Random Acts of Kindness

We moved all weekend and looked for an elusive mattress pad ’til we finally had to go out and buy one, and outfit the guest bath as well.

I looked at something I liked and a lady came up and said I see it up there, but can’t find it down there. Thirty seconds and we found what she came for. So I said, in a jolly voice, “Good, now you can help me!”Well, she did. And she came back to change my choice of liner.

I got what I wanted, a neutral curtain for the guest bath that has sea shells, letters, butterflies and aspen leaves et al for a very calming experience. And a liner that is fabric and can be thrown in the wash from time to time.

Even though I’ve lost my keys to our new place (that hurt when I lost my “flying up” wings to Girl Scouts from Brownies and Girl Scouts had a really bad leader so I quit) and hope that doesn’t happen again. Hope it’s not a bad omen.

I’ve worked the phones all day today to get us set and haven’t touched a box or suitcase. It feels so good to work at a chair most of the day and use my brain, for a change, and not be charged by an errant cart and hit the pavement. Cheers! Dee

Ultimate Recycling

I can’t get to work here in our new place until I get rid of some things. So instead of physical labor (I took a header in the garage yesterday when a cart attacked my right heel, and twisted my ankle) I’m motoring through donation sites et al for stuff we haven’t seen for three years.

So, our storage place will take packing “peanuts” and sell them, so I walked a 70 cubic foot (Santa sleigh size) bag of them, tied with string, in heavy winds to our storage place, almost took off! I couldn’t get into our storage space to get our down comforter out because in the move I lost my keys, but that’s done. Then, they’ll take all our broken down moving boxes for customers to pick from. I can’t do that job alone because much more has to go to storage and some must come out as well.

Like my favorite jean jacket.  In any case, the more we get out of here, the better I can work getting rid of the remaining boxes. I’d like to actually have a place to LIVE!

Life shouldn’t be about moving and boxes, it should be about watching the seagulls fly by the window, and seeing the water change by the minute. Taking your dog out for a walk. Writing to you on this blog.

Today, I’m power-moving, arranging things that will make our lives easier and get rid of boxes. When I find the camera I’ll take some shots for you of the Lake and the old water tower. Cheers, Dee

We’re In!

Happy Memorial Day! We’ve spent four entire days moving from the North Tower to the South Tower. It’s more complicated than that. We’ve stuff in storage here, rented furniture package, two moving companies and an ABF truck to move 15 linear feet of our “stuff” from Texas where it’s been for the past 3.5 years!

Let me tell you a little secret. Don’t ever let all your belongings be in storage for that long. And don’t let my husband and his cohorts pack them. I think we have 40 new moving blankets, all folded up except for a few that need to be unpacked. Then he wrapped cling wrap all over everything. For all that, I must say that only one dish and three glasses broke.

7.500 pounds of stuff to place in 1,250 sf in a different configuration than it was purchased for. Books are unloaded and many being donated. Tons of boxes unloaded and ready for a needy mover to take on, plus a tub with a huge plastic bag of packing “peanuts” ready to give away.

I’ve files from 15 years ago and must go through many boxes and have a professional document shredder get rid of most of it.

Then we’ve got donation items and I’ve many clothes to go through to get that done but have researched and contacted the right people to find the right place to get that done.

Then we have to move things like Christmas stuff to storage and building a pantry and maybe kitchen shelving as well because it’s a small kitchen and I’ve used up every inch of space and don’t have a place for a pantry.

So my husband just hooked up my computer and I’m at the window with a great view, right now of a storm over Lake Michigan. Lightning et al, I love watching storms! The seagulls fly by our windows and we’ll finally get shades on Wednesday.

We put together our bed today, all but the comforter and cover which are in storage here. We have been sleeping in someone else’s bed for 3.5 years and had to go out and get an expensive mattress pad today because we couldn’t find ours. It would be nice to sleep through the night and only worry about boxes, dusting the Cort furniture in our old place and bringing back their laundry basket I had to use for moving today.

Oh, and it would be nice to find my keys to the new place. They were on my purse on the counter and probably fell into a pantry box. Or I left them in the door and someone will turn them in. Oh, well, no move, even one as complicated as ours, is problem-free! Cheers! Dee

Taking A Stand

As a spouse, a feminist homemaker, I pay all the bills, take the dog to the vet, let my husband take my car when he needs snow tires as I leave mine on.

