Saturday, October 23, 2010

3136 Getting Cleaner

Saturday, October 23, 2010

When you tell a child he or she can be anything,
they tend to hear it as they must be everything.

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My new washer and dryer have arrived. The washer is "High Efficiency" (HE). I didn't know that when I bought it. I chose this particular set soley because they were the only pair on which I could reach the top dials when they were stacked. Good- the washer uses less water and less electricity than the old styles. Bad - an ordinary load takes one hour! instead of the 20 minutes I'm used to. Yeouch! Same with the dryer. Almost an hour to dry an ordinary load.
Since I have no basement in the new house, the laundry area (and water heater, and storage) is tucked under the stairs. I stacked them to preserve as much storage space as possible.
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Friday, October 22, 2010

3135 A pleasant place

Friday, October 22, 2010

Happiness is not something you find. It’s something you make.

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Well, one thing that has surprised me about the new house and the area in general is how nice people are. It's definitely a blue collar enclave. The neighbors on either side have been pleasant and helpful. Today a woman walking her dog rang the bell to say hello, and to offer assistance finding whatever services I need, since she's lived in the area all her life. Turns out she lives five blocks away. I was amused because she had the dog leash in one hand, and a highball in the other, in a paper cup with a lid and a straw.

Even in all the stores, clerks and other customers have been nice.

I can't help but contrast that with my first few months in the current home, when I'd be standing in line at the dry cleaners, drug store, post office, and when it was my turn the clerks would look right over my head, address the person behind me by name, and that person would step around me and get waited on next. Like I didn't exist.

Today I unloaded the van, mailed a pair of shoes that I had to return because they were too small, bought some more groceries now that I have a refrigerator to put them in, mopped the downstairs floors, shopped online for fringe curtains for the arch between the living room and kitchen*, bought some, vacuumed a long oriental runner for the hall and a silk oriental for the living room, and laid them.

The vacuuming took a long time. Front and back, from several directions. A few years ago I imported some old used wool camel bags from Uzbekistan and Egypt, and something in that bunch was full of moths. I've had a terrible problem with moths ever since. I don't want to bring any into the new house, so I'm vacuuming anything that might carry moths, larvae, or eggs very carefully, and I'll vacuum them often for a while.

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*The first time I saw the house, the interior walls were framed in, but there was no wiring, plumbing, or sheetrock, so one had to guess at what functions went where. The living room is in the south east (front) corner and the garage is in the north east (front) corner, with a door opening into the north west (back) corner room. So I assumed that room, with the door to the garage, was the kitchen, and that meant the south west corner, with an arch opening to the living room, would be the dining room.

Nope. The garage opens into the dining room, and the living room arch opens into the kitchen. When you sit in the living room, the refrigerator is practically at your elbow.

So I need to obscure that view.
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Thursday, October 21, 2010

3134 We have no bread

Thursday, October 21, 2010

"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."
-- Quentin Crisp --

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I'd be a lot happier if all those politicians who want to kill the health care bill first repealed their own generous tax-supported health care benefits and took their chances on the "free market" with the rest of us, preexisting conditions and all, and paid for what they could get out of their own pockets. There's something very "let them eat cake" about it otherwise.
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3133 Image

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Wow! I've run out of green quotes! I'll start over from the beginning....

A PostSecret - The “cool kids” in high school were not the ones worth knowing.

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I don't remember what brought it up, but I was thinking yesterday about a young man I worked with in the early '80s.

He was a recent college graduate, Jewish, rather naive, very good looking with a great body and amazing thighs, strong features, dark hair and eyes. He was very sweet, but somehow missing something in the head. You'd have to explain things to him three times, three different ways, before he "got it" - even simple jokes. Very literal.

Those were the days when guys always wore suits and ties to work, and he was always impeccably groomed. But - he always showed up in the morning with toothpaste all around his lower lip. One of us older women would have to clean him up.

One day I said to him, "Do you have a mirror in the bathroom? You need to check in the mirror after you brush your teeth, or just before you go out the door."

He said yes, there was a mirror, but he never looked in it. Someone somewhere along the line had told him that looking at one's self in the mirror was a sign of vanity, of a shallow person, so he never looked in mirrors!

Wow. He was absolutely serious.

We explained to him that a quick check isn't vanity, but just making sure everything is presentable.

He married a blind girl.

Sometimes I wonder how he's doing.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

3132 HOTW - Taye Diggs

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

"Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada,
while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States."
-- J. Bartlett Brebner --

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Honey of the Week - Taye Diggs. I've featured him before, but not as a HOTW, so here he is with the official label.*




When he's not "under the lights", he wears glasses, which I find even sexier. He's especially pretty in profile, but good profile photos of him are not easy to find.

*(... it's nice to have the "HOTW" title on all the honeys, so I can just do a search at the top of the page, and POW, there they all are, on one page, for my relaxed** perusal.)

**(Ok, not so relaxed.)
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3131 Back and forth, north and south....

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

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I'm north today. Heading south again tomorrow evening.

The brackets holding the exhaust system up on Fred, the van, broke loose Tuesday, in NJ, and the pipe under his middle was hanging an inch from the ground. Because of his dropped floor, there are very few garages that have a lift Fred can climb up on. I know where three places are in NY, but not in NJ, so yesterday morning I got out early to find someplace that could work on him. I ended up at a Chrysler dealership. 3.5 hour wait for parts. $150. He's solid now.

This morning, back in NY, I took him in for brake cleaning, alignment, tie rod check, and paw rotation. 3.5 hour wait. $356. He's healthy now. He'd better be. He's got a lot of work to do.

Monday and Tuesday at the new house I bought, wrestled into the house, and hooked up a mini-refrigerator/freezer, to use until I either move the old refrigerator down or find the perfect new one on sale, bought a small microwave, planted the mailbox, cleaned the porch railings, installed a drop-bar on the sliding glass doors, chiseled the deadbolt slot lower so it would lock, and a few other things. Still haven't managed to wash the floors. That seems lower on the priorities. Meals and security first.

I bought spring tension rods and some cafe curtains for my bedroom and bathroom, so I could wash and dress. I wanted cheap cotton curtains, but apparently cheap curtains don't exist any more.

The mailbox looked so simple, but it took forever! I bought a pound-in post that I could do myself, and I brought down a huge farm mailbox that I'd originally bought for the NY house. I had bought both post and box at various Home Depots.

Poor naive me.

I assumed that the connections between any post and any mailbox would be standardized. The post and brackets had several holes for adjustment, and the mailbox also had several holes. But there was absolutely no way to get any set of four to line up on the post and the box. I finally gave up and took the bracket to a store, and bought a smaller mailbox that did line up.

Sigh.

The mini-fridge and small microwave will eventually go upstairs. Nice for tea in the bathtub and yogurt in bed.

One thing I've learned - do not attempt to head south late Sunday afternoon. The 2.5 hour trip took me 4 hours last Sunday. I actually got up to 45 mph ONCE on the Thruway.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

3130 RSA Animation

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The things that come to those who wait will be the things left by those
who got there first.

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Don't know how I missed them 'til now, but I just discovered the animated (sorta) RSA (Royal Society of Art) presentations.

There are lots of them on YouTube. They run 10 to 12 minutes each, and are well worth the time. Bookmark this post and watch these two when you have a chance.

"Changing Education Paradigms"

[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
]

"The surprising truth about what motivates us"

[
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&NR=1
]

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