 sj |
||
|
||
De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021
|
|
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Feb 21 - 11:31 AM The Free Fillable Forms on the irs.gov site are for anyone to use, you don't need to have high income to be eligible (and I never use the free tax services on the low income side of the screen). It took me a few tries to get every line and form filled and added, and I had a math error (got about $40 more back than I thought I would). The free file forms were the bugger - the eFile document asks you to sort while the tax form asks you to lump. I am guessing it's to confirm you have the correct forms, but anyway, it finally went through to the IRS and I'll get an email in a couple of days saying whether the IRS accepted it or not. If they don't they'll tell me where the error is. Getting that out of the way now is nice because last year I took a long time to get around to it since I knew I'd owe money. I have it set so I have enough withheld to cover the contractor income. Last time it took a chunk of the stimulus check (the feds gave with one hand and took with the other). Probably too much information, but it shows that just because one is retired it doesn't mean your taxes are any easier. And I curse Ronald Reagan for deciding to start collecting income tax on Social Security. We won't be above freezing until next week on Friday, so the days coming up will be interesting. I've thought about either dragging in the big plastic dog houses from the garage or setting up a couple of larger boxes on their side and sliding in dog beds to give the dogs more sheltered places to sleep than just in the open air on beds on the floor. They don't sleep on my bed (then I couldn't sleep in my bed.) Or I could put flattened cardboard boxes around the kennel that one and often two dogs at a time sleep in, and slide one of the dog beds back into the closet in my office. The puppy outgrew her "jacket" and I'm sure the pet supply stores are out by now. I can make an adjustment and put it on her, but I fear she'll just pull it off and tear it up. She has such a thin coat but she moves fast, so maybe she'll just burn energy in the yard and be okay. They come and go as they want through a dog door. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 14 Feb 21 - 10:53 AM I have started working my way through Edmund's mountainous backlog of papers. Yesterday, I went through two huge three-ring binders of song lyrics, an indexed print-out of the Cannabis Act in another huge three-ring binder, and literally stacks of trial transcripts, scholarly papers and JAG publications. Much of the stuff in the binders was carefully preserved in plastic page-protectors, so now I have an enormous quantity of plastic page-protectors looking for a new home ... Freecycle, obviously. The next target is a stack of great, fat, Cerlox-bound volumes of reference materials from the National Criminal Law Program, which usually runs concurrently with the annual conference of the Canadian Bar Association. At first, I thought I should find a lawyer to give them to, but then I realized that all that stuff is available for download from the CBA website. Edmund hated using references in electronic form that he could not scrawl or stick Post-its on, or bedizen with yellow highlighter ink, hence the great proliferation of three-ring binders bulging with tattered pages. I won't start ripping apart the Cerlox for another week, however; the blue box is already almost full, and another day's gleanings will make it too heavy for me to haul out to the curb. The more I read about Stilly's efforts to keep her dogs happy, the gladder I am to be a cat person. Mind you, I like dogs just fine, but I am delighted not to have to share a house with even one, let alone three. The next time Watson follows me around the house yelling to be picked up and carried, or Isobel chucks up her breakfast in the middle of the kitchen floor, I must remember to thank them for providing comparatively low-maintenance companionship. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Feb 21 - 08:40 PM I finally found a way to use PayPal to print USPS shipping for first class, surface, and media mail. The post office won't let me print anything but Priority or Express. I just bought a whole bunch of stamps to use on light first class parcels because I don't want to go into the post office, but one of them came back covered with postal stickers saying it can't be thicker than a half-inch, blah blah blah. They don't like the stamps, I could have printed the postage and it would have been fine. What nonsense. I make sure they're lighter than 7 ounces and that should be sufficient (more than that and they'll be returned if mailed in a box. Over 7 ounces must be handed to a postal worker so they see the human shipping it.) So now I'll gradually use up the stamps, and use the PayPal shipping. Debra Cowan put a note on my Instagram account after another friend put a note on my Instagram account. It took a lot of looking to find the service. You'd think they wouldn't hide it. The now is lovely, quiet, but not very deep. It's really cold (for here) so it isn't going anywhere. Only a few vehicles have driven past all day. I'll pull out my heavy boots for tomorrow and see about going out with the camera. I wonder if I can catch any bird activity in the woods across the road? I'm still trying to diagnose the problem with the Whilte sewing machine. It throws birdsnest wads of thread usually when I change direction, often in the middle of a line of stitching. Something is slipping, not holding up it's end of the operation. I don't thing there is a clutch inside the directional part, but that's the best way to describe it, the clutch is slipping. As it happens there is a sewing machine repair place a half-mile from here and they have good reviews. I've been there a time or two in the last 20 years. I'll give them a call. This machine is old, but very commonplace. White built all of the Kenmore machines for decades, and several other brand names. I'm not headed over until the snow clears, though. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 15 Feb 21 - 02:08 PM Dupont: OF course when there is an accident we immediately think of those for whom we care personally. Every person counts and every one of these brings thoughts of the families of those lost. I do think that, in the midst of this pandemic, when hundreds are dying daily, I am overwhelmed. 89 more in Quebec yesterday and I have no idea whether I knew any of them, or their families. It becomes overwhelming. Grief is ingrained and we must keep our heads above water. A story in Atlantic about reactions to second shot is very concerning. I worried out loud about getting a shot in Ontario and being at Beaver alone; Robin said firmly that he would go with me when my turn comes up. I almost wept out loud. Charmion's flood of PAPER causes me to think about what I might be able to part with sooner rather than later. Narrow it down to paper the heirs might find interesting. Meanwhile, the pile of sewing projects has not yet been touched! Maybe today?? Everything that needs doing in the house is done and I found a plastic bin that was being used for "fire starters" could be, and is emptied to be used for the indoor garden project, now ready to begin. I already emptied the first pot into it. These are the pots in which plants have succumbed. But not to worry, I have numerous cuttings of the various tomatoes, coming right along. And spring!! For tomatoes- the end of May up here! R kept the plants alive while I was away - some just barely. A little more instruction. Today he actually carried the watering jugs upstairs! The upstairs faucet is only low so I fill gallons in the K and set them on the steps until next trip up. Throw the empties down! Energy savings - my own. Another 5 inches expected - Charmion too. Already over two feet on back deck. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 15 Feb 21 - 07:30 PM The lockdown in Huron and Perth counties ends tonight at midnight, and tomorrow I’m getting a haircut. Appointment confirmed and everything. I can hardly wait. While I’m at it, I’ll hit the pet shop for a bag of cat litter, the drug store for probiotics to help my poor abused guts, and the supermarket for coffee cream. What larks! We will be an Orange zone again, but we won’t be going back to the rules we had last fall; the Ministry of Health has imposed more restrictions on restaurants and small shops. I almost don’t care if I have to wear a respirator and a HAZMAT suit — I’m going out for dinner as soon as I can book a table! |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 17 Feb 21 - 08:33 AM This morning, we’ve been thinking a little on things to grow to eat. Following a recommendation in the food thread, I now have some Nicola seed potatoes on order. I’ve also ordered some tomato, aubergine, sweet pepper, cucumber and courgette seeds. A related task is to repair the greenhouse which lost a couple of its front panels in the winds. I’ll measure up and get some cut to size acrylic sheet ordered soon. Our cold snap is over and temperatures are now up to 10C daytime. There is still bits of snow in parts sheltered from the sun but for the most part, you wouldn’t know the whole ground had been white last week. That’s probably it for the year except, gardening wise, I don’t think of ourselves being free from the possibilities of heavy frosts until May 1st and, heating wise, I have lit the woodburner for the evening as late as June in at least one past year. Coming back to outside now, I noticed some nice patches of snowdrops with some in bloom this morning. I toyed with getting a new computer (or parts of) for my desktop the other day as problems with USB seemed to be getting worse and I suspected both motherboard and the front ports on the case… Most of the problems however seem to have come down to one faulty lead so the computer can stay as it is for a while longer. Having started with something on the computer that’s needed looking at for a while… I also finally got round to having a bit of a tidy up and deleted loads of files. I even got round to backing up onto a portable USB drive I have! rsync's a handy tool when I remember what to do and get round to using it... |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: leeneia Date: 18 Feb 21 - 12:38 PM Hello, Jon. Have you ever grown snow peas or sugar peas? It sounds like now would be a good time for you to start them. They are one of the few vegetables I have managed to grow successfully, mostly because the local critters don't seem to know they can be eaten. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Feb 21 - 10:50 PM Power is back after being off for four days. Despite going to bed early last night and getting a good night's sleep, I'm exhausted. The business of staying warm enough to stay alive is exhausting. Here is a set of remarks I wrote for a few friends (vie email): The power is finally back on, as of 5:30 this evening (Thursday). It went out at 2:30am on Monday morning. What a long week those four days were. It turns out we had a double-whammy in the neighborhood, not just was the power out for the region, but there was a popped circuit feeding into this neighborhood. So while across the street got power on Tuesday night, ours never came back, and the power companies wouldn't know what was broken until they started turning on the power to see what wasn't up yet. I feel like I was in the control group for a natural experiment. The dogs are probably confused; this was a very intense period and we were all sleeping in the same space for warmth, after I moved bedding into my closet. After the first night they settled right in, and I suspect if I took them camping now they'd be great with spending the night in a tent. I've begun dismantling my heating stations of candles and terracotta pots, but everything is still in the house in case the power goes off for another extended period. The next door neighbors asked if I had a long power cord and they plugged it into an unused power bank on the generator and I stretched it to my back door. I got the freezer plugged in in time to save the contents (I never opened it at all during that period). My fridge had a lot of stuff to go, and in the freezer all of the frozen veggies are gone. I need to do something fast with a bunch of blueberries and strawberries. Maybe make syrup. Some of the meat I can cook and refreeze in prepared dishes, or eat fast this week. Some stuff (like the shrimp) is supposed to stay frozen until used, so it's going out in the trash in the morning. Stores are going to be empty for a while because they lost power and will be tossing all of the defrosted and warm food; everyone who has food left in their houses needs to keep eating it for a while until the marketplace catches up with the demand of millions of households that had to throw out a lot of food all at once. Meanwhile, stuff got moved all around this week. My closet was emptied of all of the clothes on one side and a cabinet on the other, so I could set up a stack of inflated backpacking pads for me and a pallet for the dogs, and we spent three nights sleeping in there. It was so much warmer than anywhere else would have been. I spent the last several days devising ways to stay warm and retrieved things from the garage and moved stuff from one room to the next. Some of the house is neat, some is a jumble. And I need a shower. We are asked not to run a lot of appliances now, to keep power use modest because the system is still recovering. The laundry can wait, but once the tank is hot I think a bath is in order. I have a lot of catching up to do, and have my fingers crossed we're not in the middle of a sequence of rolling blackouts. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Feb 21 - 09:54 AM Oh gawd, where to begin. I moved so much stuff around during the days of trying to keep us all warm and now it's all staring me in the face. I'll assemble my closet first, returning all of the clothes on one side and a cabinet for shoes and accessories. Last night the dogs were all ready to pile in again, but I'd pulled out the my pallet so they wouldn't mangle my down bag or step on the inflatable pads with those nails of theirs. There are three chew toys in there I'll return to circulation in the living room and pick up the rest of the bedding they used. We're being cautious about power; the thermostats are pushed down to the low-60s. I am doing only one discretionary large appliance chore today: dishwasher. When you have bowls used for eating, bowls used for washing faces, when lots of spoiled fridge stuff was tossed and those containers need cleaning, all of that needs a trip through the dishwasher. Tomorrow I'll run the washer (it's supposed to warm up after today's low of 17o). I fear as it thaws my yard will reveal the damage. Even well-adapted plants will be impacted by this. I'm hoping my big trees survived. I fear I will have lost a lot of shrubs and all of the succulents. That's a job come spring-time weather. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: mg Date: 19 Feb 21 - 09:45 PM did people just put their frozen food out in the snow and ice? |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 21 - 12:50 AM It's not actually a good idea to do that. https://www.dallasnews.com/food/2021/02/15/do-not-store-your-food-outside-if-you-lose-power-heres-why/ Snow isn't a substitute for the freezer and food that is in sunlight can start to thaw because of solar gain. If you can't open that article, they link to the USDA Winter Weather Food Safety article. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 20 Feb 21 - 06:32 AM Sorry to read you've had a rough time, SRS, but good to see you back on line. Leenia, we have grown ordinary peas some years with varying degrees of success but not those. They could be started now but I’m not really a fan of the mangetout types. I’m trying to think what we will be growing… The potatoes will take up one of our 2 remaining squares. I’ll want to put leeks (which I think are the most reliable veg going) in the long thin bed later in the year. There is another bit where we’ll put a row of French climbing beans. We’ll probably put spinach and/or chard along 2 sides of the other square and I guess the rest of it can be for brassica. I really need to make sure we get varieties with good club root resistance this year… Then there are the tubs. Two had rhubarb planted in them last year so I’m hoping that comes up ok. I’ve got a few of a new potato that I’m going to try in another couple of tubs. Yet another two or three will have courgettes in. That leaves me with four or five to put I don’t know what yet in. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 20r From: Charmion Date: 20 Feb 21 - 09:46 AM Reading about the travails of Texas, I’m gobsmacked by how much more awful conditions were made by the state government’s policy of avoiding federal intervention at apparently any cost. When eastern Canada was hit by a giant ice storm in 1998, federal intervention helped the provincial and municipal governments immeasurably — not least by calling out the armed forces, both regular and reserves, to help the police, utility companies, public health authorities and social service agencies. The massive maple tree that blocked one end of my street in Ottawa was cut up and hauled away by soldiers from Petawawa, and the streets of blacked-out Montreal were patrolled by soldiers from Valcartier while the police searched the high-rise apartment buildings for trapped residents. Combat and construction engineers from all over the country deployed to help power workers rebuild crushed and tumbled hydro towers. Did the governor of Texas at least mobilize the National Guard? |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 21 - 01:15 PM I'm not sure what the Governor did, but FEMA has been busy around the state. There is a community fridge project in town that has three locations (so far) and I've been a regular contributor, but haven't gotten out for over a week. I can have Amazon deliver things from their "Wish list" directly to their location, but when I looked in this morning stuff won't arrive for another week. I have some things here I can take up in a day or two once getting out is possible and the place I where want to pick up more is open. I have things in the garden that usually over-winter and I continue to use each year, like onion plants. I cut a few of the green onions and use them regularly, sometimes digging up the bulb (when left like this they're more like leeks), but I think they finally froze so hard to have died. I'll be digging up or plowing in everything out there. And I fear nurseries will have been hit hard as far as bedding plants. I'm sure stuff will be transported in from Florida, but I think I'll set up the small pots and start a lot of stuff by seed to be ready for planting in the next six to eight weeks. If the garlic was killed I have a lot of corms that I can plant, though there won't be any kind of a crop this year, they should be planted in the fall. My bay tree will have been killed this year, and everything in pots. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 21 - 11:44 PM Last Sunday it was beginning, the snow was on the ground at dawn, power went out later that night overnight. Tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny and 60o. And when I listen to my local organic gardening radio show we will all commiserate about the plants in our gardens that have died and need removal and possible replacement. I've found most of the things that got moved around during the week (there was one charging cable that I finally found next to the UPS - if I'd had the wit to turn off everything attached to it it wouldn't have run down and turned off and I could have charged the phone and tablet on it all week easily.) My small power backup I use for the phone died this week and I've ordered a new one and also ordered a propane stove that will be here for emergencies. I'll have to go to a store to buy the metal propane bottles, those don't ship. Sterno was a lifesaver and I still have some, but it would be a lot faster cooking with propane and is safe to burn indoors. Some of the other camp stoves need to be used outside and that simply wouldn't have happened as cold as this week was. I am pleased to report that the new freezer came through this episode like a champ. The old one (it was 50 years old) would not have done such a good job (from past experience). I didn't open the upright freezer at all and after being without power for three days I plugged it into the neighbor's generator and let it run all night. When I did finally open it I could see that the berries in their bags were still perfectly shaped separate pieces - they didn't get soft and become a blob that refroze. The ultimate test. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion's brother Andrew Date: 21 Feb 21 - 05:55 AM Charmion, you might remember that, during the ice storm, hydro workers resented the military work ethic. Rather than approaching their tasks with the effort that would meet expectations, the soldiers revived the expeditionary work ethic of two world wars: "Let's get this done so we can go home." Sappers get s*** done, and get it done even faster if they have pioneers and Herbies to do the grunt work. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 21 Feb 21 - 07:30 AM I have decided to dispose of Edmund’s beer fridge, which lives in the garage. It was in this house when we moved in, and several of its interior fittings are cracked or broken so I don’t think I can sell it. It’s old enough that I’m sure it’s a power hog. Most of Edmund’s hoard of beer went to his brother and I drank the Perrier, so now the beer fridge is empty except for containers of soup stock in the freezer compartment. Those can go in the chest freezer. It snowed again yesterday, but now the sky is clear and a thaw is coming. Some of the downtown restaurants have reopened, so I may take a little stroll downtown for coffee. Not that I need other people’s coffee, but a destination is always nice. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Mrrzy Date: 21 Feb 21 - 09:44 AM Good on yer, Charmion. One of my adult kids asked for their birth certificate, prompting the excavation of my big corner cabinet's bottom half where I'd been randomly stuffing papers since we moved oh, 8 years ago now. It yielded a large pile of things to shred, a larger pile of things to recycle, and an unfortunately largest pile of things to keep, which I now need to go back through and sort. And I did have the birth certificates. In a folder, even. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Feb 21 - 10:27 AM Mrrzy, back in 2002 The New Yorker published a review by Malcolm Gladwell called "The Social Life of Paper: Looking for method in the mess." From that article: Paper enables a certain kind of thinking. Picture, for instance, the top of your desk. Chances are that you have a keyboard and a computer screen off to one side, and a clear space roughly eighteen inches square in front of your chair. What covers the rest of the desktop is probably piles—piles of papers, journals, magazines, binders, postcards, videotapes, and all the other artifacts of the knowledge economy. The piles look like a mess, but they aren't. When a group at Apple Computer studied piling behavior several years ago, they found that even the most disorderly piles usually make perfect sense to the piler, and that office workers could hold forth in great detail about the precise history and meaning of their piles. The pile closest to the cleared, eighteen-inch-square working area, for example, generally represents the most urgent business, and within that pile the most important document of all is likely to be at the top. Piles are living, breathing archives. Over time, they get broken down and resorted, sometimes chronologically and sometimes thematically and sometimes chronologically and thematically; clues about certain documents may be physically embedded in the file by, say, stacking a certain piece of paper at an angle or inserting dividers into the stack. I still lose track of things in the piles if a pile gets moved sometimes I have to go hunting. And periodically I do file and shred. But there is often something to the "I know it's in here somewhere" instinct that lets you dig around and find what you need. "Situation awareness" is the concept. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 21 Feb 21 - 11:08 AM It’s tempting to believe that people with messy desks are more productive or creative than neatniks, but that’s just not so. After training as an archivist and then working many years as an editor, I am phobic about piles of paper for fear of mixing up versions of a manuscript. I’m also afraid of losing bills so they don’t get paid, or misplacing tax-related documents so I end up filing late. Okay, I admit it — I’m compulsive. It’s thirty years since I missed a bill payment or a tax deadline. But I consider that compulsion more of a solution than a problem. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Feb 21 - 12:13 PM I wouldn't say that everything goes in the stack. And really important things that can't stand to get versions mixed up live in their own folders or files. That said, going back through the stacks is a sort of archeological dig. Sometimes there is treasure in there! |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 21 Feb 21 - 01:40 PM Dupont: Glad Maggie's ordeal is over. I'm sure the dogs helped! And glad to see plans being made for the just in case... As I look forward to spring arriving someday - End of May! But continue to nurture the various tomato shoots and mature plants that are producing more cuttings and a couple "dead" pepper plants that are sending out new life! One that just gave me a small yellow pepper has stayed healthy and looks to be starting a new bud! These small signs of new and continuing life are helpful to the mental health. For a cool climate: I was delighted to break up my sorrel plant into a dozen last fall and look forward to having fresh greens before the snow is off the ground at Beaver. I gave up growing garlic as I never use it but it grew prolifically through Ontario winters. I would dig it, give most of it away and plant another few. When I sold the farm in 99, there was some planted... I have been coasting this last week, doing very little but finding I need to do SOMETHING out of the chair every hour or so! This am I even dusted the never used DR table! I had planned to go back to Beaver today but the sporadic gut thing is back and the idea of keeping a daily record so I would get a handle on the cause... Well, that never seems to work for me. A new bathroom sink is in our future. The main bath has one with ridges in it - attractive I guess but a pain to clean. Several hours on the web last night, I finally bit the bullet - Wayfair turned out to be the ONLY source for a "drop in, no faucet holes sink". Home Depot in Niagara Falls has them; that is in the USA they are easily available but Home Depot - after two "chats" - in Canada does NOT. Nor any other - after googling two pages... THEN R wondered if he could get the old one out and decided he might have to break it but that's ok. After he left this am, I took an unwanted table knife and small hammer to it. The old sink is loose and the new one ordered! Building on that success maybe I will get the cauliflower soup and a veggie stew made for the next week's planned overs. And spend a few minutes on the front steps in the sun a couple short stints of fresh air. As for filing: I have a nice OLD oak filing cabinet which was beside my desk in many abodes and things got filed forthwith. Now, it is at the Mill along with a lot of other unmoved stuff. But I have spots for important papers both here and at Beaver. They are almost filed. And I find that lots of what I once filed away to look at later, well... It is all on the web anyway. And most bills are paid on-line. Hope the daffodils survived, SRS! |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Feb 21 - 11:02 PM We've gone from ice to mud very quickly here. This evening I finished mopping the muddy footprints from across the den floor and took a broom out to start pushing the lava sand onto the lawn. It works to prevent slipping on ice but it is terribly gritty and tracks in easily. I'm also looking at battery packs for the house. My sister recommended one and I have an electrical engineer friend out in West Texas who is set for anything. I'll run this question past him. My computer UPS isn't meant to run for a long time, just a few minutes. These other power supplies are meant for running a lamp, charging phones and equipment, over time. The last of the big protein packages from the freezer is finished. The pollock was frosty still but definitely thawing when the power came back on. I moved it and two packages of beef into the fridge and I cooked the beef over the last two nights (a lot goes back into the freezer now). This evening the fish went into a large batch of Whiting Stew and I'll share some of this tomorrow. Yesterday I talked to a couple of friends about their camp stoves and then decided to get the Coleman two-burner propane or butane fuel camp stove. It's meant for emergencies here and it can be used indoors. That's the trouble with my old camp stoves, they run on gas and would have to be used outside. When it's zero degrees I'm not going to go outside to cook. I finished emptying the stock pots and tubs that were holding water for several days in case we had to start boiling water. I feel bad pouring it out because lots of people are still boiling and still getting bottled water, but no one is coming over here to get stock pots full of water. Pots put away give me more room again and the house is continuing to improve after the disruption last week. The best way to view it from the dogs' standpoint is that we went on a four-day three-night camping trip in my closet. I think they enjoyed themselves and though I knew (in particular) that Cookie was cold, she had a jacket she wore for four days straight and never bothered it. It isn't funny yet, no one is telling stories of humorous things that happened, though I'm sure some did. Everyone is winding down from the stress of it, and many people are working with local mutual aid projects to help provide food and water and blankets and such. I'll be shopping tomorrow and taking food up to the fridge (I started doing that several months ago.) I'm still working at wrapping my brain around my usual daytime activities—I keep forgetting to do stuff that I always did every day before this. Getting back into that old routine is not coming as easily as one might expect. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 22 Feb 21 - 05:48 AM I turn my PC off after 5 minutes of a power cut. I do that to try and keep the router and the base station for the Dect landline phones alive for as long as I can. I’ve no idea how long it does last but I think it would be hours rather than days. Thinking phones and batteries, I got a new mobile phone last week as I was fed up with the battery life with the one I had which had gone down to barely lasting a day just idling and changing a battery on that phone looked quite a task. Having got the new one, I decided to have a play with the old one which I wiped, put Lineage OS 17.1 on and set up with the apps I wanted. It’s just sat on my desk for the last 24 hrs and the battery is still showing a good 90%+ charge. I’m wondering now, whether the new custom ROM can really be that much better than the stock WileyFox one – I can’t see that? What update or change may have occurred to make the battery life so bad – I’d not made any changes around the time things started to deteriorate. Or whether I’ll start to see what looks like battery problems in a couple of days time. As I stands though I seem to have a pretty decent back up phone for my needs. While on the phones, I also put the battery in my first smart phone, a Galaxy Ace 2 and found it still works well. I’d put a new (replaceable by design) battery in that one and set it up as a phone for mum after I’d finished with it but it turned out that she was far better off with a basic (non smart) Nokia so the Ace 2 has just been stowed away. Btw, SRS, your English had me a bit confused