De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 21 Jun 21 - 06:07 PM

Beaver:

Once again I have no idea what these "apps" or whatevers are! Except maybe Siri; I might ask once every couple months how to get somewhere or get a phone number; maybe that is Siri!?

Nice visit with electrician friend and his wonderful partner. He admits to not putting the wires back together the last time he was here! Arghhh! I could have had it ALL fired. But it was a great visit and he took another project to work on for me: trying to get the seat for the other wheel in the correct position so I don't feel as though I am sliding off. (He welds also) This is actually a seat for an alternate but identical wheel. I suspect Lynn will keep him on track. She wants to take pottery lessons, so when I get back!!!!

So glaze firing one is cooking. I had to change the fuses -again! So, checking it every half hour just in case. Maybe sometime this master electrician, retired, will consider helping upgrade the system so it does not blow fuses with fierce irregularity. WOW, would that ever be a de-clutter!

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 21 Jun 21 - 05:53 PM

I am still trying to convince my iPhone that I don’t want anything to do with Siri, not now and not ever. Apple are building it into many of their applications, and I want them to stop. Until it can hold an actual conversation, I will never sit alone in the car, or at my desk, or any other place, and holler “Hey, Siri!” into the empty air.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 21 - 11:23 AM

You're already 3/4 of the way there, the second one is a booster. Good job, everyone! I saw in the NY Times this morning that over the weekend was the first fully-filled event at Madison Square Garden, where the Foo Fighters performed. If they were good enough to see off David Letterman on the occasion of his last show they're good enough to escort New York City back to full-speed-ahead concerts. The article said it was before a "fully-vaccinated audience." That ought to temp a few people to go ahead and get the vaccine.

Trash went out to the curb early today since I missed the last couple of weeks. And now that it's really hot they start coming by really early to finish their rounds before the hottest part of the day.

I finally figured out how to turn off the new Windows/Microsoft "News and Interests" icon thingie that was showing up on the bottom right toolbar. Don't you just love it when they foist new settings on you? That was the best feeling declutter of the morning. The other computer declutter I've been working on is Dropbox. I use the free version of it and it is now threatening me daily with the message that it is nearly full and I should upgrade. I need to stop paying for services, not add another one. I'll turn off Flicker's paid account this year - every time you turn it on there are the lovely photos that convince you to pay, but I don't use it except for backup, and Google and Dropbox and Microsoft already do that. I have seriously too many photos backed up around here. So I'm pitching out big clumps of photos from Dropbox. (I periodically load phone photos into the computer via cable also.)

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 21 Jun 21 - 10:41 AM

I have booked my second jab. The Vaccine Fairy visited the Huron-Perth Health District, and suddenly supplies are generous enough to extend to all who received their first shot before 9 May.

How do you spell relief? Today, I spell it N-E-E-D-L-E.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 21 - 12:42 AM

I'm glad you're feeling better, Dorothy, and I'm glad Charmion was able to wrest the savings cash from the banker without a tax hit. Reminds me, I have to file a protest, the IRS sent a goofy reason for why they recalculated my taxes. Human error on their end and I have a refund coming.

Mosquitoes are bad here this year, and they seem to come into the house with or on the dogs through the dog door. As it gets hotter and drier they'll begin to lower in number, and I'm putting mosquito dunks everywhere around outside the house.

Summer crankiness is setting in, though it should improve once the humidity drops with even hotter days. I've made the bed with the "summer setup" of sheets and one thin blanket that can be pulled over top on the off chance that it cools overnight. This is it till September.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 20 Jun 21 - 04:52 PM

Beaver:

Considering the number the vaccine did on me the following day, one might think it could have cured, or killed, almost anything. Today is the first day I have really felt good, felt like normal me, since the 10th! As for the #$%^&*( cough, it hit in spades when I went to an art Gallery to see a friend's exhibit on Friday. I could not even talk to him for coughing and had to leave. Saturday, I did not have the energy to go anywhere, and coughed my guts out at home. Decluttered a great deal of mucous with these two events.

Today, I am right as rain! What a relief. There were hours in the last few days when I wondered if I would see tomorrow, should I call 911??? Close but survived since I doubted there was anything positive they could do.

In the meantime, I managed to do tiny amounts of work in the studio - maybe an hour a day; the laundry and remade bed - a bit at a time; And today!!!! Washed my hair! Now I am normal.

However, it is a good thing - for my mental health!, that I was able to decide to just let go of whatever I thought needed to be done by... Talk about de-clutter! So it is Sunday; everything is ready for a glaze firing but the kiln - which I have not the guts to endeavour to repair although I did unplug it today! Michael finally phoned today that he will come tomorrow at 10:30! If he manages the repair, and I have no doubt he will, I can load and fire and unload on Tues am to take Erica's plates to Quebec, and be there in time for R to have his shot on Weds. The "filler pieces" for the shop can be tagged and boxed for Pat, or someone to pick up whenever, from K counter. These folks generally get down to Bancroft once a week to shop. And Pat has been wanting more small pieces for the shop.

I might have thrown some more today but the rack is FULL and the studio is crowded. Need to "move 'em on out!" to make room for more.

