July 2, 2008

Adapting to change

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost six months since Buddy died. I still feel him here sometimes. Other times the ache of missing him is overwhelming. But it just doesn’t seem that long - more like a month or so, maybe. Logic tells me a different tale, though. Lance and I have moved on, adpoted new routines. Lance eats indoors now. He used to eat on the lanai because he and Buddy couldn’t eat near each other without trouble. He gets to play with toys now, too - another thing they would have fought over. And he’s finally decided that it’s okay for him to sleep on the mini-couch that was Buddy’s bed. At first he wouldn’t go near it. After a while he started sleeping on the back of it.

This week he’s sleeping all the way in the bed. I guess he’s finally decided that it’s “his” bed. I know that he would know Buddy if we had him back today, but I think the memory is fuzzy for Lance now. That’s good - he’s not moping around waiting for his pal anymore. He doesn’t lay with his face against the front door screen, watching and waiting. He’s a happy little guy, like he was when he had his pal to keep him company each day. It’s a different kind of happy, but it’s genuine and good.

Technorati Tags: adapting to loss, dogs, pets

June 18, 2008

I love my tile floors!

I won’t have carpet in my home. Maybe if I lived in a place that gets cold I would consider it, at least for the bedrooms, but I really don’t care for carpeted floors. They’re hard to keep clean, especially when you share your home with a dog. I’m not talking about piddling - though that does happen from time to time. The thing I really hate is the way that hair clings to carpets. The world’s best vacuum cannot get all of the hair up, never mind the regular dirt that filters into it. Being a termite inspector, I’ve pulled up the edges of carpets many times. Have you ever seen the crud that collects down there? If you had, you’d never have carpets in your home either, especially if you have allergies or someone in your home has asthma. The tile floors in my home were a major attraction for me when I was home-shopping. They’re so easy to clean, and when I’ve cleaned them I know that they are really clean - everything comes up easily and there’s no place for crud to hide. An added bonus is that my home is as much as twenty degrees cooler than my neighbors’ homes on some of our hot tropical days. Twenty degrees - that puts me in a nice comfort zone when my neighbors are sweltering. My only disappointment is that the previous owner had no sense of style. My tile floors are beige. Can you imagine choosing beige when there are so many design possibilities with tile? Remember I told you a few weeks ago that I’m getting ready to start painting inside? The paint is already on hand and the color is terra cotta. I’d love to swap out the floor tiles for terra cotta, too. I’ve been reading about Mexican saltillo tile and that’s what I’d like to have. Authentic Saltillo Tile only comes from Saltillo, Coahuila Mexico and it is made by hand. I love the color variations and slight imperfections in natural, hand-made terra cotta tile. I inspected a home near Diamon Head recently that has it, complete with dog paw prints on a couple of the tiles. How perfect would that be for me? Tile floors can last a lifetime, too. They don’t wear down like wooden floors or carpets and they don’t get scuff marks. Well, we don’t wear shoes inside in Hawaii, so I never get them, but if you do get a few they’ll come right off. I don’t know when I’ll get to re-do my floors. I’ve already got the paint for all of the walls and the wood for new kitchen cabinets and the pre-made cabinet and vanity for my master bath. Those jobs have to be finished first, but one of these days I’m hoping to install Mexican Saltillo tile to finish things off and bring it all together. I’ll enjoy having it for as long as I own my home and it will be a huge selling point if I ever decide to sell. If you’re thinking about some changes around your own place, check out Saltillo Tile. I’ll bet you’ll find something you like!

Technorati Tags: flooring, Saltillo Tile, tile, tile floors

June 17, 2008

Preparing for dark days

Remember last winter when I didn’t have power for almost four whole days? I had candles and oil lanterns all over the house and couldn’t get enough light to read after the sun went down. I was afraid the dogs would knock over a candle or lamp and start a fire, so I placed them up high, but that meant lousy light quality for reading and finding things. I had two flashlights, too, and used up a slew of batteries before power was finally restored. Trying to live normally during a power outage is a dangerous and costly process. I’ve replaced all the stuff I used up from my emergency evacuation box, but I’ve been meaning to upgrade it and haven’t done that yet. We’re in hurricane season again, so I should do it soon. A shake LED flashlight would be a good addition. They don’t use batteries - you just shake them for one minute to build up enough power for half an hour of light. It’s a cheaper and greener way to go, and I won’t have to worry about setting the house on fire when I need to carry a light around from room to room. It’s affordable, too, costing less than what I spent on batteries during the great blackout, so it will pay for itself in savings pretty quickly. If this is sounding familiar it’s probably because you read about it in “O at Home” (the Oprah magazine.) I can’t think of any reason not to add a shake LED flashlight - or two or three - to my evac kit.

