I was taught to be very careful when cooking, My mom’s stove (an electric one) had 1 2 3 heat settings on the dial. I was taught never to walk out of the room if a burner was set at 2 or 3 and never to walk out of house when the stove was on (unless in either case someone else was in the room to watch the stove). After we married, in our apartment we had a (natural) gas stove/oven combination which scared the heck out of me as I was always afraid that it would blow up. I had to light the oven with a match to use it and was always sure that would be the last thing I did. (I actually once smelled gas outside the apartment as we were going out, called the gas company and when we got home later we had no stove. I telephoned to have it turned back on per the note left. When I asked, I was told that this all stemmed from a woman who had smelled the gas leak in the street and called them - hey, that was me.)
When we bought this house there was a gas stove/range combination also. I was not happy about that. I was even more upset when I was sure I smelled gas when we were in the house for later visits before we bought it. I was again right. Rather than get the unit repaired, we bought an electric stove/oven unit and had the kitchen wired for it.
Last night I made for dinner a pot pie we had bought on sale (we bought a few of them on sale - these are small production ones, not the major brands ones). I, of course, had forgotten to go down and put it in the oven to bake and therefore did so an hour late. Husband really likes these pies so he did not complain. I bake it in an oven which sits on the counter (uses 1/3 of the counter space we have). I carefully pulled the oven away from the wall and the stove and removed some plastic storage items sitting next to the oven to the other side of the kitchen. I lined the pan with foil to keep it clean.
In the interim while it was cooking I set the table, laid out our pills for dinner, etc. I would have thought nothing of walking out of the kitchen while the baking was going on, but in this case I stayed in the kitchen.
I made a can of soup for us to share as a first course. I split the can of soup before cooking it and use two small pots to cook it. It is worth cleaning the extra pot as it is much easier to split the soup as it comes out of the can and husband likes more water added to his soup than I do. As the pie went into its last ½ hour of cooking, we sat down and had the soup. After I poured the soup into our bowls, I put the pots on the stove. The burners for the soup had been shut off and I also made sure not to put the pots on the burners they had been on as the burners were still hot (electric burners take a short while to cool down after they shut off). As I said, I am very careful.
When the pie was done cooking, the countertop oven beeped and I took it out and put the pan on the stove - on the larger burner in the front on one side which was cold. We had the very nice pot pie for dinner.
After dinner I normally have a cup of tea for dinner. I normally cook it on the rear smaller burner, but I had moved the pots onto the baking pan and had put it on that rear burner, so I put the pot of water on the front, larger, burner to boil it and turned on the burner. I went back to the kitchen table - 5-6 feet away - and started reading the newspaper (TV was on for husband) while I waited to hear the water boiling.
It dawned on me that it was a bit long for the water to take to boil and something smelled wrong and notices small bits of black floating around the room. I had turned on the wrong burner!! I had turned on the burner with the pots and baking pan! I shut it off and using pot holders moved the burner with the pots still on it to another burner that was cold.
Luckily I caught it before we had an actual fire. The stove was covered in soot and the pots looked burned. The foil I had put in the baking pan was what seemed to be the black wisps flying around the room and the pan had a mark that went through it. I never did have tea. Husband suggested checking inside the oven to make sure all was okay there - I carefully put my hand on the front of it first to check that it was not hot before I opened it.
When they cooled a tiny bit, I put the pots and the pan into a dish pan of cold water to finish cooling them off. I was surprise that the pots and the pan (even the foil stuck to the pan) cleaned so easily. The pan though rocked when I put it on a flat surface, distorted by the heat. After I was done with pots and the pan, I started on the stove. It cleaned up much quicker and easier than I thought it would. I took apart the burner that all this happened on to clean it and found when I took out the drip pan that the foil liner in the drip pan had mostly melted. This had been the source of the black wisps floating about. I immediately pulled the liners in the other 3 pans - too dangerous (despite this not happening in the past 30 years) - and threw them out also.
Today husband was able to mostly get the baking pan to stop rocking by leaning on it. The kitchen no longer has a burning smell. Unrelated to all of this, we took in Chinese food for dinner tonight (easy way to deal with Ash Wednesday for husband).
Something we realized later in the evening when I boiled water - with the same pot I started to do so to make tea - later in the evening for some hot cereal before bed. The smoke detector had not gone off. (For a reminder of a past cooking incident that did set off the smoke detector see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/07/not-in-pennsylvania.html )
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Well two of them actually. Be careful when cooking - even if you think that you are being careful - be more careful.
If you have foil drip pans in your stove - TAKE THEM OUT.
Showing posts with label declutter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label declutter. Show all posts
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Thursday, February 14, 2019
EVEN WHEN ONE USE A PROCESS TO DO THINGS - THINGS CAN GO AWRY
Do you use processes to help you get or stay organized? If you are not sure what I mean - I mean doing things the same way or on the same day or at the time every time you do them? I try to. Lately though, as part of this craziness going on here, things slip through the process and go awry or go missing.
Sometime around December my desk scissors went missing. I keep them in the drawer over the leg hole of my desk, right in the front. Husband and I both looked high and low for them over the ensuing couple of months. He thought he found them in our studio in the “small tool drawer”, where our scissors for the studio are, but that was the duplicate pair I keep there. I really like these scissors. He started suggesting that I get new ones. I am a stubborn person and refused. Well, last Friday I opened my desk drawer for something and - the scissors were back. Neither of us has any idea how this happened, I am just glad they are back and I no longer have to use a small knife for things I should be using scissors for.
I have a definite process for credit card receipts. I collect them in a pocket in my wallet. I empty the pocket Friday night and Sunday night (we do a lot of our shopping over the weekend). When I take them out of my wallet they go into a basket hanging at the foot of the stairs - the mail and similar go here also - and my next trip upstairs they go upstairs. I then sort them at my desk and put them into the corresponding pockets in a small loose leaf book. They then wait snugly there until they are matched with the statement and then will be attached to same when I pay the statement. So how do they go missing? One night in January when husband had a cold we stopped between Saturday night dinner and Saturday night movie to buy a box of cold pills for him. On arriving home we found out we already had a started box of the same medicine. (Ever happen to you - I am sure it has.) I put the box and the receipt into a section of the holder for files on my desk to wait until I knew he did not need a second box. He took the medicine once from the started box and decided it did not work.
So a couple of weeks later I went to take the medicine back. The box was there, the receipt was not. I went crazy looking for it. I climbed all over the floor in the office. I disassembled the folder holder so I could look under it (too big, heavy and unwieldy to move as one piece). I checked where the receipt should be. Not found. I finally tried to return it without the receipt - not for medications, so we have a spare box of a medication we don’t really take. My fault - if the receipt had gone where it belonged in the interim, it would have been there when needed.
Now the latest thing gone astray - and the worst. I am the treasurer and the membership chair of our reenactment unit. In mid January I mailed out the renewal forms to members. It is sort of an odd setup. Members join in family groups which can be from 1 person to any amount, generally 4 is the largest group. Members can also just join our unit or also join a national reenactment group that our unit is part of. I need to keep careful records of which group rejoined, who in the family rejoined, who in the family rejoined or joined the national group also. I have a spread sheet that I copy over year to year to keep track - I remove anyone who was not in “last year” and add anyone who joined “last year”. It is all set up to keep track of and total what each group paid and the totals of everyone. I am suppose to send the renewals and dues of members of the national group by the beginning of March to the national group’s membership chair. I also list all checks - for this or any other reason - in a notebook.
So last week I emailed out to those members not listed on the spreadsheet a reminder to renew. I heard back from one member. Her husband had mailed us the renewal form and check for them and their 2 sons and they had gotten the “if you are receiving this you did not renew yet” email. I remembered receiving their renewal. I also remembered, as she mentioned in her email, that her husband had taken care of it and had filled in and paid for the national group also. Since they were not members of same in the past - and her husband had done the paperwork - I decided to check with them about the renewal and set it aside to contact them.
And that is where the problem comes in. I can’t find their paperwork or check. I emailed her back right away and told her I remembered receiving it and would get back to her. I am pretty sure I know which day I received their renewal - it was the day in January I went to my client in Manhattan, husband could not go out food shopping for the upcoming storm due to the van having no brakes, when I came home we ran out food shopping, then back home as I forgotten the items I needed to mail out for us and the client, and while at the post office I picked up the mail. The date fits and then we did not go out for several days. I also remember it was the first renewal I received and that my husband was not in the post office when I found it in our box - and he almost always comes in with me - except that day. I have been thorough all of my briefcases and computer bags - even the ones that were in the closet straight through. Any folder I could think of. The desk and file drawers. Under the desks. The car and its hatch. I cannot find it. My husband cannot find it. I have been getting lectures from husband (who cannot find anything without me) about being more careful.
Today I gave up and humbled myself and sent an email to the member apologizing, explaining, apologizing again... I told her I marked them as renewed. I suggested that she send a replacement check as the first one was the wrong amount (paid too much) anyway. I told her when I find the other check, I will return it to her.
I am kicking myself about what went wrong. It bothers the heck out of me. Generally paperwork is the one area that I keep well organized. I am not suppose to loose things - and not be able to find them - and 3 items in a couple of months is 3 items too many. I realize that all I can do is keep looking until I find the item or it becomes moot. I am hoping whichever “fairy” gave me back my scissors will smile on me again and return the missing renewal to me and the missing receipt - but the missing return is more important.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Set up processes to help yourself get organized. Keep at them and follow what you set up and it should help. Whether it is keeping track of papers, doing the laundry on the same day each week, changing towels and bed linens on a weekly schedule, or cleaning the house. I keep the daily (make dinner), weekly, monthly, annual and other odd repeating items in my organizer and Palm - they could also be in a smart phone or paper calendar/appointment book. This helps to remind to do things at the same time. On Wednesdays I start doing the laundry (usually takes 2 to 3 evenings between washing, drying, folding, and putting away) at night. I also write my post to all of you if I have not done so on Tuesday. (Last week I got it done on Tuesday and then forgot it was Tuesday and posted a day early.) I also go and “visit” an embroidery group online if I have time.
What can you set up in your calendar to remind you to do every day, week, month, etc.? Try it, it works well. A reminder alarm can even be set to remind you.
Hoping you have a nice Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
Sometime around December my desk scissors went missing. I keep them in the drawer over the leg hole of my desk, right in the front. Husband and I both looked high and low for them over the ensuing couple of months. He thought he found them in our studio in the “small tool drawer”, where our scissors for the studio are, but that was the duplicate pair I keep there. I really like these scissors. He started suggesting that I get new ones. I am a stubborn person and refused. Well, last Friday I opened my desk drawer for something and - the scissors were back. Neither of us has any idea how this happened, I am just glad they are back and I no longer have to use a small knife for things I should be using scissors for.
I have a definite process for credit card receipts. I collect them in a pocket in my wallet. I empty the pocket Friday night and Sunday night (we do a lot of our shopping over the weekend). When I take them out of my wallet they go into a basket hanging at the foot of the stairs - the mail and similar go here also - and my next trip upstairs they go upstairs. I then sort them at my desk and put them into the corresponding pockets in a small loose leaf book. They then wait snugly there until they are matched with the statement and then will be attached to same when I pay the statement. So how do they go missing? One night in January when husband had a cold we stopped between Saturday night dinner and Saturday night movie to buy a box of cold pills for him. On arriving home we found out we already had a started box of the same medicine. (Ever happen to you - I am sure it has.) I put the box and the receipt into a section of the holder for files on my desk to wait until I knew he did not need a second box. He took the medicine once from the started box and decided it did not work.
So a couple of weeks later I went to take the medicine back. The box was there, the receipt was not. I went crazy looking for it. I climbed all over the floor in the office. I disassembled the folder holder so I could look under it (too big, heavy and unwieldy to move as one piece). I checked where the receipt should be. Not found. I finally tried to return it without the receipt - not for medications, so we have a spare box of a medication we don’t really take. My fault - if the receipt had gone where it belonged in the interim, it would have been there when needed.
Now the latest thing gone astray - and the worst. I am the treasurer and the membership chair of our reenactment unit. In mid January I mailed out the renewal forms to members. It is sort of an odd setup. Members join in family groups which can be from 1 person to any amount, generally 4 is the largest group. Members can also just join our unit or also join a national reenactment group that our unit is part of. I need to keep careful records of which group rejoined, who in the family rejoined, who in the family rejoined or joined the national group also. I have a spread sheet that I copy over year to year to keep track - I remove anyone who was not in “last year” and add anyone who joined “last year”. It is all set up to keep track of and total what each group paid and the totals of everyone. I am suppose to send the renewals and dues of members of the national group by the beginning of March to the national group’s membership chair. I also list all checks - for this or any other reason - in a notebook.
So last week I emailed out to those members not listed on the spreadsheet a reminder to renew. I heard back from one member. Her husband had mailed us the renewal form and check for them and their 2 sons and they had gotten the “if you are receiving this you did not renew yet” email. I remembered receiving their renewal. I also remembered, as she mentioned in her email, that her husband had taken care of it and had filled in and paid for the national group also. Since they were not members of same in the past - and her husband had done the paperwork - I decided to check with them about the renewal and set it aside to contact them.
And that is where the problem comes in. I can’t find their paperwork or check. I emailed her back right away and told her I remembered receiving it and would get back to her. I am pretty sure I know which day I received their renewal - it was the day in January I went to my client in Manhattan, husband could not go out food shopping for the upcoming storm due to the van having no brakes, when I came home we ran out food shopping, then back home as I forgotten the items I needed to mail out for us and the client, and while at the post office I picked up the mail. The date fits and then we did not go out for several days. I also remember it was the first renewal I received and that my husband was not in the post office when I found it in our box - and he almost always comes in with me - except that day. I have been thorough all of my briefcases and computer bags - even the ones that were in the closet straight through. Any folder I could think of. The desk and file drawers. Under the desks. The car and its hatch. I cannot find it. My husband cannot find it. I have been getting lectures from husband (who cannot find anything without me) about being more careful.
Today I gave up and humbled myself and sent an email to the member apologizing, explaining, apologizing again... I told her I marked them as renewed. I suggested that she send a replacement check as the first one was the wrong amount (paid too much) anyway. I told her when I find the other check, I will return it to her.
I am kicking myself about what went wrong. It bothers the heck out of me. Generally paperwork is the one area that I keep well organized. I am not suppose to loose things - and not be able to find them - and 3 items in a couple of months is 3 items too many. I realize that all I can do is keep looking until I find the item or it becomes moot. I am hoping whichever “fairy” gave me back my scissors will smile on me again and return the missing renewal to me and the missing receipt - but the missing return is more important.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Set up processes to help yourself get organized. Keep at them and follow what you set up and it should help. Whether it is keeping track of papers, doing the laundry on the same day each week, changing towels and bed linens on a weekly schedule, or cleaning the house. I keep the daily (make dinner), weekly, monthly, annual and other odd repeating items in my organizer and Palm - they could also be in a smart phone or paper calendar/appointment book. This helps to remind to do things at the same time. On Wednesdays I start doing the laundry (usually takes 2 to 3 evenings between washing, drying, folding, and putting away) at night. I also write my post to all of you if I have not done so on Tuesday. (Last week I got it done on Tuesday and then forgot it was Tuesday and posted a day early.) I also go and “visit” an embroidery group online if I have time.
What can you set up in your calendar to remind you to do every day, week, month, etc.? Try it, it works well. A reminder alarm can even be set to remind you.
Hoping you have a nice Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
2018 SEEMS TO BE CONTINUING INTO 2019
Well, this year seems to be a continuation of last year. Not only did husband hurt himself again (as I mentioned last week) - although a lot less than he did last year, I am doing things over again.
I still have one client who has an employee - herself. I have to prepare an IRS W2 form for her each January, along with a covering form named (appropriately) W3. Then since I don’t use a business name, I also have to prepare a similar form for people one pays that are not employees called 1099-MISC which also needs a covering form named 1096. Unlike most IRS forms which one can download from their website and fill in, these forms have red markings on the copies which go to IRS and can only be filled in as a preprinted form - available from IRS for free and can also be purchased at stationary stores and online. One can also buy software to fill in the forms, The alternative to filling in the forms is to do it online free at the IRS website (or various companies that charge to do so). Most companies have payroll companies which take care of their payroll for them and deal with this for them.
Knowing I will need to do this and knowing that my typing is terrible, even with the word processing typewriter (lets one type a line, check it, and then print it) I have, I always order more forms than I need to have spares. I do this in December so I will have them in January to fill them in. I did so last month - in December 2018, ordering forms for the 2018 year. The forms arrived within the 10 days they are suppose to arrive. I opened the envelope - remember all the craziness last month - and I checked the form numbers and how many of them had been sent - all okay. I put them under my desk where I keep the forms to wait for this month. I am so organized about this since I do it every year.
Last Thursday I decided to fill in the forms while I had some time. I know what the client’s payroll is and can do so without having gone to her yet this month. These forms used to be that the form to the employee/other person had to be given to them by the end of January and mailed to IRS by the end of February. Due to the increasing number of fraudulent tax forms being filed, as of 2 years ago the IRS copies also have to be filed by the end of January. So I fill in the forms before I go to my client so I can have her sign them and mail them out. (I used to bring them to her in February and they were signed and mailed then.)
