law who was also a gardener, to cut the grass (never wanted the rest of the gardening work done anyway, but our original gardener would not come unless he did what he wanted) and clear the snow.  Worked great until he “sold us” to someone else. 

The new gardener was fine for a year or so.  Then a few years ago, we started getting snow such as rarely saw here.  Record breaking snow over and over again.  The first storm hit.  We waited for our driveway to be cleared.  No one came.  We called - the phone number was shut off.  We finally found out that the gardener had gone home to Ecuador for the winter!  He called us from there and said that someone would be here to clear the snow - they never came and husband’s fear started.

He went on Craig’s list and finally managed to get someone to come and deal with our snow.  By that time the snow had frozen.  The fellow had a plastic shovel and it was not enough to even break through.  We lent him our metal shovel (which will never be the same again).  Still problems.  Thanks to someone passing by with a plow on their truck who saw the problem and helped, the snow was broken through enough for the fellow to clear it. 

The next storm came - a 2 day storm with about as much snow.  The fellow could not come and husband went back to Craig’s list.  The fellow who came this time came with his wife and teenage son.  They came between the two days of the storm while there was a lull to make it easier.  They brought one shovel and borrowed one of ours - the metal one, of course that cannot be replaced.  They wanted coffee and were amazed that I had none in the house - cocoa was next suggested by them - none here either.  I offered tea - not wanted.  At the end of working he asked for half the money, I figured we had nothing to lose as they had done half the work and we paid them.      After we realized that they had taken our shovel.  The rest of the storm came, luckily less than the first part and much less than predicted.  The fellow said he would come - and didn’t - ditto a couple of times.  Then he came at 11 pm, said he was going for coffee and would be back to work - didn’t come.  We cleared the snow ourselves.  Now we had to get the snow shovel back - it took many calls and threats, but finally it appeared on the side of the house.  Some how we dealt with the snow the rest of the winter - several big storms spread out as we were never able to find anyone again to clear the snow.

The following winter husband contacted the first fellow early in the season before there was snow, but he was no longer doing snow clearance.  Husband finally found a landscaper who did residential snow removal and we signed a contract with him - for big prices.  His prices started at $100 and went to $175 depending on the amount of snow.  Beyond our budget, but what could we do.  Husband was in a constant state of nervousness waiting for the storm to come and then waiting for the crew to come and clear it.  Then again, the crew would come too early - often before the snow stopped falling and before the plows were done throwing snow back into our two driveway cuts.  If they cleared the driveway and we needed them back, even if just to clear what the plow through back, it was an extra fee.  To add fun to all of this, a neighbor 2 houses away had an arrangement with the neighbor between to clear her driveway in exchange for parking one of their extra cars on her driveway and one in front of their house (they have 5 cars with a one car driveway, as they have 3 adult children living at home).  The son who parked in front of her house did the work.  He would clear everything and throw it in the street in front of our driveway and we would have to go out and clear the cut - or pay to have it done.  I finally had enough and called his mom and complained the winter before the house between was sold and we did not have to deal with him any more. 

Understand, when I am saying record setting storms, we were getting storms that were in the top 10 in size for the area or new number one storms consistently over 2 -3 years - sometimes every other day - it would snow, it would be clear, we would go out to the post office and run errands.  The next day it would snow again and repeat.  It was so confusing that I managed to make more than the 6 withdrawals we are allowed from our savings account (had to pay for the snow clearing) and was charged a fee, which I managed to get waived.  In addition we have had abnormally cold temperatures.

This year the landscaper who was clearing our snow sent husband an email that he was no longer doing any residential snow removal - panic set in.  We could find no one else.  Husband decided to buy a new, lighter, smaller snow blower so we could do the work.  Our problem with same over the years is that we have to clear a path to the backyard shed to get the snow blower out.  We figured with the smaller blower we would get a small shed and put it in front of the side door and only need to get there.  Well, we bought the snow blower, but it was too late in the season to buy the shed.  So we have the snow blower in the corner of the garage - just inside the door and we have to shovel to there. 

Last Saturday night we were to have 2-4 inches of snow.  Husband was going crazy.  In the middle of the storm - which was definitely going to be more than they said - there was a lull. Husband has had a terrible cold these past few weeks. I went out and shoveled the way to the garage, as well as across the front of the garage door and around to the side door, on the logic that there would be less snow to deal with later to get to the garage.  This in the end did not do much, but it made him feel better.  Our area got the highest snow of the county (the county east of us got much more) and we cleared it up in 40 minutes.  Luckily we are having warmer days and other than snow plowed or pushed into piles, much of it is melted. 

He is still concerned about “a big one”, but at least we know we have a half a chance.  He has agreed that if we need to we will clear part and come in and rest than do more and that he may need to let me run the snow blower for awhile.     

So most of the week was involved with getting him ready for the snow, watching it snow, and clearing the snow. 

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -

First -have you done one thing - and kept doing it?

Be honest - are your Christmas decorations still up?  Ours are.  We put our decorations up late and tend to leave them up a little later.  Of course we would not dream of taking them down before the twelfth day of Christmas (Three Kings Day, Ephiphany, Little Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, it has many names).  But even that seems too early for us.  We picked the 3rd Monday of January as when we start to take down the decorations. 

Set a specific date (calender date or such as ours - by the day) to start taking down your decorations and have what you will store them in available when you start. 

I have the boxes in the basement and will bring them up.  I tend to take the decorations down opposite to how I normally put them up - trees first, then decorations, then my teddy bear decorations.  They all have assigned boxes to be stored in.      

Our outside decorations will come down early this year as we are having a warm spell and the snow has melted - we plan to take the lights on the bushes down tomorrow and store them away while we can.

So make your plans and get ready to take down your decorations - then again, there is one house we pass just about daily that always has its outside Christmas decorations up - lots of them - and then gets turned on in season - it does look odd though in July!