There will still be at least two kiln loads to glaze fire next trip. Soon I hope, largely depending on how R reacts to his vaccine. Mock orange has not yet popped, strawberries still thinking about it and no snapping turtle mom has nested out on the road. I will be anxious to get back.

Our go-to granola recipe was in Diet for a Small Planet. It was terrific. We did about 50 pounds once for a camping co-op! I somehow stopped eating it years ago but it was BF for quite a while, with nutritional yeast (found I was allergic!) and yogurt. WOW! 45 years ago!!

And this am, I was busy glazing and the phone rang: "TD bank" about my credit card but a message so incomprehensible I just hung up and phoned the number I have for the bank and got a wonderful woman who assured me that it had been their fraud line and we determined there was a problem and I must have a new card But she agreed to fast track it directly to the TD bank in Chateauguay which will phone me on arrival; it is meant to be there on Tuesday! I may not always approve of its activities (fossil fuels/pipelines) but it has always done business well for me. This is the 2nd or 3rd time they have caught someone trying to use my card! The credit card department knows more about me than R! Where and when I shop and what I buy and do not buy... It is rather disconcerting but it works!

That took an hour out of my glazing time but I still did two hours and organized to do more later. Then it was lunch time and getting hot, and my shoulder was hurting. Maybe later...

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jun 21 - 07:14 PM

After a quick clean up in the kitchen and dining area, three family members descended on the kitchen and my daughter made a batch of arroz con gondules (rice with pigeon peas) that turned out perfectly (the last time we made it there were too many cooks who burned the rice and it has become a bit of family lore). Fresh garden ingredients that went into it were green bell peppers and garlic. This was a convergence of birthday/Father's day and the ex went home with a gallon freezer bag filled with the rice mixture and a loaf of pumpkin bread. We also did our little "Welcome Summer" BLT sandwiches with the first (and so far only) ripe tomato from the garden. (We dug a few potatoes and admired tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants briefly - it's hot out there today.)

Today's meal was also interesting because we decided to use the covered electric fry pan and she didn't do a lot of measuring (except the water.) It was possible the rice could have expanded way beyond the boundaries of the skillet, but it was just below the top edge when finished. It was literally pour in a bag of rice to the sofrito and water and and see how it goes.

The next cooking adventure here - making granola.

Tomorrow I'll mow the front lawn and spray a vinegar/orange oil mix around the edge of the garden to kill the grass growing up around it. I've been adding items to the donation bin so I may make a run to drop them off at Goodwill, and I have a bunch of stuff for the recycle bins as I clear out boxes I'd kept but don't really need. My cat sitting gig shortened by a week as the owner seems to have decided to head home early. I had the thought he might be pursuing a romance during this trip, but apparently that didn't pan out. Too bad!

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Jun 21 - 11:29 AM

Email from the investment broker, who apparently works on the weekend: Edmund's savings will be transferred to my account by next Wednesday, with no tax penalty.

Phew. But it took long enough.

Tony the carpenter was poking at the dubious wall in my middle bathroom yesterday. It's good to know that I can afford to pay him whatever it will cost to rip that sucker out and install something modern and mould-proof.

Kathleen my cleaner friend is giving the house a farewell scrub today. She is in the midst of packing up shelves of sheet music, including dozens of orchestral scores, so I was able to give her a useful going-away present: fifteen brand-new, never used file boxes. The two-cubic-foot boxes supplied by the moving company are way too big for books and sheet music; I can barely shove a full one across the floor, let alone carry it upstairs. Kathleen is no stronger than I am, so file boxes are her preferred "moving solution" (yuck).

That's a significant declutter for me.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: JennieG
Date: 19 Jun 21 - 08:36 AM

Boffo windows is a Good Thing.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Jun 21 - 08:27 AM

My new basement windows are boffo. That is all.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jun 21 - 12:02 AM

I expect a couple of health issues are conflated there, Jos.

I have looked up some easy recipes for granola. I'm eating a lot of oatmeal, but would like the dry cereal for summer (faster and easier) - buying it can get expensive. I'll make some this week and see if it's worth the trouble. It's one way to keep the coconut out of it.

On Saturday family is coming over for a meal we'll cook here. I have all of the ingredients and I've cleared up a lot of the clutter in the kitchen and dining area. Once we get started it won't matter, but it would be nice if the first impression they have upon entering the house is one of organized clear counters and easy cooking access.

My exercise app is working so far; I'm keeping an eye out for moves that clobber the bursitis, but so far they seem to have kept that in mind (I told them in advance that the leg to the side moves are deadly.) 15 minutes at a time, small, but I can feel it. This is good.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Jos
Date: 18 Jun 21 - 03:26 PM

re: "was hoping the vaccine had cleared that but now coughing again"

Aren't vaccines supposed to prevent future illnesses, not cure the current ones?

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 18 Jun 21 - 01:52 PM

Beaver:

R just phoned to see how I am: much better than I have been! Having gotten through two night without coughing, I was hoping the vaccine had cleared that but now coughing again. Darn!

R and Joe are in Toronto, en route to Woodstock, picking up machinery in the "big truck", which I have not yet seen. (pouring rain there also) Then to Palestine to pick up antique machines - helping that person de-clutter! Probably an overnight in Lindsay in there. Then to "the County" to either pick up or deliver or some of each??? Then to Montreal...