It took me all 6 copies of the W2 forms I have, and at least 2-3 of the other forms to get a correctly typed form and over Thursday and Friday. I breathed a sigh of relief and scanning them into my computer to keep a copy of them on same. I scanned in the W3 and W2 forms. I then scanned in the 1096 form and was about to scan in the 1099 form when I noticed something and got extremely upset. I had not received 2018 forms - I was sent 2017 forms and none of the forms I had typed were usable. Not only that, but since one can no longer pick up forms at local IRS offices, I had to order them again - during the Federal government shut down!
We went looking online. I can buy the forms - they will run me around $60 for all 4 forms as they sold in much larger quantities than even I with my terrible typing would need to make one form of each. I also would have to make sure that the forms were attached multiple parts that allow one to type all copies at once (W2 forms are 6 part, the 1099 forms are 4 part and the others are 2 part) as if they are not I would have to type each copy of the form separately. (The forms have extra copies as there are copies for IRS, state, employer, and the W2 has 3 copies for the employee - the 1099 has one copy, and the other two have a copy to file with IRS and copy for the employer to keep.)
I can file them directly online with IRS, but I don’t like the idea of putting the client’s and my Social Security number through the Internet, but if nothing else works, that will be what I have to do.
So, I am waiting to see if I receive the forms from IRS before I go to the client - and then start typing them all over again. If I don’t received them in time, I will have to file them online. If I do receive them in time - I have to type them all over again!!
I am not sure why we are in a “place” where it seems that everything we do - from something as simple to as buying a Barbie doll to tax forms that I prepare every year to ordering checks has to be redone.
On the other hand, I did get the second order of the checks I ordered and this order seems to be correct. I am currently shredding the incorrect ones. (I held on to them in case they wanted them back.) To make sure I did not “muck it up” I stored the second, correct set before starting to shred the first set. I am shredding them a bit at a time to not overwhelm the shredder.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes when we are in a “bad” time it just goes on and on. I know that at some point - hopefully soon - this will end and I will be able to go back to doing things once. One just has to do what needs to be done until there is change in karma.
I still have one client who has an employee - herself. I have to prepare an IRS W2 form for her each January, along with a covering form named (appropriately) W3. Then since I don’t use a business name, I also have to prepare a similar form for people one pays that are not employees called 1099-MISC which also needs a covering form named 1096. Unlike most IRS forms which one can download from their website and fill in, these forms have red markings on the copies which go to IRS and can only be filled in as a preprinted form - available from IRS for free and can also be purchased at stationary stores and online. One can also buy software to fill in the forms, The alternative to filling in the forms is to do it online free at the IRS website (or various companies that charge to do so). Most companies have payroll companies which take care of their payroll for them and deal with this for them.
Knowing I will need to do this and knowing that my typing is terrible, even with the word processing typewriter (lets one type a line, check it, and then print it) I have, I always order more forms than I need to have spares. I do this in December so I will have them in January to fill them in. I did so last month - in December 2018, ordering forms for the 2018 year. The forms arrived within the 10 days they are suppose to arrive. I opened the envelope - remember all the craziness last month - and I checked the form numbers and how many of them had been sent - all okay. I put them under my desk where I keep the forms to wait for this month. I am so organized about this since I do it every year.
Last Thursday I decided to fill in the forms while I had some time. I know what the client’s payroll is and can do so without having gone to her yet this month. These forms used to be that the form to the employee/other person had to be given to them by the end of January and mailed to IRS by the end of February. Due to the increasing number of fraudulent tax forms being filed, as of 2 years ago the IRS copies also have to be filed by the end of January. So I fill in the forms before I go to my client so I can have her sign them and mail them out. (I used to bring them to her in February and they were signed and mailed then.)
It took me all 6 copies of the W2 forms I have, and at least 2-3 of the other forms to get a correctly typed form and over Thursday and Friday. I breathed a sigh of relief and scanning them into my computer to keep a copy of them on same. I scanned in the W3 and W2 forms. I then scanned in the 1096 form and was about to scan in the 1099 form when I noticed something and got extremely upset. I had not received 2018 forms - I was sent 2017 forms and none of the forms I had typed were usable. Not only that, but since one can no longer pick up forms at local IRS offices, I had to order them again - during the Federal government shut down!
We went looking online. I can buy the forms - they will run me around $60 for all 4 forms as they sold in much larger quantities than even I with my terrible typing would need to make one form of each. I also would have to make sure that the forms were attached multiple parts that allow one to type all copies at once (W2 forms are 6 part, the 1099 forms are 4 part and the others are 2 part) as if they are not I would have to type each copy of the form separately. (The forms have extra copies as there are copies for IRS, state, employer, and the W2 has 3 copies for the employee - the 1099 has one copy, and the other two have a copy to file with IRS and copy for the employer to keep.)
I can file them directly online with IRS, but I don’t like the idea of putting the client’s and my Social Security number through the Internet, but if nothing else works, that will be what I have to do.
So, I am waiting to see if I receive the forms from IRS before I go to the client - and then start typing them all over again. If I don’t received them in time, I will have to file them online. If I do receive them in time - I have to type them all over again!!
I am not sure why we are in a “place” where it seems that everything we do - from something as simple to as buying a Barbie doll to tax forms that I prepare every year to ordering checks has to be redone.
On the other hand, I did get the second order of the checks I ordered and this order seems to be correct. I am currently shredding the incorrect ones. (I held on to them in case they wanted them back.) To make sure I did not “muck it up” I stored the second, correct set before starting to shred the first set. I am shredding them a bit at a time to not overwhelm the shredder.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes when we are in a “bad” time it just goes on and on. I know that at some point - hopefully soon - this will end and I will be able to go back to doing things once. One just has to do what needs to be done until there is change in karma.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
GLAD THIS MONTH IS OVER
This month has a been a bit too much. I will be glad when it is behind me. Just this week, to give you an idea.
I did get my mom to the doctor yesterday for her checkup yesterday after needing to change the appointment a few times. I told her to make sure to blame me to the doctor and his staff so they would not be upset with her. She has a pacemaker and was past due to have it checked, as well as having her blood, etc. checked. Mom is 89. She still lives alone in our family house and still drives. She hates to ask for help; I keep telling her to call me when she needs to go somewhere she doesn’t want to drive to, but until now she has refused to call me. In this case she had a problem due to construction near the doctor’s office when she went there earlier in the month as she cannot walk distances and would have had to park too far away. Hence why she called for a ride, I could drop her off if there was still a problem, park and come back, etc. All was good, although blood work will, of course, take a day or two. We had lunch together afterwards for about 3 or 4 hours. We had been headed for a kosher deli - I had to park 4 stores away from it - mom was impressed with my parallel parking, something I just take for granted. But as we inched along, we (she) stopped at a pizza place and while stopped looked in and thought how nice it was - should we go there instead? I was not looking forward to a overfilled, overpriced (especially since I knew she would insist on paying) turkey sandwich (least fatty of the meats there). So I jumped at the change - less for her to walk, lighter meal, and much less expensive. We each had a cheese slice and diet soda and sat and talked and talked. (I write like I talk and she talks more and longer than I do.) It was between meal times and the place was empty or I would have not have stayed, taking up the table as long as we did.
We did go to the Long Island Fair last Sunday to do an embroidery demonstration - and to visit friends we only see at the Fair. One woman used to be the Supervisor of the Juvenile section for decades and had to give it up due to eye trouble, was not at the Fair last year at all. (She continued to volunteer after she gave up the Supervisor position.) I was so glad that she had her son drop her off for a visit. She was sitting in the Juvenile section and as soon as volunteers heard she was there, we all stopped by to see her. She is 90. I was so glad to hear that she was basically well - she had vision problems, which is now mostly blindness and now has hearing problems, but she is the same always in all other regards. After the day, which was the last day of the Fair, was pick up of entries - my three dimensional butterfly embroidery shocked me and won second prize. I had seen the lovely and involved pieces that it was competing with when I dropped it off and figured that I would get an honorable mention due to the technique. That is one project that sat for decades finished. Now to pick another one to finsih. While at the Fair I was also able to check in with someone who is a mutual friend of a friend who moved to South Carolina and find out the couple in SC survived Florence with no problems.
I was suppose to go to a client this week. I called her yesterday (while mom was seeing the doctor) to go there Thursday. The client said it was a problem and could I come on Friday. (Glad she did not say today as we were suppose to have horrible rain - yes, there was rain, but not as bad as they said.) I called her today to say that I could come on Friday, but she didn’t really want me there then, either (even though she had suggested it). Apparently they are filming a movie at her location and her cousin who keeps her company is ill - besides, she tells me, she has had no business all month, so there is little for me to do. So, I will be going there in 2 weeks and do the September and October work at the same time.
In my mind this was great. I get another day to catch up on stuff - the bathrooms REALLY need cleaning. But no, when husband hears that I am not going to the client on Friday, he suggests that since he wants to go to Pennsylvania on Saturday for a wool show, we could go down on Friday for the day and stay overnight. So, the bathrooms will wait a little longer.
Today was the day I write the newsletter for my embroidery chapter and send it out by email. I managed to get that done after dinner - normally done in the afternoon, but there was other “fires” to put out then. I send out 3 versions of the newsletter - the basic newsletter is the same, the email with it changes - one to our members, one to prospective members and one to the other newsletter editors in our region and our region director.
This coming Sunday we were suppose to go to a reenactment event with our unit, but the unit is backing out of it as too few members can go and the place is changing what it said about our setup.
Now in addition to writing to all of you, I am doing our laundry. Will go and change loads between writing this and sending it out. Dinner dishes were done before the newsletter. Kitchen sink area is setup with dish towels over the dish rack, the front of the sink, the windowsill behind the sink, and the pots drying on a towel next to the other side of the sink - so husband can come and wash his hair in the sink. The dishpan I use in the sink is out on a counter with items waiting for washing before we go to bed. ( I made instant diet pudding for snack - the items needed for such are most of what is waiting to be washed.) But no - I still have not thrown out the bad eggs.
And next week I am suppose to teach new stitches (my choice) at the embroidery meeting!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Sometimes it seems that what must be done in terms of larger projects and appointments is coming too often, too much and too fast. Take it one project at a time, that is all one can do. Things will get done.
I did get my mom to the doctor yesterday for her checkup yesterday after needing to change the appointment a few times. I told her to make sure to blame me to the doctor and his staff so they would not be upset with her. She has a pacemaker and was past due to have it checked, as well as having her blood, etc. checked. Mom is 89. She still lives alone in our family house and still drives. She hates to ask for help; I keep telling her to call me when she needs to go somewhere she doesn’t want to drive to, but until now she has refused to call me. In this case she had a problem due to construction near the doctor’s office when she went there earlier in the month as she cannot walk distances and would have had to park too far away. Hence why she called for a ride, I could drop her off if there was still a problem, park and come back, etc. All was good, although blood work will, of course, take a day or two. We had lunch together afterwards for about 3 or 4 hours. We had been headed for a kosher deli - I had to park 4 stores away from it - mom was impressed with my parallel parking, something I just take for granted. But as we inched along, we (she) stopped at a pizza place and while stopped looked in and thought how nice it was - should we go there instead? I was not looking forward to a overfilled, overpriced (especially since I knew she would insist on paying) turkey sandwich (least fatty of the meats there). So I jumped at the change - less for her to walk, lighter meal, and much less expensive. We each had a cheese slice and diet soda and sat and talked and talked. (I write like I talk and she talks more and longer than I do.) It was between meal times and the place was empty or I would have not have stayed, taking up the table as long as we did.
We did go to the Long Island Fair last Sunday to do an embroidery demonstration - and to visit friends we only see at the Fair. One woman used to be the Supervisor of the Juvenile section for decades and had to give it up due to eye trouble, was not at the Fair last year at all. (She continued to volunteer after she gave up the Supervisor position.) I was so glad that she had her son drop her off for a visit. She was sitting in the Juvenile section and as soon as volunteers heard she was there, we all stopped by to see her. She is 90. I was so glad to hear that she was basically well - she had vision problems, which is now mostly blindness and now has hearing problems, but she is the same always in all other regards. After the day, which was the last day of the Fair, was pick up of entries - my three dimensional butterfly embroidery shocked me and won second prize. I had seen the lovely and involved pieces that it was competing with when I dropped it off and figured that I would get an honorable mention due to the technique. That is one project that sat for decades finished. Now to pick another one to finsih. While at the Fair I was also able to check in with someone who is a mutual friend of a friend who moved to South Carolina and find out the couple in SC survived Florence with no problems.
I was suppose to go to a client this week. I called her yesterday (while mom was seeing the doctor) to go there Thursday. The client said it was a problem and could I come on Friday. (Glad she did not say today as we were suppose to have horrible rain - yes, there was rain, but not as bad as they said.) I called her today to say that I could come on Friday, but she didn’t really want me there then, either (even though she had suggested it). Apparently they are filming a movie at her location and her cousin who keeps her company is ill - besides, she tells me, she has had no business all month, so there is little for me to do. So, I will be going there in 2 weeks and do the September and October work at the same time.
In my mind this was great. I get another day to catch up on stuff - the bathrooms REALLY need cleaning. But no, when husband hears that I am not going to the client on Friday, he suggests that since he wants to go to Pennsylvania on Saturday for a wool show, we could go down on Friday for the day and stay overnight. So, the bathrooms will wait a little longer.
Today was the day I write the newsletter for my embroidery chapter and send it out by email. I managed to get that done after dinner - normally done in the afternoon, but there was other “fires” to put out then. I send out 3 versions of the newsletter - the basic newsletter is the same, the email with it changes - one to our members, one to prospective members and one to the other newsletter editors in our region and our region director.
This coming Sunday we were suppose to go to a reenactment event with our unit, but the unit is backing out of it as too few members can go and the place is changing what it said about our setup.
Now in addition to writing to all of you, I am doing our laundry. Will go and change loads between writing this and sending it out. Dinner dishes were done before the newsletter. Kitchen sink area is setup with dish towels over the dish rack, the front of the sink, the windowsill behind the sink, and the pots drying on a towel next to the other side of the sink - so husband can come and wash his hair in the sink. The dishpan I use in the sink is out on a counter with items waiting for washing before we go to bed. ( I made instant diet pudding for snack - the items needed for such are most of what is waiting to be washed.) But no - I still have not thrown out the bad eggs.
And next week I am suppose to teach new stitches (my choice) at the embroidery meeting!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Sometimes it seems that what must be done in terms of larger projects and appointments is coming too often, too much and too fast. Take it one project at a time, that is all one can do. Things will get done.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
YOU already know what to do
I don’t know about you, but I actually know what needs to be done for to declutter and get organized. You probably also know what to do. You have probably read it in book after book -
1- Go through what you have
2 - Purge anything that you have not used in X years (generally one or two years depending on the book.
3 - Separate items that don’t belong where they are into one of four boxes - keep, put somewhere else, throw out, donate, sometimes, a fifth box - return to the owner.
4- Survey what you have left and figure out how to store it, buying storage containers only after knowing what you need and measuring the space and items to go into storage.
5 - Keep up putting items away every day.
Oh, this reminded me, I am looking to buy plastic storage to organize the freezer compartment of the fridge better. For some reason lately a lot of food items we buy are in bags - they used to be packages in boxes, they lie on top of each other and I forget what I have. I want them to stand up so I can see what I have. Hold on a minute while I measure the freezer section - hmm mmm mmm - sorry, okay, I am back - that’s less than 10.5 inches tall, 14.5 inches deep, and 19 inches across and I plan on 2 containers across - that would be 9.5 inches across each maximum. I put the measurements in my cell phone in the Walmart section of my “to buy” list. I will have to see what is available.
Oh wait - the timer in my cell phone went off - I have to down to the basement and switch loads in the washer and dryer. Be right back....hmm mmm mmm. Okay, back again. I forgot that there was a blanket in the dryer from last week. We sleep with two in winter, one in summer and I had this one on the bed, but put the other one on the bed last week and washed the one that was there as we both had colds over the past month and thought it best to wash to wash the one we had been breathing on. It is now sealed in a plastic bag to keep it clean until it is needed again. It will go in a small storage piece in our bedroom. Back to all of you, cell phone will go off again in 50 minutes to switch loads again.
Okay - while the above is true, I do other things while I am writing my posts, it is also why the common “simple 5 steps” to get uncluttered and organized don’t always work. Oh, I also updated the browser in my other laptop while I have been writing this. It is not that I don’t care about all of you - (I do wish there were more of you, but I am glad to have every one you reading my posts - feel free to tell friends to join us) but we all have to multitask these days. It is not as easy in the real world as it is in organizing books.
Yes, the basic 5 steps are what need to be done, but sometimes they have to be done in small bites - catch as catch can. When my husband was screaming about his sock drawer - too many socks, too little room. He has trouble finding socks which are comfortable and the ones he liked are wearing out quicker and quicker so he is searching for new socks - as the ones he like are, of course, discontinued. Of course he buys MORE socks and then hates them. It is hard to convince him to let me donate them - “I haven’t even worn some of the pairs yet - and what if I can’t find new socks and neeeeeed these? So I went through his dresser drawers - yes, more than just that drawer - over a period of 2 days - on and off when I had a chance.
