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DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 25 Apr 23 - 12:23 PM Filed my income tax return. Before the end of the week, I must go to the bank and declutter my account of rather a lot of money that I apparently owe to the gummint. Feh. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Apr 23 - 10:02 PM The trash went out early today and I made a couple of trips to add more to the can before it was collected. There is still a lot of stuff here also, but the kitchen counters are looking a little better and there's more room in the freezer. The front lawn got mowed and I scooped a bunch of leaf litter and leaf compost out of the curb area to mulch into the lawn. As I was working the mower through some of the leaves a guy in a pickup with the classic yard work equipment trailer in back drove by slowly. I could see the mental wheels turning - should he stop and ask the middle aged woman if she would like to have the lawn mowed? I saw him look from me to the next door yard where my white-haired 80-year-old neighbor was out mowing his yard and the penny dropped. On this side of the village, we do our own yard work. He drove off. I need to get out the keyboard and play, or clear the bench and play the (out of tune) piano. My typing has gotten pretty sloppy, and I find that if I take time to practice the piano my typing improves. (Alas, more typing doesn't make my piano playing improve.) I'm planning to get my next COVID booster tomorrow; it sounds like the Moderna formula has a little more punch this time, so I'll ask for that. And in other health news, I've found one more source of sodium laureth sulfate to eliminate from my daily routine: I googled my dish detergent, and there it is, low on the list, but it's there. So I'll be using gloves now because I doubt there is any dish detergent in the world that doesn't have that stuff. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 24 Apr 23 - 06:17 PM Another carload gone, this time higgledy-piggledy housewares haphazardly stacked in boxes, a few framed pictures, and the aforementioned roasting pan and clay baker. And the house is still full of stuff. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Apr 23 - 04:25 PM I have a Römertopf clay baker that gets used a couple of times a year, but usually I find them at Goodwill and sell them on eBay. That generally only works if it was rarely or never used. The plans for today were doused with the rain and I haven't seemed to get moving doing something else, just little stuff. Dishwasher, laundry, etc. There's still time to accomplish great housekeeping feats, and I predict those will have to do with the volume of stuff in tomorrow's trash. Several times today I've asked myself "why am I keeping this?" I did step out after lunch to scatter some dry fertilizer for the trees and there was a plastic container with several schoolhouse lily bulbs that I poked into a small bed near the birdbath. Yesterday I "healed in" (forestry trick for keeping seedling trees alive until planting) some canna lilies near the driveway - they will bide their time there until the new bed is dug and they can be planted permanently. They weren't going to survive in the bucket where they were stashed. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 23 Apr 23 - 03:30 PM The spring rummage sale is on again at church, so I’m rounding up housewares that I don’t need, want or love — a surprisingly large range of stuff. Silicone doohickeys for poaching eggs are remarkably prominent in the selection. Nowadays, I go to the diner if I want a poached egg. Likewise, I’m parting with the Instant Pot, the largest Römertopf clay baker, and a stainless-steel roasting pan big enough for a 20-pound turkey. With every load of stuff that leaves the house, I feel just a bit better. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 23 Apr 23 - 03:24 PM Dupont: cool and rainy! no neg ions. WE took the umbrella back and R had the opportunity to wander around a store he had no yet encountered - bought 5 gallon bucket of paint and some other things. WE used the journey - half hour each way- to talk about what I need to make potting more viable. WE had planned to have BF first- there must be a place in B.! HAH! The place I had noticed had a line out the door into the drizzle! WE toured all of Beauharnois for a while, until R asked his phone and got directions --- A place we had passed on the edge of town, but there were so many parked vehicles we thought it was a used car dealer! Nice BF! The waitresses were stick-thin - run off their feet! Too cool and wet for potting so this is a day to regain energy, and finish the book case changeover. R has gone to do stuff. I can only hope I will see him again before tomorrow morning. I still have a full-fledged pork roast dinner - planned overs. How does one throw out the torn remnant of the camera case that came with the camera Dad bought in January 1937 - to take pics of the baby? |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Apr 23 - 10:34 AM Down here we had a weather flip overnight; I was expecting a low chance of rain today but it seems to have decided to be generally drizzly and there is a large green splotch over my region on the weather map. Mowing will have to wait. Over a couple of days I dug out several inches of extra dirt around the base of two ailing pines, and while aeration will happen later I can take out a bag of granular organic fertilizer and cast it around them today so it will start soaking in. (The trees each have the appearance of standing in a shallow bowl now, but I'll scrape a thin layer of pine needles over the soil to disguise the digging work.) I toted the dirt from around the trees to the dip in the lawn left after the sewer replacement a few years ago. Over time I'll manage to raise the level of that spot. It looks like a day of cleaning and eBay listings. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 22 Apr 23 - 09:17 PM Dupont: What a dif a change of weather makes - for me. The last while - most of the time I have been back here, I have felt TIRED. Then a Thurs eve, I suddenly had chills and HAD to go to bad about 8:30. Took extra Pau d'Arco and woke up feeling my "normal". I had noted for a while that if I forget the four hour rule, I start getting a scratchy throat, which goes away in a few minutes. But the tiredness ... Yesterday, I threw a few pots on the back porch. Today, I threw a lot more and trimmed all except the last few. The wind was blowing just enough and the negative ions drove me! Why I thrive by the sea, on mountain tops and on windy days. Of course, when I stopped - at a good stopping point and hungry - I ached something terrible. THEN R came home with a larger book case it had taken him a week to fetch - re Marketplace. I was barely functional - pain and hunger! But he got it in the house and I had managed to move the small one out of the way. After he dashed away for dinner with cousin et al, I ate and then was able to start filling the new case. Decided to move the smaller one next to my chair, replacing a $2 table (but nice) which is piled high with books, etc. Not sure where the table will go but I will find a spot 'cause I really like it's antique look which is barely visible here. It will be nice to have books on shelves, and not a two foot high pile lurking over my shoulder! Tomorrow! Every once in a while, a break from books cascading off every surface is a treat. Took a hot bath with Epsom salt, which greatly diminished the aches. Decided the Umbrella I bought is not adequate; I can return it. Found the canopy frame which had "disappeared" - right in plain sight - it happens! Tomorrow I will try it out but think it may be too large for the porch. Wayfair has a smaller one I am considering. It is SO nice to be able to work outside! Googled, then phoned a woman who was a close friend in the 60s. She is 90,immediately called me by my old name, asked about respective kids. It was a good move. I sent her pics and Troy's concert youtube. I am glad she is OK. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Apr 23 - 10:40 AM The wheelbarrow is full of soil I have pulled away from the first of the trees I need to tend to this weekend. The premise understood by more and more landscapers and gardeners is that when trees are planted at nurseries, every time the small tree is moved to a bigger pot, more dirt is piled around the base of it, and so by the time a 5, 10, 15, or larger gallon pot is sold at the retail nursery, sometimes several inches has been piled on top of the root flare—the natural level the tree would have achieved if a seed grew on the ground, not in a pot. That flare should be above soil, and when it isn't trees tend to suffer. It might be all of the transmission of biological activity through bark that would normally be exposed. I have several trees that were planted before we knew about this problem that now need to have several inches of soil pulled back off of the flare. One I was warned about two years ago by a leading landscape architect in the region but didn't get out there promptly (bad knees was my main reason). Now I'm doing the work. That soil can go to low spots in the yard or can be mixed with amendments and put into pots for this year's flowers and herbs and such. And darn! I just realized some of the weeds I pulled out of a couple of pots weren't weeds, they were the small Texas star hibiscus sprouts (the leaves on the small plants change from a grape-shape to a palmately lobed shape). I need to be careful and save any more that sprout, I had to move them all last year and none of the transplants survived to sprout this year, I have to start from seed. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Apr 23 - 05:19 PM I'm back from a run to the e-waste collection event at my old campus, part of their annual Earth Day activities. About 20 pounds of small electronics, batteries, plus old house phone wire and coaxial cable (with copper wire inside) were dropped off. These had accumulated over a year in bags in the pantry. I also weeded out old not-very-good computer speakers that I'd kept because they still worked, but they were too low power. That clears a little space in the office shelving and I should reorganize in there. Since I was already there, a visit to the U bookstore bagged a couple of university branded t-shirts in my current size. The others from years past are so big they're only worn to sleep in or for yard work. I'm especially happy to revive the logo as part of my personal brand now that the awful dean who made life a misery for so many people has departed. (There was no reception offered by campus and she didn't want one in the library - she had a cake delivered to her office for drop-in visitors and the report I heard said there was a lot of leftover cake. And even better - one of her flying monkeys announced her imminent departure for a new job soon. The rats are fleeing that ship as rational people once again take command.) Now, into the garden. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 21 Apr 23 - 08:48 AM Holy shit, Steve — that’s awful. Good luck that you have a doctor who knows you well enough that s/he trusts you to use your antibiotics correctly. It took me twenty years to build that relationship with my doc in Ottawa. Then we moved to Stratford, and I was back among the poloi — reduced to begging for timely intervention when I caught a cold that would become bronchitis and then pneumonia. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Steve Shaw Date: 21 Apr 23 - 07:53 AM I'm currently suffering from my seventh dose of cellulitis since May 2020. Incredibly, my GP lets me keep a course of antibiotics in reserve at home, which is a life-saver. I can start taking them as soon as I get the earliest symptoms, and this time, touch wood, I seem to have reined it in to a mild attack. Unless I strike really early it turns severe very quickly and there's always the danger of sepsis. Vigilance is the watchword! |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Apr 23 - 11:56 AM The new mailbox is installed, no electrocution in the process. The stud that was best placed to support it has an electrical outlet 12" up from the porch floor, so I made sure no screws went anywhere near that side of the stud. In all, there is only one screw that is in wood, the rest are in the exterior drywall and I used those plastic stabilizers to put the screws in. Everything but those came in the box—it's a well-designed, well-packed, and easily-assembled heavy steel box. Now I can continue working my way through the stack of post office mail that needs the address changed.