And the bakery could not make the muffins I wanted - Father's Day! So no reason for me to leave here before Weds! Larry stopping over for visit shortly.

That firing of plates: when it did not turn off, I checked through top peep and saw no colour; went through pile of books that R had dragged home and actually found a comprehensive pottery book: should be orange in there. Checked bottom peep: orange down there. Closed it and re-checked top one: due to emptiness I could see that the element was not red. OOPS! Turned it off and lamented, and cogitated.

Phoned Michael in the am and he will be by when he has time. Ten years ago, I would have opened the control panel, after unplugging! and looked for a problem. Prob would have found and fixed it. Now, the mere thought of getting down on the floor to unplug the kiln is --- not going to happen! (I could go to that "elderly" thread!)

In any case, the load was done enough, the bottoms are waxed and everything is glazed. That brought aches back so the baker's rack full of smaller stuff, to fit around the plates, is still waiting for the spirit to move me. Reducing the whole thing to as simple as possible - using only two or three glazes to reduce stirring (shoulder), following samples I have handy; for once, a few years ago at the mill, I glazed a bunch of small pieces with a variety and managed to record what I did! So choosing the nicest and easiest.

Did groceries this am, cooked lastest BF idea - seems to work - and cleaned up. Fire in stove as it was down to 66 in here; very small fire, and now have opened doors to BR so it is not too hot for Larry's dog! Mock orange buds show some expansion, clivia (in LR) is beautiful. We sure needed this rain! (Just dripping now.)

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Jun 21 - 10:33 AM

Tony needs less work space than I feared he might, Stilly, so I just had to clear the top of the two-section IKEA shelving unit under one of the windows in the Glory Hole and move two stacks of framed art propped up against the wall in the main space. The wine was okay in its place, and the big three-section IKEA shelving unit did not impinge on the windows at all. So putting everything back where it belongs will take only about half an hour.

As I type, Tony is putting in the molding that covers the foam insulation between the new window and the original window framing. He should be finished by noon.

Looking at the still-too-copious contents of the Glory Hole, I asked Tony if he knows of a women's shelter in Perth County. As a matter of fact, a friend of his wife works there, so he knows it's called the Emily Murphy Centre. Later today, I shall email them about passing on whatever of my domestic excess their clients can use.

Come to think of it, I bet they could also use some money. I have enough of that to spare a monthly donation. Edmund was big on tithing (not necessarily to the church), and I'd rather give it away to charity than pay income tax on money piling up in my chequing account.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jun 21 - 12:56 PM

So you got a workout moving all of the cubby contents? That'll take care of your need of a gym this week!

I've moved a couple of containers out of the freezer; pumpkin and sweet potato go together beautifully in a loaf (I add sweet potato to my favorite Joy of Cooking pumpkin bread recipe). Each time I take something out and don't replace it with some new item I make room for this year's crops. I often slice then freeze peppers on a cookie sheet and once frozen I bag them with the SealAMeal. I can't use them fast enough otherwise once the plants start producing. I'll dig out the canning jars soon for tomato products. Sauce, juice, diced, etc.

At the museum where I volunteer we got talking about converting old media from analog to digital, something they've done some of and have a lot more to do. As do I. Preserving content is a goal of so many places, but it's slow, tapes have to play in real (reel!) time to be captured. Maybe a task for hot summer afternoons when it's too hot to work outside?

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Jun 21 - 08:42 AM

It’s 0841 hours and Tony the carpenter has already pried out two of the basement windows. The song of the Sawzall resounds through the house.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 17 Jun 21 - 05:30 AM

Well the fly curtain for the sliding door seemed to work well at keeping things out until yesterday. I was doing some watering round the back after tea when I got a call on my walkie talkie to tell me a squirrel had entered the living room. I came back to the house to find, not a squirrel (but I guess parents only caught a quick flash), but a rabbit.

It had got itself stuck in a corner and was jumping at the walls, trying to find a way out. I managed to get enough of a grip just to get it out of the corner before it wriggled loose. That did enough though. The rabbit did a circle of the room, spotted the open sliding door and went through it.

I’m not sure I’ll do anything outside today as the weather doesn’t look too good. We had been forecast thunderstorms earlier but that didn’t happen. More thunder forecast for Sunday though and if today’s outlook on the BBC site is right, we are in for another rainy spell.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 06:39 PM

Dorothy, I was feeling fatigue for several days, but I can't tell you now how much was the Pfizer vaccine and how much was my low thyroid condition.

It has dried out enough now to mow more easily. I'll take care of the back yard before dinner. It's too hot to walk the dogs (the pavement is hot for their feet). We'll have to do that in the mornings from now on.

I still read books on paper, but have read a lot more lately electroncially. This week I had an eBook from my library that I initially opened in OverDrive, but the large serif font and the tight lines were horrible to look at. I "returned" the book and re-checked it out to download to read in my tablet's Kindle app. It's a much nicer screen to read and not loose my dyslexic place. I listen to audiobooks on OverDrive with no problems. I can't tell you what the Kindle font looks like, except that it is airier on the page and easier to follow.