What did I find, well, his missing “space pen” for one thing. I found that the bottom drawer was filled with more James Bond toys. I managed to add them to the boxes we had bought and put in the spare bedroom (aka the teddys room) closet. Ah, most of an empty drawer to work with. I put some empty shoe boxes in same. I use them for drawer dividers - two boxes make 3 delineated spaces across - box, space, box. I put the socks he does not wear in the bottom drawer. I also went through stuff he keeps on the left side of his top drawer (which is where his underwear and socks are also kept). He has a small jewelry box - mostly junk, the few nice pieces he has are in my jewelry box, empty eyeglass cases (yes, I keep same also) and other small items - under these I found the space pen. Those items were sorted through and mostly stored in the bottom drawer. Why did all of this go to the bottom drawer? Well, he could not get something out of same unless he was sitting down as he would get dizzy, so it is a good place to put things he will rarely, if ever need. I then rearranged the space in the top drawer and sorted the socks he wears into the boxes (the beige set in one box, the ivory set - he calls them white) in another box and the new socks behind them in the same boxes - white socks in with the beige socks and black socks in with the ivory ones - so they are easy to tell apart by color looking in. Underpants are no longer squeezed into a shoe box, but in the space between two shoe boxes, so they have a bit more space. (His underpants like mine are rolled as this seems to make them fit in the space better and easier to grab out - he needs to buy new ones of same soon - he complains all the time.) He also has some ankle height socks which he finds comfortable to sleep in during the winter as they keep his feet warm but don’t “bother him”.
In doing this I did find some items which I knew he no longer needed and would not be attached to - especially the socks he won’t wear - and packed them to be donated. Also in doing this I had pulled out some shoe boxes from the top of my closet - some were empty and set aside for use in situations such as this, others had shoes in them, and I pulled some shoes off my closet door rack, that I don’t wear, to donate also to make room for some of the ones in the boxes - although the door rack is about 1/3 empty after I was done - and I don’t have a lot of shoes. (If I let him know, his extra shoes will end up there, so I won’t mention it.)
All of this - socks, underwear, James Bond toys, shoes, etc. took about 2 hours spread over 2 evenings. I believe in doing things as one can. Oh, I had no boxes for donation, etc. just some shopping bags.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Use the time YOU have available and try using your innate knowledge of what to do. You know to throw out garbage - you just have to figure out what is the garbage in what you have. You know to donate what can be donated - don’t look at it as you are getting rid of something you loved (or hated and regretted), but rather finding the item a new home with someone who needs it.
Think about what you use and how you use it - and how often you do. Something - such as underwear and socks that are worn daily should be able to be reached as easily as possible.
But remember we do things by habit which may not be the best way to do so. What you do not use as often, can be harder to get to. Since I was in junior high school I had a sock drawer and an underwear drawer. In my current dresser these were two small half size drawers, the underwear drawer being the top drawer, the socks, the next one down. The underwear had my underpants that I daily wear one of, my bras - 3 of them rotated through wear and laundry, and half slips - short white, long white, short black, long black - which I very rarely wear - only if the skirt/dress is a bit sheerer than normal. My sock drawer had my every day socks, my panty hose (rarely worn - once a month to work and if there was an event to which I had to wear a dress), my knee high stockings (worn even less), and the socks I wear to keep my feet warm. Husband said to me one day after we had been married for decades “every morning you open the top drawer and take out underpants and close the drawer. Then you open the next drawer down and take out socks and close the drawer. Why don’t you put the items you wear daily in the same drawer and put the other items in the second drawer? Makes sense - why did I not think of this? Well, I had been doing it the same way for so long, it never occurred to me that there was a better way. I now have my everyday socks and underwear in the top drawer - panties are 3 pairs across, 3 pairs up and two sets of same deep (the set in the front is not a full 9 pairs) and the sock balls stand next to them filling the rest of the drawer - no separation between the two necessary. The second drawer holds my bras in front on one side, my sleep socks across the front on the other. A box of stockings - pantyhose and knee highs behind the sleep sock. I have wool socks which I have acquired over the recent freezing cold winters we have had in the back of the drawer. The slips are stacked between the bras and the wool socks. One drawer to open every day instead of two - labor saved.
So think as you declutter and organize about how you can change where items are stored - even in something as common as your dresser - to work better.
My thoughts and prayers to those in the path of Florence.
1- Go through what you have
2 - Purge anything that you have not used in X years (generally one or two years depending on the book.
3 - Separate items that don’t belong where they are into one of four boxes - keep, put somewhere else, throw out, donate, sometimes, a fifth box - return to the owner.
4- Survey what you have left and figure out how to store it, buying storage containers only after knowing what you need and measuring the space and items to go into storage.
5 - Keep up putting items away every day.
Oh, this reminded me, I am looking to buy plastic storage to organize the freezer compartment of the fridge better. For some reason lately a lot of food items we buy are in bags - they used to be packages in boxes, they lie on top of each other and I forget what I have. I want them to stand up so I can see what I have. Hold on a minute while I measure the freezer section - hmm mmm mmm - sorry, okay, I am back - that’s less than 10.5 inches tall, 14.5 inches deep, and 19 inches across and I plan on 2 containers across - that would be 9.5 inches across each maximum. I put the measurements in my cell phone in the Walmart section of my “to buy” list. I will have to see what is available.
Oh wait - the timer in my cell phone went off - I have to down to the basement and switch loads in the washer and dryer. Be right back....hmm mmm mmm. Okay, back again. I forgot that there was a blanket in the dryer from last week. We sleep with two in winter, one in summer and I had this one on the bed, but put the other one on the bed last week and washed the one that was there as we both had colds over the past month and thought it best to wash to wash the one we had been breathing on. It is now sealed in a plastic bag to keep it clean until it is needed again. It will go in a small storage piece in our bedroom. Back to all of you, cell phone will go off again in 50 minutes to switch loads again.
Okay - while the above is true, I do other things while I am writing my posts, it is also why the common “simple 5 steps” to get uncluttered and organized don’t always work. Oh, I also updated the browser in my other laptop while I have been writing this. It is not that I don’t care about all of you - (I do wish there were more of you, but I am glad to have every one you reading my posts - feel free to tell friends to join us) but we all have to multitask these days. It is not as easy in the real world as it is in organizing books.
Yes, the basic 5 steps are what need to be done, but sometimes they have to be done in small bites - catch as catch can. When my husband was screaming about his sock drawer - too many socks, too little room. He has trouble finding socks which are comfortable and the ones he liked are wearing out quicker and quicker so he is searching for new socks - as the ones he like are, of course, discontinued. Of course he buys MORE socks and then hates them. It is hard to convince him to let me donate them - “I haven’t even worn some of the pairs yet - and what if I can’t find new socks and neeeeeed these? So I went through his dresser drawers - yes, more than just that drawer - over a period of 2 days - on and off when I had a chance.
What did I find, well, his missing “space pen” for one thing. I found that the bottom drawer was filled with more James Bond toys. I managed to add them to the boxes we had bought and put in the spare bedroom (aka the teddys room) closet. Ah, most of an empty drawer to work with. I put some empty shoe boxes in same. I use them for drawer dividers - two boxes make 3 delineated spaces across - box, space, box. I put the socks he does not wear in the bottom drawer. I also went through stuff he keeps on the left side of his top drawer (which is where his underwear and socks are also kept). He has a small jewelry box - mostly junk, the few nice pieces he has are in my jewelry box, empty eyeglass cases (yes, I keep same also) and other small items - under these I found the space pen. Those items were sorted through and mostly stored in the bottom drawer. Why did all of this go to the bottom drawer? Well, he could not get something out of same unless he was sitting down as he would get dizzy, so it is a good place to put things he will rarely, if ever need. I then rearranged the space in the top drawer and sorted the socks he wears into the boxes (the beige set in one box, the ivory set - he calls them white) in another box and the new socks behind them in the same boxes - white socks in with the beige socks and black socks in with the ivory ones - so they are easy to tell apart by color looking in. Underpants are no longer squeezed into a shoe box, but in the space between two shoe boxes, so they have a bit more space. (His underpants like mine are rolled as this seems to make them fit in the space better and easier to grab out - he needs to buy new ones of same soon - he complains all the time.) He also has some ankle height socks which he finds comfortable to sleep in during the winter as they keep his feet warm but don’t “bother him”.
In doing this I did find some items which I knew he no longer needed and would not be attached to - especially the socks he won’t wear - and packed them to be donated. Also in doing this I had pulled out some shoe boxes from the top of my closet - some were empty and set aside for use in situations such as this, others had shoes in them, and I pulled some shoes off my closet door rack, that I don’t wear, to donate also to make room for some of the ones in the boxes - although the door rack is about 1/3 empty after I was done - and I don’t have a lot of shoes. (If I let him know, his extra shoes will end up there, so I won’t mention it.)
All of this - socks, underwear, James Bond toys, shoes, etc. took about 2 hours spread over 2 evenings. I believe in doing things as one can. Oh, I had no boxes for donation, etc. just some shopping bags.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Use the time YOU have available and try using your innate knowledge of what to do. You know to throw out garbage - you just have to figure out what is the garbage in what you have. You know to donate what can be donated - don’t look at it as you are getting rid of something you loved (or hated and regretted), but rather finding the item a new home with someone who needs it.
Think about what you use and how you use it - and how often you do. Something - such as underwear and socks that are worn daily should be able to be reached as easily as possible.
But remember we do things by habit which may not be the best way to do so. What you do not use as often, can be harder to get to. Since I was in junior high school I had a sock drawer and an underwear drawer. In my current dresser these were two small half size drawers, the underwear drawer being the top drawer, the socks, the next one down. The underwear had my underpants that I daily wear one of, my bras - 3 of them rotated through wear and laundry, and half slips - short white, long white, short black, long black - which I very rarely wear - only if the skirt/dress is a bit sheerer than normal. My sock drawer had my every day socks, my panty hose (rarely worn - once a month to work and if there was an event to which I had to wear a dress), my knee high stockings (worn even less), and the socks I wear to keep my feet warm. Husband said to me one day after we had been married for decades “every morning you open the top drawer and take out underpants and close the drawer. Then you open the next drawer down and take out socks and close the drawer. Why don’t you put the items you wear daily in the same drawer and put the other items in the second drawer? Makes sense - why did I not think of this? Well, I had been doing it the same way for so long, it never occurred to me that there was a better way. I now have my everyday socks and underwear in the top drawer - panties are 3 pairs across, 3 pairs up and two sets of same deep (the set in the front is not a full 9 pairs) and the sock balls stand next to them filling the rest of the drawer - no separation between the two necessary. The second drawer holds my bras in front on one side, my sleep socks across the front on the other. A box of stockings - pantyhose and knee highs behind the sleep sock. I have wool socks which I have acquired over the recent freezing cold winters we have had in the back of the drawer. The slips are stacked between the bras and the wool socks. One drawer to open every day instead of two - labor saved.
So think as you declutter and organize about how you can change where items are stored - even in something as common as your dresser - to work better.
My thoughts and prayers to those in the path of Florence.
Friday, August 31, 2018
BACK AND FORTH - TWICE - ON THE SAME TRIP AND FALLING BEHIND
Late again posting - sorry.
We did go away last Thursday and Friday. When I telephoned Wednesday afternoon to make the reservation the woman I spoke with, was rather odd about the entire thing. The spaces I asked for were not available for two nights - we had decided to stay through Saturday. When I asked if any of the spaces were available just for the one night, Thursday there was still confusion. I finally worked it out and reserved one of the spaces for Thursday night and figured that we would ask what was available for just Friday night when we checked in - just in case something was available that would work for us. I made sense to me that Friday would not be available even though Thursday was as Friday is a weekend night and more people travel.
Our trip down was fine - better time than the usual mess. As we drove down husband suggested, which he acknowledged was crazy, that we drive back again on Tuesday of the following week for the day. We have not been to the farmers market that is on Tuesday most or all of this year and different vendors are there from the Friday market. The idea hit me, I suggested that we drive down Monday and stay until Tuesday. This would relieve the problem of possibly getting stuck in traffic on the way and arriving too late to have enough time at the market. (Mostly we have lunch and walk around, perhaps buying some small items we need or see, good shop at Tuesday market to look for bears for my village and I have not been there since the village went to year round.) Plus, if we use the toilet in the RV it has to be dumped at the RV park. It needs to be 2/3 full minimum, to dump so that there is enough force, so Friday morning we were going to have to fill the tank (having only stayed one night) to dump the tanks. By coming back, there would be double in the tanks when we dumped and it would fill faster. The weather promised to be nice for Monday and Tuesday and I would make the reservation when we checked in.
Remember I said that it had been suppose to rain there on Tuesday? When we arrived in the general area we saw lots of fields (this is farm country) with huge puddles- almost pond size in them. We went around to several touristy we go to in the area and then around 5:30 pm went to the RV park to check in. We paid for our space for the evening and reserved the same space for Monday night. It is a fairly small RV park along a stream. As we were walking out of the office the employee said “Oh, if the space is too wet, just come back and we will give you another one.” Huh!? Apparently they had trouble from the rain on Tuesday. As we drove to our space we were driving along the row of spaces facing the stream. We saw what they meant - the spaces had MUD in them. Our space is in the next row so we were concerned. We drove to the space and it seemed mostly okay. I got out of the RV as we do a few things when we arrive at a space at the start of a stay there. First husband will back in (rare that we get a “drive through space”) and we will find the level spot. I guide him. This time I checked that the actual space was dry - it is gravel and the gravel looked different, very light in color, apparently washed in the flood. I saw mud on the sides of the space, so I walked to the back of the space and it was not muddy there - where we have to walk to hook up the electricity and the TV (and water if we hooked up same), so it seemed okay. He backed in, we found the level spot and marked it with markers he made. Although we have been in the space numerous times, when we arrive there we check the electricity to make sure it is functioning properly and we did so and went off again.
Well, now I understood why there was confusion about reserving a space when I called the afternoon before. Apparently the general area did not just have rain, it had RAIN!!!!!. FLOODING RAIN!!!!! As we went around over the rest of the two days we saw the result of flooding in many places. At the Friday market there was mud on the foundations of buildings and pavement. One building, which had flooded badly once in the past, had obviously been flooded as there was no merchandise on the bottom 3 shelves of the fixtures - tossed out as it was soaked. There is an auction in a room at the end of one building. I have never seen it closed. It was closed and through the wall I could hear fans running trying to dry the room.
If any of you are from the Lancaster, PA area - I hope that you were not hit by the flooding.
Friday night we returned home. I did not unpack much of the RV. I left my clothes, the snacks, the towels, etc. Husband insisted on taking his clothing into the house. After 2 days, I repacked the RV on Sunday night for the drive down on Monday. By then it was much dryer, although some of the space in the RV park needed work on them and were still closed. Understand, we were away for 2 days, 1 night, then drove home for 2 nights, 2 days, and then back again to Pennsylvania for another 2 days, 1 night and then home - and I won’t bore you with the local traffic mess on the way home last Tuesday night. Of this time, we spent the equivalent of over half a day traveling forth and back and forth and back again.
I am behind in everything I was suppose to do the last few weeks. I notice this when I went to change towels Tuesday night. I normally change all the towels on Monday, then change the bathroom towels again on Thursday and the kitchen towels on Wednesday and Friday. The towels are all assorted - I had Monday bathroom towels out downstairs and Thursday ones upstairs. (No, I am not that anal. I put blue hand towels upstairs and green ones downstairs on Monday and another color on Thursday - as I have 2 sets of each color and all my other ones vary in color by pair. This way I can tell by looking if I forgot to change the hand towels.) I went to change husband’s weekly hair towel and 2 of the 3 were in the laundry and I was pulling the third one to wash. My pillowcases are either white (2 sets) or beige (1 set) I have 3 white towels and a beige one on the bed. I forgot to do the laundry last night. I have been keeping up with washing clothing over the past several weeks of colds and travel, but not the rest of the laundry.
So right now clothing is being washed (a day late). I spent last night writing and rewriting the newsletter for my embroidery chapter. I had figured to write it quickly as it usually does not take long. We are starting our meeting year and I had not heard from the chapter president with her president’s message. We are doing a project for most of the year and I had to figure out how to write up what we are doing at the meeting. (I also list information from our national and region, as well as giving list of related exhibitions and events in a travelable area - this takes up most of the newsletter). In addition we are doing a “stitch in public” that we do every year and I wrote a page to encourage someone other than myself and the chapter president (and husband who joins us) would also come with us. I then found out, in reply to an email I had sent, that the chapter president had sent the info - apparently when I downloaded my email - from 3 days - it did not download on most of my email addresses. When I downloaded it again after hearing from her, it all downloaded. Her president’s message included this info for the meeting. So I had to fit in her message, splitting it to the meeting information and get rid of what I had written. Then send out 3 versions of the newsletter (members, prospective members, and other region newsletter editors). So last night was gone - which is why I did not get a chance to write this post then.
I have a piece I am entering at the local three county, county fair - huh? Our local fair, which dates back to 1842, is the legal county fair for 3 counties. It is held at the restoration village I have mentioned before where there is an exact copy of the original fair grounds from photos) and is held in the style of a late 1800s fair, with many of the volunteers dressed in period dress. The heart of the fair are the art, craft, needlework, sewing, baking, canning, fruits, vegetables, flowers and the like which have been entered by people from the three counties.