I take care of business, Aretha. And I need a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

We’re moving this week and I’m not allowed to do a change of address on accounts I set up here three months ago. No, sorry, you must have your husband on the phone before you are allowed to move next door and change your billing address.

How do spouses get on joint accounts and be able to do simple things. They’ll let me pay a bill, just not change our address, and they treat me badly in the process as if we’re in the middle of a horrific divorce when we both are just moving next door.

What happened? I need a 15 page Power of Attorney to change the address of our 401(k)’s. All because I’m “just the wife.” The printer ran out of ink and we don’t live near any store that has our printer cartridges. We’re moving on Friday and my husband is at clients every day and I can’t even call him.

We need a better system, people. Life doesn’t work like Orange Level post 9/11 Bush world wants it to. We are real people who have to live our boring, mundane lives and need access to information to make those lives possible.

Change of address. Our government didn’t think twice when they allowed terrorists to learn to steer a plane but not to take off and land. Hello! All I’m trying to do is change our address to next door. Dee

You say Hello, I say Goodwill

Great Beatles song, backwards, I know. Someone wrote me today that I would welcome all the stuff we haven’t seen in over three years.

Furnishings and art, yes, we’re minimalist. Clothing, no. Anything that doesn’t fit will go immediately to charity. I’m talking about interview clothing for tall men. And I’ve asked the source of this piece about the better charities in town, where our gift will do the most good for those in need. And I called the volunteer coordinator at the local volunteer center to find out who needs things.

They have been very helpful and I’ll just have to have boxes ready to take things to our local charity for resale or gifts. It helps to know the right folks in town to do our best for our new community. Thanks y’all for helping us prior to the move. Cheers! Dee

Facing West

I’ve loved the West. I met my husband there, lived in So Cal 15 years, in the Rockies for three. Pacific Northwest, we’ve visited and love it and have gear for snow, rain, anything so would go there in a heartbeat.

Right now we’re up high facing west. I see the weather coming in. I know that if the roof on Miller Stadium is closed it’s probably going to rain. Just saw a gaggle of geese fly by our windows. Often we see and hear individual seagulls just outside.

Later this week we move to a NE view, with the Lake. And hopefully shades will be in by then because 5:08 a.m. is when the dog is trying to get me to take her out these days. “Hey, I’m bored, lets go out and see some squirrels!”

It’s going to be even brighter, earlier facing East so please get our shades in asap!

As to living, this is my husband’s first Northeast experience, he’s a Texan born & bred. I’m a great lakes gal but don’t want to slip back into the accent I lost at age 12 surrounded by military brats near D.C.

He’s still got a bit of drawl going on but nothing like his parents and brother. For the first few months we were together if his dad or brother called, I had never met them and couldn’t understand a word! So I knew that when we lived in Scotland, folks from Edinborough and Glasgow became easy to understand right off the bat, but the further out of town you go, if you’re in a taxi and can’t see the driver’s face, if you get every third word you’re lucky!

That said, I do love the American West. There’s something about mountains and bad weather that attracts me. All I can say for now is that my husband has a good job, we’re meeting neighbors, moving and my fingers aren’t cracking due to living 6,500 feet above sea level with zero humidity.

Utah Formal (our term) clothing will be reserved for weekends and I only hope that the bankerly clothing we have had in storage for over three years still fits my husband. Luckily as it’s around 60 degrees today he’s changed from his cossack hat (wind and snow) to Indiana Jones (keeps sun off his face).

I will miss seeing the weather come in and looking at all the trees that are finally green, but we’ll gain a guest room/office and have a view of a really big lake that is not man-made (sorry, Texas joke). And we’ve guests for two weeks right after the move, in shifts. I have to menu plan and find places and events. After the move! Cheers to looking East! Dee

Leaving on a Jet Plane/Longest Move Ever

I couldn’t decide. Give me a break. Our stuff arrived at the local terminal from Dayton OH on Sunday and was delivered early this morning to sit there two days.

It’s been over three years since we “cocooned” all of our stuff and put in in A/C storage in Texas. What’s two more days?

This is my moving board. We’re not really leaving on a jet plane, only feels that way. We’re moving next door but also from 1,500 miles away. Best, Dee

Dee’s Kan Ban Board

Rich Man, Poor Man

Dear readers.