I'm watching for the shipping from the UK to get better - I haven't been able to order my less-expensive pet medications for over a year now. The business still seems to be a business, but the COVID-closure is still in effect.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 05:16 PM

Beaver:

As I fire, finally! - the bisque for Erica's plates - probably the first ever only partly filled kiln load I have done in 40 years! Because I ran out of energy to make more. In addition to hoping for the energy to glaze them tomorrow, I look at the count down to leaving on Saturday...???? The strawberries are coming along but not yet setting fruit, never mind ripe! The mock orange has buds but not opening ...

My lack of energy this last week, - slept 12 hours last night, without any trips! I de-cluttered my mind (let go of) of the many -pottery- things I had hoped to accomplish. Down to just getting Erica's plates done! But I would love to be able to pick the strawberries this year - covered with netting! And see the mock orange which has grown substantially to over 6 feet tall from the tiny volunteer I brought here 5 or 6 years ago.

The house is still fairly orderly, a bit more so than when I arrived. Tons of weeds have been pulled and I managed a few more today. Three small batches of rhubarb are in freezer and I may manage one more. The shops are open, with restrictions; I managed to find two books at the busy thrift shop. Keep in mind the library in Chateauguay is available! The one here, might be, or soon. You get it! Books are major priority! But there are others...

I could stay 'til Weds... To clutter my mind with... maybes. And: Do other people lose this much energy after second shot? And: maybe I need to go and come back after R recovers from his.

House is as uncluttered as it will be but brain is full of clutter. So I will bring in some firewood - for exercise, then read. And eat...

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 12:00 PM

I picked my first pink tomato this morning! I let them finish ripening on the window sill (when that's full they sit on counters and in bowls anywhere there is room) so the critters don't decide to take a bite out of them. Squirrels, primarily. Cookie has thinned that population a bit. Canning season isn't far off because once they start ripening.

Meanwhile, Texans are being told to not waste energy this week while a number of energy suppliers are off-grid for repairs. Keep the thermostat at 78^o or higher. That is as low as mine is ever set, usually it's at 80. It's the humidity that has me occasionally running the AC, to pull moisture from the air in the house. You'd think that with the national spotlight on the Texas energy grid that they'd have done this work before the hot season.

I've run the first test of the sensors for the online/phone/text fitness joint health program I joined. They tell whether I am standing or stooping or sitting, etc. The biggest problem I had during the test was that all three dogs wanted to see what the heck I was doing and all huddled around my feet. The inability to extend my leg wasn't due to a lack of fitness, it was due to canine helpers being in the way. I texted the PT a photo of me standing, sensors in place, with the three dogs on the floor in front of me. The novelty will wear off for them soon enough.

It looks like company will be here this weekend so I have to push dusting, sweeping, moping, cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen to the top of my to-do list. For family birthdays we get together to cook (though when I suggested to my daughter that her dad might "help," she was adamant that she'd cook at her house and bring it here. The last time there were too many cooks they burned rice to the bottom of my Le Creuset Dutch oven and it still bears that mark.) We may simply find something different for him to work on. He is normally a good cook, but there were too many people consulting on that recipe.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 11:08 AM

I decluttered the family silver of a minor tint of tarnish this morning. Very bougie.

Another beautiful day in Stratford, forecast high of only 20C, so I shall get out later for a good long walk. The wonky foot is mostly okay, so I do not anticipate trouble from that quarter.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 15 Jun 21 - 05:55 PM

Beaver:

Still, or again, on break. Wangled second shot on 10th, have read most of books but a couple left. Hoping thrift shops will be open, maybe are but I lost yesterday somewhere. Today's #1 effort was to find out what a pottery "bat" was made of - a wood product of 25 years in age, or more. First lumberyard did not have a clue what it was! Went to Freymond's. dealing in wood for over 50 years - good Swiss immigrants! The office guy named it - "MDF that they used to make at GP Flakeboard" (up the road 5 miles but not longer in existence!) They had none - they deal in real wood. Next lumberyard yard showed me a piece of plywood! The "MDF" in stock was painted trims. My super bats for potting, cut out by a friend, have lasted about 25 years, compared to the current ones from pottery supplier lasting less than a year and falling to bits in the clay!

No wood for new bats BUT I realized they have my Air Miles number on my account and quickly gave it to me in writing! (The account is mainly for when Dan is doing work for me - he uses it.) I came home and a new card is enroute to Dupont! I will add the number to my lists of passwords/pin #s... One problem solved/de-cluttered. One still hanging. Somewhere in some workshop or garage, someone has left over pieces of real MDF... The sample, washed as well as I could, will stay in car for a while.

Happy not to have neighbours who start mowing at 6:30! On any day! I abound, however, with memories of basements I have known. None here at Beaver; barely above ground! Hence the useful back sheds.

It finally rained last night, for about 12 hours! Not terribly hard but good and steady. Today is glorious - breezy and sunny, low humidity.

And my energy level is zero. Maybe I need a jump start! On Sunday, I noted the wood pile on one side seemed to be shifting - had pushed against a lid on a bucket of glaze. I spent an hour or two re-organizing the whole shebang. Critical not to lose a bucket of glaze! That was definitely a "jump start"!