I used to enter several items each year including an angel cake. Lately it has been one or two items and no more baking - as there have been less entries they cut some categories all around, including angel cake. I have one piece to enter this year - if I finish it. I have about one or maybe two more nights of stitching it, then I need to assemble it and then husband has to have time to frame it for me. I keep Thursday nights (which means 11:30 pm to 2 am Friday) for stitching and other crafts for me. I have not had a chance in at least a month to do so. I planned on tonight finishing the stitching. Obviously I will not as I am writing this post and have other “must to do” items for after this. If I don’t finish it, it will be entered next year. I am not going to panic over not getting it done in time. I am a procrastinator, I know this and try to push myself to finish ahead of time. When husband was still working I would drop off our entries while he was at work. One year on the day the entries had to be in, I called him at work and - in a panic - asked where the craft wire was in the house, I was still finishing a doll I was making of Theodore Roosevelt and he needed eyeglasses. He on the other hand, would have his entries done in July!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
What must be done gets done. What is nice to do or one wants to get done, may or may not get done - and that is okay. We can only do a certain amount and cannot kick ourselves for not getting everything done.
We did go away last Thursday and Friday. When I telephoned Wednesday afternoon to make the reservation the woman I spoke with, was rather odd about the entire thing. The spaces I asked for were not available for two nights - we had decided to stay through Saturday. When I asked if any of the spaces were available just for the one night, Thursday there was still confusion. I finally worked it out and reserved one of the spaces for Thursday night and figured that we would ask what was available for just Friday night when we checked in - just in case something was available that would work for us. I made sense to me that Friday would not be available even though Thursday was as Friday is a weekend night and more people travel.
Our trip down was fine - better time than the usual mess. As we drove down husband suggested, which he acknowledged was crazy, that we drive back again on Tuesday of the following week for the day. We have not been to the farmers market that is on Tuesday most or all of this year and different vendors are there from the Friday market. The idea hit me, I suggested that we drive down Monday and stay until Tuesday. This would relieve the problem of possibly getting stuck in traffic on the way and arriving too late to have enough time at the market. (Mostly we have lunch and walk around, perhaps buying some small items we need or see, good shop at Tuesday market to look for bears for my village and I have not been there since the village went to year round.) Plus, if we use the toilet in the RV it has to be dumped at the RV park. It needs to be 2/3 full minimum, to dump so that there is enough force, so Friday morning we were going to have to fill the tank (having only stayed one night) to dump the tanks. By coming back, there would be double in the tanks when we dumped and it would fill faster. The weather promised to be nice for Monday and Tuesday and I would make the reservation when we checked in.
Remember I said that it had been suppose to rain there on Tuesday? When we arrived in the general area we saw lots of fields (this is farm country) with huge puddles- almost pond size in them. We went around to several touristy we go to in the area and then around 5:30 pm went to the RV park to check in. We paid for our space for the evening and reserved the same space for Monday night. It is a fairly small RV park along a stream. As we were walking out of the office the employee said “Oh, if the space is too wet, just come back and we will give you another one.” Huh!? Apparently they had trouble from the rain on Tuesday. As we drove to our space we were driving along the row of spaces facing the stream. We saw what they meant - the spaces had MUD in them. Our space is in the next row so we were concerned. We drove to the space and it seemed mostly okay. I got out of the RV as we do a few things when we arrive at a space at the start of a stay there. First husband will back in (rare that we get a “drive through space”) and we will find the level spot. I guide him. This time I checked that the actual space was dry - it is gravel and the gravel looked different, very light in color, apparently washed in the flood. I saw mud on the sides of the space, so I walked to the back of the space and it was not muddy there - where we have to walk to hook up the electricity and the TV (and water if we hooked up same), so it seemed okay. He backed in, we found the level spot and marked it with markers he made. Although we have been in the space numerous times, when we arrive there we check the electricity to make sure it is functioning properly and we did so and went off again.
Well, now I understood why there was confusion about reserving a space when I called the afternoon before. Apparently the general area did not just have rain, it had RAIN!!!!!. FLOODING RAIN!!!!! As we went around over the rest of the two days we saw the result of flooding in many places. At the Friday market there was mud on the foundations of buildings and pavement. One building, which had flooded badly once in the past, had obviously been flooded as there was no merchandise on the bottom 3 shelves of the fixtures - tossed out as it was soaked. There is an auction in a room at the end of one building. I have never seen it closed. It was closed and through the wall I could hear fans running trying to dry the room.
If any of you are from the Lancaster, PA area - I hope that you were not hit by the flooding.
Friday night we returned home. I did not unpack much of the RV. I left my clothes, the snacks, the towels, etc. Husband insisted on taking his clothing into the house. After 2 days, I repacked the RV on Sunday night for the drive down on Monday. By then it was much dryer, although some of the space in the RV park needed work on them and were still closed. Understand, we were away for 2 days, 1 night, then drove home for 2 nights, 2 days, and then back again to Pennsylvania for another 2 days, 1 night and then home - and I won’t bore you with the local traffic mess on the way home last Tuesday night. Of this time, we spent the equivalent of over half a day traveling forth and back and forth and back again.
I am behind in everything I was suppose to do the last few weeks. I notice this when I went to change towels Tuesday night. I normally change all the towels on Monday, then change the bathroom towels again on Thursday and the kitchen towels on Wednesday and Friday. The towels are all assorted - I had Monday bathroom towels out downstairs and Thursday ones upstairs. (No, I am not that anal. I put blue hand towels upstairs and green ones downstairs on Monday and another color on Thursday - as I have 2 sets of each color and all my other ones vary in color by pair. This way I can tell by looking if I forgot to change the hand towels.) I went to change husband’s weekly hair towel and 2 of the 3 were in the laundry and I was pulling the third one to wash. My pillowcases are either white (2 sets) or beige (1 set) I have 3 white towels and a beige one on the bed. I forgot to do the laundry last night. I have been keeping up with washing clothing over the past several weeks of colds and travel, but not the rest of the laundry.
So right now clothing is being washed (a day late). I spent last night writing and rewriting the newsletter for my embroidery chapter. I had figured to write it quickly as it usually does not take long. We are starting our meeting year and I had not heard from the chapter president with her president’s message. We are doing a project for most of the year and I had to figure out how to write up what we are doing at the meeting. (I also list information from our national and region, as well as giving list of related exhibitions and events in a travelable area - this takes up most of the newsletter). In addition we are doing a “stitch in public” that we do every year and I wrote a page to encourage someone other than myself and the chapter president (and husband who joins us) would also come with us. I then found out, in reply to an email I had sent, that the chapter president had sent the info - apparently when I downloaded my email - from 3 days - it did not download on most of my email addresses. When I downloaded it again after hearing from her, it all downloaded. Her president’s message included this info for the meeting. So I had to fit in her message, splitting it to the meeting information and get rid of what I had written. Then send out 3 versions of the newsletter (members, prospective members, and other region newsletter editors). So last night was gone - which is why I did not get a chance to write this post then.
I have a piece I am entering at the local three county, county fair - huh? Our local fair, which dates back to 1842, is the legal county fair for 3 counties. It is held at the restoration village I have mentioned before where there is an exact copy of the original fair grounds from photos) and is held in the style of a late 1800s fair, with many of the volunteers dressed in period dress. The heart of the fair are the art, craft, needlework, sewing, baking, canning, fruits, vegetables, flowers and the like which have been entered by people from the three counties.
I used to enter several items each year including an angel cake. Lately it has been one or two items and no more baking - as there have been less entries they cut some categories all around, including angel cake. I have one piece to enter this year - if I finish it. I have about one or maybe two more nights of stitching it, then I need to assemble it and then husband has to have time to frame it for me. I keep Thursday nights (which means 11:30 pm to 2 am Friday) for stitching and other crafts for me. I have not had a chance in at least a month to do so. I planned on tonight finishing the stitching. Obviously I will not as I am writing this post and have other “must to do” items for after this. If I don’t finish it, it will be entered next year. I am not going to panic over not getting it done in time. I am a procrastinator, I know this and try to push myself to finish ahead of time. When husband was still working I would drop off our entries while he was at work. One year on the day the entries had to be in, I called him at work and - in a panic - asked where the craft wire was in the house, I was still finishing a doll I was making of Theodore Roosevelt and he needed eyeglasses. He on the other hand, would have his entries done in July!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
What must be done gets done. What is nice to do or one wants to get done, may or may not get done - and that is okay. We can only do a certain amount and cannot kick ourselves for not getting everything done.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
ACHOO!
Achoo! Last week I was feeling fine. Then it happened. You know, you wake up with a scratchy throat and wonder - is it a cold or did I just sleep on my back with my mouth open and annoy my throat. Then the coughing starts - and you still hope it is a just a scratchy throat from sleeping on your back, but you are pretty sure it is not. Once the sneezing starts and your nose is clogged... My husband lives in fear of me having a cold. He is a bit of a hypochondriac so he won’t let me do anything if I might “spread the germs” to him. But he doesn’t want to do what he is not letting me do either. Everything takes longer to do as a result and wastes time. Don’t worry - you can’t catch the cold.
He doesn’t want to cook (although he used to love to cook and is the better cook). He doesn’t want to do the dishes. but he doesn’t want me to do either as I will get him sick. The first night he made dinner - ham steak that we shared and a packaged macaroni with mushrooms - add to boiling water and let cook - and canned soup. I did the dishes afterwards with disposable plastic gloves on. One night he was on the computer with a client and I asked if I should make dinner or wait for him and he told me he was busy - so I made dinner and he ate it, but not happily. Then the weekend came and cooking was resolved as we eat out Friday through Sunday nights. This week he cooked dinner on Monday. Last night as we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner a rain storm hit. I mean A RAIN STORM HIT. He received a warning on his cell phone - I did not, although my, no cell service for over a year as it was not working for Internet or phone service and I had to switch, Blackberry received a notice. (I keep it charged for it games and camera.) We had major lightning and thunder for about 2 hours - remember I have fired a reproduction 18th century cannon - the thunder was like cannon fire. We lost our electricity - one of husband’s other great fears. We stood/sat with the front door open watching “the show” . We live on a main road. A UPS truck went past to the right, then to the left, then two of them passed our house, then another one and so on. Assorted emergency vehicles passed the house in both directions with lights flashing - police, ambulances, fire trucks, a couple of electric utility trucks... Cars kept driving in the mess, some would pull over a few minutes and then go on. I am a pretty fearless driver (scared husband the few times he had to drive with me as the driver) and I would have pulled over. Sooo, what will we eat? I was thinking - we have rolls, peanut butter - crunchy and smooth, jelly - strawberry and Ikea ligonberry, American cheese, mozzarella cheese - no problem. I suggested this to him. NO! We cannot open the fridge or his insulin would go bad. (Well, technically if it got too warm it would still be good for 42 days, but I was not going to argue.) Luckily the rain let up around 10:30 pm. We got in the car and drove to a nearby supermarket and bought more rolls and cold cuts for dinner. On the corner passed a 7-11 shut down do to lack of electricity, employees seemed to be sitting in cars in the parking lot. We got home and were getting ready to eat and - the lights came back on. Apparently we were in the largest outage area so we were put back quickly. I honestly do not remember a thunderstorm with so much or such loud thunder with rain that heavy for so long.
Tonight we took in Chinese food - simple right? Not really. The place we took out from for decades (while I was waiting for the gas company to come and turn on the gas in our first apartment I went and took out from this place for lunch - I did not even have tableware, dishes, glasses, etc in the apartment - I did have a borrowed bridge table and 2 borrowed bridge chairs) has changed. The original owners ran it for a long time - we knew their children, I remember hearing a car stop short in front of our apartment and the father coming running to the corner because his younger daughter had been riding her bicycle and just missed being hit by the car. When he died his older daughter would come home from college on weekends to help her mom. Then the son took over for awhile - even though he really wanted to be fishing - and the place often had fresh fish due to same. Eventually the place was sold - to the son’s sister in law and her husband. They were also nice and the food was the same and we kept going there. Earlier this year we went there and the husband was not there and an older woman (I presume one of their moms) was cooking. The food was not good. We tried another place and were not happy with them. We went back to them figuring maybe it was the change in cook. But the last time we took out the soup was too salty to eat and all the dishes were wrong. We don’t know what happened. This is the place we called on our way back from our 5 hour trip in July, 2017 to get dinner made before they closed - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07/treading-water-5-hour-trip-to-nowhere.html So, we never know where to take out from and as a result we don’t. We receive an assortment of fliers from take out places and I keep them. One recently caught husband’s eye and he had been planning to try it - so tonight we did. Very nice people and food. Three street parking spaces in front of the 4 stores was the only parking. Then, since I was sick, husband did not hand me the food to hold on the trip home, he put it in a plastic laundry basket we keep in the back in the car, he did not put anything against the bag to hold it. Yes, the bag went on an angle and was soaked when he took it out of the car. After dinner we had to wash the vinyl cover I keep in the car, the basket, and back of the car. We will go back again - and I will hold the bag.
In the middle of all this I had to go to Manhattan to a client for work - I should have gone last month, but she had a cold (could I have caught this cold over the telephone :-) ). So I went yesterday. I packed a zip lock bag with sucking candy, lots of tissues, and an old prescription bottle with one dose of the cough medicine I am taking. In another zip lock bag I had a small bottle I filled with water. Did I mention the temperature yesterday was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit? Luckily I did not need any of the items.
As a result of this normal housework and keeping things in order are only done if absolutely needed. Instead of changing the bedding, I changed only my pillowcases. I suggested he change his, but he said it was okay to just leave them until next week. I had to talk him through changing the hand towels. We were in the downstairs bathroom - “Where are they?” “In the cabinet under the sink - see those 2 whiteish towels? Take them and the green dish towel below them.” (I put out a green dish towel each week in that bathroom to use for quick clean ups of water around the sink - it matches the bathroom.) Upstairs? “Which towels?” “The yellow ones.” (I figured yellow was bright and he would easily see them.) “You mean these yellow ones?” They are the only yellow ones we have.
Last week I had washed and dried the clothes the night before I got the cold. A load of jeans were in the dryer drying overnight. So we had clothes for the week. I did not wash the towels or the bed linens. Good thing I have 2 weeks of towels plus one extra set for up and down. I was trying to figure out how to mention to him about the laundry when he brought it up. I put the clothes in to wash. He will put them in the dryer - with me talking him through it - and then bring them upstairs afterwards. He brought up last week jeans load when I put in the load to wash. He says he will fold the laundry. I normally pull out his shirts as I put the clean, dry laundry in the basket to take upstairs so that they do not need to be ironed, as I put them over the top of the other clothes and if he does that, and sorts mine from his, I can deal with my clothes and he can deal with his or leave them in the basket and pull them out as he needs them.
Hopefully either this cold will be definitely over with or he will give up by Monday so life can return to normal.
On the other hand, I had some extra time in the office as we came home quicker in the afternoons. I managed to shred all of my 2008 records - other than few I kept such as the checks written that year for our income taxes - 3 tall kitchen bags plus, worth of shredding. I then packed my 2017 records into the same box, relabeled it, and put it back in the closet - ah, room to fit papers in file folders again.
I also had time to transfer my 2017 computer files to my archive file and make 2 DVD copies of the revised archive files. I still have to change my back up files so that the old files are gone from them, but that will happen as I make backup files.
I went through an assortment of old computer instruction manuals sitting on a shelf in the office - why? I needed space for 2 magazine holders. I pulled a number of the manuals - mostly from programs or hardware that I had - and I will put them out over a couple of weeks with the recycling. I still have a stack for husband to go through - understand this are DOS or pre Windows XP software and hardware that I cannot figure out what or where it is. The magazine holders fit nicely in the shelf now with room for the manuals for computer things we are actively using.
The office floor is a mess due to my cheapness in not wanting to waste extra garbage bags when doing shredding and pouring from one to another - as well as throwing handfuls of shreds from one bag to another. I had planned to vacuum up the shreds - but then caught this cold - maybe tomorrow I will get to vacuuming.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One gets ill. It happens. I am glad that it only a cold so all it has been is inconvenient. In the larger world it is nothing, just an inconvenience. I am happy that is not serious and by next week either I will be better or he will give up trying to do things for me so he does not catch the cold. (I have never pointed out to him that I touch the light switches and so does he.)
Try to do as much as one can without overtaxing one’s self - this will vary based on what is wrong with one.
