October 8, 2008

Going home

One Friday afternooon in the fall of 1988 I lost my job. The company I worked for had hired me to service a single contract. The contract evaporated that day and I was offfered a job by the California corporation I’d been providing service for. My whole world turned topsy-turvey in the course of a single weekend and I was living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area less than a week later. Up to that point I’d never been west of Texas. I’d never lived more than an hour from family. It was a difficult adjustment, especially since my son opted to move in with my father and complete his senior year in high school with his friends and classmates. We reunited following his graduation that next spring and we lived and worked happily in California until 1994. Once again I was abruptly uprooted when my employer moved me to Hawaii. My son stayed here with me for several years, but his heart was in California. He stayed here with me because I needed help taking care of my invalid father. Dad died the same week my son was in the process of moving back to California. I’ve lived alone in Hawaii since then. My son visits every year or so, but I haven’t seen any other family since Dad’s funeral.

It’s been twenty years since I’ve lived “in the lap of family.” Twenty years = a generation. My sister’s boys and my cousins children have grown up in those years. It’s been that long since I’ve had SkipBo and Scrabble partners willing to kill an evening with me. I’ve missed countless opportunities to be the on-call baby sitter. I’ve missed weddings, births and funerals, family reunions and holiday gatherings. A year ago I couldn’t imagine ever living anywhere other than Hawaii, despite the homesickness that sometimes overwhelmed me. Six months ago I began to give serious consideration to a move. Business has been too slow for several years and took a nosedive last winter. My best efforts have not been able to revive it. I don’t feel defeated, though. I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason.

My house is beginning to look barren. The pictures have been taken down from the walls. My screened room is full of boxes of books and movies, kitchen goods and personal belongings. I’ll be having a garage sale this weekend, the first of several. I’m finally getting rid of the clutter that gave birth to this blog. In a few weeks or maybe a couple of months I’ll be living with a cousin in Texas, looking for a new home and waiting, impatiently, no doubt, for my furniture to arrive. I’ve already lined up several business opportunities that I’ll look into more closely once I get there. I’ve investigated job descriptions that might suit me if I can’t own my own business again. My sister and brother live in Mesquite, as do a number of other relatives. I’m probably related to a hundred or so people who live scattered about the countryside in the area shown on the map above. I’m hoping to live “out in the country” myself, but will settle contentedly for whatever life brings. I’m going home to family. It’s time. Life is good.

Image credits: Screen captures from Google Maps

Technorati Tags: family, Hawaii, moving, Texas

October 7, 2008

Tuesday Teaser for October 7, 2008

Can you identify the item depicted above? Take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll get a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is. Be as specific as you can. For instance, “lamp” would be too general as an answer if you needed to identify a lava lamp. Sometimes the brand will need to be specific, as when you identified the Enregizer Bunny and auto company logos. Guess as many times as you want, but put each answer in a separate comment, please!
2. First person to identify the item wins. If more than one person provides the correct answer, time and date stamp will determine who was first.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer. Sorry - no hints will be given. I will attempt to respond to your answers at least every few hours, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
4. The contest will end in forty-eight hours, whether or not a correct guess has been submitted.
5. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.

What will you win?

1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog (commercial sites ineligible.) The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a PR4 PR2 PR0 (bah google!) Ha! PR3 blog Hmmmm! PR2 again. Skeet writes good reviews.

2. The weekly winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon or a ten dollar payment through PayPal.

3. Drawing for the monthly prize will be held on or about November 1, 2008, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in October, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.

Comments submitted with commercial links will be deleted. If you would like to market your product, service or website through skeet’s stuff I’ll be happy to discuss your needs and my prices. Please submit your request via email.

Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, photo puzzle

October 6, 2008

Ack! It was on my foot!

