Sleepless in the Mid-Atlantic

I went to bed completely exhausted about 9:00 PM and was in deepest slumber by 9:15---didn't even hear hubby sneak into bed after Monday night football. Now it is 1:30 and I am wide awake. Same thing happened last night! I can't quite put my finger on the reason I have been having sleep problems lately. My life is morphing so much now, that I am sure this has something to do with it. I am a grandmother for the first time, I am approaching retirement, I am building a house, I am apartment living in the city for the first time in decades...all of this is changing and challenging me. But, this restlessness occurs mostly on the week nights, so the insomnia probably relates more to job stress than anything else.

As I wrote a while back, my work program is morphing also. I spent late yesterday in a meeting with others (one pompous ass that should retire ASAP, two gung-ho young technical writers and PR types, and one career woman about my age) meeting to plan how to meld my program's public image with another new progam web-wise. We must have one consistent approach. They have the budget now, so I have to be realistic about the direction of things. But, it takes tremendous patience not to scream when they spend hours discussing the aspects of the subject area...since they are each learning about it for the first time. I know the history, I know the customers, I know the accomplishments, I know the issues. But, I have to let them try to figure out how to prioritize because I can't take my marbles and go home. I have no marbles. (Marbles being money...not brains although sometimes I think that is open for discussion as well.)

They recognize that I have decades of work in this subject area and at least five years of work with this particular department. It is just that they come with a political/policy agenda and I come with an education/research agenda. So, we have different goals and approaches. You can't really teach an old dog new tricks. You can just update their act and add it to yours.

Tomorrow I have a stupid two-day training class for three hours each in a general apsect of my subject area. I only signed up because I was making an effort to learn new tricks, but I am sure I will come from this not having learned much new. Make me wrong, please.

Feeling a little grouchy like this 'bear' in the woods.

A Day of Start and then Start Again

Today was appliance shopping as my builder told me we couldn't fit the refrigerator/freezer that I had already selected easily into the kitchen. I think he is wrong and am asking for a kitchen designer, because a refrigerator is a VERY important appliance that is used daily and I want to be able to use the one I picked. We went to one of those large everything and then-some stores to look at all the kitchen appliances. As we left, we found some celadon green dinnerware that we decided to buy, since we do not have a complete set of dishes at this time what with the recent move and all. This store is at least 30 minutes from where we live and, of course, when we got home we found 5 plates, one bowl and one cup broken. I called the store and they at least said we did not have to bring back the whole heavy box; they just wanted the broken items, please. With gas prices what they are our dish set just went up another $3.00!

While at the store we also were looking at CD players since our old player seems to be ignoring the CDs when we try to play them. This is a somewhat fruitless task with everyone moving to digital stream technology. We couldn't find anything simple and decided to try out a CD cleaner disk instead. I'll let you know if it works. I've got a feeling that there is more to this than a dirty disc player.

For the Rainy Days

Someday in my life,when the rain doesn't seem to go away, these are the pictures I hope to keep in my mind until the sun breaks through.

I did some research...

Checked out the nice restaurants in our area. That little platter of broiled oysters that I posted yesterday would cost about $50.00 here! I think hubby has got himself a good hobby. The sauce I made over the top was as follows for those of you who may have access to bivalves to eat.

2 tablespoons melted butter
4 cloves of garlic heated in microwave and chopped fine
1/4 red onion chopped fine
one stalk of fennel chopped fine
seasoned salt
very light sprinkle of spicy chile powder mix (Tabasco also works)
Heat all together until simmered
Add juice from one lemon and 2 tablespoons of white wine
pour over raw oysters and then broil

Me and my shadow.

I have not watched the news or read so much about Katrina's results by choice this week. I have contacted a few friends in that area and their homes survived; but they are frantically working on rebuilding research labs or classrooms and libraries. I have contributed as best I can, and need to back off from the images and stories for now. Interestingly, the thoughts still permeate my life. Most recently in the form of food. Last night we harvested and ate these.


As we relished these freshly harvest oysters, we also thought about how the oyster industry in the Gulf area along with all the seafood (caught and farmed) had been devastated. How some of the shrimpers lost their homes and are now living on their boats and have nothing to harvest.

Then today as I live on liquids and find food constantly tugging at my thoughts and food smells driving me bananas (see even my descriptors are edible!), I chastise myself in that I can have nutritious liquids and I am not thirsty like the hurricane survivors nor will I ever be as hungry as they must have been.

My concern for the procedures of the medical appointment early tomorrow is nothing like the fear they must have tried to control.

Two photos fell to the ground. Life Story #1

I had just finished putting together a little photo album about my two weeks with my grandson. As I was moving some of the photo albums I have in my bookshelf, these two fell to the floor. Boy do they bring back the memories. I think the guy with the GREAT thighs and totally sweet personality was called Lazarus, if I remember correctly. He was an elder selected as our guide and was helping my husband and I get some drinking coconuts since we had gotten thirsty while touring an area for an environmental study on a possible reef airport. (The reef won, thank goodness! That story involved an angry native and a spear and danger...another blog for another time.) The second photo is me standing next to probably a million dollars--that will never happen again. These giant doughnut shapped stones are money on the island of Yap. They represent a family's wealth. They come in all sizes, but this one has to be worth a LOT! Nice memories of a long time ago.

It's pink and long and clean

I lost my font, has anyone seen my font?

Starting tomorrow I get to drink 3 ounces of sodium benzoate and as many tons of clear liquids as I like. Yes, it is that time again where I let some gastroenterologist satisfy their prurient interests and hopefully tell me that my inside is as sexy as my outside on Wednesday. Wish me luck as this procedure is not that much fun, even though they pretty much knock you out.

The fun of living a long life!

An Now Something to Make You Very Very Scared

I have been schizophrenic today. Came cross this link while I was eating a late lunch at work and found that I got a message that said something to the effect I do not have "permission" to open this link. So, being the strong supporter of freedom of speech I sent the URL to my home email. (If I get fired tomorrow, you will know why!) Anyway, here it is. I just got back from a FEMA Detainment Camp Before you read this, keep reminding yourself that you are in the United States of America and that these 'refugees' are not people captured in I-r-a-q. I am so afraid that Katrina is going to split this country wide open. I know that racial prejudice exists, but I never really knew. I never really knew. If you can't open, let me know and I will post the text.

Curdle that Milk in Denmark

I had barely made it inside the apartment door and the phone was ringing. Dropping my mail on the chair I checked caller ID. It’s my mom, of course. She has been reading news on that damn Internet, I realized.

“Hi, Mom.”
“What are you doing home so early? It’s not even five.”
“I put in almost nine hours, Mom. Besides, I work for the government. Five-week vacations, long lunch hours, you know.”
“You should be working more. Get on that fast track. Take on more than you can handle easily.”
“Mom, what in the hell are you talking about?” I said this, knowing full well where this conversation was leading. I also had been reading the news over lunch.
“Haven’t you seen the news about stress? Stress is good for you. Stress prevents breast cancer, for god’s sake! Did you call your Ex today about the payments?”
“Mom, I love talking to you. But I need to unwind before I start dinner.”
“Tension is good. Stress is good. You do not ‘need’ to unwind. You need to get a second job. Maybe that way you could meet someone nice and get married again.”
“I have to say goodbye now, Mom. Thanks for the healthy dose of stress.” I hung up gently and headed for the wine rack.