I leave you with a final achoo! If I rambled too much - will, hey! I have a cold! :-)
He doesn’t want to cook (although he used to love to cook and is the better cook). He doesn’t want to do the dishes. but he doesn’t want me to do either as I will get him sick. The first night he made dinner - ham steak that we shared and a packaged macaroni with mushrooms - add to boiling water and let cook - and canned soup. I did the dishes afterwards with disposable plastic gloves on. One night he was on the computer with a client and I asked if I should make dinner or wait for him and he told me he was busy - so I made dinner and he ate it, but not happily. Then the weekend came and cooking was resolved as we eat out Friday through Sunday nights. This week he cooked dinner on Monday. Last night as we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner a rain storm hit. I mean A RAIN STORM HIT. He received a warning on his cell phone - I did not, although my, no cell service for over a year as it was not working for Internet or phone service and I had to switch, Blackberry received a notice. (I keep it charged for it games and camera.) We had major lightning and thunder for about 2 hours - remember I have fired a reproduction 18th century cannon - the thunder was like cannon fire. We lost our electricity - one of husband’s other great fears. We stood/sat with the front door open watching “the show” . We live on a main road. A UPS truck went past to the right, then to the left, then two of them passed our house, then another one and so on. Assorted emergency vehicles passed the house in both directions with lights flashing - police, ambulances, fire trucks, a couple of electric utility trucks... Cars kept driving in the mess, some would pull over a few minutes and then go on. I am a pretty fearless driver (scared husband the few times he had to drive with me as the driver) and I would have pulled over. Sooo, what will we eat? I was thinking - we have rolls, peanut butter - crunchy and smooth, jelly - strawberry and Ikea ligonberry, American cheese, mozzarella cheese - no problem. I suggested this to him. NO! We cannot open the fridge or his insulin would go bad. (Well, technically if it got too warm it would still be good for 42 days, but I was not going to argue.) Luckily the rain let up around 10:30 pm. We got in the car and drove to a nearby supermarket and bought more rolls and cold cuts for dinner. On the corner passed a 7-11 shut down do to lack of electricity, employees seemed to be sitting in cars in the parking lot. We got home and were getting ready to eat and - the lights came back on. Apparently we were in the largest outage area so we were put back quickly. I honestly do not remember a thunderstorm with so much or such loud thunder with rain that heavy for so long.
Tonight we took in Chinese food - simple right? Not really. The place we took out from for decades (while I was waiting for the gas company to come and turn on the gas in our first apartment I went and took out from this place for lunch - I did not even have tableware, dishes, glasses, etc in the apartment - I did have a borrowed bridge table and 2 borrowed bridge chairs) has changed. The original owners ran it for a long time - we knew their children, I remember hearing a car stop short in front of our apartment and the father coming running to the corner because his younger daughter had been riding her bicycle and just missed being hit by the car. When he died his older daughter would come home from college on weekends to help her mom. Then the son took over for awhile - even though he really wanted to be fishing - and the place often had fresh fish due to same. Eventually the place was sold - to the son’s sister in law and her husband. They were also nice and the food was the same and we kept going there. Earlier this year we went there and the husband was not there and an older woman (I presume one of their moms) was cooking. The food was not good. We tried another place and were not happy with them. We went back to them figuring maybe it was the change in cook. But the last time we took out the soup was too salty to eat and all the dishes were wrong. We don’t know what happened. This is the place we called on our way back from our 5 hour trip in July, 2017 to get dinner made before they closed - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07/treading-water-5-hour-trip-to-nowhere.html So, we never know where to take out from and as a result we don’t. We receive an assortment of fliers from take out places and I keep them. One recently caught husband’s eye and he had been planning to try it - so tonight we did. Very nice people and food. Three street parking spaces in front of the 4 stores was the only parking. Then, since I was sick, husband did not hand me the food to hold on the trip home, he put it in a plastic laundry basket we keep in the back in the car, he did not put anything against the bag to hold it. Yes, the bag went on an angle and was soaked when he took it out of the car. After dinner we had to wash the vinyl cover I keep in the car, the basket, and back of the car. We will go back again - and I will hold the bag.
In the middle of all this I had to go to Manhattan to a client for work - I should have gone last month, but she had a cold (could I have caught this cold over the telephone :-) ). So I went yesterday. I packed a zip lock bag with sucking candy, lots of tissues, and an old prescription bottle with one dose of the cough medicine I am taking. In another zip lock bag I had a small bottle I filled with water. Did I mention the temperature yesterday was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit? Luckily I did not need any of the items.
As a result of this normal housework and keeping things in order are only done if absolutely needed. Instead of changing the bedding, I changed only my pillowcases. I suggested he change his, but he said it was okay to just leave them until next week. I had to talk him through changing the hand towels. We were in the downstairs bathroom - “Where are they?” “In the cabinet under the sink - see those 2 whiteish towels? Take them and the green dish towel below them.” (I put out a green dish towel each week in that bathroom to use for quick clean ups of water around the sink - it matches the bathroom.) Upstairs? “Which towels?” “The yellow ones.” (I figured yellow was bright and he would easily see them.) “You mean these yellow ones?” They are the only yellow ones we have.
Last week I had washed and dried the clothes the night before I got the cold. A load of jeans were in the dryer drying overnight. So we had clothes for the week. I did not wash the towels or the bed linens. Good thing I have 2 weeks of towels plus one extra set for up and down. I was trying to figure out how to mention to him about the laundry when he brought it up. I put the clothes in to wash. He will put them in the dryer - with me talking him through it - and then bring them upstairs afterwards. He brought up last week jeans load when I put in the load to wash. He says he will fold the laundry. I normally pull out his shirts as I put the clean, dry laundry in the basket to take upstairs so that they do not need to be ironed, as I put them over the top of the other clothes and if he does that, and sorts mine from his, I can deal with my clothes and he can deal with his or leave them in the basket and pull them out as he needs them.
Hopefully either this cold will be definitely over with or he will give up by Monday so life can return to normal.
On the other hand, I had some extra time in the office as we came home quicker in the afternoons. I managed to shred all of my 2008 records - other than few I kept such as the checks written that year for our income taxes - 3 tall kitchen bags plus, worth of shredding. I then packed my 2017 records into the same box, relabeled it, and put it back in the closet - ah, room to fit papers in file folders again.
I also had time to transfer my 2017 computer files to my archive file and make 2 DVD copies of the revised archive files. I still have to change my back up files so that the old files are gone from them, but that will happen as I make backup files.
I went through an assortment of old computer instruction manuals sitting on a shelf in the office - why? I needed space for 2 magazine holders. I pulled a number of the manuals - mostly from programs or hardware that I had - and I will put them out over a couple of weeks with the recycling. I still have a stack for husband to go through - understand this are DOS or pre Windows XP software and hardware that I cannot figure out what or where it is. The magazine holders fit nicely in the shelf now with room for the manuals for computer things we are actively using.
The office floor is a mess due to my cheapness in not wanting to waste extra garbage bags when doing shredding and pouring from one to another - as well as throwing handfuls of shreds from one bag to another. I had planned to vacuum up the shreds - but then caught this cold - maybe tomorrow I will get to vacuuming.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One gets ill. It happens. I am glad that it only a cold so all it has been is inconvenient. In the larger world it is nothing, just an inconvenience. I am happy that is not serious and by next week either I will be better or he will give up trying to do things for me so he does not catch the cold. (I have never pointed out to him that I touch the light switches and so does he.)
Try to do as much as one can without overtaxing one’s self - this will vary based on what is wrong with one.
I leave you with a final achoo! If I rambled too much - will, hey! I have a cold! :-)
Friday, August 3, 2018
BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES - AGAIN
First, my apologies - somehow I forgot last night to write and post to you. I had finished the yearbook (next year meeting program guide) for my embroidery guild chapter and on Tuesday I had taken it to be printed - yesterday (Wednesday) we picked it up and in the evening when I normally would be writing and posting to you, I stapled, labeled, and stuck stamps on the yearbooks to be mailed out today. Somehow my mind then wandered off and I never did get back to writing and posting. So I am doing it today.
Last year I wrote about back to school supplies - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/08/this-week-back-to-bit-more-normal.html
Today is more about back to school supplies. As I wrote last year, even as a child I loved office supplies and back to school was actually fun for me - the promise of a blank notebook, not scribbled on or in was the promise to me of a year that I would stay organized and all assignments would be done ahead of when they were due. This, of course, was never true for me or I would not be writing this blog.
As I mentioned last year this is the time of year to buy supplies that might be needed as they are discounted. Do you have pens and pencils in your house that you can find? If not this is the time to get them - and a box to keep them in. The same with basics such as scissors and tape. Good time to find plastic boxes, crates, and file storage boxes.
Growing up I thought everyone went to back to school the Wednesday after Labor Day unless they lived in New York City - since NYC rarely needed a snow day (subways always ran until more recent years when even they had to close sometimes for weather) so the schools in NYC started on the Monday, a week after Labor Day as the did not need to have the 3 snow days the rest of had built into their schedule. I have in recent years learned that schools around the country start and end on all different schedules. (Around here schools close at the June.) Some school districts close for a 2 month vacation -some for a 3 month vacation. Even around here there is now a movement to start schools earlier - in some districts even before Labor Day (although many districts have union agreements against same). The local change is the result of adding holy days of additional religions as days off during the year and the need to make up those days in the calendar.
But right now is the time for school supplies. I wanted to add this second posting about school supplies as there are some that people (as least old timers such as me) do not think of as back to school items.
Electronics. Laptops, tablets, and so on. Stores are running sales now on these for back to school. I was reminded of this as my husband has for some time (years) been pushing me to replace this laptop - to say it is not new is an understatement, you know those stickers on the laptops that show what version of what is included in it - well, the newest copyright on any of them on this laptop is 2004 - that make it around 14 years old, and yes, it still runs Windows XP. It was my work laptop when it was new. I bought a newer work laptop since then and rather than toss this one, it became my kitchen computer - where I go online at night and write and post my blog. It still works - mostly. Some websites are too fast for it and therefore run very slowly on the computer. But for most things it is fine. Husband has been pushing me to get a new laptop. My desktop - main - computer is Windows 7 and not all of my software runs on it - it is even harder to get me to get new software. I tried using his laptop which is Windows 10 and I was not happy with it - and probably even more software will not run. He has been showing me back to school ads for laptops and pushing “Look what great prices they are.” I start to think what a great idea - that website that takes sooooo long to open will work quicker, but I know it is hard for me to switch and it will involve screaming and yelling - on both our sides. (Husband is a dear and puts up with my wanting everything to remain the same and be able to use my old software and goes to great lengths to “make it so” but even he cannot do magic.) So, it reminded me to mention it to all of you. Now, don’t run out and buy a new computer just because they are on sale - but if you have been thinking of getting one - it is a good time save a few bucks.
Another school supply that I don’t think of as being one is casual furniture. Back to school includes going to college and stores that carry casual furniture - small pieces for storage and the like - are having sales and also have a larger choice of them in stock. Shelving units, small file cabinets, the doored cabinets with shelves in them are readily available now.
Of course clothing including shoes for adults (remember back to college) as well as children, of course, are in stock now.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
While one should not go out buying items willy nilly and only buy what one actually needs, if one is need of office supplies, clothing, electronics, casual furniture, etc. now is the time to look for bargains.
Obviously one should not buy stuff just because it is on sale - that just adds to the clutter and having too much stuff, but if items are needed it is always best to buy them during the time they are on sale.
Last year I wrote about back to school supplies - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/08/this-week-back-to-bit-more-normal.html
Today is more about back to school supplies. As I wrote last year, even as a child I loved office supplies and back to school was actually fun for me - the promise of a blank notebook, not scribbled on or in was the promise to me of a year that I would stay organized and all assignments would be done ahead of when they were due. This, of course, was never true for me or I would not be writing this blog.
As I mentioned last year this is the time of year to buy supplies that might be needed as they are discounted. Do you have pens and pencils in your house that you can find? If not this is the time to get them - and a box to keep them in. The same with basics such as scissors and tape. Good time to find plastic boxes, crates, and file storage boxes.
Growing up I thought everyone went to back to school the Wednesday after Labor Day unless they lived in New York City - since NYC rarely needed a snow day (subways always ran until more recent years when even they had to close sometimes for weather) so the schools in NYC started on the Monday, a week after Labor Day as the did not need to have the 3 snow days the rest of had built into their schedule. I have in recent years learned that schools around the country start and end on all different schedules. (Around here schools close at the June.) Some school districts close for a 2 month vacation -some for a 3 month vacation. Even around here there is now a movement to start schools earlier - in some districts even before Labor Day (although many districts have union agreements against same). The local change is the result of adding holy days of additional religions as days off during the year and the need to make up those days in the calendar.
But right now is the time for school supplies. I wanted to add this second posting about school supplies as there are some that people (as least old timers such as me) do not think of as back to school items.
Electronics. Laptops, tablets, and so on. Stores are running sales now on these for back to school. I was reminded of this as my husband has for some time (years) been pushing me to replace this laptop - to say it is not new is an understatement, you know those stickers on the laptops that show what version of what is included in it - well, the newest copyright on any of them on this laptop is 2004 - that make it around 14 years old, and yes, it still runs Windows XP. It was my work laptop when it was new. I bought a newer work laptop since then and rather than toss this one, it became my kitchen computer - where I go online at night and write and post my blog. It still works - mostly. Some websites are too fast for it and therefore run very slowly on the computer. But for most things it is fine. Husband has been pushing me to get a new laptop. My desktop - main - computer is Windows 7 and not all of my software runs on it - it is even harder to get me to get new software. I tried using his laptop which is Windows 10 and I was not happy with it - and probably even more software will not run. He has been showing me back to school ads for laptops and pushing “Look what great prices they are.” I start to think what a great idea - that website that takes sooooo long to open will work quicker, but I know it is hard for me to switch and it will involve screaming and yelling - on both our sides. (Husband is a dear and puts up with my wanting everything to remain the same and be able to use my old software and goes to great lengths to “make it so” but even he cannot do magic.) So, it reminded me to mention it to all of you. Now, don’t run out and buy a new computer just because they are on sale - but if you have been thinking of getting one - it is a good time save a few bucks.
Another school supply that I don’t think of as being one is casual furniture. Back to school includes going to college and stores that carry casual furniture - small pieces for storage and the like - are having sales and also have a larger choice of them in stock. Shelving units, small file cabinets, the doored cabinets with shelves in them are readily available now.
Of course clothing including shoes for adults (remember back to college) as well as children, of course, are in stock now.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
While one should not go out buying items willy nilly and only buy what one actually needs, if one is need of office supplies, clothing, electronics, casual furniture, etc. now is the time to look for bargains.
Obviously one should not buy stuff just because it is on sale - that just adds to the clutter and having too much stuff, but if items are needed it is always best to buy them during the time they are on sale.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
COMING HOME FROM THE TRIP
Well, we made it through last week’s trip and home again.
While away husband came across something that he has wanted for decades. It is a small loom that makes tape. No, not sticky tape, this makes a long thin strip of fabric. In earlier centuries (before the 20th ) it was used to make fabric tapes for clothing and other purposes. As an example, in the 18th century ladies’ petticoats (skirts) had a casing or hollow waistband at the top and one of these tape would go through the casing - well actually two of them as the petticoat were not attached front to back at the top/casing. At the two sides the tapes would be tied together to bring the sides of the petticoats together to the fit of the woman/girl wearing it, tight enough to hold it together and up, but not so tight that one was uncomfortable. (No, really, this works fine.) Why were the two sides open? Well, women had a garment called a pocket or a pair of pockets that were large tearshaped bags with a slit on the side facing away from the body. Since the sides of the petticoat were open, one could reach through the slits formed by the opening and waist ties and reach into the pocket(s) easily. Oh, the pockets were sewn to/hanging from - tape and were tied around the waist (under the petticoat).
The tape loom is around 24 inches tall, 24 inches front to back and around 9 inches across. Well, at least the one husband found last week is. In the past the tape looms he has found has been too expensive for us to buy. He even bought a book on how to make the looms - but decided that he would end up cutting off two many fingers trying to do so. The one he found last week was made by another craftsperson (always good to support a craftsperson) and was 1/4 of what is usually being charged for them - oh, and since it was a museum shop, we were supporting the museum also. He was unsure. I knew we could not let the loom get away from him. He was about to agree to buy it when the big question hit him. Remember how small the RV is, he decided it would not fit in the RV (securely to keep it intact). I had to go out to the RV and measure where I thought I could fit it to make sure - it did fit there. Then again, I told him that he was buying it, if it had to ride around the rest of the day and the next day until we got home - in my lap!
How did I fit it? We have one of those boxes intended to go in a trunk. It has 2 sections and collapses down for storage. I keep the box under the bed to make it easy to pull out and store laptop computers and what we call the last minute bag - huh? Well, we prepack the RV, but there are always the items that have to be used the night before we leave or the morning we are leaving, so we have a bag that we put those items in when we travel. It goes under the bed in this box. I pulled the box out from under the bed. I then wrapped the loom in several large laundry bags. (I keep the bedding in them when the beds are not made up - so they are large enough to hold 2 pillows each.) I laid the loom on its side - the flat side, not the one with the mechanism on it, in the bags, at the back end of the under bed space - one of the flat sides against the back wall of the space. The space is carpeted so it helps protect whatever is there and keeps it from moving as easily. I then put 2 tension curtain rods in front of the loom (I stuffed a large plastic bag into an open area where the loom forms an “L” shape and the curtain rods). Why do I have curtain tension rods? I use them in front of the box mentioned to help hold it in place under the bed. I used two of them to keep the loom in place. I collapsed one side of the box and put the box into place in front of the loom and stood the laptops standing next to the box and then put my last curtain rod in front of the box to keep it and the laptops in place.