My reaction to the second Moderna, Thursday, was serious chills and fever. Sue came by, and kept in touch with text - I can manage texting if I am in bed, by holding the phone up as high as I can so it catches a signal. On the shelf at that height, they come in OK.

But I started losing energy before the shot and am letting go of goals - "the world will not stop turning if I do not... get everything done... get some done... get anything more done..." Meanwhile, the baker's rack is loaded with drying plates and outdoors in the breeze but not direct sun. Hoping for tomorrow to bisque... I have at least two loads that could be glazed and fired - last week!- but simply cannot get to it.

Pulled another batch of rhubarb this morning; will not not to overcook this lot. Two small lots frozen to take to R. This one will also be frozen. And maybe another before I leave on Sat. Strawberries should be happy after the rain! If they start ripening before I leave, I may stay a couple more days. I want to be at Dupont when R has his second shot - 24th - in case he also had severe reaction. Phoned DIL on Sunday and she had one like mine - horrible chills! (She does not generally overstate things!)

And I am sitting here looking at a Clivia getting ready to bloom! A friend came on Thurs and we had a good visit. She brought me a large pot of growing lettuce in several varieties (master gardener), the plant from one she had divided into 11!, and a large bottle of maple syrup her partner produced this Spring. I do not generally care for orange but the Clivia is special and it looks perfect in front of the Mexican rug/wall hanging I brought back in the mid-80s. Little girl (me) in orange dress greeting orange sun (with face!) and her little dog,walking into the green hills. I delight in it. The critters removed the fringes a few years ago! An improvement actually! They did a great job!

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: pattyClink
Date: 15 Jun 21 - 10:46 AM

Thanks SRS, I thought I was going nuts. Roasting? not with the microwave I travel with.   But yes, long ago a Greek restaurateur delighted us with mashed garlic he had oven roasted, very nice. Still for health it's better to slice, let sit a few minutes, and eat raw, they say.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jun 21 - 10:26 AM

I spent all of Monday morning on the phone and writing emails. The choir executive is in crisis: after many years of chummy deference to the conductor (whom we pay $20,000 per year), half the board has degenerated into a clique of fangirls, and the other half wants to quit. We might actually be allowed to start rehearsing again this fall, so ... here's a problem that contains an opportunity. The choir badly needs to shake itself out of the 1990s, recruit new members and learn to market itself to a larger audience, so doesn't it make sense to overhaul the leadership team? In fact, I don't think the choir will survive if we don't.

But the choir president wants to retire and I, as the current vice-president, am likely to find myself in the top chair when the over-reaching conductor realizes the extent of the changes to come. Then the rubber will hit the road.

All the thinking, talking and writing quite drained me flat by noon. So I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and went out to play tunes. Two hours of diddly music reset my head, but then I was *really* tired.

Watson got me up at five this morning, but it's a beautiful day -- not too hot, not too humid. I'll take a stroll downtown and back, a distance of about four miles, and call that exercise.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 Jun 21 - 03:45 AM

We had our own new potatoes for tea yesterday. I had put 2 tubers in each to two of the tubs to try and I've pulled up the crop in one tub. I got enough for reasonable portions for the 3 of us. I'll leave the other tub for a couple of weeks. It's always nice when you get things, even small tasters like this from your own garden.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 21 - 12:49 AM

Speaking of pandemic, we owe a deep debt of gratitude to science and to the Hugarian woman who devoted her life to studying messenger rna BUT last but not least to the Wuhan Novel Corona Virus Lab (actual sign on the building)
Without that lab the virus may have never existed.
Or maybe a bat shat on a pangolin.

For 20 years I have 'whinged' about bio war and an engineered novel virus that was a combination of two virus. It was not my only issue but my elders and contemporaries critisized by doom and gloom scenario be it from deduction, predaliction, psychic phenomenon or wild imagination. I ignore but comment on the slings and arrows along the way.

So for my next prediction 'more people will call their Senator than ever before this summer' and have fun like there is a shortage in the supply chain.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 10:32 PM

Yes, garlic can be hot. The variety I have here is a hard-neck milder type of elephant garlic that is probably a cross between garlic and a leek. It's wild, in Austin they apparently call it something like "ditch garlic." Up here in North Texas I dug up the first one or two in the woods across the road and transplanted to my yard. I'll have garlic here forevermore.

Have you tried roasting it? My father swore by it, and I keep meaning to try it. It gives you a mellow flavor.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: pattyClink
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 09:56 PM

Speaking of garlic! In an attempt to slag off the next ten pounds I have been dutifully fixing salads. A drifter who joined our camp at Quartzsite this winter served sliced raw garlic as a salad add-on, and it seemed like a great idea to mimic, healthy.

So, I got some and it worked fine for a few cloves. Then I bought a fresh head. It had some purple streaking on its outer peel.

Was insanely hot, like a habanero or something!   

I had no idea garlic could be crazy hot. Is it the purple ones that are the problem? Is there someway to avoid devil cloves???