I was going to write something about curdled breast milk and cancer and stress, but kept my wits about me. Of course, none of the above is true—but can’t you just see this? What on earth is the media thinking when they report this stuff so out of context!!! We need more qualified medical journalists.

Smokin some stuff

I am taking a note from The Cerebral Outpost and trying to find humor in the chaos of news these days. This morning on the Channel 9 morning show they were going outside the studio to introduce a new barbecue restaurant. Standing at the back of the building was the chef with some really great looking ribs on the grill. The newscaster (spokesman) joined him and said, "Well today, folks, we are here to help you plan an outdoor dinner for the Labor Day holiday. I am sure some of you are planning on smoking some stuff over the holiday." He really said that. Didn't even blink. I am sure his studio folks were falling off their chairs.

Insomnia 1 in White

I am off my sleep schedule due to grandson's visit last night. He had a bad night and was up every two hours! So tonight I went to bed at 800 and now I am totally awake at 2:00! My glasses are back in the bedroom, so I can't really see what I am blogging here.

But, I had fun cropping these two photos I took this weekend. One in a greenhouse and one at the side of the road on a bike ride. One has to fend for itself against the elements to survive and one is totally nurtured by man. The luck of the draw.

Can There Be Too Much Togetherness?

I get to reading blogs on an early Saturday and come across some stories about spouses and their disagreements that make me wonder how the people can still be together. But, having said that, there are days when I wonder how my hubby and I are going to work out this 24/7 retirement thing.

Right now he travels about 30% of the time. So, even though we go to work together, there are times when I have that precious, marvelous, restorative alone time that I so need.

When he is home we do most things together except for work time. We are not a glued-at-the-hip couple, but we do enjoy each others company and like similar activities and adventures. The hurdle that I see coming in the time ahead is my hubby's addiction to water activities and fishing. I mean, if he could, he would take out his canoe or boat every single day until he died to make sure he has found every fishing hole, every school of fish, every bird feeding group, etc. He even jokes that if he gets too old and has to be taken care of by others, that he wants me to put him in the canoe with his best fishing pole (like I would know out of the dozen he has!) and just push the canoe offshore into the ocean. I tell him that even though I love him, I am NOT going to jail for him.

Well, the problem is that he does not have a real fishing buddy other than I. His friends and colleagues are all busy with their lives. And even though we have the rare dinner together, they are not giving up their free time for fishing. And I can take fishing or leave it...usually leave it. We 'fight' over our weekend time. I like to run errands, work on crafts, take pictures, houseplan, watch chick flicks, blog, garden. He likes to fish. And on the days that have crappy weather he likes to fish even more. So I hope when we move into the new area there are fishing addicts and boating addicts to feed his needs.

I realized a few years ago and re-realize it every year that some (many?) women frequently give up our fun times to babysit while hubby golfs (my daughter), to go on long outdoor fishing vacations with husband (my sister) or to go boating on rare free times (me) to keep those we love happy. Then as we get older and the children fire us and maybe hubby slows down, we realize that we have put that whole creative self-pleasuring side of ourselves on a shelf somewhere. See that picture of that high school girl or college graduate? Who were we anyway? When was the last time we focused for so long on something we loved that we forgot the time? We need to be more like men.

Going Back in Time

For a total of 10 days over a three week period, I was the daytime caregiver of my little guy. Ten things I learned as a new grandmother in charge of daycare:

1) Your daughter (son?) will remind you of yourself at times in her approach to things and at other times you will wonder where she gets such crazy ideas.
2) “Quality time” for working parents consists of two hours in the evening which also includes changing out of office clothes, sorting the mail, cooking dinner and watching some stupid reality show that has been TIVOed. If you don’t know what TIVO is, you are better off than the rest of the world because you actually have a life. The kid does get some eye contact time, some belly time and usually a diaper change in all of this. Morning quality time, while more peaceful, rarely lasts more than a few minutes before everyone is off and running to greet their day.
3) When taking a baby for the daily stroll you actually think about things like the breezes in the leaves, happy dogs with wagging tails, the sounds of the suburbs and approaching fall colors.
4) Don’t expect to get any lengthy sleep while you are there overnight. Especially if parents are trying to get baby to drop night feedings.
5) Most Daddies are not intuitive about babies and it is sometimes funny to watch the discombobulation.
6) The strangest songs will come back into your memory when you are talking to the baby and you will actually sing them to him…at least partly, if you can remember most of the words.
7) Bath time: Babies are slippery as hell when wet!
8) There is nothing more addictive than ANY drug imaginable as having a little guy (gal) curl up tight in your arms, look you straight in the eye, and then drift off to blissful sleep.
9) Baby smell is certainly the next addiction…didn’t want to shower when I got back home!
10) You will lose weight ( a little). Lifting baby up and down, getting up and down from the floor, pushing a stroller, going up and down the stairs dozens of times each day and forgetting to eat all contribute to this.

Taking it One Day at a Time

Watching the news this week, the discouraging images were so familiar to me. In the late 1970’s upon returning from living in the South Pacific, Hubby and I excitedly purchased our first real home as a married couple in southern Texas. The house was located in a small and lovely suburb surrounded by shady live oak and sweet gum trees covered with Spanish moss and bordering lush green lawns. The house was a three bedroom, two bathroom ranch in excellent condition. We owned about a half acre. The back yard also had a garage-size greenhouse that kept all my tropical plants protected through the short winters of southern Texas. The former owner was a landscape addict and the yard was spectacular; we even won an award one year from the local garden club. Across the street was a slow moving bayou that my husband explored in his canoe on weekends. My daughter was almost four at the time and my son was about 8 months old. I was still nursing him, which later became a blessing.

Hurricanes were common in the summer months in this area of Texas but none ever reached our area. In 1979, Tropical Storm Claudette moved in from the gulf and while we expected lots of rain and flooded lawns, we knew it would move on as these tropical storms always did. But Claudette was contradictory and decided to stay awhile. She moved up to Alvin, Texas and then proceeded to sit there like a drunken sailor sucking up moisture from the Gulf and dumping it on our heads. 42 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. According to Wikipedia: “Claudette was a long-lived (August 15 - August 29) but fairly weak storm that spent almost its entire life as a tropical depression. Claudette formed in the mid-Atlantic east of the Windward Islands. It had two spells as a tropical storm; the first was a brief one east of Puerto Rico. The storm passed directly over the island just after weakening, where it killed one person from flooding. The depression moved casually through the Greater Antilles and moved into the Gulf of Mexico. Claudette restrengthened into a tropical storm south of Sabine, Texas and made landfall near Port Arthur, killing one person from floods. Damages from flooding in Texas were enormous, totaling $400 million dollars. Claudette was one of the costliest storms on record that never reached hurricane intensity.”

