Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Dec 12 - 08:00 PM

We had enough snow and very cold weather yesterday (20^o is unusual here but we've had that twice this winter already) that we lost six of our party for dinner last night. The drive from Dallas was inadvisable for three, and the other three were either sick or also had a difficult drive. Seven made it, and though I expected to have one overnight guest last night, my daughter was the one to stay, not my out-of-town friend who got into town earlier this week.

Moonglow's ride had to stay at his parent's house overnight because they (and his girlfriend) insisted he stay put since he'd already been in and out of one ditch on the way there. He came over this afternoon and they drove back to school after I'd showed Moonglow how to make krumkaka, a Norwegian cookie made on a specialized griddle.

For lunch we had scrumptious open faced hot turkey sandwiches. Mmmmm!

Now, to the tax stuff.

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: ranger1
Date: 26 Dec 12 - 08:10 PM

Spent the day running around dealing with getting internet service, having car checked out (needs new rear struts, oh, joy!), and making a run in to Portland to get some more stuff. Mainly, my electronic toys. I am an unashamed TV, movie, and video game fan. If I am going to be snowed in and without a car, I will have my toys! I expect I will also putter around the cottage finding homes for things and organizing and reorganizing until I get it right. My mom is hopefully coming up this weekend to help me organize and decorate, so I'm hoping Friday's weather is decent so I can get my artwork over here for her to hang for me. Also, she's got a set of pots and pans for me. It's difficult to cook without the proper tools...

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Dec 12 - 08:37 PM

SNOWSNOWSNOW.

I swept my ramp today and flew around the house putting stuff where it belongs.

I found and reclaimed a small laundry basket commensurate with my current lifting limit (hernia repairs). And used it!

I decluttered the meds the nursing home sent me home with and got the dosing sked worked out and laid out handy.

I had all dressing supplies needed by the HHS nurse, waiting for her, so that she could use them and organize them as she wishes them to be.

Hardi and I swapped a table so these supplies will sit near my blondwood desk and chair-- a blondwood tray table with a small trash basket for discarded dressing materials, below.

And I made 90% of dinner.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Dec 12 - 11:18 PM

You're sounding more fit these days, Susan. Good work!

My laptop isn't letting me log on. I changed the access password before the break and I logged off and logged on again while on campus, but not apparently with the amount of gusto the laptop requires. That means I have to do my research back and forth between the dining room table and the office computer on the collection I'm finishing this week to donate to my library. Bummer. Lots of back-and-forth, because no way I'd get the office tidy enough to bring it all in here to work on, and I'm not moving this tangle of wires and equipment into the other room. It must be me doing the back and forth.

I had a big lunch today (turkey sandwich) and a small dinner (a bowl of sweet potatoes.) It's so darned cold out there is no dog walking in it, but it is supposed to clear and warm starting tomorrow. This week I have been revisiting old friends, watching VCR tapes that I never got around to copying to DVD yet. And there are lots of exercise videos, so there has been exercise.

The dogs will be in tonight again (they love it!) and you should see the muddy prints on the floor from this afternoon when it thawed some. Why is the mud so particularly intense after a snowy freeze?

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Dec 12 - 11:47 AM

Figured out the laptop. I somehow managed to change my campus logon information with that computer yet it didn't get the memo and is still using the old password. It's okay until a couple of weeks into January so I can use it without being shut out during the holiday. I'll be working on my donation from the comfort of my dining room table today.

Still very cold and slick. It doesn't take much leftover snow to make it slippery, but I think today it'll disappear. I've been so busy I didn't even bother to take photos this time. Maybe I'll snap a shot of my garlic sticking out through icy oregano.

I got the devices to handshake. Windows Media Player can see the new software and I had to go into a couple of different files on the computer and the BluRay player so the computer can see the device it is supposed to share with. I have a film playing on the television in the living room that is streaming through the router, so it's working.

Now to the laptop for the afternoon while programs on the computer play in the living room. When I need a break I'll wash dishes, there is a sink full.

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: ranger1
Date: 27 Dec 12 - 01:43 PM

Turned the bed back into a couch and did my dishes, shoveled a little bit, and played with the dog in the field behind the cottage. Giving myself permission to do nothing constructive for the rest of the day. If I end up doing anything, it will be because I want to, not feeling like I have to. I really needed some downtime, and the storm is allowing me to have that.