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 07:52 PM

After a sweaty hour I have harvested most of this year's garlic. There are always a few I miss because the tops rotted away pretty fast—I'm going to dig out the area to put in cucumbers and will probably find a few more. I always leave behind a few corms (and even if I tried to get every single one that forms on the outside of the cloves, I'd miss a bunch) for next year's crop.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 11:51 AM

Yesterday's weather showed a gradual drying in the atmosphere, but overnight some small thunderstorms passed through (no rain here) and the air is really humid again. Ugg. As it gets hotter this will resolve itself - it's a hard thing to say that I wish it will get hotter so the air will be more comfortable.

I made progress decluttering surfaces in the house this weekend. Now to clear them of the dust. And to mow the whole yard. And put soaker hoses in the vegetable garden. And finish working on the fence and the gate. And bulky waste. . . my summer is full of work around here.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 07:07 AM

Here in town Novavax is seeking FDA approval for a new vaccine for the US and UK https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-893-efficacy-uk-phase-3

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 07:01 AM

My remarks are based on that finding.
Just don't lop of your own limbs.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 06:57 PM

Don, did you read this? Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World
"These pathogens already kill 1.6 million people every year, and we have few defenses against them"

The tomatoes are beginning to show signs of ripening, so I'm needing to clear more space in the freezer. I don't usually freeze tomatoes, but I have other crops that go in there and they'll start coming in at about the same time.

I'd forgotten that you're one of the silent mowers with a battery or electric machine. Probably less impact on the neighbors early in the morning. I'm going to get out the battery reciprocating saw - it turns out I didn't miss bulky waste pickup, it's this week. So I have a few limbs and small shrubs to lop off and drag to the curb tomorrow.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 04:40 PM

I had it easy this pandemic go around. I was not an essential worker forced to work. I had company. We relied on delivery but not door dash or grub hub. An unspoken white priviledge was possibly at its core.
I had N-95 masks from the beggining. There was not a weather emergency or other natural disaster. I did not get infected by blind luck. If I had close calls I was gratefully unaware. We were not compulsive about surfaces and cleaning.
There will be more pandemics where the infected have only a 33% survival rate but they will be fungal in nature and CRISPR messenger rna technology may be of no help. Already almost 2 million have died from aparticular fungal infection but it passes unobserved by the population as a normal occurance over time. Spores are different than virus.

Other people's experience of loss is tragically the opposite experience I encountered. In this case luck was better than being good.

As for decluttering yard sales are still not doing well. There is alot on freecycle

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 01:40 PM

Well I didn't mow until 10AM but it is a whisper quiet electric and besides has headlamps. i recommend spray Dry Lube with teflon for all mowers for several reasons, clean up and lube.
Crawl spaces should not ever be built. If anyone has a notion to store anything in a crawl space don't do it! It will mold.
At our pre civil war farm I did some crawl space work under a newer part of the house.
Fish hooks! were the worst. Fiberglass came in second.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 12:59 PM

These basement descriptions dovetail nicely with that BS: Who first lived in your house/pad ? thread. The house I remember best from my childhood is the one we moved to when I was about middle school aged, and I moved out of there after community college and heading to university. In thinking about it just yesterday I realized that were I to have to move back into that house, I'd feel trapped. It was distinctive in its looks, with a very thick steamed shingle roof meant to look like an English thatched cottage. The exterior was stucco. The walls were thick plaster and it had pretty wood floors, except in the back ground floor that was concrete topped with wall-to-wall carpet. It was the mustiest house I've ever lived in, built on a hillside weeping with small springs. French drains barely touched the problem. And my mother smoked like a chimney. Add all of that and you have an olfactory quagmire that made your clothes and hair smell bad if you visited. I moved out as soon as I could and never spent the night there if I could help it. I hope the new owner has resolved the musty smell.

The basement in that house was under about 3/4 of the house, with a crawlspace into the remaining section. There was wall of cabinets set up down there that had originally been in the kitchen, but for some reason relocated and a new set built upstairs. I think it's because the woman who built the house was tiny and the counters in the kitchen were all pretty low for our very tall family. The rest of the space was a sloping area with a couple of windows allowing in some light, and one corner we tried to turn into a sort of rec area, but it was never very comfortable. There were windows over a soapstone sink (the laundry had been down there until relocated into the mudroom next to the kitchen). The window over the sink looked into the two-car garage that had really interesting wooden doors that had to be pushed from one side to the other. We were disappointed when it was replaced with a regular old aluminum door that rolled up. There was a sundeck on top of the garage, but we didn't use it often. There was one time, probably in my mid-20s, when I spent the night at the house and Mom left for work and locked the door. She had replaced all of the locks (even the basement door into the garage) with double keyed locks and I couldn't get out of the house. I was on the verge of climbing out of a back window or jumping down from the back of the sundeck when my brother returned home and I could leave. And that was the last time I stayed there.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 10:36 AM

Five o'clock wake-up call -- at dawn this morning, it was Robins v Grackles in the driveway. What a racket.

The first lawn-mower kicked in at 0630. Today is Sunday. (Not that Sunday is any different from all the other Groundhog Days.)

Stratford is a very house-proud town, and lockdown made us particularly fussy about our gardens. Any time when it's not raining, somebody in the neighbourhood is firing up the mower, the weed-whacker or the hedge-trimmer.