After hours and hours of gray rain, fear was starting to set in. By early evening I could hear the water gurgling beneath the bathtub in the children’s bathroom. It was a strange and unsettling sound. In the dusk, I tried to see where the level of the bayou was in the neighbor’s backyard across the street, but the rain was so heavy I couldn’t make out anything but gray water against the window. Uneasy, we put the kids to bed and then headed to bed ourselves. The numbing sound of rain continued throughout the night. We slept on and off, and in the morning, woke up to about six inches of water in the bedroom! We hurriedly packed some clothes, got the kids dressed and talked about what to do next.

I remember getting my daughter her breakfast before we left. The water had come up another 8 inches by that time. I put her on the kitchen table and fixed her cereal. Although the electricity was out, the milk was still cold from the fridge. She was fascinated with the swimming pool that had previously been our home. While eating she suddenly squealed in delight. When I looked up, she giggled. “Mom, look, there’s a fish under the table!” In verification, there was a small 4 inch fish swimming around the legs of our kitchen table as if it was his own small wooden reef.

The water continued to rise, and we eventually had to leave our home by that reliable old canoe. As we paddled down our street I noticed that the waters were teaming with balls of fire ants climbing over each other in order to avoid drowning. We had to be careful not to brush up against those lovely live oaks and sweet gums branches, as they, too, were covered in fire ants and harbored their share of poisonous and non-poisonous snakes as well. We paddled out to the nearby freeway and then hubby returned to pick up our neighbors. Eventually a school bus took all of us to the local elementary school. While the rains stopped, the water continued to rise for another day. We got over 3 feet of water in our house. When we realized that it would be days before we could get back home, friends took us in. After several weeks of living with them, we accepted that we had to find some place to rent for the longer term and fortunately we had the limited resources to do that. I remember thinking that although I had lost the inside of my house and most of my belongings, I was so thankful we were alive and uninjured.

We returned to a neighborhood of refuse-covered lawns. People were trying to determine what could be salvaged and what had to be thrown out among their treasures. I still have in my mind the nightmare images of soaked furniture, buckled oak flooring, and days and days of doing laundry when the electricity was finally restored. My neighbor’s dryer worked and my washer worked and we ran them non-stop together for days. You have to wash EVERYTHING you ever owned that is washable. We probably thought we were washing the flood away.

We retrieved the chest freezer from the neighbor's swimming pool where it had floated out of our garage. All of our food was lost, of course.

Months passed before we could get a contractor to help us rebuild. We gutted the house ourselves in the interim. The fireplace had not been pushed off its base and we did not have a can of diesel oil on a counter to tip and spread everywhere as one of our neighbors had experienced.

I ended up having to wean my son earlier than I wanted, because we had to shop for cars (both of ours floated away) and handle tons of insurance paperwork and loan paperwork. (This was the flood, by the way, that gave Texan, Dan Rather, his first big newsbreak and helped move him forward as a major news anchor.)

As I see these people in the Gulf who are so thankful just to be alive, I know that months from now when they will have to accept they have a long road ahead after the initial shock wears off. They will need the help of the charities more than ever and the support of their relatives and friends to help them see the light at the end of the tunnel. As my blog emphasizes, you get through these things One Day at a Time.

Number One

I am back for tonight and leaving once more to grandbaby sit through Tuesday night. Then I have to suck it up and go back to the real world of work. Tonight, I have just finished three loads of laundry...quite a feat when I have to carry everything back and forth across the hallway along with keys and the machine card. Sometimes I forget the softener or drop a sock. Anyway, taking a break and posting photos of the most beautiful grandson for bloggers who want to see how he has grown.

The first is a morning energy activity at his music studio and in the second he is showing off the new booties that his auntie purchased on a recent trip to Central America. (The photos are compressed from large size.)

Yawn--off to bed for now.

And Now for Your Moment of Zen (as Jon Stewart would say)

The world is certainly a lovely place, so for those of you sitting a home I thought I would share a few more of the dozens of pictures I took on the anniversary trip to West Virginia.


Not sure which wildflower this is? Similar to a loosestife.


This waterfall is blue and milky and the rocks red due to the high iron content--North Fork of the Blackwater river.





ENJOY! Now I am packing and doing some casseroles for this next week a my daughter's. Blog next week will have some photos of this really good-looking guy!

I'm Baaack

I am here, just for the weekend--pay some bills and catch up on laundry. I return to my daughter's house Sunday night and stay until Friday night. I actually feel like I am on vacation there, since I don't do anything but play with the baby and help with some light housekeeping. I am actually getting quite a bit of reading done!

But now for the days prior to visiting x-man---our anniversary trip. After a drive of five hours, we checked into the park lodge which was quite nice and at a $60-a-night special rate, a good savings. On the Saturday afternoon of our arrival, the lodge was busy with the activities of a summer festival. There were lots of people in the huge swimming pool, kids on the rock climbing wall, and some bungie jumpy thing. Inside a newly built shelter at the foot of the hill behind the lodge there were arts and crafts tables with of all kinds of things for sale. People were sitting at picnic tables eating food, dogs lay at their feet and children were running in and out. It was sort of like a family get-together. A wonderful Celtic music group of four was singing and playing for the crowd. We liked their music so much we bought the CD, "Wolf Creek Session - Between Two Shores." We also bought some honey made from the tulip poplar tree.

In the early evening we took a very short walk around the grounds of the lodge which has several easy trails. We came upon this deer grazing in the high grass. It clearly had some health problem, as he did not try to avoid us and had terrible mange.

The next morning we headed out to one of our favorite areas in West Virginia, Dolly Sods. This is a misnomer based on the name of the Dahle family which owned the area. This German family raised cattle on the high rolling hills before it became a nature park on one side and a private hunting area on the other. It is a unique ecosystem in that the climate is much like that of Canada with places as high as 4,000 feet. Weather is quickly changeable at that height and so you have to be aware when camping or hiking. This place has special memories for my husband and I as we have been hiking and camping here when the children were younger.

We selected one of many trails...all of which are fairly level at the end of the road. Our trail which was a combination of several numbered trails ended up being 4.5 miles in and 4.5 miles out. I know this, as my husband is enamoured of his gadget GPS. This is the trail head labeled Bear Rocks Trail #522, which we didn't exactly follow. We stopped and talked to some young campers that had just come out and they provided us with a map they used and recommended a good day hike. We were passed by three horseback riders and their little beagle as we reached the trees at the end of the picture above. But that was really the only people we saw the whole time.

We were surprised that the park provided snacks this late in the season. There were two types of blueberries. The blue ones were the sweetest, but the darker blue berries had a pungent flavor like fine wine. We felt very healthy eating them and were sorry that the horseman missed this stop.

Once we cleared the first set of trees the trail becomes less clear as the tall grasses cover our footprints. Thus the value of the GPS so at least we can get back to where we have been.