It worked! Nothing moved out of place (and roads around here are pretty bad and there is much bouncing of the stuff in the RV) and the loom was in perfect condition when we arrived home. As I mentioned last week - it is amazing what one can fit into the small space that is this RV. Now, short of it traveling on a bed or in the walking aisle of the RV, this was the only space the right shape to hold the loom and hold it safely.
When we get home and unpack the RV we have to be organized also. The first things that are unpacked are the refrigerated items. I put them into a fabric bag and husband will run back and forth to the house with the items. When the refrigerator is empty I shut it off and put a folded towel under the freezer compartment. (There is no separate freezer, just a colder freezer section and if there is any condensation, it will drip in the refrigerator, so the towel will catch any drips.)
I have to remember what has to go into the house. Normally the next thing to go into the house would be “the last minute bag” with items such as medications and the like packed back into it from the trip, but this last trip the next thing that went into the house was the loom! It made the trip in perfect condition. Then onto the last minute bag.
I pack the clean clothes that we did not wear into the second regular laundry bag - we always bring clothes for a day or two longer than we will be away “in case” - case something happens to what one or both of is wearing (such as the time we had to step over a small section of water, but I was too short and stepped down into what looked like a thin layer of water, only to find out that there was a drain system under it that I stepped into up to my knee, barely managing not to get hurt) or something happens and we need to or decide to stay a day longer than we planned. When we pack we put our clean clothes into 2 laundry bags - one for each us - and then put them into the shelves in the “closet” (a small cabinet) and put one laundry bag (the one the clean clothes go into at the end of the trip) away with the last minute bag, and we use the other laundry bag for - well, our laundry that accumulates during the trip. When I put for husband to take into the house, I add the towels (hand and dish) that we used - it will get tossed down the stairs to the basement for washing when it goes into the house).
Little by little it all goes back into the house. The food that was not in the refrigerator (stored in small locking plastic boxes in the RV “kitchen cabinet” - a shelf with a door on it) is taken into the house in another fabric shopping bag. The shoes come out of the cubby they are stored in and are put into plastic shopping bags. The laptops come out from under the bed. Magazines and such come back into the house. I then go to the front of the RV and pack eyeglasses and such that were in the front. I have an manila envelope a little larger than a regular envelope for each of the regular trips we take to accumulate reservations, coupons, etc. for that trip and I take the envelope with me in the map pocket - it has to come back into the house. Almost forgot - jackets and sweatshirts have to come back into the house.
The next to last thing I do before I leave inside the RV is I walk around the inside in a circle and touch each area that we put things into and have to take things out of and put back in the house to remind myself and make sure that I remembered to empty each area. The last thing I do is shut off the lights and then the RV battery - and as I do I say out loud to myself - lights are off, battery IS off. This way I will remember that I shut them off.
We also unload anything we stored in the back of the RV through the back door that we brought or bought - there is a laundry basket there to hold the items.
Oddly, I was greatly short on time to write this post tonight. Husband decided to set up his new loom tonight. “It will only take 5 minutes.” Famous last words. Two hours later it was set up. Two hours that I had other plans for. But that is life and life is more important.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you do something over and over again develop a plan to follow to make sure that all of it is done and follow it. I find that when doing something such as checking the kitchen (in our house) at night, locking the door when I go out, or finishing unloading the RV to say something out loud.
When I close up the kitchen for the night (we watch TV in same at night - such as right now while I am writing and posting this) I lock the back door. I then check the back door and say “door locked”. I then look at the 6 knobs on the stove next to the door and count one to six out loud and say “all off”. I then look at the electric outlet box next to the stove, check it and say “nothing plugged in”. (This is the electric outlets which are used for small appliances and we don’t leave them plugged in when they are not being used.)
When I go out I lock the door. As I do so I say to myself “door LOCKED” so I remember.
As mentioned I touch each area in the RV and say that it is emptied before leaving it when the trip is over. I also say out loud that the refrigerator door is open (it is propped open to prevent odors forming) and that the lights are out and then that the battery is turned off.
By saying and doing each of these things it registers on my brain and I do not go running downstairs - or outside to the RV - or back to the door - to check that the chore is done.
I want to offer hopes that anyone living in the areas which are being flooded in the heavy storms are safe and dry.
While away husband came across something that he has wanted for decades. It is a small loom that makes tape. No, not sticky tape, this makes a long thin strip of fabric. In earlier centuries (before the 20th ) it was used to make fabric tapes for clothing and other purposes. As an example, in the 18th century ladies’ petticoats (skirts) had a casing or hollow waistband at the top and one of these tape would go through the casing - well actually two of them as the petticoat were not attached front to back at the top/casing. At the two sides the tapes would be tied together to bring the sides of the petticoats together to the fit of the woman/girl wearing it, tight enough to hold it together and up, but not so tight that one was uncomfortable. (No, really, this works fine.) Why were the two sides open? Well, women had a garment called a pocket or a pair of pockets that were large tearshaped bags with a slit on the side facing away from the body. Since the sides of the petticoat were open, one could reach through the slits formed by the opening and waist ties and reach into the pocket(s) easily. Oh, the pockets were sewn to/hanging from - tape and were tied around the waist (under the petticoat).
The tape loom is around 24 inches tall, 24 inches front to back and around 9 inches across. Well, at least the one husband found last week is. In the past the tape looms he has found has been too expensive for us to buy. He even bought a book on how to make the looms - but decided that he would end up cutting off two many fingers trying to do so. The one he found last week was made by another craftsperson (always good to support a craftsperson) and was 1/4 of what is usually being charged for them - oh, and since it was a museum shop, we were supporting the museum also. He was unsure. I knew we could not let the loom get away from him. He was about to agree to buy it when the big question hit him. Remember how small the RV is, he decided it would not fit in the RV (securely to keep it intact). I had to go out to the RV and measure where I thought I could fit it to make sure - it did fit there. Then again, I told him that he was buying it, if it had to ride around the rest of the day and the next day until we got home - in my lap!
How did I fit it? We have one of those boxes intended to go in a trunk. It has 2 sections and collapses down for storage. I keep the box under the bed to make it easy to pull out and store laptop computers and what we call the last minute bag - huh? Well, we prepack the RV, but there are always the items that have to be used the night before we leave or the morning we are leaving, so we have a bag that we put those items in when we travel. It goes under the bed in this box. I pulled the box out from under the bed. I then wrapped the loom in several large laundry bags. (I keep the bedding in them when the beds are not made up - so they are large enough to hold 2 pillows each.) I laid the loom on its side - the flat side, not the one with the mechanism on it, in the bags, at the back end of the under bed space - one of the flat sides against the back wall of the space. The space is carpeted so it helps protect whatever is there and keeps it from moving as easily. I then put 2 tension curtain rods in front of the loom (I stuffed a large plastic bag into an open area where the loom forms an “L” shape and the curtain rods). Why do I have curtain tension rods? I use them in front of the box mentioned to help hold it in place under the bed. I used two of them to keep the loom in place. I collapsed one side of the box and put the box into place in front of the loom and stood the laptops standing next to the box and then put my last curtain rod in front of the box to keep it and the laptops in place.
It worked! Nothing moved out of place (and roads around here are pretty bad and there is much bouncing of the stuff in the RV) and the loom was in perfect condition when we arrived home. As I mentioned last week - it is amazing what one can fit into the small space that is this RV. Now, short of it traveling on a bed or in the walking aisle of the RV, this was the only space the right shape to hold the loom and hold it safely.
When we get home and unpack the RV we have to be organized also. The first things that are unpacked are the refrigerated items. I put them into a fabric bag and husband will run back and forth to the house with the items. When the refrigerator is empty I shut it off and put a folded towel under the freezer compartment. (There is no separate freezer, just a colder freezer section and if there is any condensation, it will drip in the refrigerator, so the towel will catch any drips.)
I have to remember what has to go into the house. Normally the next thing to go into the house would be “the last minute bag” with items such as medications and the like packed back into it from the trip, but this last trip the next thing that went into the house was the loom! It made the trip in perfect condition. Then onto the last minute bag.
I pack the clean clothes that we did not wear into the second regular laundry bag - we always bring clothes for a day or two longer than we will be away “in case” - case something happens to what one or both of is wearing (such as the time we had to step over a small section of water, but I was too short and stepped down into what looked like a thin layer of water, only to find out that there was a drain system under it that I stepped into up to my knee, barely managing not to get hurt) or something happens and we need to or decide to stay a day longer than we planned. When we pack we put our clean clothes into 2 laundry bags - one for each us - and then put them into the shelves in the “closet” (a small cabinet) and put one laundry bag (the one the clean clothes go into at the end of the trip) away with the last minute bag, and we use the other laundry bag for - well, our laundry that accumulates during the trip. When I put for husband to take into the house, I add the towels (hand and dish) that we used - it will get tossed down the stairs to the basement for washing when it goes into the house).
Little by little it all goes back into the house. The food that was not in the refrigerator (stored in small locking plastic boxes in the RV “kitchen cabinet” - a shelf with a door on it) is taken into the house in another fabric shopping bag. The shoes come out of the cubby they are stored in and are put into plastic shopping bags. The laptops come out from under the bed. Magazines and such come back into the house. I then go to the front of the RV and pack eyeglasses and such that were in the front. I have an manila envelope a little larger than a regular envelope for each of the regular trips we take to accumulate reservations, coupons, etc. for that trip and I take the envelope with me in the map pocket - it has to come back into the house. Almost forgot - jackets and sweatshirts have to come back into the house.
The next to last thing I do before I leave inside the RV is I walk around the inside in a circle and touch each area that we put things into and have to take things out of and put back in the house to remind myself and make sure that I remembered to empty each area. The last thing I do is shut off the lights and then the RV battery - and as I do I say out loud to myself - lights are off, battery IS off. This way I will remember that I shut them off.
We also unload anything we stored in the back of the RV through the back door that we brought or bought - there is a laundry basket there to hold the items.
Oddly, I was greatly short on time to write this post tonight. Husband decided to set up his new loom tonight. “It will only take 5 minutes.” Famous last words. Two hours later it was set up. Two hours that I had other plans for. But that is life and life is more important.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you do something over and over again develop a plan to follow to make sure that all of it is done and follow it. I find that when doing something such as checking the kitchen (in our house) at night, locking the door when I go out, or finishing unloading the RV to say something out loud.
When I close up the kitchen for the night (we watch TV in same at night - such as right now while I am writing and posting this) I lock the back door. I then check the back door and say “door locked”. I then look at the 6 knobs on the stove next to the door and count one to six out loud and say “all off”. I then look at the electric outlet box next to the stove, check it and say “nothing plugged in”. (This is the electric outlets which are used for small appliances and we don’t leave them plugged in when they are not being used.)
When I go out I lock the door. As I do so I say to myself “door LOCKED” so I remember.
As mentioned I touch each area in the RV and say that it is emptied before leaving it when the trip is over. I also say out loud that the refrigerator door is open (it is propped open to prevent odors forming) and that the lights are out and then that the battery is turned off.
By saying and doing each of these things it registers on my brain and I do not go running downstairs - or outside to the RV - or back to the door - to check that the chore is done.
I want to offer hopes that anyone living in the areas which are being flooded in the heavy storms are safe and dry.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
NOT IN PENNSYLVANIA
Remember over the past few weeks before I told you that we were going away this week and the work involved in preparing our RV for the trip? Well, we’re home - not away. Why?
I printed out my list of what has to be done to set up and pack the RV. We put the mattresses (actually pieces of the mattresses as each half of the mattress is made up of 3 pieces) in the RV. I pulled out stuff that was in the RV for the winter that is needed to pack it - food storage boxes, fabric shopping bags to carry stuff out to and back from the RV, and so on. I also have some stuff to do because it has not been used since last year - such as change the refrigerator baking powder holder (to keep it from smelling - same as a box of same in one’s home fridge - but I get the one that goes on inside the fridge with a suction cup as the box would probably fall over as we traveled around and make a mess). I checked that we had hand and dish soap and shampoo. You know -the sort of stuff you have at home and never think about needing on a trip - unless you have an RV.
Last Thursday we plugged the RV into the house electricity to make sure the batteries were fully charged. They are old and we should have replaced them, but that has not been in the budget, so we have to make sure they are charged, so that the fridge in it will keep working when the car engine is off when we are parked somewhere. (It does also recharge while we are driving and while it is plugged in at night in the RV park.)
On Friday I suggested to husband that I would makeup the bed while the RV was plugged in so I could run the air conditioner as it was soooo hot out - and inside is like being in a car that has not had ac on and even hotter. He reminded me that it could not be put on if the ac was plugged in at the house as the amperage was not enough, but - he had wanted to turn on the generator and make sure it was working.
So we turned on the generator - horrors, it turned on fine - but the microwave clock did not come on. You may be thinking - who cares about the microwave clock of all things. There are two things that will not work in the RV unless it is plugged in at full amperage - the ac and the, yes, the microwave. If the microwave light was not on - the generator was not transferring electricity to the RV. We turned the generator off and husband climbed under - again - and found that the fellow who worked on it had turned and left the connection switch off. We turned on the generator and this time the it was connected and working. I started making up the bed - a 45 minute minimum process as I have described before and husband walked out to let me work.
He was back shortly. There was oil coming out of the generator. Whether something was broken, or the plug was loose, or the fact that too much oil had been put in it - something was wrong. He ran inside and called the shop that had changed the oil. Well, 4:30 pm Friday - they would be glad to help on - Monday morning, when we scheduled to be on our trip. Husband made the appointment.
I suggested that we could set up the RV except for the last minute things, take the RV to the shop, come home, add the list minute things (or we would have to wake up even earlier to put them in and secure them in place) and go on our trip. Husband was not happy with this idea, as it is very hard to back the darn thing off our driveway - I have to stand in traffic and tell him when to back out and he has to do it quickly - and he did not want to do it twice in one day. I went back in the RV and did a quick set up of the bed as the generator was running and oil was still coming out of it. I only did the mattress set up, then we stopped the generator - I brought the pillows into the house to deal with them. It will be a lumpy set up in mattress as I was not able to smooth out the sheets properly - I will deal with it when we travel in it.
The more husband thought about it, the more he did not want to leave after going to the shop again. But - if we cancel the reservation we have to pay for it any way. In addition as the weekend went along, the weather became extremely hot and thunderstorms while we would be there. He panicked even more.
I decided to suggest that we go one day during the week - whichever day seemed to be the best weather - for us to go to the annual folk festival (crafts) that we want to go to (we can go there and home the same day, we have done so in the past) and try to move the reservations to next week. He agreed.
As I was about to do so I realized that there was problem with going next week - we had money coming in this week and it had to be transferred to checking to pay our “big” credit card bill which has to be mailed out the 10th. Darn!!!!!
I then suggested the week after - which seemed okay all around - we have a reenactment the weekend after it, but would be home Friday night and the reenactment is Sunday.
So this past Saturday I telephoned the RV park and explained that we had a reservation for Monday and we have had a problem with the RV and it could not be worked on until Monday. Could we please change the reservation to 2 weeks later - and I was told it was okay - the same space was even available. Now, I may find that they are not applying our deposit to the changed trip, but if so, well that is how it is. Hopefully we will get credit for the deposit.
So now we are home for July 4th. Something which I do not think has happened since we were married - and maybe before. With nothing to do. For “excitement” we went to Barnes and Nobles today.
Earlier in the week I was trying to think how to make today more July 4th ish. He has hot dogs for dinner around once a week so I moved them to today. We don’t have an outdoor grill. I have not been able to eat hot dogs for a few years, so I figured I would make my Thursday night turkey burger in an elongated shape so it would fit in the brat rolls we had in the house and I figured he would use for the hot dogs. We had some frozen fries I would make for him. When I went to make dinner I suggested that I use a cast iron pan with a grill that I had not used in awhile to cook my burger and his hot dogs to make them more like being grilled outside. (Normally he has me boil his hot dogs.) He told me to do one that way to try it.
I put the grill pan on the stove to heat up. I started making (canned) soup. I checked how much fries there were. Suddenly the kitchen was full of smoke and the smoke detector was going off. The grill pan - with no food added - was burning whatever was on it and the smoke was heading through the house. I turned off the burner, opened the back door (next to the stove) and fanned the smoke a bit with the door - this usually will direct smoke out the door if something like this happens. I turned off the ceiling fan - same. I turned off the soup. The alarm kept going off. I would push the button, it would stop, and then start again. I am 5'1" and have to stand on my toes on a chair to reach the button. I stayed up there pushing the button over and over. In between I would jump off the chair and try putting the ceiling fan on or off. After 10 minutes of this I texted husband upstairs for help. Between his hearing not being what it was and the fact that he was in a room on the other side of the house - which is not that far as the house is small, but he had the air conditioner on and the room door closed so he did not hear the alarm going off.
He came down and took over the spot on the chair, pushing the button over and over. We could not clear the smoke from the air. This is one of the new alarms with a permanent battery, so we could not pull the battery or the alarm would have to be thrown away. We tried covering it with a shower cap. (The RV is small and if one cooks in it the smoke alarm goes off and people put a shower cap over it to keep the smoke out of it when cooking - and it works, as cooked in it after a couple of hurricanes when we had no electricity in the house for the electric stove there.)
Finally about 45 minutes later the alarm stopped. The house still reeked of smoke. The pan was on the floor in the porch. Dinner should have been cooked and ready.