About five o'clock this afternoon, when all the dogs are being walked and I'm on my porch with a beer, the Harley fan will embark on his daily promenade, all dressed up in studded leather so everybody can see just how cool he is. I don't think I've ever seen that bike go faster than about 40 kph.

On the whole, I think I prefer even the grackles.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 10:19 AM

The basement is the guts of a house, and when things go wrong down there it can get ugly.

In the basement of my present abode, about eight non-specialized receptacles and five light fixtures are wired on a single circuit. (Consistent with the National Building Code, the furnace, washer and dryer are independently wired into the breaker panel.) The electronic thermostat and switching technology of the gas-fired water heater is on that circuit. When any other high-demand gadget (such as an electric kettle) is running when the water heater kicks on, the circuit-breaker trips. We learned about this special feature when the the kitchen was under construction and we were living in the basement. With no stove for nearly two months, we had the microwave, the toaster oven, the espresso machine and the electric kettle all plugged in down there. It took me a week to figure out how to make breakfast without unpleasant interruptions.

A childhood basement can be a place of mystery. The hundred-year-old clapboard house where my family lived when I was born was built long before central heating was dreamed of, with a rubble foundation and a dirt floor in the cellar. The retro-fitted furnace lived down there, along with the coal bin, the oil tank and the sump pump. More than that I do not know, for we kids were forbidden to go down there -- probably because our Mum was afraid we would do something awful to the furnace and set fire to the house. Also, dirt floor.

When we moved to the city in 1964, the new house was a great, solid Edwardian pile with a stone foundation and at least ten feet of headroom in the cellar, which was dominated by the largest, blackest furnace I have ever seen. The space was divided into five rooms, one of which I was unaware of until 1981, when I cleaned the place so my Dad could sell it. My brother had a darkroom down there that rapidly became his personal bolt-hole. Except for that area and the furnace room, which also accommodated the laundry equipment and a toilet, the rest of the cellar was devoted to the stuff my mother accumulated and absolutely refused to relinquish.

By the time she died, in 1980, that cellar was packed from the floor to the joists with all manner of materials, from old appliances and a set of false beams from the rectory down the street (eight of them, all quarter-sawn oak) to shoeboxes full of door knobs, hinges, thread spools, and porcelain junction boxes from the days of knob-and-tube wiring. It took me a week of hard manual labour, including a full day with "two men with truck" who tried to quit on me at lunch-time, to empty it from room to room, wall to wall.

So ... yeah. No wonder I'm a neatnik today.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 07:31 PM

Do your neighbors enjoy that 5am wakeup call?

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 06:33 PM

Mowing on a dry morning as early as 5AM is a pleasure.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 01:48 PM

I enjoy watching This Old House, and am fascinated by the most complicated parts of any remodel/addon/etc. to do with the mechanical stuff. Getting down in the basement where the hot water and furnace and all are. When I was a kid had a pretty wonderful basement in the first house I remember living in, with the laundry at the bottom of the stairs and some rooms with doors on the other side of the space (in the autumn Mom hung up tomato plants so the fruits could ripen in one of those rooms, and used an indoor clothesline sometimes). On the south side of the house there were some long narrow (reminiscent of what you describe) rooms - one had my dad's tools and shop equipment, with a couple of very high windows to let light through from the next glass-fronted room that was parallel to it, under the back porch and extending along the width of the house. I now understand was a greenhouse area but I don't think my parents ever used it - I'd love to have something like that built in. (There was also a small building at the back of the lot where they used to keep chickens! I'd have loved to know the people who built that house and used those features!)

My next door neighbor is mowing my turf a little taller than I mowed last time, so I don't need to run out and mow myself for another day or two. (No fences or barriers, we just mow along the property line as demarked by the edge of the back yard fence and the light pole down at the curb.) The back really needs it, but the humidity is still high. I'm waiting for that point where the temperatures are hotter but the humidity drops, making work more comfortable. When you sweat and it evaporates, cooling you, versus right now if I mow I'll be drenched in sweat and just hot and sticky.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 12:41 PM

No, Stilly, it won’t.

The Glory Hole is a slice of the basement that was walled off about 20 years ago to hide the furnace, provide a small box room, and make a recreation space in the rest of the basement. It’s as long as the short side of the house but only about six feet wide, and it contains the furnace, the water heater, five sections of loaded IKEA shelving, and the wine. Two of the windows are in the Glory Hole.

Tony will do some of the installation work outside, but most of it, especially removing the the old windows, will happen inside. Tony’s a big guy — about six-two and 200 pounds, none of it fat — and he needs room to manipulate his tools and the framing materials as well as the window units themselves. Plus something to stand on, because the windows are at head level.

So the IKEA shelving has to come out, which means moving its contents first.

F*** my life.

But the basement will be soooo much better when the job is done.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 10:47 AM

Charmion, was everything in that space accessible until now? The old "clear a path" option doesn't work?