I’ve started a list - well several lists, actually. I need a lot of lists on various subjects to get me through this move. The specific list I’m referring to, though, has two columns: Things I’ll Miss When I Leave Hawaii and Things I Won’t Miss. The fellow pictured above is responsible for a new addition to the negative list. Last night I went into the office to check my email one last time before going to bed. As often happens, I stayed online for a while reading tweets and seeing who had visited my blog. I was kind of settled in and comfortable when I felt a tickle on my right foot. It felt just like Lance does - he likes to nap at my feet when I’m in the office, so I thought he had shifted and a whisker had grazed my foot - until I heard a noise behind me and realized that the beagle was sleeping in the hallway. Ulp! I didn’t want to look. I actually said, right out loud: Please, please, please let it be a cockroach! I brushed it off with my other foot before even looking because I had a bad feeling it wouldn’t be a roach. Good thing I did, too, because if I’d seen it first I might have reacted badly & the sucker probably would have bitten me. I have acute allergic reactions to all kinds of things. I don’t want to find out if centipedes need to be added to that list. I freaked out a little when I saw it (big, bad bug lady that I am!) then ran for a can of insecticide I keep in the utility room. I’ve got several half-packed boxes scattered around the office, so I had to play hide-and-seek for a while before I found my invader again - he was under the little rolling cart right next to the desk. Professional that I am, I know that a split-second burst of pesticide would have done the job, but I abandoned thirty years of experience and training - this guy was in my home, after all. If I’d had guns and Nikon rifle scopes handy I might well have blown a hole in the floor making sure that he was well and truely dispatched. Yeah, I get a bit girly about certain types of many-legged critters, centipedes among them. I didn’t quite empty the can, but I gave him a good soaking, then turned off the light and shut the office door (the air was too toxic to work in there anymore.) I had to hunt for him again this morning - he’d crawled behind a box to die. He twitched while I was taking the picture - I use low toxicity pesticides, so they don’t always kill instantly. He’ll die eventually. In the rubbish can outside.

We don’t usually wear shoes inside our homes in Hawaii. I’ll probably forsake that habit once I move. I think I’ll start practicing today, wearing shoes as I continue packing and painting. And maybe coveralls and gloves, too.

Things I Won’t Miss When I Leave Hawaii:

Technorati Tags: centipedes, Hawaii, insects

October 5, 2008

Self Portrait Sunday for October 5, 2008

That pretty much tells the story of this last week as I’ve been overwhelmed by boxes and tasks and stuff - lots of stuff. I’m really tired and wondering how I’m going to get through this - this is, after all, only week one of totally dedicated effort applied towards moving. So much more still to do. If I finish current tasks later today I”ll pull all of the pictures off of the walls in the living room and hallway before going to bed tonight so I will be ready for painting prep first thing tomorrow. I need to sand all of the baseboards and door jambs, in addition to the usual taping and draping that one must do before painting. I used the wrong trim paint last time around and it’s peeling, so that will have to be addressed before I dip the first brush.

No family phone calls today. I’ve left messages with my son, an aunt and an uncle, but haven’t connected with any of them yet. I was kinda, sorta hoping to hear from my nephew, too. He and his wife were prompt to respond to the unique baby gifts I sent when Lily was born, but I haven’t heard a word since I sent another package a couple of weeks ago. They should have gotten it the same day that Ike rolled through Houston, so I’m .worried that it went astray (they stayed in Dallas that weekend.) Guess I’ll try to call them again in a while, but I’m really, really wanting a teeny-tiny nap right now. Yeah, I think I might do that first. Oh, and I never got around to visiting the Self Portrait Sunday participants last week, so I’ve got two weeks worth of friendly faces to visit, too. Shoot - that’s gonna cut into naptime. I’ll just have to fit it all in somehow!