I’ve always been rich. I’ve had family, friends, an education, jobs, a loving husband and dog. If you want to be rich in life you need family and friends. A job would also be helpful. Thus the education. Get through high school, go to college and figure out what you want to do with your life.

Grad school, doctorate, whatever you can do. Whatever you’re capable of intellectually and what you want to do with your life.

After you do all that, you might want to settle down and have a family. Have a couple of kids. You’re rich. You may come home from your job having fixed an A/C system and you’re rich if you come home to spouse and family.

You’re rich if you’ve spent an hour teaching an adult, who is illiterate, how to read. You’re rich if you’ve helped a differently-abled person ride a horse to help their balance and help with self-esteem. Or to pet a cat who has been abandoned and in a shelter. You’re rich, yes siree.

We can’t have kids and are happy to see our dog, who is even happier to see us, when we get home. We are rich in love, talent, education, friends and family. Dee

Casa Beach, San Diego

www.lajollafriendsoftheseals.org/controversy.html

The new seal pups are being harassed by locals who want that 200′ of beach back, and by tourists. Everything is done by multiple agencies who don’t care about the seals or people, only their power. Feds, State and multiple local agencies and many judges and politicians have battled this out over years against advocates of the seals.

If you want to do something about it please contact the site above. For me, what the officials have done is close the sluice gates because someone was killed decades ago so no-one swims there though it was endowed as a Children’s Pool, and it has become a rookery for seals. Tourists come to see them but local politicians don’t get the environmental and tourism tolls of calls to eradicate the seals.

Let them know what you think. Cheers, Dee

Moving & Spring Dinner

Yes, we’re moving this week. All the way down the elevator with a few things, a few hundred feet to another elevator, and upstairs. But the Big Move is everything we’ve had in TX for over the past three years that is on a truck and 2/3 of the way here already from a big Friday move.

No, we weren’t there. Jim was at a conference and I was on the phone coordinating and following through for about 12 hours. We could’ve really used eyes on the ground but none of our old friends in Houston would spend two hours for us, no matter how many times they’d been over for free meals or even to visit us to ski multiple times. Yeah, same as when I took out everyone’s dog for years and no-one ever reciprocated for one weekend. I’ll remember, guys & gals.

Now we have to move on this end and arrange for movers et al. Then Jim’s family is coming into town in shifts for two weeks early next month so that requires some planning and a new futon for our new guest room as well.

There is much to do. In the spirit of Spring and shutting down moving work for the day before this hectic work week begins in earnest, I looked for something festive. I found three small lamb chops that I seasoned and pan-seared. Also rosti potatoes, sauteed cherry tomatoes (just salt, pepper, olive oil and dried oregano), and fresh asparagus blanched then sauteed simply.

I’m trying not to have too much perishable food because we’ll have to take out our cooler from storage and take several loads ourselves to the new frig.

We’re moving because we got a 740 sf place for three months because we’re new in town and didn’t know where to live. We chose next door (next building) because it has a lovely view and more room for an office for my husband/guest room. It doesn’t really have a place for me, but I’ll work it out.

Once the move is done I can concentrate on unpacking and decorating, and my m-i-l will bring the two quilts she’s been storing for us for these years. One, she made, and we (mostly she) crafted the squares into a seasonal quilt that is quite bold in color and texture. The other was by her great, great and possibly one more great grandmother, Civil War era that is a hexagonal quilt with a flower motif. Both are reminders of the craftiness of our elders and ancestors and priceless pieces of art to us.

Then I must plan menus and things to do for family members, who I think will enjoy their time here next month.

Right now it’s all scribbled lists, which must be contained and correlated, perused and added to so that they are complete. Then it’s work work work until every i is dotted and every t is crossed.

It doesn’t make it easy that I can set up an account, say for cable, and pay the bill for $19 because it’s a short-term deal and the bill arrived late, but then when I call to do a change of address they are not willing to talk to me because I am not my husband. Ladies, put both your names on all the accounts, especially if you pay the bills. It took three hours while moving last Friday from an offsite location just to allow the cable company to allow me onto the account to change our billing address to next door!

We’ll be able to cook more easily with a grill, and we’ll have a lame one starting Friday but will get something more powerful soon. We look forward to entertaining family and friends once our furnishings are out of their “cocoons.”

Cheers and excuse my continued absence. Dee