That square thing on hubby's head is the GPS---he likes to wear it that way. He always was a fashion maven. We still have to make it over the next knoll in the distance before we can justify a rest.
At the top of that hill it was so lovely and ended up being a perfect spot to take a break. The breeze was gentle and the weather had not yet heated up by mid-morning, although the afternoon of our return was quite hot. We were high on the hills and the breeze was so welcome as were the clouds that drifted between us and the sun.

We came to various steel posts at times, some with directions and some just posts to indicate the trail. But it took careful observation to make sure we did not get lost on some other footpath. This area is so open and beautiful that one can hike for days.

The terrain changes from rolling hills to marsh/bog valleys that support the blueberries and cranberries. It can get quite muddy, so you have to wear good hiking shoes, which we did. We spotted the footprints in the mud below. Seemed to be too big for a mink or martin and probably not a raccoon. Where is Daniel Boone when you need him?



Finally--the crest of the ridge and our reward is the view. Time for lunch, a break and we head back out.

4 day vacation

Just got back from March of the Penguins...Morgan Freeman does a terrific narration and the documentary itself is lovely and moving and makes you COLD! It totally amazes me that these emperor penguins are not extinct. But then we do have global warming which may improve their survival chances. See this movie if you like animals or documentaries.

Heading out to the mountains for our anniversary tomorrow...can't remember which anniversary...it's just a number folks. Anyway, we will do some hiking and I will bring back some pictures of the natural beauty. BUT I will be babysitting for the rest of the week and all of the next week after that. Hopefully, I can do some blogging on the weekends when I get home, but I am not making any promises. I know, you will miss me.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

As an update for those who do not have a life and are curious---WE GOT TONER YESTERDAY! All things come to those who wait....and wait...and wait.

Tokyo After Midnight

Many many (many) years ago ( probably before you were born) my husband and I spent some time in Japan on business. We spent several days in Tokyo and being the young adventurers that we were, we stayed out late and visited hotel bars, etc. It amazed us that in such a large city at 2:00 A.M. one would see a few drunken men in business suits stumbling down the street, but never see any scuzzy or threatening people. We never felt in danger at any time, as we might have in a large American city during that time. We weren't even concerned if we got a little lost in trying to find our way back to our hotel. I haven't been out late in Tokyo recently, so don't know if that culture has changed. I think the lower crime rate there has to do with the homogeneity of the population.

In reading my latest issue of Newsweek, I came across this article. The photo itself is certainly compelling. I cannot imagine how any mother could send a six-year-old across a city by him or herself on a public train. There would be so many what-ifs in my mind that I just would NOT send my kid to school until I lived closer. It seems that this is a somewhat common thing in Japan.

Beauty Can Be Deceiving

Five years ago in the spring of the year I took a day's walk down this lovely road below. Enjoying the spring weather and the company of others. It was one of those perfect days when the breeze was just right, the walk was not challenging and the natural beauty was everywhere. The end of the road led to a grassy knoll and this view of the ocean.



The grassy knoll was probably the home of the enemy. The enemy gave no sound and was never seen. 24 hours later I found a tick on my thigh and 48 hours after that I got sick. In three days I had the bulls-eye on my leg and my neck glands were sore and swollen. Yep, Lymes disease. Fortunately, we caught it in time because I had the textbook symptoms. But I went to a seminar a few months later on Lymes and was told that I could get it again in another bite with or without the symptoms showing up. That was reassuring.

Work It Baby!!!

I have been sluffing off. I used to be so good about exercising 30 minutes most mornings and 60 minutes on the weekends. This came about because of some back difficulties that I had about 8 years ago. I went into therapy and then, being the type A person that I am, I decided to bump it up a notch when the insurance company stopped paying for the therapy. I got DVDs, video tapes, weights, benches, etc. and WORKED it baby... My back pain completely went away! It was such a good reward after a year of debilitating pain, that I committed myself to never returning to the slug mode I had been in. I had been spiraling into a depression (and since I had never been depressed in my life it was both fascinating and frightening).

My posture has benefitted and even a dance teacher noticed. I also lost a 'little' weight and my clothes fit better, which was also a reward since I could justify buying some new clothes. So exercise became my mantra.

Well, this final move to the apartment (maybe it is just the aging process as well) has changed my exercise routine. There is not so much room ( I HATE PUBLIC GYMS) and I can't be as aggressive in exercising since my husband is usually still sleeping. These excuses are preventing me from exercising as much and as regularly as I used to. Oh well. Oh hell.

Remember that baby a few weeks ago?

This from CNN today.
I am so glad that people don't grow this fast!

My new lifestyle

I am learning to live like many Americans live in the city.

This apartment has only one washer and one dryer on each floor, and while I can usethe laundry room on other floors, the thought of carrying a basketful of laundry, the keys to the laundry room, the money card for the machines and all the cleaning supplies into the elevator and out only to find that the machine on that floor is busy, has convinced me that it would be easier to use the appliances on my floor.

The laundry room is just across from the kitchen door to the hallway, so I can easily check to see if the laundry room is busy and then run like a crazy person pulling sheets off the bed, towels outs of the bathroom and small rugs from the floor. In addition, I have learned to set the kitchen timer so that I will be reminded when to pull the stuff out of the washer and into the dryer, etc. (Don't want anyone to steal my clothes or throw them on the floor in anger because I am busy drinking wine and blogging!) This whole process is a big change from the luxury of having my own washer and dryer. I no longer have the luxury of doing a small load of delicates. All loads cost the same--$1.50--so I tend to clump stuff together that I hadn't previously. Doing hand laundry and hanging unmentionables in this small apartment could be disastrous. (At least I bought a bunch of new underwear a year or so ago!)

But, I am still better off than my daughter. In her intelligence to bite off more than she can chew (much like manababies methinks) she has decided to gut and remodel her basement. This decision occurred when her baby was less than two months old. What this means is that she had the 'guy' come in and gut the basement--take out all of the bathroom fixtures down there and the new washer and dryer she had purchased a few months ago. The 'guy' is not licensed, but has done some work for them that they liked and so now she or her husband have to go to the permit office to get the permission to do this so that they can be sure the plumbing is done correctly. Therefore, weeks later she is still without a laundry room and is running next door to do her laundry (wonder how long the neighbors will be friends?)

I am so glad there is a hole in my lot! Counting the months.

HANGING ON

Some days I feel just like this old tree at the edge of an abyss.

Due to lots of leave taken during the summer by our public services staff, I am pulled from the privacy of my office to staff our public desk a day or two a week.

While sitting at the desk I noticed that the FAX machine would ring and then nothing would print. When I asked a co-worker she explained that it had probably run out of toner. Thus the scenario that followed in text below. (Note: You have to read it from the bottom of this blog up now, since that is the chronology. Note: Yes, you are paying the salary of these idiots who do not understand English. Note: that this whole process has now taken a month and the FAX machine is still out of toner!) Go the end of the blog post now.

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Updated by Who Me...I don’t WORK here Tue 2 Aug 2005 16:43:37 -0400 from IP address.