Now a message from your mother (hey, I’m someone’s mother so I have to do these things!) Have you got a fully-stocked evac kit ready for emergencies? If you don’t, would you take care of that soon so I can quit worrying? There are several emergency preparedness posts in my archives, but your local phone book and civil defense organizations are the best places to find out everything you need to know so you’ll be ready when disaster strikes. Don’t say it won’t happen to you; it’s happened to me a few times and my evac kit has gotten me through some rough times. You should know the evacuation routes and shelters in your area. You need to know what you can take to a shelter with you, and how much. You need to be ready to hunker down with no outside contact for three or four days if you have to shelter in place. And you really should do it with as much eco-friendliness as possible. The link above will take you to innovative green solutions that will give you something to feel good about when bad times come. Eco-friendly radios, water filters and lighting belong in your evac kit, so check it out!

Technorati Tags: eco-friendly products, ecogeekliving, emergency kits, evacuation kits, flashlights, green solutions, shake LED flashlights

June 4, 2008

Improving my desgin

I’m finally working on my house again. The first big job will be painting the interior. I’m prepping now, so don’t mind the paper on the doors and the patches on the walls, please. Several years ago I had the open-decked lanai torn out. In its place I now have a screened lanai/multi-purpose room. My washer and dryer are out there, I have plenty of built-in storage and there are two benches beneath the large screened windows out of view to the left and behind me in the picture above. My tiny side yard is also behind me, and my herb and tropicals garden. I use the screened door to the left to enter the house from the front lanai. It’s really convenient because I can set anything I’m carrying inside, go out for another trip (and another and another if I found some shopping bargains!) and not worry about Lance getting out (the baby gate is temporary - it will be replaced with a screen door soon.) We don’t wear our shoes inside in Hawaii, so it’s also a convenient place to take them off and have them ready to go for next time. All-in-all I’m pretty happy with the room. It’s got some design flaws, though. I acted as my own general contractor and I’m not exactly an expert. A licensed contractor would have pointed out any problems with my plans and helped me find ways to correct them. The carpenter I hired just went along with my original design. Notice my lovely tile floors? They’re very practical when I come in from outside during our rainy winters, or when I’m dirty coming in from the garden. They’re also very hard! I came out of the house with a load of laundry one day and toppled off of the deck to the tiled slab below. I’m very lucky to have had only a few bumps and buises to show for it. A contractor would have seen the danger in having an elevation change so close to a door and would have insisted that I have guard rails along the upper level and the stairs. I’ll have to have them retro-fitted now, but I’ve found a great place to get just what I want. Picketed rails look great on the lanai outside, but I want something open and airy inside, to suit the room.

This is exactly what I’ve been wanting! Tempered glass inserts will provide safety without blocking all of the lovely sunlight that floods into my dining area or blocking my view through the room into my garden. The metal components are fitted together with self-drilling/self-tapping hardware, so I could probably do the work myself except for needing someone to hold the glass while I install it. Yeah, like I would be that stupid again! No, this time I’ll let a pro do the work, but after we discuss what I want we’ll be going to the link above to get everything we need to make the room safer without compromising the design. I’m a - ahem - mature woman now, and a broken hip would put a serious crimp in style. I’ve already bought some no-skid patches to put on the stairs. Now I just need to find a contractor bold enough to tell this old gal the right way to finish making things safe.

Technorati Tags: building design, guard rails, home design, safety, stair rails

May 28, 2008

Saying hello to family - with photos!

I take photos every day. My camera goes everywhere I go. Hey, it’s Hawaii! I always know there will be something I want to preserve or share as I go about my day. You, my kind readers, get some benefit from that, I hope. My photo-essays are my favorite posts, sharing little slices of everyday life in Hawaii. Living here is almost like being on mini-vacation every day, capturing photos of all the wonderful things you see and do. Today I’ll be inspecting a home near Diamond Head, which has picture-perfect views no matter which way you look. Maybe I’ll share some fabulous scenery with you next time I sit down to blog. I capture a lot of moments from my ho-hum daily life, too - pictures of the beagle and my neighbors and growing things in my garden. My son and two other family members read my blog, so the photos I publish are one way of letting them know what’s going on in my life. My blog is a big secret to most of my family, though. This is my space to vent and ramble and speculate. I can’t talk openly about family if I feel like they’re reading over my shoulder, so I haven’t shared my URL with them. It’s been nine years since I’ve seen most of my family. I still love and miss them all, but we’re a quirky family and some of them are downright weird. They make good fodder for my blog, but I would never embarrass them by sharing their real names or letting the entire family know that I talk about their craziness. I stay in touch with them via snail mail and phone calls instead. Most of my letters and cards have a few pictures inserted. How cool would it be to have some Photo Cards printed for my little quick notes to them? I could use one of my weekly self-portraits for that. Not the one last Sunday when I didn’t brush my hair, but maybe the one from last month where I was leaning against my car. That one makes me look pretty good, I think (you can’t see my roots, right?) I really like the borderless, full-color card I’ve shown you above. I could see my sister or one of my aunts cutting the front off of that one and and framing my picture after they’ve read whatever was inside. Mine wouldn’t say “Season’s Greetings,” though. The inside of the card can be whatever I want, because photo cards can be customized to say what you’d like them to say. I’m thinking mine should just say “Aloha from skeet,” because that would leave plenty of room for me to write a personal note catching the family up on my life. I have a drawer full of blank cards that say “Aloha” or “Mahalo” on the front. I never use them because they’re so impersonal. Maybe I should assign those to the pile of stuff for my garage sale and get some photo cards that I would actually use instead. Hey, two birds/one stone: I’d get rid of some more clutter and have a better way to stay in touch with family. That works for me!