Technorati Tags: photos, self portrait, meme, moving

Posted by skeet @ 2:10 pm • Photos, Meme • 5 comments  

Postcards for my clients

One of the hardest things about moving is saying goodbye. I let the gals in the Table of Contents know a couple of months ago that I’d be leaving, and am gradually sharing the news with neighbors and other friends. It’s been gratifying to learn that many of them will genuinely miss me. What really surprised me, though, is that one of my clients almost burst into tears when I told her. She’s a warm and friendly person that I’ve done a lot of business with over the years, but I think it’s the situation that brought about my move as much as the move itself that made her so emotional.These are tough economic times in Hawaii and it’s very discouraging for all of us to see so many small businesses folding. The few inspections I’ve had in the last few months have all been for people who were leaving the islands because they couldn’t make a living here anymore, just like me. It’s a sad process to watch and an even sadder one to be overtaken by. The only good thing about business being so slow is that I won’t be seeing most of my clients and having to tell them face-to-face that I’m leaving. That’s an emotional overload I don’t think I could handle right now. They’ve supported me over the years, though, and I do want to thank them for that and give them some referrals so that I know they’ll be in good hands after I’m gone. I think the easiest way to do that will be with postcards. VistaPrint can produce them for me for less than three cents apiece, and using coupon code PC50 will allow me to add fifty free oversized postcards to my order. I’m also thinking about using their mailing service. I’m handling my move by myself and it’s all pretty overwhelming, so letting them take care of that chore will ease free me up for things that only I can do. Once I’ve decided how I want my message worded I can design my postcards online, upload my mailing list and be done with it. It would be nice to have an aloha party and spend an afternoon thanking each of my clients personally, but that’s just not something I have time for now. VistaPrint offers quality design and print services at budget prices, even for smaller orders like the one I’ll need (less than three hundred postcards.) I’ll be keeping that in mind once I arrive at my destination, too, because I’ll be needing professional printing services to help me get the word out about my new business. You’ll know all about it first, of course, but it’s nice to know that VistaPrint can help me with flyers, business cards and all of the other printed materials I’ll need to let folks know that skeet has arrived.

Technorati Tags: business printing, mailing services, postcards, printing

October 4, 2008

I haven’t been hiding!

I’m packing for a move. Well, acutally, I’m packing to get a bunch of stuff out of the way so I can paint the interior of the house. I’m getting it market-ready and hope to have it listed for sale in a few weeks. As much as I love living in Hawaii, I can no longer afford it. Work has been scarce, the cost of living is high and it’s time for me to move on.

I’ve been packing non-essentials. Books, games & puzzles, DVDs and videos - things I don’t “have to have.” I’ve packed some of the dishes and kitchen ware that will move with me. Right now I’m using my extra set of dishes and will put them in the last garage sale before the move.

The shed on the carport is filling up with stuff I’ll put in my first garage sale next weekend. It’s mostly stuff that I don’t use at all and have been accumulating in a garage sale pile for a while.

The chances are slim to none that I’ll get any diving opportunities where I’m going, so I’m selling the tanks, wet suit, skin and all of my gear. I’ll put “diving gear, electronics and building materials” on the garage sale signs to draw folks in.

This embarrassing mess was the first chore I tackled this week. The front shed has been a mess since my new room was built a few years ago. They guys doing the work tossed things in every which way and I never quite got around to re-organizing it …

… until this week. Now I can find the tools and supplies I need for repairs, and I’ve got all the paint and painting supplies rounded up. I’m hoping to start painting the entire interior of the house on Monday.

I need to get things organized and get the house on the market quickly, so I’m working at it all day every day. When I need to take a break from the heavy stuff, I find a more leisurely job to do - like wrapping several hundred dollars of coins. I’ll keep them handy until the last garage sale, then put whatever is left (if anything) in the bank.

I hope we don’t get any earthquakes or hurricanes before I’m out of here. I’m cycling the contents of my evacuation kit into the pantry. I’ll try to minimize shopping in the coming weeks by using up stuff that I have on hand. The freezer and pantry are so full that I shouldn’t have to buy much more than dairy and bread. I had Dinty Moore stew from the evac kit for dinner tonight.

Getting the house listed and my stuff moved are my top priorities right now - I’m running out of money and need to get things done as quickly as possible. I’ll try to check in a little more frequently than I have just lately, but I’m not making any promises. It’s just the way things are. Oh, and I will make the time to tell you about where I’m going and how I selected my destination. It’s good stuff!

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, moving, packing, selling my home

October 1, 2008

BlueEgg Photography gift pack winner

Mahalo to all of you who entered the BlueEgg Photography foodie gift pack giveaway. I put all of your names into a list and submitted it to Random.org. Randomness followed and a winner has been selected. Congratulations to Gianna! She’s won a gift pack of BlueEgg Photography culinary notecards, vanilla beans and extract. Gianna’s favorite Blue Egg notecard art is the orchids. Gianna, I’m sending you an email so we can get your prize pack to you ASAP. Mahalo again to everyone who played!

Technorati Tags: BlueEgg Photography, contest winner, giveaway