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Apr 23 - 11:24 AM I've tried some of the specialized LED bulbs (I had one to replace the 300W halogen bulb in the torchiere lamp and was underwhelmed). It didn't last long either. They have gotten the single brightness ones working, with the screw in base, but I won't buy more of the attempts to be other kinds of bulbs any time soon. I put a halogen bulb back in the torchiere and yes it burns moths if they are attracted to it, but it works. It seems that my used Pathfinder can sell for almost exactly the same price today as I bought it three years ago. It would make a great downpayment on a new vehicle, but the new ones have gone through the roof. It's always something. I decided I need to clean it like I'm going to trade it in but then simply enjoy my newly clean vehicle a while longer. :) |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 20 Apr 23 - 10:30 AM I have an LED tri-light bulb, Andrew, and very expensive it was. What I would like is a standing lamp with a bulb socket and a three-way switch. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 20 Apr 23 - 10:24 AM It'll be a frosty Friday in July when I buy a fully electric car -- they're not practical in this very large province with its cold climate, large expanses of thin population, and terrible public transit. When city people take them to the country, bad things can happen even within spitting distance of our southern border: Electric car owners stranded during Quebec storm power outage All the commentators snarked that those folks should have known better and planned better -- but shit happens even to those who know better and plan well. Spring is when I take my car to the vet for its spring check-up, including changing to summer tires and decluttering it of its layer of winter filth. Fresh fluids and filters are also on the menu. When a vehicle is so insanely expensive to buy and run, skimping on maintenance is the stupidest possible form of false economy. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion's brother Andrew Date: 20 Apr 23 - 10:19 AM LED "3-way bulbs" (what we knew as "tri-lights") are available from Home Depot. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Donuel Date: 20 Apr 23 - 08:38 AM Spring is a good time to declutter your car with new fluids. If you think an electric car is in your future wait until 2025 when more choices, better prices, and chips will be available. We donated a third of the living room and have recovered space from a defunct computer station. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 20 Apr 23 - 07:46 AM Yet another book run to London yesterday — my last. For now. And Mary Anne the Guitar will pick up her bookcase today. That leaves me with one more full-sized bookcase to re-home. My fancy new LED standing lamp has apparently died. The big drawback of this form of technology is that there’s no bulb to change. Now I don’t know what to do with it — except park it in the basement and find one of the old-fashioned kind. Heigh-ho, off to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. I’d like a tri-light, if I can find one. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Apr 23 - 11:30 PM My ex and I made a trip over to the local drop-off location for bulky trash and things like hazardous chemicals (I had some ancient weed killer from my pre-organic days). He has the water bill and address that allowed us to go in, and he had a big CRT old television that it took two of us to load and unload. Whew! Not a lot else was accomplished. I didn't install the mailbox yet; I'll do it in the morning. I took a couple of naps today. This evening I made a pint of Italian style tomato sauce using my homegrown canned tomatoes and garlic and herbs from the yard. The kitchen smells wonderful! I've set up in the hall bathroom to start the "deep cleaning" tomorrow; I won't try to do the whole house in one day. The yard needs more mulch spread in the garden beds. We have a long growing season so I haven't been in a rush, but I need to block out weeds before they are big and robust. After cleaning the garage I located a stack of the black plastic bags I use for transporting the woodchips. Good luck with those new-style pots, Dorothy, and with the long-distance connections with old friends. Your local friend is lucky you'll take the commission to try the new style since your own style of pots sound so remarkable. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 19 Apr 23 - 06:31 PM Dupont: Reporting that I have done very little and may undo what I have actually done! I did manage to throw a few small pots and soap dishes - in the new style my friend wants - I don't like them but got the hang of making them - half a dozen for starters. THEN, I was working on back deck which was very nice on a warm dry day. The next day was not so warm and I managed to trim some of them before the drizzle began... So, off to a building/home supply store for a roof of sorts. There was a dearth of Anglophones but, with time and perseverance I managed - You have to buy it first then pick it up and if it doesn't fit in your small car, you can return it! OH, MY! I found the place to look at it, got a nice young fellow to find it and we determined together than it should fit. THEN, I managed to get back out by going toward the bar across the path with