And on a completely unrelated note, I am able to fit back into my 30x30 cargo pants (trousers to you Brits, thanks!) comfortably once again, even with a pair of long johns underneath! Amazing what stress and not eating right for a couple of months will do. Not my preferred way to lose weight, though.

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Dec 12 - 01:46 PM

Good job, Tami!

I wish it would warm up. I watched a movie as I tested the new setup, and other than the third section switching to Spanish (great trick, I'll have to look at the file) it is a wonderful little sleeper but it is so dark and set in winter. A double whammy with all of the ice on the ground here still. I'll turn on the lights and find something tropical to watch. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 27 Dec 12 - 02:23 PM

Snow. Lots of it. I really wanted a pajama day today...but...alas, I had to go out in the thick of it (that was a couple hours ago and it's still the thick of it) and clear about 8" of white stuff off my car, shovel out in front of the car, and drive my car up to the spot on the lower part of my neighbor's field to park it so, when the snow stops, my plow guy can finish the driveway. Glad I have a good, secure pointed hiking staff for walking back downhill to the house. Pajamas would have been inappropriate...

Got feeling back in the fingers of my right hand fingers and Tom and I polished off the baklava a friend made for us.

Right now I'm resting in between chopping vegetables for a chicken stew for supper: my homemade stock, chicken, celery root, potatoes, carrots, onions, GARLIC, mushrooms, celery, and green beans. Oh, and a generous splash of dry vermouth. Then put it in an oven dish with biscuits on top.

Tom asked for soup, but I think this will be better.

When everything is in the pot and simmering, THEN I can go back upstairs and do the important work of the day -- petting cats and reading.

Linn

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Dec 12 - 05:11 PM

We got so much snow that it took both of us to clear the 48' ramp, but my back is happily sore from the gentle workout it got-- and it was great to be OUT in fresh AIR.

~S~

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Dec 12 - 11:02 AM

It has been so grim here, weather-wise, I might as well be back in Seattle. This doesn't look like typical sunny Texas. The frozen slush is finally gone but the heavy overcast and drizzle are to remain until next Tuesday. The whole holiday is looking this way, and then it's back to work. Bleh.

I made progress with the playbills last night, though I went out for dinner with friends. I passed on watching a movie with them so I could work some more, only to find the Internet was out when I got back. It was repaired overnight, but too late to get anything done.

Tea and fruit for breakfast this morning. The cookies are bagged and in the freezer. Even though I'm not eating chocolate plenty of calories found their way into my house, and I suspect there was coconut in some scones a friend gave me. My hands are sore again (dermatitis is the reaction to food allergies.) I sent the rest of them home with my daughter along with cookies.

Holiday decorating was on the light side this year so it won't take long to get it all put away. I'll do that and then get to work on the chandelier, as soon as I finish the playbills. The extra cash will be welcome - it looks like there are going to be two hits on this looming "fiscal cliff" event - the Bush-era tax cuts will expire AND the tax holiday on Social Security (part of the stimulus that was extended once) will also expire. That Social Security cut amounted to about $40 a month, the other one will be an additional $120 to $150. Thank you, GOP tea-baggers et al.

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Dec 12 - 11:50 AM

My share of the 48' ramp ydy was the upper leg mostly under the porch-- about 18' of ramp. I used brooms, and a small car-sz snow shovel (slid, not lifted). For tomorrow's 1" dusting, maybe I can do it all with a push broom.

Today it's endless trips to the laundry room to do the tiny loads I am allowed to carry, plus putting it all away in the closet I just sorted. Walking is an assignment and so is at least one nap.

Home PT begins soon.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Dec 12 - 12:35 PM

Why not do multiple trips with small amounts of laundry and put it in a big load? Move small amounts from the big load to the dryer.

Speaking of which, I have laundry to fold.

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Dec 12 - 06:47 PM

Yeh it is sorta like that but I need NOT to accumulate large loads to begin with. Wear, wash, put away sanitized, re-wear promptly-- while infection control is a high priority. We get free water out here in our boonies. Small loads on the large-load setting = extra rinsing.