I checked up here and we do not have any cartridges for your fax. When I and (other named worker) installed the fax we gave your everything related to this fax. I will check on Wednesday if I can purchase some cartridges.

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Updated by Co-worker Tue 2 Aug 2005 12:49:50 -0400 from other IP address.

Samsung SF - 5100 Fax -- SF-5100D1 (XAR)

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Updated by Co-worker Tue 2 Aug 2005 12:48:15 -0400 from other IP address.

Note, we don't need anyone to service the fax machine, I just need for you to order the toner cartridge, and then I can replace the cartridge.

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Updated by Who Me...I don’t WORK here Tue 2 Aug 2005 11:01:42 -0400 from IP address.

We have never served fax machines for the PUBLIC OFFICE. We will check out as soon as time allow this week.

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Altered by Tabor Thu 21 Jul 2005 13:50:53 -0400 from other IP address.

Change monitors from {person a, person b, person c} to {person a, person b, person c, Co-worker, another co-worker}.

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Updated by Tabor Thu 21 Jul 2005 13:50:21 -0400 from other IP address.

It appears that a request for toner replacement for this FAX machine was sent out by Co-worker (https:link here ticket #8980) on July 11th that is identical to this help desk request.

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Altered by Tabor Thu 21 Jul 2005 07:32:58 -0400 from other IP address.

Change monitors from {person a, person b, person c} to {person a, person b, person c, Co-worker }.

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Updated by Tabor Wed 20 Jul 2005 10:42:39 -0400 from another IP address.

I am including Person b to determine the next step in this effort as both Idiot #1 and Co-worker are out today.

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Altered by Tabor Wed 20 Jul 2005 10:41:40 -0400 from IP Address.

Change monitors from {Person a to} to {Person a, Person b}.

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Updated by Who me…I don’t work here Wed 20 Jul 2005 09:55:49 -0400 from IP Address.

Please check with Co-worker or Idiot #1 for servicing. We are responsible for procuring the consumables.

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Updated by Tabor Tue 19 Jul 2005 14:37:12 -0400 from IP Address.

Sorry, I meant to type CAN'T route this stuff elsewhere.

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Updated by Tabor Tue 19 Jul 2005 14:34:41 -0400 from IP Address.

Haven't heard from anyone on this ticket even though it is a priority at our end. Please note that offices across the nation are faxing reports to us via this machine and that researchers and staff are waiting to pick these up. Once the memory buffer is full, we will have lost reports and will need to identify what was lost and what needs to be re-requested. Note: we can route this stuff elsewhere. Help please.

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Created by Tabor Mon 18 Jul 2005 09:40:31 -0400 from IP Address.

The fax machine at the public desk - Samsung SF-5100 - is now out of toner (appears it may have been out late last week). Co-worker is not in today...don't know if our office has to supply our own toner or if upstairs office has supply for this machine. Machine receives several reports daily, so would like it fixed as soon as possible.

A meme from Colleen

1. What are the three stupidest things you’ve ever done in your life?

a.) As a Freshman in college, in order to act ‘cool,’ I made fun of someone I didn’t know very well in the cafeteria and then found out she was sitting right behind me. b.) Rode in a car coming down a canyon in the Rocky Mountains late at night with a date that had been drinking and we spun out. c.) Hired an old lady real estate agent to sell my house. She should have retired years ago.

2. At the current moment, who has the most influence on your life?

My husband because is has good common sense and is still pretty naive.

3. If you were given a time machine that functioned, and you were allowed to pick up to five people to dine with, who would you pick?

Erma Bombeck, Gandhi, Bill Clinton, Leonardo Da Vinci and my great, great, great, grandmother…With a little wine and some atmosphere we could talk all night.

4. If you had three wishes that were not supernatural, what would they be?

Everyone I loved would have great health until they died in old age, people of the world would be more open minded to others ideas, and the earth would be returned to a ‘healthy’ state.

5. Someone is visiting your hometown/place where you live at the moment. Name two things you regret not having in your city, and two things people should avoid.
   I regret that the area I live in is not more crime free and I regret that it is not quieter. My visitors should definitely avoid rush hour and certain parts of the city at night.

6. Name one event that changed your life?
The death of my middle sister at age 54 from melanoma.

I'll think about who to tag on this later.

Holding on to junk

I got a kick out of reading manababies struggle to simplify her life while preparing for a move and the sale of her house. She was writing about how old things (that are totally worthless) have memories attached that make you want to save them, instead of tossing them out. Manababies memory was attached to a piece of clothing -- a pair of old boxer shorts.

This is amusing to me because my daughter went to an O.A.R. concert the other night with our young cousin. While at the concert she remembered an incident when she was a pre-teen. One of the OAR singers stayed at our house with my son as a ten-year-old many years ago. He accidentally left his boxer shorts. Boxer shorts were all the rage then for 12-year-old girls, which my daughter was. So she put them aside hoping Marc would never ask for them, which he didn't and she decided to keep them. She would have been too embarrassed to go into the boys/men's department and buy male underwear of course.

Well, as one would expect, she no longer has these shorts--nor post pregnancy could she fit into them if she did-- but her cousin, who is a very young twenty-something, was most impressed when she learned this at the concert and wished that my daughter had saved the shorts. One person's treasure is frequently another person's junk and that is probably one of the primary things that keeps E-bay going strong.

A Typical American Sunday

X-man saw very little of this nature behind bars, but he still was tired at the end.

Time is a-wasting

Today is another 'free' day for me. I actually think if my retirement comes about like this I will love it and be able to adjust. Early this morning before I got up, Hubby disappeared on a canoe/fishing trip with the boss on his favorite river. I have this small apartment to clean--should take only a couple of hours--finished laundry yesterday. After that I need to run some errands. I have a baby shower coming up and while I ordered stuff from the new mother's registry on-line, I really want to add some personal items myself. Any unique ideas from you new mothers?

Then I will go to the wine store and stock up for the next few weeks. I have been really neglectful with my wineblog, but I haven't not had reflective time to do it justice---just lots of drinking time while I pour over the blueprints.

Then, my 'sweet' daughter called yesterday to "see how we were doing" on our new house errands. At the end of the conversation she got around to why she had really called. She needed a babysitter for Saturday night so that she and hubby could take the cousin who is now her daycare person to a concert as a break. Fortunately, I have no real nightlife, so told her I would come down and babysit with my favorite person in all the world tonight. Somehow my first day of the weekend is chock full and I have only finished my second cup of coffee...so guess I better get to work.

Some Respite from the Heat

Took a trip after dinner on Sunday. It was still warm here, but cooling breezes came across the water and we got a break as the sun began to set. Small kids were throwing rocks at the lazy turtles swimming in the shallow areas of the river. Fish coming to the surface for a breath of air. Even wildflowers were still blooming..black-eyed-susan, trumpet vines, closed morning glories, and wild mimosa. Nice break in the summer heat.

Who has the Stomach for It?

(Finally got a chance to post this during a late lunch.)