slow determination I saw someone do it! Went back and paid for it, came back around back and nice man put it in car. Oh, IT is a large umbrella on a stem off to the side that suspends it overhead. It is in the house (in box) while I wait for a consult with R to decide if I can raise and lower it as needed. In the meantime, it is too cool, and due to rain for parts of the next 5 warmish days... The man has still not picked up his bowls. The tires cannot be changed here until 6 May. R's Birthday is Tuesday. Clay and tires are all in car - except I brought in one box of clay to warm up until I can work again. Hope ... So: plan is to leave on Weds. Phone service station near Beaver to see if they have time to change tires. Consider the efficacy of this Umbrella or return it! Sit and do nothing in the meantime... - Almost. Did a grocery run yesterday, made the cauliflower cheddar soup - good for one more meal. If I go to K right now, I could put in a roast pork with potatoes and onions - in the toaster oven. Good for several meals. This heavy weather does weigh me down. And too mach green tea makes me visit the washroom often. ... Did write a longish and careful email to a friend who weighs on me - and R. I feel badly not to be comfortable being a good support person and he has a similar problem; we cannot talk about it even. But cannot let it go completely; it has been several years... No wonder I am burying myself in the internet and THEN find, today, a dear FB friend's husband has stage 4 cancer; And she lost her adult daughter just 3-4 years ago and is still grieving seriously. ... Think I may need to fall back and re-group. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Apr 23 - 05:31 PM The new mailbox arrived today; ironically, it was delivered by FedEx. I'll put it up this evening. Most mail theft is a speedy step up on the porch, grab the exposed mail, and move on. Anything that requires noise or energy is bound to repulse theft, so I'll use long screws to attach this to a stud behind the porch siding. I'm going to give that "deep cleaning" from Martha Stewart a try, though only on the bathrooms to start with. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Apr 23 - 10:10 PM The afternoon didn't go as planned, but it was productive. Over on FB Tamson asked if anyone had seen gnu around lately, and I realized I hadn't been peppered with memes for the last couple of weeks. It took digging in my notes from several years ago (his address is in there somewhere) and pulling up the content of our Messenger conversations. I got tired of scrolling so got to the end, highlighted and selected "all" and pasted it into a Word document then searched it. It seems all of our notes add up to a book-length conversation and I found the hospital where he stayed last time. I called and was so relieved when they told me he's there. Thank dog they don't have a HPPA rule that prevents saying he's there. I was prepared for a word game - like "if you can't tell me if he is there, perhaps you can tell me if I should call the police to do a welfare check. Or not." The rest of the afternoon I looked through the garage for my hose-end aerator. It was right in plain sight - hanging on the peg board next to a second one I inherited from the friend whose greenhouse I bought. Gardening tools and metal fence posts were organized. I swept as I worked and wore a face mask because of all of the mouse droppings (no Hantavirus here that I know of, but still) and compressed stuff into a tidy row along one wall. I'm ready to paint more fence pickets, but first, the tree work. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 17 Apr 23 - 07:36 PM this one? |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 17 Apr 23 - 04:13 PM Sometimes I wonder if I'm part goat. My digestion doesn't much care what I run through it as long as I refrain from solid food until after ten o'clock in the morning, and I lay off munching at least two hours before going to bed. All the fake sugars -- aspartame, stevia, and all their friends and relations -- go down just like the real stuff, except that they don't rot my very expensively repaired teeth on the way. I think I'll just sit here for a few minutes and count my blessings. Last week was summer hot, and today it's cold and wet. How cold and wet? When I went to a choir board meeting this afternoon, I drove through clumps of actual sleet. On Saturday, I had the air-conditioning on. Today, the furnace is giving a boffo reprise performance of Heating The House. The daffodils are okay with all of it. Tough guys, those daffs. This morning's pool class finally ironed out the aches and strains I earned with my Stakhanovite stint of library maintenance on Saturday. I'm also a bit slimmer than I was last week -- some of last winter's flab has already departed. But I do need to boost my water consumption. Unless I pretty well force myself, I can forget all about it until my throat turns Sahara dry. Should I accessorize every outfit with a water-bottle? Answers on a postcard ... |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Steve Shaw Date: 17 Apr 23 - 12:25 PM I know Stevia should be fine, but I gurgle for England when I eat any. No Stevia for Steve! |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Apr 23 - 11:28 AM I just walked my jar of vanilla-flavored artificial sweetener out to the curb and dropped it in the trash—the first ingredient is a bad one. Darn! I only use it in my smoothies to give a little vanilla and sweetness because the yogurt is pretty tart and cancels out the sweet bananas. Strawberries can use a little sugar also (to my taste, mind you.) I don't use Aspartame (makes me sick) or other big-name artificial sweeteners like Splenda, but a story on NPR this morning talked about a new report regarding an additive called Erythritol, made from corn, that bulks up artificial sweeteners (used in conjunction with several I don't use and with stevia, that I do use. Saccharine seems to be unaffected by this - I use those pink packets