~S~

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Dec 12 - 01:47 PM

I'm working my way through the musical theater history of the Dallas Fair Park programs as I file these playbills. The State Fair always has performances and there are other programs during the year. I've found lists of both sets of programs and combined them in my list and matching up playbills. There are only a few orphans now. I'll keep at this and take this next set over to campus by or before Monday.

Some of the ornaments are down, they all need to be boxed and put away.

The floor inside the back door is a pattern of dog toe finger painting, in mud on tile. I need to do some mopping and rug washing as soon as it warms up and this particularly slick mud stops being an issue. What is it about mud after a freeze that makes is spread so?

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Dec 12 - 05:46 PM

I did the whole ramp today (another big snow but fluffy), except that Hardi had to re-do the lowest section because the snow would not go thru the slats into the ground there-- therefore lifting I am not allowed to do yet was required. But I got even that part cleared enough for the HHS nurse who came. I cindered it all, as well.

This is one of those nights Hardi may have to sleep at church due to road conditions; I am so grateful that HHS seems to have dropped the notion that "your husband can do these dressings, right?".... because he really cannot always be here!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 29 Dec 12 - 06:09 PM

Doesn't sound like much but I decluttered the wicker chair in the bedroom this morning. Stuff with small sewing repairs were piled on it as well as my sleeping gear.

I quickly realized I hadn't a clue what all was on the chair. Threw out some nightshirts way too ratty to wear (I have trouble throwing out stuff; sigh) and found some I'd forgotten I had -- yeehah; new nighttime wardrobe. Threw out some of the sewing projects, too -- sometimes it's just not worth fixing something again. (Especially if it's wearing out somewhere else.)

Fixed a tab on a dish towel and sewed a button on a favorite summer shirt, then re-sewed all the other buttons. When I go to bed I'll check the length of elastic needed to fix the white skirt and maybe try to find some red thread for the other nightgown.

Now...dinner.

Linn

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Dec 12 - 10:00 AM

I need to do that also, Linn. I moved a bunch of mending off of a chair when Moonglow was down and stayed in her room. Reminds me that my heavy robe still needs a new collar.

I made progress through a second set of playbills on the dining table. I've concluded that some of them came from a Civic Music Association that is now called something else. I emailed asking if someone has a list of their old programs. I'll turn this stuff in today or tomorrow, but I'll continue some of the research until I have answers.

Now to the symphony concert programs.

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Dec 12 - 01:09 PM

Today's focus is continuing to straighten, organize, etc. as I come across items-- and (later) NAP. I did get a nice sunny AM in my sunny Sick Bay-- the first since coming home. And I spread cinders on the ramp in time for the HHS nurse's arrival, and unpacked a new rug for a walkoff mat inside the front door where the cinders come in. :~( I also hung a hazard flag near the icy section the cinders need to work on!

SKED: I'm decluttering my schedule-- I had quite a good one at the nursing home, but with HHS it all revolves around their daily visits which seem to be either 9-ishAM or 1-3ishPM. I still require massive amounts of protein to fill in the hip wound (it's been like growing a liveborn preemie), so food and meds had to be organized first. Alarms on the cellphone are set.

DRESSINGS DEPT.: I decluttered the dressing supplies and meds boxes this week, which had piled up on the two previous HHS rounds and in the Home; I learned a lot about how nurses like their "kit" organized. I modeled my "active use" kits after the nursing home nurses' preferences (and it easily passed inspection). (These are in gray plastic bins they use at the Home for washing up.) A box of open-as-needed additional supplies sits below, draped off to keep dust bunnies from attacking them. This all sits on (and under) a tray table Hardi traded me for, matching the other blondwood furniture in my mini-Sick Bay.

SICK BAY: Sick Bay (I sleep and nap there till PT can get me OK for stairs) sits screened behind 3 draped clothes racks at the far end of my LR, by the sunny southern window where I spent one winter studying, studying, studying. The nurses also get their own little (washed) trash can so they can bag up used dressing material (and get it out of my corner, which I discovered nurses dearly love to do so that the pt. is not breathing rank air).