I Don’t Have the Stomach for it Anymore

A few weeks ago I was surfing television looking for something to distract me and help wind down the day. I came across “Into the West” on TNT. This short series was produced by Steven Spielburg which certainly lends some cache in terms of credibility and entertainment. So, even though the series has started the week before, I was intrigued and decided to watch Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. Beginning credits were attractive and set a gentle western scene. Everything is filmed in gentle sepia tones creating a historic mood. Costumes and props are clearly made to look authentic. The actors themselves are well cast and in some instances represent actual historic characters. The actors’ faces, for the most part, are not common to television viewers and so the character is allowed to come through. The history of the development of the western territories is told following the lives of two families.

OK, enough background. Why didn’t I finish watching Chapter 4? I frequently stop watching a movie, TV Show, sports game when I think it is getting late and I need to go to bed, old grandmother fart that I am. It drives my husband nuts that I can get up in the middle of a show and head to bed without wondering how the episode ends. (Of course most of television is so derivative that there is no time lost pondering the ending on my part and I’d rather get to my book.) But, this is not the reason I didn’t watch the finish of this show. I turned off the set because I was crying so hard, I just couldn’t watch any more. The blatent violence and loss of innocent elderly and children just kicked me in the gut, and, Spielburg makes it all so real…the fact that is was real history…just couldn’t do it. It was a beautiful and tragic story of our history. I really wanted to watch it all, but I couldn’t.

I don’t know if this has to do with aging or just the years of images that have been burned in my mind, or 9/11, but I don’t have the stomach to watch such violence—even in the news anymore. I was watching BBC last night, because they actually report the news (not just the stories about beautiful white girls that are missing or pedophiles gone amok) and they were showing the genocide and starvation happening in Darfur. I looked for 10, maybe 15 seconds, and I had to change the channel. I could not bear it. Switch to “Friends” or “Everybody Loves Raymond” as something totally mindless to cleanse the palate.

It just seems that my nerves are raw and fringed these days or there is too much reality on TV. Psychologists say that “Violent programs on television lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch those programs. I wonder what it leads to in baby boomers such as myself?

Nothing to say

The sweet M-I-L of my daughter joined us on a beach outing a few weekends ago. She is a deeply religious Catholic and if all Catholics were like her the Church would be a shining example of what Christiantity is supposed to be. You cannot help but love her. But here is the conversation that left my tongue bleeding as I oh so carefully bit it...!

My daughter: "Mom, you need to tell me the words to Hail Mary so when my son is in school or church I can help him with it."

M-I-L: "It is really pretty easy. You need a rosary. Do you know about that?"

My daughter: "Yes.'

M-I-L: "You know, I say the Rosary every single day. I made a promise to God years ago, when I wanted my first child . (M-I-L went through a NUMBER of miscarriages before the birth of her first.) I promised God that if he gave me a child I would say my Rosary every day after that. Of course, some days I am too busy so I make sure to say it twice the next day. I am afraid that God might do something bad to my child if I didn't"

???? God Help me, please????

Woke up too early this morning!

Discovered this exercise on Kenju's blog (which is a very good read by the way). I welcome any and all readers who have missed this to share their list if they are so inclined.

10 Things I have done that you probably haven’t.

1) Weaned a calf

2) Physically restrained a 14-year-old who had pulled a knife on a teacher the previous year

3) Eaten dog with farm workers on the island of Mindanao

4) Slept in a grass hut on the island of Babledaup

5) Lived on the side of an active volcano

6) Traveled half-way around the world with a six-week old baby.

7) Played the front end of Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed Reindeer in a play I wrote

8) Been bitten on the heal by a wild monkey

9) Been taken out to dinner by my hotel wait staff

10) Paddled out of the living room of my house by canoe

A Lot of Miles on the Old Dog

I think I save too much. All the memories. Only three of these are active. There is a fourth now in Korea.

Organizing Your Life

Here it is early on Saturday. I have an entire weekend to do what I want...or need to do being the Puritan Work-Ethic person. My hubby was off for a two-day trip to Louisiana. He came back in the middle of Tuesday night and left at 5:00 Wednesday for a week-long trip to Korea. So I am on my own. OK, I admit it. I love him and I really like our time together. But I especially LOVE being alone as well. So, I am actually looking forward to these next days when I only have to answer to my needs.

But being the Puritan that I am, here is my list of 'to-dos' (in no order) that I made sleepily last night while surfing the TV before bed--there is nothing on television.

1)Exercise at least 60 min. on Saturday and Sunday (I have totally fallen off my exercise routine since we moved.)
2)Go through the four-drawer file cabinet and weed, weed, weed.
3)File all the stuff in the plastic bin that sits in front of the file cabinet.
4)Clean the apartment.
5)Organize all the piles and boxes still in the bedroom so I can get dressed in the morning!
6)Create two spreadsheets. One to track the financial activities on the housebuilding and one to track the actual actitivies on the housebuilding.
7)Laundry(?) if I can get the washer.
8)Organize the bookshelves where I just piled stuff during the move.

And, of course, per Carol's last entry, What am I doing right now? I am blogging first thing.

My daughter called last night to see if I wanted to do something with her and our cousin on Sunday. So that removes half the weekend. My daughter is a sweetie and gets people to do stuff for her that amazes me. She had to go back to work on July 5. Her future babysitting arrangement can't take place until September. So she got her mother-in-law in to drive down from three states away to babysit for the last two weeks; she is paying to fly in a distant cousin of ours from Michigan ("Studying nursing and knows how to give a baby CPR.")for the next two weeks; and then I take over for the first week and the last week of August. They still need someone for the middle of that month and it looks like hubby will have to take a week off and she herself will have to also take another week of leave.

At least she and I know how to organize our time.

Potter Passion vs. Wusthof

As lover of books I have to admit that I haven't read a single Harry Potter book (apologies to Hedwig)! I have so many other books still on my list to read and I am an anal retentive so must read from number one in any series and that just hasn't happened. Besides, I hate pressure to read a book before the movie. Amazon.com said it was planning on selling 50,000 copies per hour! A lot of hype out there.

Of course if you peruse the news you will see there are all kinds of stories about who to, when, where, and how these copies will be delivered. And then just type "Harry Potter" in Google's news engine and you will get a bunch of interesting stories surrounding this passion. It sort of reminds me of the passion for the tulips years ago....;-)

What is it about us that makes us push to be the first to read the book, see the movie, buy the fashion statement? Does it lose it's value if we don't get it at the earliest?

My rush usually ends up in a sale item issue. Overstock finally got one of the few brand names of knives I was looking for! I put in an order for the "high likelihood of early sellout' item ( see photo) for my new kitchen. My current knife set is 30 years old and incomplete along with a lot of bits and pieces of knives from elsewhere along the way. NOW one complete set! AND at 50% off. Who can beat that?

Music Meme

1. Total volume of music files on my computer:
I downloaded some stuff a long time ago…can’t find it. So don’t really have any music on my PC!

2. The last CD I bought was:

Since I have been moving, I haven’t been shopping. But two months ago I bought Mediterranea by Johannes Linstead.