in restaurant iced tea.) Used a lot in weight loss or Keto situations, it can cause heart problems. Great. And here's the problem: Here’s where it gets really tricky. You could be eating foods that contain erythritol and not even know it. I use straight powdered stevia, that's all that is supposedly in the jar. But I need to look into it, learn if they use anything they don't name. In other news, my little camera sold on eBay. That goes a long way to recouping the cost of the new lens for the big camera. It's not a very big item leaving the house, and it's a wash since a new lens entered, but every little bit helps. There are a few items from the garage cleanup in the trash this morning and it is a delightful space to work in now, so that was the big winner in the last few days. I still have to clear along the side of the garage and look for a misplaced watering tool since this morning I've realized that a pine in the front yard is dying. The "sick tree treatment" from my organic gardening guru has been known to help them, but I need the water auger to drill holes to aerate out there. It's around here somewhere. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Apr 23 - 12:38 AM Here are some talented folks and this video is engrossing. Building a small house - somewhere in Europe? This "short version" is 25 minutes (scroll down in the notes to find a link to a longer video). Be mesmerized. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 16 Apr 23 - 09:05 PM Dupont: Because life threw a curve. I had meant to go to BEaver on Friday. Had it all organized to pick up clay and keep on going... But the fellow who wants to pick up bowls has not yet appeared. Then the trip to get clay and come back took two harrowing hours. Had I gone straight on, it would have been less trafficky. I was exhausted still yesterday. The clay was meant for Beaver but I had ordered and paid and arranged pick up so the clay will sit in car, along with the unchanged summer tires! Need to get serious about getting that DONE! While Charmion gets rid of book cases 5 hours away, I am looking for said on Marketplace, hopefully one to be picked up on Tuesday. A beautiful one with doors was deemed too far away... R et al went down to NYS yesterday am and I got a text from... the locale of said cupboard! It had not been arranged and they did not have a truck! Oh well. Hopefully, I can get my books onto shelves on Weds! Got R to bring the small pottery wheel down to porch and finally got around to using it this afternoon - a few soap dishes and a few small bowls... And rain pending early tomorrow... Currently covered with tarp but if I get up before the rain, I may be able to finish them and get them to safety. The wheel is well covered. A work in progress - in more ways ... But it was nice to sit out on the porch with the birds and the rabbits and squirrels. Shady area. As for "Deep Cleaning..." I suppose that could include the !@#$%^&* radiators. I have dreams of hiring someone. I look at those things and ... Hire someone! FB page "Chateauguay Chit Chat" might be an asking place. Some people seem to manage it. An "interesting" mix of people - from quite nice to off the wall foolish/silly/idiotic... Like most places. Now, R's birthday is in 9 days do I am here until then. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Apr 23 - 02:11 PM Never mind on the running. I compared boxes and narrowed down the "anti-fishing" boxes that prevent people pulling mail out of the slot—it really comes down to one manufacturer. Then to find the best price and size. SO, eBay has one that is $25 less, is new, is the style and color I want to buy, and fingers crossed there can't be much wrong with a steel box they ship. eBay has a money back policy even if the seller doesn't (I am also cautious about a generous return policy - I don't need to pay someone else's shipping so they can try on something and send it back.) Mailboxes are less problematic than vintage electronic items. And a cost-saving note: that CapitalOne Shopping app (a Chrome browser extension) pointed me to the eBay site and gave another $12 in a coupon they shared. So, it's a good deal. Earworm alert: As I was scrolling through YouTube review and unpacking videos to get a better look at mailboxes, music videos were suggested alongside. Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love" is looping through my head now. I love it, but now to shake it loose. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Apr 23 - 10:46 AM Martha Stewart Living has lots of ideas out there, not all of them aimed at my income category, but here's one that probably applies to anyone with a house. How to Deep Clean Your Home in a Single Day—Plus, the Hourly Schedule You Need to Get the Job Done. It does miss the office and the front room, but then, both of those rooms are dust repositories that are beyond even Martha. If deep cleaning is something you need to motivate yourself to do, then getting this done in a day every few months is a good approach. (The cupboards can stay how they are - time saved there. That's one area I organized several years ago and keep tidy.) For today's running I printed out the two prices for the mailbox and will see if Lowe's will meet the Home Depot price ($5 less). The tarp and gloves are ready for loading pickets, and a trip to the gym is on the list of things to do. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Steve Shaw Date: 16 Apr 23 - 09:24 AM I'm a boxer-shorts man and all my boxers are multicoloured. If I ever have to change my trousers in a car park, after a wedding or funeral, say, then paradoxically my cheery boxers would attract far less disapproval from the observing masses than tight-fitting pure white budgie-smugglers, I suspect. One does still try to be discreet, of course. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 16 Apr 23 - 07:20 AM In Canada, we have yet another of our famous compromises for the pants issue. “Pants”, as such, are the outer garment, paraded before the world. “Underpants” are the private, personal, intimate garment that no one but the wearer needs to know about. Likewise, we wear “shirts” and “undershirts”. Try it. You’ll like it. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Apr 23 - 10:41 PM I had a pair split completely down the back seam and was clueless until someone tapped my shoulder in Home Depot. :-( I grabbed one of the nail aprons they sell and wrapped it around behind me. Another fence panel is up and looks good. It was too late today to make a run for more pickets because there are two places I want to visit in the area but one will be closed soon. A trip tomorrow will be soon enough. Start to finish the panel took probably 90 minutes. I need to finish a job in the attic but that's tied to a larger rewiring of my home network in the closet. This needs to be finished before hot weather turns the attic into an oven. I have stuff from the garage loaded in the SUV for Goodwill, so tomorrow I'll take out the donation bin in the laundry room and make a thrift store run. It's time to give the floors a good cleaning—sweep, vacuum, and mop. And the dogs will be shedding more soon, so I need to get ahead of it. If I were to hire a housecleaner, it would be to do the floors every couple of weeks. I had a housecleaner years ago who did a great job, mostly floors, but she died and I didn't have the heart to find someone else. Maybe it's time. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Steve Shaw Date: 15 Apr 23 - 08:17 PM Well, as the shorts cost me twelve quid (special offer), on top of the fact that I bought a job lot at the time, I think I might forgo the expense of a zip repair! The safety pin notion appeals slightly more... |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 15 Apr 23 - 07:09 PM Steve, a safety pin will keep a non-compliant zipper in place for as long as you need to pop out to the shops and buy a replacement zipper. After next washday, take the shorts and the new zipper to your local clothing fixer-upper, who may be calling herself a tailor or an alterations specialist. Bob may not be your uncle, but you have options. I have spent the entire day cleaning and moving books — that is, the books I intend to keep. The bathroom project left plaster dust throughout the house so it had to be done, but holy moly! According to my Fitbit, I logged 7,364 steps without even leaving the house, just back and forth across the library and up and down the stairs. I am now bushed, and drinking beer. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Steve Shaw Date: 15 Apr 23 - 03:07 PM Your jeans tale reminds me of an issue I have that I find completely inexplicable. I have two identical pairs of shorts that I bought from Mountain Warehouse at the same time several years ago. They're the only pants* I wear routinely, in rotation every washing interval. One pair is completely fine, but the zip on the other pair simply will not stay up. I've been caught out once in polite company and twice in public in the last week. As they refuse to wear out they have now been relegated to gardening use only (we have no neighbours). *Pandering there to American usage of the word. I do not refer to my underwear on Mudcat... :-) |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Apr 23 - 12:12 PM I've enjoyed having the hall bathroom a bright yellow, but probably should tone it down with a new paint color one of these days. I think it startles people when they walk into it. A pair of jeans is back in circulation after a patch was applied below a back pocket where a spot was too thin to wear in polite company. I know the trend is to wear holey pants, but I feel no need to advertise the color of my underwear. Yesterday's run to the post office resulted in quite a haul of stuff that needs address changes, so today's big projects - after I put up the next fence panel I'll buy more pickets and pick up the new mailbox. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 14 Apr 23 - 07:43 PM The bookcase move is done. One to a new family, two in the garage awaiting disposition. Now I can clean that side of the library and start shifting stuff around into a more … shall we say … aesthetically pleasing arrangement. Also easier to clean — a non-negligible virtue. Before too much more time passes, I want that room painted. At present, it is decorated in contrasting shades of aubergine and pale puce. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Apr 23 - 10:43 AM My calendar shows several days without volunteer shifts scheduled, temperatures forecast in the 70s, so it looks like in addition to mowing and digging garden beds I'll be putting up the next fence panel, and once the current pickets are up off of the garage floor, shopping for the next set of pickets (and a gallon of wood preservative). I have to move this along because there are a few old pickets almost falling down off the existing fence. (I put that up in 2005, so it has had a good long run. I fixed the fences when my first dog, the charming and whip-smart pitbull Cinnamon, arrived and decided to stay. There is no such thing as a "free dog.") The old fence was Douglas fir or pine pickets, attached with nails. The next iteration of yard fence is treated cedar attached with screws. Hopefully to have an equally long life. The garage can use more cleaning, and I have 20+ year old pump still in the box that takes up space and I should consider selling, because I don't think I'll ever get around to running a line into the creek to water the yard with it (though that was what the previous homeowners did - I bought a new model of the old rusted pump that was in the yard when I moved in.) |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Apr 23 - 12:19 AM In her teen years my daughter's bedroom reached a point where there wasn't a square foot of exposed floor with all of the paper, books, clothes, and junk. I went to work building a set of cubbies six tall, five across, 15 inches deep and they are each about 13" square. Made of plywood uprights