I turned the soup back on. I boiled his hot dogs. The fried potatoes had been cooking during all this in the toaster oven. But what about my dinner? I was not going to try to cook my burger in any of my pans and add more smoke to the house. I ended up cooking frozen vegetables for me for dinner - vegan for tonight. My burger is wrapped in plastic wrap for dinner tomorrow night. I have the grill pan soaking water to try to clean it.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
No matter what one’s plans are they may go awry. One just has to be able to think and deal with the problems so that they are in some manner resolved.
We will go on the trip later than we figured - but this will probably be good as it will not be as crowded then - and husband hates crowds. Hopefully we will have a day that is nice to go for the one day trip - and as husband scowled over the cost of the tolls - I reminded him that when we go that way the tolls are much, much lower as we are going to a different area - maybe 1/3 of when we go to where we usually go.
Dinner was late (and we missed the start of the PBS “Capitol Fourth” on TV), but we had dinner and the show was rerun after its showing so we saw the start afterwards.
None of this is earth shattering - just an annoyance - and I had two stories about trying to be organized to tell you this week.
I printed out my list of what has to be done to set up and pack the RV. We put the mattresses (actually pieces of the mattresses as each half of the mattress is made up of 3 pieces) in the RV. I pulled out stuff that was in the RV for the winter that is needed to pack it - food storage boxes, fabric shopping bags to carry stuff out to and back from the RV, and so on. I also have some stuff to do because it has not been used since last year - such as change the refrigerator baking powder holder (to keep it from smelling - same as a box of same in one’s home fridge - but I get the one that goes on inside the fridge with a suction cup as the box would probably fall over as we traveled around and make a mess). I checked that we had hand and dish soap and shampoo. You know -the sort of stuff you have at home and never think about needing on a trip - unless you have an RV.
Last Thursday we plugged the RV into the house electricity to make sure the batteries were fully charged. They are old and we should have replaced them, but that has not been in the budget, so we have to make sure they are charged, so that the fridge in it will keep working when the car engine is off when we are parked somewhere. (It does also recharge while we are driving and while it is plugged in at night in the RV park.)
On Friday I suggested to husband that I would makeup the bed while the RV was plugged in so I could run the air conditioner as it was soooo hot out - and inside is like being in a car that has not had ac on and even hotter. He reminded me that it could not be put on if the ac was plugged in at the house as the amperage was not enough, but - he had wanted to turn on the generator and make sure it was working.
So we turned on the generator - horrors, it turned on fine - but the microwave clock did not come on. You may be thinking - who cares about the microwave clock of all things. There are two things that will not work in the RV unless it is plugged in at full amperage - the ac and the, yes, the microwave. If the microwave light was not on - the generator was not transferring electricity to the RV. We turned the generator off and husband climbed under - again - and found that the fellow who worked on it had turned and left the connection switch off. We turned on the generator and this time the it was connected and working. I started making up the bed - a 45 minute minimum process as I have described before and husband walked out to let me work.
He was back shortly. There was oil coming out of the generator. Whether something was broken, or the plug was loose, or the fact that too much oil had been put in it - something was wrong. He ran inside and called the shop that had changed the oil. Well, 4:30 pm Friday - they would be glad to help on - Monday morning, when we scheduled to be on our trip. Husband made the appointment.
I suggested that we could set up the RV except for the last minute things, take the RV to the shop, come home, add the list minute things (or we would have to wake up even earlier to put them in and secure them in place) and go on our trip. Husband was not happy with this idea, as it is very hard to back the darn thing off our driveway - I have to stand in traffic and tell him when to back out and he has to do it quickly - and he did not want to do it twice in one day. I went back in the RV and did a quick set up of the bed as the generator was running and oil was still coming out of it. I only did the mattress set up, then we stopped the generator - I brought the pillows into the house to deal with them. It will be a lumpy set up in mattress as I was not able to smooth out the sheets properly - I will deal with it when we travel in it.
The more husband thought about it, the more he did not want to leave after going to the shop again. But - if we cancel the reservation we have to pay for it any way. In addition as the weekend went along, the weather became extremely hot and thunderstorms while we would be there. He panicked even more.
I decided to suggest that we go one day during the week - whichever day seemed to be the best weather - for us to go to the annual folk festival (crafts) that we want to go to (we can go there and home the same day, we have done so in the past) and try to move the reservations to next week. He agreed.
As I was about to do so I realized that there was problem with going next week - we had money coming in this week and it had to be transferred to checking to pay our “big” credit card bill which has to be mailed out the 10th. Darn!!!!!
I then suggested the week after - which seemed okay all around - we have a reenactment the weekend after it, but would be home Friday night and the reenactment is Sunday.
So this past Saturday I telephoned the RV park and explained that we had a reservation for Monday and we have had a problem with the RV and it could not be worked on until Monday. Could we please change the reservation to 2 weeks later - and I was told it was okay - the same space was even available. Now, I may find that they are not applying our deposit to the changed trip, but if so, well that is how it is. Hopefully we will get credit for the deposit.
So now we are home for July 4th. Something which I do not think has happened since we were married - and maybe before. With nothing to do. For “excitement” we went to Barnes and Nobles today.
Earlier in the week I was trying to think how to make today more July 4th ish. He has hot dogs for dinner around once a week so I moved them to today. We don’t have an outdoor grill. I have not been able to eat hot dogs for a few years, so I figured I would make my Thursday night turkey burger in an elongated shape so it would fit in the brat rolls we had in the house and I figured he would use for the hot dogs. We had some frozen fries I would make for him. When I went to make dinner I suggested that I use a cast iron pan with a grill that I had not used in awhile to cook my burger and his hot dogs to make them more like being grilled outside. (Normally he has me boil his hot dogs.) He told me to do one that way to try it.
I put the grill pan on the stove to heat up. I started making (canned) soup. I checked how much fries there were. Suddenly the kitchen was full of smoke and the smoke detector was going off. The grill pan - with no food added - was burning whatever was on it and the smoke was heading through the house. I turned off the burner, opened the back door (next to the stove) and fanned the smoke a bit with the door - this usually will direct smoke out the door if something like this happens. I turned off the ceiling fan - same. I turned off the soup. The alarm kept going off. I would push the button, it would stop, and then start again. I am 5'1" and have to stand on my toes on a chair to reach the button. I stayed up there pushing the button over and over. In between I would jump off the chair and try putting the ceiling fan on or off. After 10 minutes of this I texted husband upstairs for help. Between his hearing not being what it was and the fact that he was in a room on the other side of the house - which is not that far as the house is small, but he had the air conditioner on and the room door closed so he did not hear the alarm going off.
He came down and took over the spot on the chair, pushing the button over and over. We could not clear the smoke from the air. This is one of the new alarms with a permanent battery, so we could not pull the battery or the alarm would have to be thrown away. We tried covering it with a shower cap. (The RV is small and if one cooks in it the smoke alarm goes off and people put a shower cap over it to keep the smoke out of it when cooking - and it works, as cooked in it after a couple of hurricanes when we had no electricity in the house for the electric stove there.)
Finally about 45 minutes later the alarm stopped. The house still reeked of smoke. The pan was on the floor in the porch. Dinner should have been cooked and ready.
I turned the soup back on. I boiled his hot dogs. The fried potatoes had been cooking during all this in the toaster oven. But what about my dinner? I was not going to try to cook my burger in any of my pans and add more smoke to the house. I ended up cooking frozen vegetables for me for dinner - vegan for tonight. My burger is wrapped in plastic wrap for dinner tomorrow night. I have the grill pan soaking water to try to clean it.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
No matter what one’s plans are they may go awry. One just has to be able to think and deal with the problems so that they are in some manner resolved.
We will go on the trip later than we figured - but this will probably be good as it will not be as crowded then - and husband hates crowds. Hopefully we will have a day that is nice to go for the one day trip - and as husband scowled over the cost of the tolls - I reminded him that when we go that way the tolls are much, much lower as we are going to a different area - maybe 1/3 of when we go to where we usually go.
Dinner was late (and we missed the start of the PBS “Capitol Fourth” on TV), but we had dinner and the show was rerun after its showing so we saw the start afterwards.
None of this is earth shattering - just an annoyance - and I had two stories about trying to be organized to tell you this week.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
A WEEKEND IN THE 18TH CENTURY
Well, as I mentioned last week this has been a busy week of rising about 4 hours earlier than usual - and I don’t fall asleep earlier as a result - sometimes even later, so I am down around the equivalent of 2 nights worth of sleep.
The biggest chunk of this is a reenactment last weekend. For those of you who might not know what this is, my husband has always been interested in the American Revolution and I have always been interested in British history. In reenacting portrays a person (either real or imagined) from a different time period and/or place. In our case we reenact in the general American Revolution period - the 1770s- 1780s. We portray a fictious couple in the period of the “middling sort” - meaning middle class. We are members of a local unit of same which is a civilian (not military) unit. For some time the unit members have wanted to do a specific event and our new commander managed to set it up.
Normally when we do an event it is on Saturday or Sunday for 5 to 7 hours. This event was Saturday and Sunday with setup on Friday night and we were the “lead group” for several other ones that our commander convinced to join us as they were needed for this event. - No, wait, this does involve organizing, I promise.
On a personal level, we had to plan what we would do at the event - normally he talks to people as someone who prints and sells pamphlets (soft cover books) as someone from “then” and I portray his wife and demonstrate embroidery. If an event is at our headquarters we will generally end up giving tours of the house at some point during the day. For this event which involved the British army being an occupying force, neither was appropriate so we had to figure what to do instead. He would just talk to people about “the situation”. I decided to get some actual sewing that has been sitting about done. Mending was the perfect thing for the event. I was going to work on a waistcoat (vest) that no longer fit him. I had previously split the right and left sides apart and stitched the lining and front of each half together (into 2 half vest pieces). I had planned to stitch what are basically buttonholes to the back edges where the pieces should be sewn together. I managed to put all this together. As I did so I found 2 small drawstring bags (drawstring bags in all sizes can hide just about anything modern or carry anything “period” ) so I figured I would bring them along also. In addition to this we were bringing two folding reproduction stools to sit on and plate, cup and silverware each (called a mess kit it is period looking items for when eating at an event). Rather than our 2 good sized bench boxes that we use to bring lots of stuff to and store the stuff in at events we had just the folding stools and the one drawstring bag - much planning went into what went into the bag and fitting it in. The first day was to maybe raining on and off, so I put a small plastic garbage bag inside the large drawstring bag this all went into, so the stuff in the bag would not get wet if it did rain. Our stuff we brought with us on Saturday and again on Sunday.
Setup for our unit was a bit more taxing - but it was a group effort to set up and was done late Friday afternoon. We had to setup a number of tents such as lower soldiers would have - it takes 2-3 people to set up each one. Then we put up all of our “flys”. These are large tents that are only tops - we use them to have shade. Part of all of these tents were put in “our” area and the others were put in the adjacent “British army camp” to make it look like there were more of them than there would be. Where to place each component of our area and their camp had to be carefully figured and laid out. Towards the back of the area there is a barn which we had the use of (it actually dates all the way back to the 1700s) for storage and in case of rain. It was decided that the cooking fire would be near it along with two of the small tents to hide modern things in for the cooking. One of our fellows had planned out the cooking - he was cooking for all 3 areas - ahead of time and then had to have the food cooked and ready at the times set for eating. The third area mentioned was a second camp area which was near us, but hidden by trees as it was the “colonial” men who would be fighting the “British army” during the event.
During the week before our “commander” and the restoration village we were in had planned out where the “battles” were to be and worked with heavy moving equipment in a field to have it set up as it needed to be. Our commander gets the credit for much of the organization and getting the event done. Due to the possibility of rain he also had worked with restoration to have a plan in case of same. We were to go to various restored houses in the “village” and would be doing our impressions in same - he even had figured out who would go where.
We were lucky and the weather held straight through. Somehow due to the organization which had been done everything went off on schedule - people being hassled, soldiers drilling, houses being ransacked, etc. all on schedule - with some more of same not scheduled and being done impromptu. One great idea that someone had for organization was that we wanted the public who came through to participate, but did not want to scare off anyone who did not want to. Those who wanted to participate (and most apparently did) were given big red dot stickers to wear. A great idea as even without my eyeglasses (reproduction ones of course) that I had to take off to sew, I could see the dots in the distance.
On Sunday in the morning husband was told, err, asked to give a talk on the lives of loyalists (colonists who did not want to separate from Britain and were loyal to same). He put together some thoughts on same. We have not been to that end of the restoration in some years - decades(?) so I took a walk down there ahead of time so we would know where we going. When the time came for us to meander over a bit ahead of time we were amazed that as we walked past the “tavern” in the middle of the village one of the employees walked out of same with the keys needed for the house we were going to - not sure how she knew we were the ones or how she timed it so well - that is organization. She showed let us into the house and showed us how to lock it up it when we left. Some household type items had been left inside the front door to be “confiscated” (stolen) from us for being loyalists. People showed up on time to hear husband speak on the subject. Just as he was finishing the fellows who would be bothering us showed up with guns aimed at us - lectured us and were nasty to us, confiscated the items and were gone. The public followed them off to the next fight and we locked up the building - taking time to have a nice look around at what was in it. When we walked back towards the tavern I walked in with the keys and the fellow there knew which keys I was about to hand him.
At the end of the day Sunday - exhausted but happy all took down the “camps” and packed their personal and unit stuff away. Everything had been organized well and nothing had been overlooked - what a wonderful thing and it was only the first time we organized something this big - our commander was in contact in advance with the other commanders and individuals who came.
Just when we thought there had been no problems - we could not lock the house we were in front of, had use of and had given tours of as we did not have the key. The key sits in special place in the house (good organization idea) so it does not get lost and all who work in it know where it is. For some reason someone had given the key to someone, who had given it to someone else who, apparently, had given it in at the office - and the office had closed a couple of hours before. We managed to get someone there for security from the county public safety (restoration is county owned) to come and he was going to try to find the key or contact someone who would know where it was - so we had done the responsible thing and not just gone off and left the house unlocked.
I am still tired on Wednesday night - but thanks to the organization of everyone involved it was a great event and there has already been a decision to do it again next year.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When something big has to be organized it helps to have a group of people working on it. Planning should start enough in advance to not have to rush at the end. Different (reliable) people should be put in charge of different parts of what needs to be done (such as one person in charge of the food and cooking). The possible problems that may arise should be considered (in our case - what if it rained and we could not be outside). And then one needs to keep one’s head if something arises - such as the missing house key.
Due to how well the event was planned it not only was great fun for us, but the public liked it, the village/county was pleased enough to invite us back to do it again, and in the case of something like this - no one got hurt and nothing was damaged.
Next week is a holiday here in the U.S. which is sort of related to all this - our Independence Day which started the fighting. In case I don’t get a chance to post - although I plan to - a happy holiday to those here in the U.S.
The biggest chunk of this is a reenactment last weekend. For those of you who might not know what this is, my husband has always been interested in the American Revolution and I have always been interested in British history. In reenacting portrays a person (either real or imagined) from a different time period and/or place. In our case we reenact in the general American Revolution period - the 1770s- 1780s. We portray a fictious couple in the period of the “middling sort” - meaning middle class. We are members of a local unit of same which is a civilian (not military) unit. For some time the unit members have wanted to do a specific event and our new commander managed to set it up.
Normally when we do an event it is on Saturday or Sunday for 5 to 7 hours. This event was Saturday and Sunday with setup on Friday night and we were the “lead group” for several other ones that our commander convinced to join us as they were needed for this event. - No, wait, this does involve organizing, I promise.
On a personal level, we had to plan what we would do at the event - normally he talks to people as someone who prints and sells pamphlets (soft cover books) as someone from “then” and I portray his wife and demonstrate embroidery. If an event is at our headquarters we will generally end up giving tours of the house at some point during the day. For this event which involved the British army being an occupying force, neither was appropriate so we had to figure what to do instead. He would just talk to people about “the situation”. I decided to get some actual sewing that has been sitting about done. Mending was the perfect thing for the event. I was going to work on a waistcoat (vest) that no longer fit him. I had previously split the right and left sides apart and stitched the lining and front of each half together (into 2 half vest pieces). I had planned to stitch what are basically buttonholes to the back edges where the pieces should be sewn together. I managed to put all this together. As I did so I found 2 small drawstring bags (drawstring bags in all sizes can hide just about anything modern or carry anything “period” ) so I figured I would bring them along also. In addition to this we were bringing two folding reproduction stools to sit on and plate, cup and silverware each (called a mess kit it is period looking items for when eating at an event). Rather than our 2 good sized bench boxes that we use to bring lots of stuff to and store the stuff in at events we had just the folding stools and the one drawstring bag - much planning went into what went into the bag and fitting it in. The first day was to maybe raining on and off, so I put a small plastic garbage bag inside the large drawstring bag this all went into, so the stuff in the bag would not get wet if it did rain. Our stuff we brought with us on Saturday and again on Sunday.