for a while when you said your stoves couldn’t be used as they run on gas – so does ours (on Butane), a 2 ring and grill Camping Gaz one that lives in the BBQ shed but could be brought to the house if needed. I think… There are CO detectors in both the living room (for woodburner) and kitchen (historical really but the central heating boiler used to be located there). I’ve never used a petrol stove (although a brother had one that burned quite fiercely) but still have a paraffin/kerosene Optimus one - somewhere... |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 22 Feb 21 - 08:21 AM And I might do a small power off job in the next couple of days. An annoying and costly problem has been (at least I’m pretty sure it must be) carers for dad or dad with them bang into things in the narrow corridor when they wheel him about. I’m not sure of the why’s and wherefores on the moving part as I’m willing to try all but am now just doing the putting to bed move. We’ve had to replace one radiator valve controller and two night lights for reasons that I can only see as being caused by collisions and I’m certain it’s not me bumping in to things. I can’t go around accusing others or telling them to be more careful though. I think the radiator valve one has been made safer by turning it round so you can’t see the lcd panel. That cut’s down on the protrusion and I don’t think anyone bent down to look at the display anyway. The light is more difficult. Moving the socket which is in an akward place would be best but there’s not an easy and sightly way I could manage that. The nightlight I got this time is slimmer though and I think that coupled with using a 25mm/1” back box (I’m not sure why the current one is so deep) will cut the amount sticking out there by 50mm/2” which will reduce the chance of it getting knocked. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Mrrzy Date: 22 Feb 21 - 08:46 AM Thanks for that info on piles! And who actually has a free 18"x18" on their desks? I got about 4x6. (What do you call vodka, oj and Preparation H? A pile-driver...) |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Feb 21 - 10:30 AM Jon, a couple of years ago my neighbor gave me two of these replacement faceplate night lights that turn off when there's light an on when not. One of them isn't working now and it may be a simple matter of checking to see how I installed it, but I may get myself a couple more. These are one-gang, you'll have to hunt to see if they come wider. I have two UPS units; the computer one is larger and I replaced the batteries in it last year. The one in the hall closet probably needs the batteries replaced also. I don't think it adds much life to the router and modem at this point. Sorry about the gas/petrol mixup. My Coleman stove runs on white gasoline (a petrol form) and my little Optimus also. I have a fuel can out there that is ancient so needs to be disposed of properly and replaced. They still make the stuff. If the power is out in the summer, that is entirely usable outside. I need to refurbish my LP gas grill, the last time I used it the gas barely trickled in and I think it's because wasps have clogged up the lines. Mud daubers get into tiny crevices and the garage walls are also covered with the gobs of mud for their larger nests. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 22 Feb 21 - 10:43 AM Mrrzy, My desk needs a good clear out/tidy up. At best, I've got an area that would comfortably take an A4 (similar to your letter size) pad and room for a calculator and ruler, etc. to my left (I'm left handed - at least for writing, my musical attempts are right handed) and if I move the wireless keyboard I've got an area where I can try to play with things like the Arduino or solder something and power things with a power supply that lives to the right of monitor. The old oak table in the living room is a better option for a larger area. It's mostly shared (a side each) with me and dad who has his lap top there and is currently attempting a 1000 piece jigsaw there. And at least if it's warm, I've got a workbench in my shed I tidied up last year. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 22 Feb 21 - 10:59 AM SRS, that face plate looks really good. I’d not seen one of those or a UK equivalent before. I think I stick with a plug in type here though. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 22 Feb 21 - 11:35 AM It’s snowing and blowing in Stratford, but not particularly cold. We’re having yet another lake-effect day, complete with sharply dropping air pressure. Consequently, there’s rain the forecast and my feet hurt. I like that night-light gadget but, in the gloom of my upstairs hall, it would be on all the time. That bugged me with a plug-in light, but maybe it would matter less with the built-in LED bulb. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Feb 21 - 12:41 PM The LCD bulbs in those faceplates are extremely low power and give off no heat. Jon, I poked around the UK Amazon site and couldn't find anything similar. This looks a little more flush to the wall than the one you shared earlier. Any time I bring up the Amazon page (the US version) I get the message that shipping is slower in my region. I don't know what Amazon's warehouses look like at the moment, but know that the post office is still messed up because the postmaster general's office is still full of Trump appointees. And then there's the weather thing—the post office is backed up with several days worth of stuff. And I'm willing to bet there are lots of new orders happening because of last week, putting more pressure on those various delivery systems. I have to remember that I'm doing a "frugal February," but the emergency stuff I ordered is beyond the scope of that goal, I think. I've gotten started researching the replacement items and will await information from a couple of friends before more purchases, so it won't be till March that those happen. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Feb 21 - 10:53 PM A trip to the post office and Aldi today were nice after more than a week at home. The store shelves were sparsely populated with groceries (plenty of spices and condiments and such, but low on meats, bread, no eggs, not much milk, a lot of dairy gone, little cheese, etc.) I got a half-gallon of 1% milk, one I don't normally buy, but I didn't want a gallon of whole milk and I want milk on my morning oatmeal. Beggars can't be choosers. The store had to throw out a lot of what is missing, it isn't just that customers swooped in and took it. They, like thousands of stores across the state, are waiting for distribution from unaffected warehouses. It took me about 30 minutes to clear up the sleeping pads and sleeping bags from last week; they were propped up airing on the side of my bedroom. One or more of the bags for the pads had coated nylon and the coating peeled off and sprinkled all over the rug, so that had to be vacuumed before I deflated the mats and stored them again. The room is looking good. I delivered two one-pint containers of soup to my ex this afternoon and he had it for dinner, as did I, at my house. It has been so long since anyone was in here to share a meal with me—the situation for so many people. He hasn't gotten any calls about the vaccine yet, but maybe once he gets the jab we can try being a pod. In comparing notes it's interesting - he is also experiencing the exhaustion I still seem to be feeling. I crash pretty early in the evening (early for me - I'm headed to bed in a couple of minutes.) I suspect that much of the state is feeling that way. I did the math - 90 hours. And consider: so many places in the world have people living in tents in refugee settings for long periods of time, and places where people are so poor that this is a normal circumstance, so we have nothing to complain about compared to that. But it gives us a glimmer of that kind of life and hopefully empathy. All along the Texas border with Mexico power was also out and it was sub-freezing there. Refugees still waiting to come into the US after Trump made them all wait in Mexico. Tent cities, dilapidated encampments, harsh conditions. I wonder if the deaths and injuries there will ever be counted. I heard that the count so far in Texas after those four days is 20. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 24 Feb 21 - 08:56 AM I vacuumed the library yesterday and disassembled a great stack of Cerlox-bound proceedings of the National Criminal Law Program for recycling. The blue box is brimming again and almost too heavy to move, and the kitchen trash is bristling with plastic Cerlox thingies. The Bubble is going out for lunch today! I shall wear a clean shirt and snazzy earrings to celebrate. While we’re at it, it’s time to start planning a joint garage sale. I can’t think of a better way to disencumber myself of Edmund’s collection of rucksacks in many sizes — I think there are eight — and the clutter of kitchen gadgets I will never use again. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Feb 21 - 10:19 AM If those comb bindings are intact you can bag them and donate to a print shop where they can be reused. The bindings can also be recycled. Last night I made several thicknesses of scrap fabric and worked back and forth to get the bobbin settings adjusted. It was my stupid mistake to begin with, accidentally winding a bobbin too tight and then not realizing it was the bobbin and not the bobbin tension that was the problem. Now I'm sewing with black thread on top and white on the bottom so I can see how it is adjusting. (I wasted a lot of the color thread I was working with before I remembered the "how to adjust your tension" video used two colors.) This after I called a sewing machine repair shop (after trying several that seem to have gone out of business) and being told they would charge me $50 to clean it (I do that myself) and run a stitching strip to see how the tension is (and I'll try with different thicknesses). I think I simply need to fiddle with it until I get it reset where it was before. I have a better use for that $50. Knee checkup today, a year out from that surgery. But what a strange year it has been! |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Feb 21 - 07:03 PM It's looking like nice weather for a few days and warming (it is almost March, and gardens get started here this time of year) so I'll shift my attention to clearing some things out of the garage that need to go into the yard. I have fence stuff and a gate to work on also. It is a little difficult to wrap my head around this work when last week we were in the midst of such a horrible arctic blast. But life moves on. So much stuff got clobbered that I'm going to be out cutting back a lot of shrubs and hope they come back from the roots later. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Feb 21 - 10:26 AM I'm sweeping again today to remove more lava sand from outside the doors and to pick up the sand tracked through the house. I bought a new rubber mat for inside the side door (and a dog bed that Cookie shredded within an hour of entering the house - BAD dog!) The sand melted snow because it's dark and solar gain meant it became warm in the sun, but oh, is it sharp edged on the floor now. The floor around here is a little crunchy. Volunteer activities these days start out with virtual training so I'm beginning a series of Zoom lectures before I start working at a local museum later this year. So many things may again resume later this year. Here's hoping the vaccines are able to stay ahead of the current and new COVID-19 variants. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 26 Feb 21 - 05:40 AM It’s not the first time I’ve used one of the IP cameras for this sort of thing but the kitchen one came in useful yesterday. Mum had complained that one of her plastic dessert spoons (there’s a green one and a yellow one) she and dad use for breakfast. I knew I’d used it when weighing out the flour she wanted for an apple pie and that seemed to be the last seen of it. So, check back on the recordings, I see myself putting it in the washing up bowl. I also put mums favourite (I hate it but) utility knife in there. Wind forward a bit later when I was tidying up in a hurry and I tip the washing up bowl full of apple peel into the kitchen waste bin. I’d emptied the waste bin into the outside wheelie bin before this so I retrieved the black bin bag from there, opened it up and sure enough, there amongst the apple peelings were the 2 utensils. Staying with the kitchen, I think we need a new cooker. The bottom oven on the current one went a few months ago but we didn’t want to get a repair person in with the Covid situation. The top oven on has always seemed to be a bit under temperature (a contrast to the bottom one that always seemed over even with an allowance for it being fan assisted) but, things seem to be getting worse and I had to use extended times for the last lot of sultana buns I did… And the top right hob plate is tripping the main RCD, knocking all the power in the house off when you turn it on. I wish that when mum had the kitchen done when she moved here over 20 years ago, that the space for the cooker had been made to take 60cm models rather than the 50cm slot we have (and it would be too big a job to change). It’s not a matter of capacity but one of choice. Now I’m doing the main cooking and with a need for a new cooker, I’d try to talk mum into getting one with induction hobs but I can’t find that in the smaller size. We differ in what we prefer, if we lived somewhere with mains gas, I’d probably opt for a duel fuel (gas hobs, electric oven) cooker and like quick reaction. Mum prefers the slow sealed plate hobs. Back to my printing side comments, I’ve slapped some paint on my traction engine attempt and we’ve decided it could do with a twin which, needless to say round here (Norwich City FC colours) will have the green parts in the photo done in yellow. At the moment, I don’t think I’m going to put motors and electronics in this one. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 26 Feb 21 - 09:08 AM We had a tune session here yesterday, and it was just great. Serena the Fiddle brought a pupil, Lauren who is "almost" 14, so with me and and Mary Anne the Guitar, we are now four. We're beginning to sound like a ceilidh band, and I couldn't be more chuffed. We have started learning a new jig set. If I move the library furniture around a bit, we could fit in one or two more at six-foot spacing, but I think we've a way to go before we contemplate that. Maybe a bodhran, or Lauren's dad on guitar, but if we added a guitar we would need another melody instrument, flute or fiddle, mandolin or banjo. I can play both the bodhran and the guitar, but the others would rather have the mandolin and I think they're right. I look forward to the day -- this year, next year? -- when we can sit at elbows-not-quite-bumping range and really dig in. I'm sorry for your cooker troubles, Jon. Especially when you share a kitchen with loved ones who have their minds made up about the technology they are prepared to accept, it's an huge challenge to replace such a critical component of your home. And the cost! I hope I never have to buy another new cooker; I'll coddle the one I have as long as I can. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 21 - 10:38 AM I've put in orders to add three books to my collection; I started researching technical repair books for sewing machines and found one pre-1980 and two much more modern. My sewing machine is acting up and its either the tension or a timing problem that so far I haven't resolved myself. Since I've been interested in refurbishing machines I find at Goodwill it's time to make this move. Meanwhile I'm losing ground on my mask making as I fidget with the big machine. Today I'll do a full cleaning, needle replacement, etc. just because. The all-electric stove in my kitchen was new a few years ago (four burners or hobs and and oven). I don't know that there will ever be a higher-end stove in there. This is lightweight compared to the previous model and I have a bracket I was supposed to attach to the wall to push this onto, to prevent tipping (resting something on the oven door might do it, I suppose). I should go ahead and install that. We're at the messy time of year here, when mud is churned up with every rain and when the yard is bedraggled after the hard freeze. Jon, I have to work on my compost setup again; the one with wire over the top now only serves to keep me out since the smallest dog figured out a way to wiggle in through the layers. I have found utensils in the garden or compost on occasion that got into the scrap bowl or gray-water bucket. I lost a pair of scissors for a while that turned up when I dug the next year, and it was a video of a sweet potato operation (my ex videoing our daughter digging potatoes that revealed where a trowel was buried.) It makes me wonder at the everyday things we choose to record. :) Charmion, I love that you can bring a few people into the house. My small group that usually meets here is still too leery about getting together indoors, so our first lunch of 2021 won't happen until either everyone gets vaccinated or we have nice weather for an outdoors picnic. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 26 Feb 21 - 01:39 PM I remember a pair of mum's glasses turning up in a compost heap a year or so after they were lost... |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Jon Freeman Date: 26 Feb 21 - 03:28 PM On the cameras btw. I think I started it after dad lost some token coins. We’ve got them in the living room, kitchen and study inside and the front and back outside. Here’s a view of the back a couple of weeks ago. Another use for one came in after dad, who was then walking unsupervised with a frame, had a fall. The ambulance crew asked what happened and I was able to show them exactly what happened. It was quite a “lucky” (are falls lucky?) fall. He tried to take too big a stride, lost his balance and went flying, avoiding cracking his head on the oak table by inches on the way down. He landed heavily but, it turned out, quite shaken but physically unscathed. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 26 Feb 21 - 05:48 PM Beaver! Gor off in good time on thurs and arrived just after 3 with full sun but about minus 2 C. NO driveway and I have to wallow throw knee high snow to the front door. To the essential! as I sat, I texted Steve - "no driveway" and bt the time I had shoveled a path to the car, he arrived and cleared enough for me to get the car off the road. With a promise to return and finish the job- which he did very nicely today. Hut then I backed the car in and when I thought to do a better job, it was stuck so I shoveled a path to the wood shed and part way to the studio - as far as I could manage. Had supper, talked to R, and was in bed about 7. This am, after light bf, I carried numerous buckets of hot water out to melt the icy snow toward the studio until I managed to open the door enough to squeeze in and turn the cube heater down; it has cost me having it turned to high but better that than frozen clay. Wanting to get errands done, I used sand and the metal ice thingy and got unstuck. Hit the bank to get a US draft to donate to Clayart discussion forum, an interesting and often helpful group of seasoned potters. Hardware store hoping for a supply of 4 inch pots but found them too expensive for almost give-away plants. Seed display was in full swing so I got a very few packets of seeds for spring, lest everything gets sold. Then frozen organic chicken breasts, and 3 stamps for USA at post office, thinking I might even write a couple notes to folks! Home, parking carefully, had a good BF and Steve finished the drive very nicely. Started to take a nap -- after my 12 hours of not great sleep last night - but remembered I needed to bring in wood - went to minus 15C or so last night and getting the cold house up to snuff took a lot of wood. So, I jumped up and did wood, washed my hair and trimmed it for first time in weeks? maybe months. So then, I turned on internet connection and did a rough go through of emails. Now this and maybe later I will do some fine tuning. I save to file many of the clayart posts, sign petitions, and and scam email addresses to the anti scam list. Later for that. Now for a nice supper. The wonderful sun has dropped behind the hill; our gorgeous above freezing,by a couple degrees, day is ending. Tomorrow I hope for enough energy to get to work in the studio! It may snow a bit tonight! And tomorrow and the next day! The composter only has its very top visible! My indoor/outdoor thermometer (outdoor is the studio) indicates the studio is getting too warm again... Someday I would like a real heater with a real thermostat! Shall I go turn it down again??? Probably. After I start cooking. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 27 Feb 21 - 09:13 AM Beaver! Couple inches of snow by 9 am. Charmion will love this!! Glad I did errands yesterday. This is a heavy steady straight down snow! Guess I will read today. About 4 degrees below freezing. So much for yesterday's thaw. Another 12 hours mostly sleeping and I feel like doing something... May venture the 20 feet to studio later. Not much room in ther4e for outer clothes. An umbrella would be good; it's in the car which is rapidly disappearing! However, keeping a log of temps in studio has given me the clue I needed to where to set the heater. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Feb 21 - 11:27 AM Being acclimated to the cold weather and having enough resources to stay warm (pellets, wood, electricity, gas) make winter not so dreadful as Texas's week after Valentine's Day. I'm reading Dorothy's account of a week and wondering why we complained so much - it's the doing it without power that made it horrible for people totally unprepared. I now have a propane stove (arrived via Amazon on Wednesday) and I'll go buy a couple of tanks early next week (I've gotten the vaccine but still am very careful about going out, preferring times when the stores are almost empty). I have only been to one grocery store since the Big Freeze, when I had to clear out the side-by-side freezer and fridge of a lot of thawed produce from my garden. I still have a supply in the big upright freezer, and instead of buying anything new I'm working on moving stuff. I try to use the fridge freezer for my everyday stuff and open the big one only on occasion. I tossed things in jars that weren't preserved by brine or salt or vinegar (so I kept olives and pickles and such, but tossed the mayonnaise). As I've continued to fiddle with it the big sewing machine tension is now all out of whack. I cleaned and oiled the machine again. There was a video on YouTube of a guy taking off and adjusting the upper tension on a machine almost identical to mine. The video moves at a snail's pace but I'll watch it through to see if I can't try that adjustment now. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Feb 21 - 05:41 PM Recycling was deposited at the city bins and more stuff is added to the donation bin in the laundry room to drop off at the neighborhood Goodwill. While there I have a one-item list to look for; I've been on the hunt for a certain-sized Pyrex bowl for a friend (it's the one recommended for a no-knead bread he makes - he gave me a loaf a few weeks ago and it was marvelous). He's using a not-quite-perfect fit bowl but the vintage ones online are fairly pricey. I know I've seen them for a couple of dollars at Goodwill. I have to start listing more eBay items, they're out of sight in the front room but still taking up space. I've put a moratorium on my purchase of items to sell until the ones in the house start moving out the door to the post office. There are no visits here at the house in sight, after quizzing a group of friends about their vaccine status. They're not ready yet. At least once it's warm enough to work in the yard there will be the opportunity to talk to passers-by. I find myself counting the number of people I get to speak with when out walking the dogs (and of course I'm talking to the dogs while we're out walking). Those "weak ties" are an important part of our everyday lives that have been missing for most of the last year. The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship: There’s a reason you miss the people you didn’t even know that well. From The Atlantic. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 27 Feb 21 - 06:25 PM Edmund liked to say, “There is no bad weather; there’s just inadequate gear.” |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Charmion Date: 28 Feb 21 - 12:37 PM The book project I was awaiting has collapsed. Heigh-ho. It wasn't me -- the project manager had only enthusiastically good things to say about my work, and the author, who rarely praises anyone but himself, admitted he would prefer me to any other editor. But the buck of project ownership has been passed yet again, and the new possessor disapproved of the gimmicky deal under which I was hired. So now it's going out to tender in a bidding process that specifically excludes me -- I am not a company with a standing offer, and I don't intend to become one. I am entirely okay with that. I can hardly believe it, after a lifetime of blindly accepting every opportunity that came my way, but I don't need the money and, consequently, I can spare myself the drudgery and the aggravation. I have other things to do. Stashed in the basement, along with dozens and hundreds of CDs, I had boxes and boxes of photos and negatives going back to my far-distant youth, and more boxes of negatives from my parents and my grandfather. Some of the oldest negatives are three-by-four glass plates. So, for my next trick, I shall sort out the contents of the boxes, probably ditch most of the fading colour prints, and scan and organize the negatives. Today I made room in the study closet for the boxes and hauled them upstairs, and tomorrow I start looking for the most suitable equipment for scanning negatives of many different sizes. The tune session will also take time and effort, because now I must actually practise; I can't rely on my memory the way I used to, or take for granted the strength and condition of my hands. The rest of me also needs exercise, although my wonky foot wants another cortisone shot. The Y has re-opened and pool class is back on, so I must buy a new bathing suit (a task I dread) and get with the program. The weather is wet and mild, with temperatures hovering just above and below freezing; completely normal for the drab end of February. I look on my winter boots with loathing, but it's too early to leave home without them; most of the sidewalks in town are half under water thanks to melting snowbanks and iced-over sewer grates. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 28 Feb 21 - 01:00 PM Beaver: What I needed to do after I got here was expected. Did I ever mention the 15 years I lived off the grid? This is a piece of cake, thankfully! Last year when I came and could not get in the front door because the screen door opened out and was frozen - that was a pain. NO screen door this year, on either door! And next year I hope to have a roof over the walkway so the snow off the roof of the studio does not land there! Will have to move the composter this summer to a spot where it is not buried under snow; cannot even see it now! And 3 years ago I could not access the wood pile when I arrived and had to call for HELP! The new (2 yr old) woodshed is terrific. And it was I who insisted on installing the wood stove in Quebec, and paid for it. And ordered wood! So when the heat went off... Edmond was right! I have already ordered QC wood for September. I expect Ryan will be calling to see how much I want for here. AND I am going to ensure there is adequate cover for the wood in QC. Right now about half a cord is sitting under two feet of snow (covered with plastic). A lovely thawing day but cloudy - 3 degrees above freezing and dripping madly. Glad I do not hear it in the house! Two feet of ice hanging off much of the west and east roofs. I hear an occasional Thunk. I left the electric heating roof thingy plugged in the last 3 weeks; not sure it is functional anymore as several feet are hanging down on the west side. Spring will come... But Steve came a bit ago to clear the drive, esp the two ends where the snowplow contributed barricades. He says rain and then more snow so he felt this needed to be done. Spring is NOT here yet! So I managed to throw a few pots this morning. And noted that I have maintained my 15 pound loss of excess weight. "My" doctor discourages losses more; "older women need to have some weight." OK - as long as I stay down. I still feel as though carrying extra 20 pounds is not a great idea. Well, I got the bright idea of knocking down some of the ice and snow on the west. Then shoveled a path to the wood shed! Again! That is where it landed but I am glad it is down. The SUN came out while I was out and is still out. Blue sky! |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Mar 21 - 01:02 AM Charmion, Epson makes the flatbed scanners that are used in many special collections - they were present in both the university library and the art museum where I was volunteering to scan. They are very high-end, but if you're working on historic and/or archival scans, the Epson Expression 12000XL PH (photo) flatbed scanner is the top of the line. The software that comes with it is used at the museum where I was scanning; the university library used this scanner with the very difficult to learn but eminently superior SilverFast software. The work goes slow - having a second lighter project to do on the side while you wait for scans is a good idea. Or streaming NetFlix (a popular distraction for scanners at the university library). Have an extra hard drive to store this on and back that up periodically. Scan them as large as you can (600dpi is fairly small these days - 1200dpi is much better) and save them as TIF files. No JPGs, they're lossy. Considerably less expensive but still eye-watering, the Epson Perfection V850 looks like the next best of the various flatbed scanners (many in between are made for print positives and graphic art uses). Again, you can use SilverFast or the software that comes with it. I have three scanning projects to do with slides and with documents and have different scanners for them - and will have an Access database for each project. Sort your photos first (and don't discard the faded ones, set them aside - there are remarkable things that can happen with restoration these days). Give the folders a name and number and as you work resolve to use a pencil and clearly print the name and number of the item for the folder and database on a clear FRONT edge of each photo and document. Your printing needs to be in the scan - trust me - if you don't keep track of this it will drive you crazy. And give your database enough fields so you can add topics later if needed. This way if you come across things that should have gone in an earlier folder and group of photos, it will show up in the database where to find it (or show you where to put it). If you write a set of rules for yourself to follow that will also help anyone else who later is viewing or using these scans. Document your naming and numbering system, for example. I just gave a longer version of this advice to a friend who is taking on the scanning of historic family documents going back to the late 1800s and that deal with a large court case that wound through most of the 1970s and into the 1980s (against Great Northern RR - lots of maps and documents to go with it.) She's going to need a photographer with a good full-sensor digital camera to photograph some of the maps too large for the legal-size scanner she's using. I'll take my library/archival hat off now. |
|
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness in a Pandemic: 2021 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Mar 21 - 01:04 AM Dorothy, a friend of mine in Illinois was out shoveling part of her driveway when the across-the-street neighbor came over and volunteered her husband to clear it for her - he had a new snow-clearing shovel for a small tractor he'd just bought. Neighbors with toys they want to use is a great way to keep the driveway clear in winter! |
| Share Thread: |