I have soaker hoses stored in the greenhouse to set up in the garden (not used last year when I didn't have much of a garden after knee surgery). It has been several days since our last big rain, and now the trick is to flocculate the soil so everything doesn't rot in place when watering commences. Hydrogen peroxide or shampoo added to a watering can helps. I'm not sure how the science of it works, but some of the folks who participate in my gardening forum have been playing around with this stuff for years. I also have to ascertain the amount of Cookie-the-destructive-puppy damage to the hoses, and reassemble my watering timer and build a barrier to keep her from shredding the wires again.

My 60/40 cloth patio cover is a hot mess, all shredded, and I need to put up the tarp that usually hangs off the side to keep the sun from hitting my glass back door. I think I need to cover the entire thing with the same kind of loose-weave tarp that I use for the sunshade; I was going to do hard plastic, but that involves a great deal of ladder work.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 08:50 AM

While drinking beer in the downtown market square yesterday, I received a phone call from Tony, my favourite carpenter. My basement windows have finally arrived from the supplier, and he wants to install them next week.

Well.

That means moving most if not all the items stowed in the Glory Hole to the garage, along with the contents of the three-section IKEA shelving unit on the back wall of the rec room. I might also have to empty about half the wine storage.

An athletic job, to say the least, so I think I should recruit the in-laws. Fortunately, the basement is chilly on the hottest day.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 11:02 PM

This evening I read through the sewing machine repair manual chapter to do with the adjustments on my machine. There are two or three possible adjustments and one possible repair (replacing parts this old could be difficult). Instead of tackling it tonight I will read through this chapter several times over the next few days, and give it time to sink in before I take screwdriver to machine. I'm also going to put the book into my tablet so I can enlarge the photos of the illustrations (they printed out rather flat with not as much detail as before).

It turns out that this book may have a more detailed origin the book is "a condensation of a home study course currently under consideration by the Job Corps for inclusion in their curriculum." Researching the Job Corps program is a huge longshot, but it would be interesting to know what was contained in that course. The introduction is typically sexist, talking about women who have machines they don't understand, and men learning to repair them.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 06:07 PM

Goodwill and recycle bin run completed; I also found a few groceries that have been on the list for a while (had to go to a full-service grocery store for powdered milk and non-iodized salt). I also (finally!) found regular sized Ball canning lids and did what you're not supposed to do - I bought all eight boxes. I've been on fumes, hoping to find more because for the last 12 months or more none have been available and my supply had shrunk to less than a full box. I was prepared to pull out and use my various wide-mouth jars because those are the only lids available.

It's summer and I always have a jar of tea in the fridge to pour over ice; I'm going to have to shift the recipe. My quart jar with 2 green tea bags and a good-sized clump of lemon balm is delicious early in the day, but drinking it later in the day keeps me awake at night. So I'll switch to more lemon balm and one tea bag, see how that tastes. I'd rather use the herbs for the decaf tea than formulated black tea made to be decaf. That doesn't have any flavor, it's just colored water. It ranks up there with lite-mayonnaise and low-fat sour cream. Abominations.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 05:52 PM

Concurrent with the pandemic is the echo chamber of the less than successful and uneducated who bought into a vengeful psuedo victimhood by many well practiced con men. It would be wise to not arrest or direct malice upon them. Like the dillemma that Lincoln faced after the civil war, punishment only makes a percieved victimhood worse.

I can hang out with highly religious people, hippies or even the mentally ill but I can't even share a baseball game with an insurrectionist. Its probably best to forget who they are.
If the rich can own every single decade, the stupid should have at least one decade to call their own. But thats it.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 11:53 AM

This morning I woke realizing I can't stand the state of the house. It's a combination of dust, clutter, and the humidity of summer. A clear and organized house simply feels cooler. More free room for air circulation (and it's also much easier to dust), so I've spent part of the morning picking up. I'm going to make a run to Goodwill this morning and that will clear several cubic feet.

I read this morning about the Emergent factory in Baltimore - given a huge responsibility to produce the Astra-Zenica and Johnson & Johnson vaccines - and they cross-contaminated them, rendering more than 100million vaccines unusable. People should be fired, people should be charged, and people should go to jail for such a careless operation. Lives will literally be lost without those vaccines. My house may be messy, but that house should be spotless. They got a lot of money from the Trump folks to be part of the bio-warfare supply chain, a sweetheart deal for Trump supporters. I guess they didn't think they'd actually have to do anything much to get to keep the cash. Someone is going to have to do a lot of decluttering and housework now.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 21 - 11:19 PM

I ate a sandwich in a small shop on Tuesday for the first time in 16 months; there was only one other diner in there that time of day. I stopped by McDonald's at lunch today and they still have indoor dining cordoned off; I ate my burger in the SUV.

Tomorrow I'll be disturbing weeds and mulch in the parts of the new garden area that didn't get planted yet. I have a bunch of small Swiss chard to plant and an extra okra and some basil. Two squash seeds have just emerged in small pots and they'll go in the ground soon. And I have sweet potato starts also. A lot of moving of dirt and weeds.

Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Jun 21 - 09:14 PM

At midnight tonight, Ontario moves out of lockdown and into the first phase of reopening. No haircuts yet, but patio dining is allowed.

So le tout Stratford will go out for lunch. Including me.

Woot! Woot!

(Is that still a thing?)