SWIFFED: Katy came to klean yesterday. (Thank you MIL for that Xmas check!) She removed about a year's worth of dust from the rest of the LR, and she sanitized the loo. (Sick Bay had been cleaned and dusted before I came home, by a clergy friend and her partner.) The DR is yet to dig out-- Hardi's huge walk-in closet/dressing room, it has become. Katy will be back once and then I'll explore other funding possibilities.

CLOSETS: I am working my way thru the Magic Pastorwife closet. Most of the contents so far are too big. :~) Thank you thyroid medicine. It's GOOD to have a metabolism! :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Dec 12 - 06:53 PM

Making my way through souvenir programs from various visiting artists in the 1960s and 70s, and now into the movie souvenir booklets. Some of these are really collectible. I suppose those things that don't quite fit the theater collection I could hold onto, but I'll wait and see how far I get before I decide about it. I'm playing movies (I'll get through my NetFlix selection and into the streaming soon) and drinking tea. Need to throw in a load of laundry and clean up the kitchen sink. It has been nice with quiet time to myself, even if I have something I have to finish and didn't get to some of the recreational things I hoped to do. I'll have one day for that because I have to take these playbills to the library tomorrow.

It's cold and starting to rain again. Darn.

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 12 - 08:50 PM

I delivered a box of playbills to the library this afternoon and the archivist said she figured she'd see me today. I hope to finish the rest of this collection this week and have it out of the house. I can take the deduction for the rest of it for the 2013 tax year and the archivist will have the whole thing and be able to work with it.

Time for a new thread and a new year. I have to feed the dogs and clean up the kitchen, but I'll get it started later. I hope all of you have a great new year and are able to push all of the extra stuff out of the house and off the property (and maybe make a few bucks in the process!)

SRS

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 31 Dec 12 - 10:57 PM

Delighted to hear Susan's progress!

We have been at cabin since 21 December. Resting, snowbound on 27th with 20 inches of snow! Did some shoveling of 150 foot driveway then neighbour did the rest with his magic ATV/plow. And when we got home today, he had done it thoroughly!! There had been a couple more inches and some drifting.

I have spent a lot of time sitting in the car reading while R works on the saw mill property, getting the elec to the point where it can be turned on and doing other needful tasks. He has lost his license for three months - from 21 Dec - so I do a lot of chauffeuring - gathering pieces to complete tasks. So cook breakfast, eat lunch elsewhere, and generally cook supper, gathering laundry in garbage bag for transport back to city. There will be lots of laundry to do in between chauffeuring! Changed the bedclothes this eve. Need more books.

Saturday eve, we rousted out a Cafe friend to join us at a restaurant for supper, then went back to her lovely home and sat in front of lovely fire in fireplace, chatting for a couple hours. A nice change.   

Finished Simple Living by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska; a chapter on de-cluttering BIG! One woman rented a dumpster and filled it! Book is mainly about simplifying their lives. Very readable.

Chauffeuring is putting big crimp in my life. Just occurred to me that maybe I can bring myself to take the laptop and doing some actual writing/blogging. That would be really useful. Might de-clutter my mind of some things about which I have been "meaning to write"...

As the new year will soon begin... May we each have a productive de-cluttering New Year!

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 09:30 AM

Okay, it's officially January now, but I have to get this off my chest.

Sometimes I think Tom goes out of his way to give me ONE MORE THING to worry about... He called me a little while ago to get the pie crust ready for the quiche he's making and to set the oven because he can't see the controls. When I got to the stove area and saw what it looked like, I told him that it really bothered me to see him leave flammable things on the stove (it's electric, by the way) -- a plastic bag with Gruyere was close to a burner and the bacon was on a folded paper towel actually ON a burner. He snapped his now standard excuse back at me -- "I can't SEE." Well, he CAN see if he's put something on the stove or on the counter next to it!

So now he's mad at me for mentioning it, nagging him. Geez, even his physical and occupational therapists when they visited last May (to see if and how he could come home from rehab after the broken ankle) told him so. I'd asked them specifically to warn him (since he pays no attention to my saying it) about his bad kitchen habits (that and leaving pot handles turned outward) said, "Tom! That's Home Economics 101, for pete's sake!"

I just want him to be safe! (And not burn down the house, either.)

Linn

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 10:05 AM

YEAH!!!

~S~

Subject: RE: Declutter & Exercise )()( December 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 12:17 PM

January 2013.

:)