and pegged holes to hold up the shelves, we managed to get her floor completely exposed. Many years later I packed up the contents of the shelves and use it now for my sewing stuff. I had to take one bedroom door off of its hinges to angle it into this room, so it isn't moving again soon. Yesterday in the Halal grocery I was in the checkout line behind a couple who had loaded up on good ingredients for Ramadan dinners (jug of EV olive oil, lots of veggies, chick peas, lentils, etc.) including a large box of Medjool dates. I have a bunch of dates from one of those boxes now in jars in the fridge. He told me about a favorite snack of theirs - take a date and slice one side to remove the pit, then stuff in a couple of pecan halves. You can reshape the date around the nuts and it's like a nutty candy. I tried it, after warming the date in the microwave for a few seconds. What a wonderful sweet and crunchy snack! If you used salted pecans it would be even better, but I'm going low salt these days. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 13 Apr 23 - 08:06 PM Eight more boxes of books went down the road to the Goodwill bookstore in London today, and tomorrow one 80-cm bookcase will go to live with Serena the Fiddle, who has music all over her studio floor. With any luck, a second bookcase will soon leave with Mary-Anne the Guitar, whose teenaged son is piling books on his bedroom floor. Fortunately, the typical Mennonite family van — always black — is great for moving furniture or pretty well anything bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a Buick. I hope Serena is bringing at least her husband and, if I’m really lucky, another strong male person. Then I plan to wheedle them into moving all three bookcases to the garage. But I’m done hauling boxes for quite a while. My back has had quite enough. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Apr 23 - 12:17 PM Periodically I've sold jeans on eBay, usually something I randomly discover at the thrift store that is in perfect condition and is a name brand, like 501 jeans. You can make a nice profit and still undersell the retail stores. It takes careful measuring to add to the listing or you're peppered with questions from prospective buyers. The crutches were delivered yesterday and pronounced perfect. We struggled to take the heavy-duty rubber ferrules off of the pair she had been using and put them on the new-to-her crutches; I think that's how I ended up with a kink in my back last night. The microwave heat pad was deployed to good effect at bedtime. Sounds like a cute little office Don. I know of lots of radio people who during COVID at home work recorded their pieces in closets so the garments could prevent the echo of a larger room sound. Two friends handed me bags with canning jars yesterday so there are six pints and a jelly jar in the dishwasher that will go back into the empties later today. I give away a lot of glass each year and rely on people to occasionally stumble across a bunch of jars and think of me. A friend in New York who sells lots of things online has found another source of income - he dug out his smut collection. Not the fungal disease on ears of corn smut, this is the Tom Lehrer usage of the word. I'll be curious to learn how he manages to sell it (when a scan to use for an ad can be just about as good as having the original). Next month will be another no-spend month after March pretty much blew me out of the water with subscription renewals and human and pet medications and such all landing around the same time. I am still drawing down the 3/4 full freezer and I'm cooking more from scratch to reduce salt levels. My salt-free canned tomatoes will go for pasta sauce for a while. For regular activities, the gym is free to me (Silver Sneakers) and I have a good supply of self-care products and clothes that fit. Seeds for the garden instead of buying bedding plants, etc., they need to be deployed this year. I've started changing addresses so one necessary purchase is the new mailbox. I set my post office box renewal down to six months. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 12 Apr 23 - 08:16 PM Dupont: I am not responsible for R's stuff! Except to have a hemorage (sp) when it starts to creep out of control. The LR/DR - The west half of the 1st floor, it fairly sacred - the "Parlor"! IT is lovely - except for the cunningly stuck out of the way (mostly!) ceiling fixtures which may eventually find homes. There is hope for the Kitchen cabinet... Maybe. He approved my idea ... NOW! the ice is - mostly- off the back deck and there is serious need for new decking... On my mind - how to get this done when he has already asserted "No time this year". And finding someone to do it - Even our friend who runs a superb reno business cannot hire competent workers. R has several major tasks needing immediate attention in his commercial buildings - And one of his two competent staff got tired of waiting and took work elsewhere. R offered to pay him just to keep him around but he needs to be doing! Desperately hoping he will come back soon! Tenants need to move in! (and pay rent)!! So, back porch... I replanted some of the iris and the "whatever" in the front gardens here. And did some clean up in the small veggie bed out back. Crocuses blooming in front garden and in the "pasture" on the side yard - planted long ago. Coltsfoot also in bloom! And daffies getting there. I shall be delighted when it gets warm enough to put the canna out - after their winter in the hallway with minimal water which seems to have kept them small enough to handle. I could soon (as my energy arrives) put them in large pots in prep for their return to outdoors. A whole bunch of them! Bright yellow! Looking on Marketplace for a bookshelf for my books - I have a spot in the corner of the den. There is one not too far off - if I can get approval from R for it before it is gone. Spring!!! A great time for organizing!! |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Apr 23 - 11:19 AM