3. Song playing right now:
”Street Sounds” by Brazil Chill

4. Five songs (tunes) I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

(Yes, I AM CHEATING. Sorry I have to do albums or CDs and not in any order because I am all over the place in my moods! And I could go on and on.)

1) Cool and Unusual - Artist: Martin Simpson (for afternoon dreaming)

2) Amici - Artists: The Opera Band (for creativity or [on low]after-dinner conversation with friends)

3) American Deluxe - Artists: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (for house cleaning)

4) Slowing Down the World – Artist Chris Botti (for, well, you know)

5) Graceland – Artist: Paul Simon (for the memories)

5. Five people to whom I'm passing the baton (if they haven’t already received it!):
Manababees

Danny

Jason

Chris

Sis

Carol at the Outpost

Hooters

There is news this morning that the Panda couple at the National Zoo appear to be future parents...at long last. These huge animals will have a baby that weighs about 4 ounces and is the size is a little larger than a golf ball. The zoo keepers said that after the birth, they were going to leave the first-time mom and baby alone and let nature take its course rather than try to guide the nursing process.

This started me thinking about 'nature taking it's course.' If I was living in the wild, had never had a baby, had never seen a mother and baby and gave birth to my first child, would I naturally know how to nurse? Society intellectualizes the process of nursing. We don't like to think of ourselves as biological animals and we certainly like to think of breasts as sexual organs and not feeding organs.

We hide the nursing process, by making mothers go into dark corners or cover their bodies as much as possible when they nurse in public. My daughter purchased two "hooter hiders" so she can live a somewhat normal life and feed her baby boy when among friends or in public.

Having lived for years on a tropical island where natives went topless and where nursing was the same as eating, I grew very comfortable with this biological function of ours. There were stories where years ago missionaries came to the islands to convert the 'heathen' natives and one of the processes was to cover the top of the women with blouses and shirts since boobies had something to do with sin. The story goes that this lasted a short while as the women (those nursing) soon cut holes in the shirts at exactly the most useful place so they could feed their babies easily.

Today I am off to my grandson's baptism...a process that comforts some in the family and which has a little bit of an unsettling effect on others.

It is a Scary City, Blogdom

I have a few dozen blogs that I try to read on a regular basis and share my limited-intelligent comments and unrequested advice. This past week two of my bloggers (both ‘young folk’) seem to be dealing with serious crises in their lives. I know the details of one but the other has dropped off the blogosphere. In Blogdom, you really get to know some folks pretty intimately. You cannot read their eyes and their smiles, but I am realizing that it is not fun when you can’t take someone out to coffee, hold their hand, bring them a cold bottle of wine, or just let them know you are there for them and will pick up the mail and feed the pet!

Please keep good thoughts, prayers, some good Chi going for these two Blogger friends of mine!

Wrong Number!

As much as I hate to admit it, something happens as your reach the ‘Golden Years’ in terms of getting a good night’s sleep. I have always been a light sleeper, but every few nights I am rewarded. I actually do not wake up every two hours and drift back to sleep…instead, I actually SLEEEEP deeply through the night. Well, last night was one of those wonderful nights until 1:30 AM when the phone rang.

This was the first call we have gotten in the apartment bedroom, so it took hubby a short while to think about where the phone was and then answer it, but not before he said ominously…Uh Oh. (He was thinking it was our son with a problem of some kind. You can tell the teen years have left their scars.)

Well, as you can guess from the title of this blog, it was a wrong number. I couldn’t get back to sleep for hours! I actually think that wrong numbers after midnight ought to have a fine attached to them!

The Dream House

Several people who now know that we have broken ground on the lot are asking how the 'dream home' is coming. Being the exacting soul that I am, I keep thinking of putting on the brakes for a minute when they say this. This is not my 'dream home.' A 'dream home' means to me that I could have everything I would want with no compromises. I am a perfectionist and I could have it exactly the way that I wanted it, if it was a 'dream home.' Instead this home will be my retirement home and filled with lots of compromises...liveable compromises...but compromises just the same due to geography and money limitations. This doesn't mean that I am not excited about all the possibilities ahead. It just means that I am a realist and will always be holding my breath for the next surprise compromise.

Jim Blandings : “It's a conspiracy, I tell you. The minute you start they put you on the all-American sucker list. You start out to build a home and wind up in the poorhouse. And if it can happen to me, what about the guys who aren't making $15,000 a year? The ones who want a home of their own. It's a conspiracy, I tell you - -against every boy and girl who were
ever in love.”

Here is the view we get from the dining area table. I think winter snow storms are going to be breathtaking.

The view from my 'living room' window five floors up. Nice. Doesn't seem like the city at all.

Our First Free Day in a LONG Time.

We have only a few boxes and things to sort. so we took the day off and went out in the boat. Hubby has waited 25 years to own such a boat, and we really don't get out in it often enough. Of course, you can save years for a boat and then every year it costs money to run and maintain. I posted a traditional picture of the osprey and the little cove that we disappeared into to eat our store-bought lunch of ham sandwiches and chips. (I still have enough trouble finding things in the apartment kitchen! The only thing I have lost so far is one of my re-chargeable batteries for my digital camera)

The day was gently overcast in the A.M. with temps in the low 80's. Perfect for boating. Winds were at least 15--so we stayed out of the Bay and in the river. We would have liked to take some friends, but the apartment move made it a last minute decision.

It is still an effort to get out in the boat, since all the boat gear and coolers have to be stored at the old house, which is a mile away. Landlady was very generous and let us keep the keys to the garage door.

Today is the last of the unpacking--where to put and/or store dozens of lighbulbs, cleaning supplies and sorting out two of the three tool boxes we own. I even got my roots dyed (which were starting to look like a really bad hair day), and I cut hubby's hair. I have cut my husband's hair since we first got married and lived overseas and found it hard to get a barber. I think he has been to a real barber less then 10 times since we were married.

And I have added some photos to the housebuilding blog.

Now off to run a few errands. Can't seem to get into the laundry room on a Saturday. Something I will have to adjust to while we live here.

A quiet cove for a nice lunch.

An osprey which we inadvertantly disturbed as we passed the boat marker.

Moving is a nightmare. But I knew that.

I do not have internet or cable at the apartment, but I can write this in MSWord on my PC and then paste when I get to work tomorrow. It is late Sunday night after dinner at the absolutely BEST Chinese restaurant—and I have eaten in a lot of them. It is only a block from my new apartment! I am surrounded by boxes, boxes, boxes and some furniture that needs to be reassembled. But the bed is done and made.

Of course, the day we moved the high hits 91 degrees with a relative humidity varying between 39% and 66%! I guess we either got this type of weather or rain. Thank goodness ( or God or the Gods) we did not get rain. We hired William – an ex-husband of a friend. He was recommended as hard working and strong, but not the brightest bulb in the room—so says the X-wife. Well, he did just fine and seemed bright enough. Then Hubby drove by the Duron paint store (this is another blog) and picked up a 38-year-old from El Salvador (Alessandro), who spoke no English, but was also very hard-working. My husband speaks a reasonable amount of Spanish. My son and his friend, both strong, also showed up. With Hubby’s back surgery and all the strain and pushing he has been doing these past weeks, he was smart and didn’t do any lifting.