Setup for our unit was a bit more taxing - but it was a group effort to set up and was done late Friday afternoon. We had to setup a number of tents such as lower soldiers would have - it takes 2-3 people to set up each one. Then we put up all of our “flys”. These are large tents that are only tops - we use them to have shade. Part of all of these tents were put in “our” area and the others were put in the adjacent “British army camp” to make it look like there were more of them than there would be. Where to place each component of our area and their camp had to be carefully figured and laid out. Towards the back of the area there is a barn which we had the use of (it actually dates all the way back to the 1700s) for storage and in case of rain. It was decided that the cooking fire would be near it along with two of the small tents to hide modern things in for the cooking. One of our fellows had planned out the cooking - he was cooking for all 3 areas - ahead of time and then had to have the food cooked and ready at the times set for eating. The third area mentioned was a second camp area which was near us, but hidden by trees as it was the “colonial” men who would be fighting the “British army” during the event.
During the week before our “commander” and the restoration village we were in had planned out where the “battles” were to be and worked with heavy moving equipment in a field to have it set up as it needed to be. Our commander gets the credit for much of the organization and getting the event done. Due to the possibility of rain he also had worked with restoration to have a plan in case of same. We were to go to various restored houses in the “village” and would be doing our impressions in same - he even had figured out who would go where.
We were lucky and the weather held straight through. Somehow due to the organization which had been done everything went off on schedule - people being hassled, soldiers drilling, houses being ransacked, etc. all on schedule - with some more of same not scheduled and being done impromptu. One great idea that someone had for organization was that we wanted the public who came through to participate, but did not want to scare off anyone who did not want to. Those who wanted to participate (and most apparently did) were given big red dot stickers to wear. A great idea as even without my eyeglasses (reproduction ones of course) that I had to take off to sew, I could see the dots in the distance.
On Sunday in the morning husband was told, err, asked to give a talk on the lives of loyalists (colonists who did not want to separate from Britain and were loyal to same). He put together some thoughts on same. We have not been to that end of the restoration in some years - decades(?) so I took a walk down there ahead of time so we would know where we going. When the time came for us to meander over a bit ahead of time we were amazed that as we walked past the “tavern” in the middle of the village one of the employees walked out of same with the keys needed for the house we were going to - not sure how she knew we were the ones or how she timed it so well - that is organization. She showed let us into the house and showed us how to lock it up it when we left. Some household type items had been left inside the front door to be “confiscated” (stolen) from us for being loyalists. People showed up on time to hear husband speak on the subject. Just as he was finishing the fellows who would be bothering us showed up with guns aimed at us - lectured us and were nasty to us, confiscated the items and were gone. The public followed them off to the next fight and we locked up the building - taking time to have a nice look around at what was in it. When we walked back towards the tavern I walked in with the keys and the fellow there knew which keys I was about to hand him.
At the end of the day Sunday - exhausted but happy all took down the “camps” and packed their personal and unit stuff away. Everything had been organized well and nothing had been overlooked - what a wonderful thing and it was only the first time we organized something this big - our commander was in contact in advance with the other commanders and individuals who came.
Just when we thought there had been no problems - we could not lock the house we were in front of, had use of and had given tours of as we did not have the key. The key sits in special place in the house (good organization idea) so it does not get lost and all who work in it know where it is. For some reason someone had given the key to someone, who had given it to someone else who, apparently, had given it in at the office - and the office had closed a couple of hours before. We managed to get someone there for security from the county public safety (restoration is county owned) to come and he was going to try to find the key or contact someone who would know where it was - so we had done the responsible thing and not just gone off and left the house unlocked.
I am still tired on Wednesday night - but thanks to the organization of everyone involved it was a great event and there has already been a decision to do it again next year.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When something big has to be organized it helps to have a group of people working on it. Planning should start enough in advance to not have to rush at the end. Different (reliable) people should be put in charge of different parts of what needs to be done (such as one person in charge of the food and cooking). The possible problems that may arise should be considered (in our case - what if it rained and we could not be outside). And then one needs to keep one’s head if something arises - such as the missing house key.
Due to how well the event was planned it not only was great fun for us, but the public liked it, the village/county was pleased enough to invite us back to do it again, and in the case of something like this - no one got hurt and nothing was damaged.
Next week is a holiday here in the U.S. which is sort of related to all this - our Independence Day which started the fighting. In case I don’t get a chance to post - although I plan to - a happy holiday to those here in the U.S.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
OUTSIDE ORGANIZING
Well, after talking about our tiny bathrooms last week, I thought I would go more expansive this week - outside our house.
As you may be able to figure since our house is small, the property it is on is also small. Technically since the minimum land size to build on has increased since this house was built in the late 1940s/early 1950s we could not build on the land now as it is too small. It is the sort of property that makes us very close (in distance at least) to our neighbors as their property is the same sixe. It is maybe 25 feet from our driveway to the door of the house on one side. The house on the other side is the same distance from us, but it feels like there is more room as neither of us has a driveway on that side. Their family room starts about 5 feet from our property line.
The house came with a detached one and a half car garage and we added a shed behind it while we have been in the half. We live on a main road - 2 lanes plus a parking lane in each direction. The first year we were in the house we found out not to park my compact car (or anything else) in the street - we had to replace the driver’s side mirror twice. As a result we had a semi-circular driveway put in - that takes up almost all of our front lawn space. In the early years we made the mistake of planting grapes - we have not really had grapes from it (enough to make a cup of very strange, brown, grape jam), but it has taken over that side of the backyard and between that and the bushes and trees that were planted by the former owner we have a jungle on that side. We also have for a few years now, poison ivy on that side that husband has to kill every summer - several times.
When we first moved in husband would cut the grass, but his allergies made it very hard for him. We were both working full time so we decided to hire someone to cut grass and trim the bushes, get rid of leaves, etc. I contacted 4 companies who work at various other houses in the area - one responded. He had a problem with our property. The side of the house (left) with no driveway had no access to the back yard. The side with the garage did not have a wide enough entry to the back yard for his mowers. So, we went out and cut a gate into the fence on the left side of the house. This company took care of our property for some years - doing (and charging us for) much more than we wanted done. When husband quit his job, we switched to the brother in law of his secretary and were much happier with him, but he “sold” us to someone else. The new fellow was okay at first. Since a time when we were almost “snowed out” of our house (we were away on a trip - back then staying in hotels - when an unexpected huge storm hit at home and we were not sure we would be able to up our driveway) we had the each of the three of them clear our snow in winter for us. (Well worth the money.) While the last fellow was cutting our grass, we had major storm one winter. I mean MAJOR - we had not seen that much snow in one storm since we were children - if then. No one came to clear it. We tried to reach him. His phone was discontinued. We called the fellow who sold us to this one - he managed to find out that the fellow had gone home to South America for the winter - leaving us hanging. I won’t go into the saga of trying to get someone to deal with the snow that winter - but the next winter the same happened after he said it would not and the following year he did not even come to mow, so we are back to doing the work ourselves. I posted last winter of our adventures with snow about as big as just mentioned - maybe even deeper.
So, allergies or no allergies, husband went back to cutting our grass. Over the years it has gotten harder and harder for him as he does not have enough energy and I have been helping. Now remember, we basically have no front lawn due to our driveway. We have the grass at the curb and the semi circle of the driveway (now our van is parked there) and the grass on the side of the house without a driveway - at the street end the grass is maybe a foot across, so basically it is our backyard.
Last year he took stuff to kill weeds and killed the grass (and weeds) along the curb and in the semi circle so we don’t have to mow it. One year we will get the semi circle paved and that will help in more ways than one.
This year to make it easier we bought an electric mower. It is lighter and we don’t have to deal with gas for it. We have used it twice. It has a piece hanging that one is suppose to feed the electric cord through to hold it in place - to help not run over it when mowing. But, it is too small for the size cord one is suppose to use, so husband has made an adjustment to it, even so it is a problem with the cord hanging. So I walk a distance away from where he is working and hold the cord, so it is not on the ground.
Our garage is actually husband’s wood workshop. It being a small space for same, we have all of the larger power tools on wheels. They sit along the perimeter of the garage walls and pull out to be used. It is a mess in there right now - has been for a few years. We really need to take time to get it cleaned up and back to where it was when we set it up - nice and organized. When we first set it up we bought a through the wall air conditioner for it - or husband would not be able to work in there when it is hot. When the fellow came to install it he was surprised and said that he had never installed an air conditioner in a garage before. We also had a door put in. A door put in - huh? Well it had the large door for cars, but no other door. We used to store all of the Christmas stuff on boards attached to the rafters. We would bring the boxes into the house and set up the decorations and put the boxes back in the garage. One winter it was very wet and very cold - the large rolling garage door froze to the ground and we were not able to store the Christmas decorations until spring - and did not take them down as they would have taken up more room lying about. So we had a door put in where the window used to be and had a better window put in. We also had to put in electricity and walls. (Perhaps that misadventure in construction another time.) We bought hanging space heaters to heat it winter.
The shed holds stuff for our craft business for when we used to do shows - tables, tents, etc. It has the middle seat of our van (we don’t need it in the van). It has our outdoor Christmas decorations, although lately we have used new ones which are in basement - along with the other Christmas stuff these days. (It became harder and harder for him to climb up and take it all down. Just our lights are in the garage these days.) Garden tools - mostly that we no longer use - are in it. It also has husband’s toys that he took when his mother died and her house was sold - mostly he planned to sell them, but his electric trains are in there too.
We have a small shed next to our garage. It was intended to hold our bicycles. It does - although we really should sell them. It also holds our old and new mowers and trimmer.
Our latest addition is a small shed next to the house in front of the side door. It holds our snowblower - or else we would have to shovel our way to the garage to get it out when needed. It also has two gas cans (currently empty as it is warm out) and for now, the snow shovels.
That leaves a small enclosed area at our side door of the house that we call “the porch”. It is used for storage of various items for gardening, items for our RV, items for taking care of the vehicles, snow shovels (although new place for them these days) and large garden shovels. It has a small square garbage pail (the sort one would find inside the house) for our soda bottles for recycling next to the door to the house. It also has husband’s boyhood work bench. This has a box in it to collect cans and bottles for recycling and the newspapers are stacked on the top. I keep cardboard boxes in it to throw out and use same to put out the cans and bottles - and then they take the box also. It has a large plastic storage piece with doors on the bottom 2 shelves and 2 open shelves above. This is where the all the small items are kept for the chores mentioned above. We have a couple of bags of salt for snow. There is also a large garbage bag. This sounds organized, but is actually a giant mess. I keep planning to clear it out and organize it - but it is either too hot or too cold to work in it.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Where items outside the house are stored is as important as where items are stored inside the house. One needs to figure out what one needs - or wants - to have and make arrangements for them to be stored and as easily accessible as possible.
It is easier to set up a plastic shed in warm weather than cold as the plastic is more pliable. (We had to wait a year for the shed for the snow blower as we waited too long and, per the manufacturer, it was too cold to set it up.) Think ahead if you will plan to store winter items in a shed and get it set up before it is too cold.
As you may be able to figure since our house is small, the property it is on is also small. Technically since the minimum land size to build on has increased since this house was built in the late 1940s/early 1950s we could not build on the land now as it is too small. It is the sort of property that makes us very close (in distance at least) to our neighbors as their property is the same sixe. It is maybe 25 feet from our driveway to the door of the house on one side. The house on the other side is the same distance from us, but it feels like there is more room as neither of us has a driveway on that side. Their family room starts about 5 feet from our property line.
The house came with a detached one and a half car garage and we added a shed behind it while we have been in the half. We live on a main road - 2 lanes plus a parking lane in each direction. The first year we were in the house we found out not to park my compact car (or anything else) in the street - we had to replace the driver’s side mirror twice. As a result we had a semi-circular driveway put in - that takes up almost all of our front lawn space. In the early years we made the mistake of planting grapes - we have not really had grapes from it (enough to make a cup of very strange, brown, grape jam), but it has taken over that side of the backyard and between that and the bushes and trees that were planted by the former owner we have a jungle on that side. We also have for a few years now, poison ivy on that side that husband has to kill every summer - several times.
When we first moved in husband would cut the grass, but his allergies made it very hard for him. We were both working full time so we decided to hire someone to cut grass and trim the bushes, get rid of leaves, etc. I contacted 4 companies who work at various other houses in the area - one responded. He had a problem with our property. The side of the house (left) with no driveway had no access to the back yard. The side with the garage did not have a wide enough entry to the back yard for his mowers. So, we went out and cut a gate into the fence on the left side of the house. This company took care of our property for some years - doing (and charging us for) much more than we wanted done. When husband quit his job, we switched to the brother in law of his secretary and were much happier with him, but he “sold” us to someone else. The new fellow was okay at first. Since a time when we were almost “snowed out” of our house (we were away on a trip - back then staying in hotels - when an unexpected huge storm hit at home and we were not sure we would be able to up our driveway) we had the each of the three of them clear our snow in winter for us. (Well worth the money.) While the last fellow was cutting our grass, we had major storm one winter. I mean MAJOR - we had not seen that much snow in one storm since we were children - if then. No one came to clear it. We tried to reach him. His phone was discontinued. We called the fellow who sold us to this one - he managed to find out that the fellow had gone home to South America for the winter - leaving us hanging. I won’t go into the saga of trying to get someone to deal with the snow that winter - but the next winter the same happened after he said it would not and the following year he did not even come to mow, so we are back to doing the work ourselves. I posted last winter of our adventures with snow about as big as just mentioned - maybe even deeper.
So, allergies or no allergies, husband went back to cutting our grass. Over the years it has gotten harder and harder for him as he does not have enough energy and I have been helping. Now remember, we basically have no front lawn due to our driveway. We have the grass at the curb and the semi circle of the driveway (now our van is parked there) and the grass on the side of the house without a driveway - at the street end the grass is maybe a foot across, so basically it is our backyard.
Last year he took stuff to kill weeds and killed the grass (and weeds) along the curb and in the semi circle so we don’t have to mow it. One year we will get the semi circle paved and that will help in more ways than one.
This year to make it easier we bought an electric mower. It is lighter and we don’t have to deal with gas for it. We have used it twice. It has a piece hanging that one is suppose to feed the electric cord through to hold it in place - to help not run over it when mowing. But, it is too small for the size cord one is suppose to use, so husband has made an adjustment to it, even so it is a problem with the cord hanging. So I walk a distance away from where he is working and hold the cord, so it is not on the ground.
Our garage is actually husband’s wood workshop. It being a small space for same, we have all of the larger power tools on wheels. They sit along the perimeter of the garage walls and pull out to be used. It is a mess in there right now - has been for a few years. We really need to take time to get it cleaned up and back to where it was when we set it up - nice and organized. When we first set it up we bought a through the wall air conditioner for it - or husband would not be able to work in there when it is hot. When the fellow came to install it he was surprised and said that he had never installed an air conditioner in a garage before. We also had a door put in. A door put in - huh? Well it had the large door for cars, but no other door. We used to store all of the Christmas stuff on boards attached to the rafters. We would bring the boxes into the house and set up the decorations and put the boxes back in the garage. One winter it was very wet and very cold - the large rolling garage door froze to the ground and we were not able to store the Christmas decorations until spring - and did not take them down as they would have taken up more room lying about. So we had a door put in where the window used to be and had a better window put in. We also had to put in electricity and walls. (Perhaps that misadventure in construction another time.) We bought hanging space heaters to heat it winter.
The shed holds stuff for our craft business for when we used to do shows - tables, tents, etc. It has the middle seat of our van (we don’t need it in the van). It has our outdoor Christmas decorations, although lately we have used new ones which are in basement - along with the other Christmas stuff these days. (It became harder and harder for him to climb up and take it all down. Just our lights are in the garage these days.) Garden tools - mostly that we no longer use - are in it. It also has husband’s toys that he took when his mother died and her house was sold - mostly he planned to sell them, but his electric trains are in there too.
We have a small shed next to our garage. It was intended to hold our bicycles. It does - although we really should sell them. It also holds our old and new mowers and trimmer.
Our latest addition is a small shed next to the house in front of the side door. It holds our snowblower - or else we would have to shovel our way to the garage to get it out when needed. It also has two gas cans (currently empty as it is warm out) and for now, the snow shovels.
That leaves a small enclosed area at our side door of the house that we call “the porch”. It is used for storage of various items for gardening, items for our RV, items for taking care of the vehicles, snow shovels (although new place for them these days) and large garden shovels. It has a small square garbage pail (the sort one would find inside the house) for our soda bottles for recycling next to the door to the house. It also has husband’s boyhood work bench. This has a box in it to collect cans and bottles for recycling and the newspapers are stacked on the top. I keep cardboard boxes in it to throw out and use same to put out the cans and bottles - and then they take the box also. It has a large plastic storage piece with doors on the bottom 2 shelves and 2 open shelves above. This is where the all the small items are kept for the chores mentioned above. We have a couple of bags of salt for snow. There is also a large garbage bag. This sounds organized, but is actually a giant mess. I keep planning to clear it out and organize it - but it is either too hot or too cold to work in it.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Where items outside the house are stored is as important as where items are stored inside the house. One needs to figure out what one needs - or wants - to have and make arrangements for them to be stored and as easily accessible as possible.
It is easier to set up a plastic shed in warm weather than cold as the plastic is more pliable. (We had to wait a year for the shed for the snow blower as we waited too long and, per the manufacturer, it was too cold to set it up.) Think ahead if you will plan to store winter items in a shed and get it set up before it is too cold.
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