Patty, my brother was a geology major, and I spent two years working as a Geology professor's lab assistant. We were both mountain climbers, and we picked up rocks along the way. If you find it on the way up you can't leave it hoping you'll find it on the way back down because you'll never see it again, so several rocks went up and back. While seated on the summit of Glacier Peak (in the North Cascades) I randomly picked up a smallish piece of pumice and it rattled around in the top flap pocket of my day pack for ages before I set it aside at home. Maybe an inch across, it was quite airy and had some tiny black crystals - I think a hornblend. Later I happened to be talking to a climbing friend who described a display of the rocks he'd picked up on each climb, but he'd neglected to get one on Glacier Peak. He was considering climbing it again to get a rock so was thrilled when I offered the little piece I had (we were both in the climb that day.) I later saw the display and it was lovely. Dorothy, good luck with getting Robin to organize his stuff. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Charmion Date: 12 Apr 23 - 11:16 AM Four pairs of new-to-me trousers went to the tailor to be shortened yesterday. Straight-legged jeans with the waistband in the right place are finally back in fashion, so I bought some on eBay for about half the price I would pay at the mall. No driving, either. I put on about five pounds over the winter -- due, I'm sure, to walking far less than I do when the air doesn't hurt my face and the sidewalk isn't a slip-and-fall hazard. But now the ice has gone, the sun is shining and the daffs are on the brink of bloom, so the time has come to let the cats have the comfy chair. Neil and Jane across the street put out their birdhouse this morning. Ready or not, it's Spring. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Donuel Date: 12 Apr 23 - 11:10 AM 19 million people in the US suffer from hoarding disorders. Spring cleaning began with the dining room and carport. I'm using clever tapestries of bookcases etc. to enhance clutter-free areas with the look of real clutter :^/ On to the walk-in closet that I turned into an office I never used. Back to a closet it goes. I get to use a sledgehammer, yaaa I did hedging today but Lawn mowing tomorrow. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: pattyClink Date: 12 Apr 23 - 10:36 AM SRS, you deserve the pretty chert/opal as a storage fee over the years! Nice of you to not chuck them, they may be unusual/irreplaceable to him. There are a few I've had to leave along the way I wish I had back. Visited the storage unit yesterday, swapped out a few summer and winter clothes and shoes, transferred the several flats of rocks to an empty shelf on an old microwave cart, they fit perfectly and I won't need them this summer, til I find a home base. With my luck, I'll find the perfect home base next month and regret not having them onboard, but, who knows what the summer will bring? |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 11 Apr 23 - 10:24 PM Dupont: The stuff at the mill MY stuff - is only there because the place is so impossibly disorganized that I have not been able to find the good stuff since it was moved there. I organized my section of the move perfectly, only to have it turned totally backwards and then all manner of stuff placed a round it so I could not find anything or even get near to where I thought things were. R is responsible - but not responsible IMO! "Someone else did it." His employees or tenants: "You are responsible for what they do!" Then. of course, there was the break-in when things were vandalized, tossed about... So Sunday, we actually found those few precious boxes - books and albums. I needed his help moving stuff and still ached fiercely after the 3 hour search. Exhausted by happy to find treasures. R knows he has too much stuff... Right now there is a stack of boxes of books sitting in the back yard with a tarp over them! Some are moldy and he does not want to put them in the basement library. He pondered using the oxonater, if he had a container - "What about the old frig out there?" This may happen before rain comes. Today, I went to the mill to get a bucket of glaze I could have brought back last trip... And dug up some dwarf purple iris and a couple other unknown perennials I planted several years ago. They will find new homes here. Then I went to buy a couple items at an organic store - but their electric was off and they, reasonably, were not opening the freezer. So I started back but decided to check the bakery in St. Antoine - closed! but took Rita (very close by) some tall iris from here and a soap dish to sell with her beautiful soaps. Need to make her more. Sent customer a video of current bowls; He declared them beautiful and will come by "later in the week" to choose. I spent some time on line looking at other CA potters pricing so I do not charge too little. Keeping in mind this is a bulk order but may lead to more, apparently snd I may be "retired" but do want to be fair to me! Also researched innards to make the corner K cabinet more efficient. R brought a nice set of SS pots and I need storage space. As in one of those twirly things. Found one and will consult with he who must install. I know SRS could but my body no longer endures ... Oh, I cleaned the first floor - much improved! And scrubbed the yucky dish drainer - Any water that sits becomes brownish. Ans sometimes stinks of chlorine - a major enemy! |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Apr 23 - 11:13 AM And though I mentioned earlier about putting a box of rocks into my brother's truck, I have been known to mail rocks to people. Not such a heavy batch as that, but still, rocks. And I'm about to mail something almost as heavy, antique beach glass and potsherds picked up on the east coast. Weighs. A. Ton. Relatively speaking for the size it takes up. Good thing Priority Mail boxes are flat rate. |
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