We were going to try and make both the trip to the apartment and the trip to the storage in one rental truck load. But this proved to be too ambitious and we ended up having to make two loads. We even threw away two wooden chairs and some other stuff along the way.

The first trip to the apartment, they didn’t have the pads in the elevator as promised, Hubby went to get that arranged while the rest of us started unloading boxes unto the dolly. On one of the trips, as we were waiting for the elevator, a middle box started buzzing like an angry bee or a bomb waiting to go off. Alessandro looked at me a little startled. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders not having a clue what the noise could be. When we got to the apartment I tore open the box to get the irritating noise to stop. It was this !! I’m sure when Allesandro saw it, he thought it was something else.

I had wisely made a floor plan on graph paper of all of the furniture so that they could place boxes in the middle of the room and the furniture in the correct area. Even with this good planning, after everyone left, I realized that we would have to move the computer desk next to the TV or the cable guy would make me run all the cable across the room. Which, like dominoes, meant we had to move some boxes to clear a path to move the smaller book case to the former desk area so that the light switch and thermostat are not covered, which in turn meant moving the large bookcase into the small bookcase place, etc., etc.

Since this is neither my permanent nor long term home, I only care about efficiency not aesthetics in getting the furniture in place. I do still have a little feng shui thing going each time I move. It IS sort of in my soul and I don’t consciously think about it, but I can sense an uncomfortable feeling when things are placed incorrectly and try to move them.

Well, enough for tonight. I am going to sleep the sleep of a baby boy grandchild.

Ok, so Imelda and I went to the same school!

I am busy packing today and took a short break to blog. Since I will be unplugging the computer tonight and unable to get internet access until next week at the apartment, I will not be blogging anytime soon unless I do a little from work on the weekend. (I will soon be living across the street from work...what AM I thinking?)

Anyway, we have started clearing the lot down near the water and so most of my blogging and picture loading is at that site today, since we are so excited that things are actually moving in a forward direction.

We have been packing and hauling boxes every single afternoon to the apartment which is only a mile away and to the storage unit which is about a mile in the other direction. This Saturday we will hire some day help and get the furniture moved to each of these locations. I was getting some snarling from my hubby in the packing of our clothes yesterday. It appears that I actually do have about 40 pairs of shoes, boots, sandals, etc. But, you know what? I actually wear all of them throughout the year. Well, he has at least 100 duck-bill caps! So there!

We are raising oysters under the dock. We sampled some this week. They are very nice and put the more expensive restaurants to shame!

Here is the same room after paint and new furniture!

Putting the cable at son's new pad. Note the newly finished walnut stained floors!

Fecundity of Inanimate Objects

Please note that the following items reproduce when you are not looking:
Hangers
Garbage bag wire ties
Plastic shopping bags
Jars of fingernail polish
Jars of salsa
Rags
Types of wire connectors
AND
Wine corks

A Quickie.

What is the best age to be and why?

26. You are at the beginning of everything important in life and
actually have control as an adult for the first time and you have freedom if you are unattached. This doesn't mean that my
age now is not good to answer all those stupid fifty-something articles.

What is your strongest virtue?

It’s probably a toss-up between honesty and discipline…but I have become
less honest and more introspective as I have aged. My discipline is a
standing joke in the family. I think they call it anal-retentive.

What virtue do you wish you had?

Again it’s a toss up between faith and patience. I have to work at both.

What is the most creative thing you have done this year?

A poem I wrote for my grandson (which I have yet to deliver) and some
photography work from a few trips I took.

What do you least like about people you hang out with?

Their narrow view of life.

What do you like most about the people you hang out with?

The fact that they love me and want to hang out with me.

Why do you answer these questions?

To help me understand myself a little better, perhaps. But probably because I don't have a life!

My son says he takes off his shoes in his new condo to protect the freshly re-finished floors. I take off my shoes also!

Movin on.

We are moving. Took 5 loads of boxes to the storage unit. We now have 7 shelves full of stuff in the 10X15 foot unit. We have also taken a small load or two to the rental apartment. I now have to inventory furniture and decide what can fit in the apartment, what can fit in storage, what is able to be stored in the non-climate controlled shed and what goes to Goodwill tomorrow.

First, I have to pour another glass of wine!

Sound or Noise?

Moving from this rental house will mean leaving behind some familiar nightly noises. I won’t call them sounds because they really are noise. We live exactly one house away from two gas stations (Yes, they are side by side.). At approximately 4:00 A.M. several times a week, at least one of the stations is getting its underground tanks filled. This means the sound of a large truck backing with its warning beep going off. This is followed by very loud clanking, which I think must be the tank covers being removed and set on the concrete beside the hoses. Sometimes I can even smell the fumes as they drift over to my house!

We also sleep only two blocks from the fire station. Their alarm and the sirens from their trucks are usually heard at least one night a week heading to the nearby freeway or into the neighborhood.

The local hospital is about six blocks on the other side of us and their sirens can also be heard frequently.

In addition to all of this noise, we get the rush hour evening and morning traffic sounds as we are two blocks from a MAJOR intersection.

The apartment we are moving to will have some of these sounds, but I am hoping with less intensity and frequency. I think the traffic outside the bedroom window will be the worst. But we are on the fifth (top) floor of the complex with large trees outside the window, so I am hoping that will be a buffer.

And, when we move to our retirement house in the ‘Four-Acre-Woods” and on the water, I am hoping that the primary noise will that of birds, insects and wind. (Of course, across the water there is a guy who has equipment to install docks!)

I am adaptable for the most part to changes in my environment. When we lived in Indonesia, our bedroom, which had jalousied (slatted) windows, was directly behind the local Mosque. The rooftop speaker faced our bedroom window and at sunrise every morning the call to prayer came in loud and clear. After a few weeks we slept through it!

I do think that noise does cause stress on our physical well-being even if we adjust and adapt. A few weeks ago, Newsweek published a lengthy section on hearing loss. The article included a statement that hearing loss in the twenty-thirty something generation may be greater as they get older because of the wide-spread and lengthy use of earphones for listening to music. While they addressed volume that also said this has an adverse effect on our hearing since it screens out background noises and wider range noises. I am hoping they are incorrect.

My son, who is an audio engineer, once said that audio engineers have a working-life-span of about 20 years, because after that time their hearing is not as discerning and they have to move into management or do something else. It is interesting that the technologies (visual and computer) for sounds cannot replace an engineer’s biological ears totally.

I have not discussed at all the use of sound for control of people. NPR did a program on that use by the Israeli Military…ugh.

I will miss this backyard view when we move from this house. This tree has seen many moves I am sure.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzz

After the long drive up to Connecticut the males on the trip needed a break while daughter and I unpacked. Precious photo I thought.