Technorati Tags: family, greeting cards, photo cards

May 26, 2008

And still more progress!

As promised in my last post, here’s some more de-cluttering progress. I took the above picture of part of my desk a couple of weeks ago, then lost my nerve and didn’t show it to you. I can show it to you now because I took the next photo today.

There’s still a lot of work to do in my office. It took a couple of years of depression and neglect for things to get into such a mess. The re-organization is coming along nicely, but is far from finished.

And now, a word from my sponsor. Well, not really. No one is sponsoring this post. But the nice folks at Gloves In A Bottle were kind enough to send me a sample of their shielding lotion to try out. Y’all know that dehydration is one of the symptoms of my medical condition. That’s more than just thirst. My hair, skin and nails suffer from the lack of moisture. I’ve been handling great stacks of paper every day while organizing my files and catching up my books. Every gas receipt and phone bill is being filed in the proper place so I can compile my expenses and get my taxes caught up. Every report has already been entered into my work logs and journaled in the books. Old files have been purged and I’ve shredded hundreds of pages of sensitive documents. I’ve handled thousands of pieces of paper just in the last week. Paper sucks the moisture out of my skin, so I’m keeping Gloves In A Bottle on my desk and I apply it every few hours while doing this work. It’s a shielding lotion that goes into your skin and helps protect it from inside out, as opposed to conventional moisturizers which merely coat the outer layer of skin. Using Gloves In A Bottle has kept all of my paper-handling from drying and damaging my skin. It doesn’t leave a sticky residue when applied and has not made any smears on my paperwork because - well, how can it? It’s not sitting on the surface of my skin, it’s inside. It’s probably available in a store near you, so use the store locator and get yourself some. In the unlikey event that there’s not a distributor nearby, you can order it from their website. It’s good stuff. You should try it!

As I said, there’s still a lot to be done in the office. Here’s the part of my desk I didn’t show you in the “after” photo above. It’s a three-tiered tray system that sits to the left of my monitor and should have inspection order forms and a few other things neatly organized and close to hand. Yeah, I know - you can barely even see the trays right now. I’ll probably remedy that tomorrow. Maybe someday soon I’ll show you my whole desk in a single photo.

When I started this whirlwind of activity I wanted to do one house job, one office job and one yard/garden job each day. That’s not terribley practical because some chores move along more effectively when I dedicate big blocks of time to them. It took me most of a day to get all of my inspection files in date order and get them journaled, then put them in alphabetical order for filiing, so I didn’t break up the job to clean closets or pull weeds. I’ve managed to maintain a steady pace in each area of labor, though, except for the three days that rain kept me from working outside. Today I did the hall closet and started cleaning and organizing the shed in the front yard. Yesterday I did the pantry. There’s great variety of items in my pantry, so there are several types of items on each shelf. Generally, it breaks down like this: snacks and convenience foods on the top shelf, canned goods, sauces and syrups on the second shelf, herbs, spices and seasonings on the bottom shelf and gum and candy in the little hanging basket. There are a few frequently-used medications in there, too (the rest are in the hall closet, which you’ve already seen.) I threw away two rubbish bags of stale stuff that had been lost in the back, some herbs and spices that were past their prime and a couple of cans that I thought I gave to the food bank the last time I purged and refilled my evac kit. One can of tomato paste had a swollen top, a sure way to get botulism. Why is it always tomato paste? There was a mysterious sticky puddle on one shelf. Not a clue what it used to be, but it’s gone now.

Tall and bulky items are on the floor of the pantry - oils and vinegars, a couple of bottles of liquor and some unopened wine, cereal, Lance’s kibble and biscuits. Can liquor go bad in the bottle after it’s opened? I don’t really drink, but I have a bottle of B & B and a little rum for cooking. Both were opened several years ago. Maybe I should toss them? I washed Lance’s bins while I was cleaning the pantry and didn’t refill them yet, so the kibble bag is sticking out of it right now. Every time I open the pantry Lance checks to make sure the good stuff is still at beagle-eye level. My fire extinguisher is right there, too, where it will be easy to grab if I ever need it. You do have an extinguisher in your kitchen, don’t you? If you don’t, would you please get one very soon? Do it for yourself and your family, and because it will make me happy, too.

My next kitchen chore will be to sort through my dishes and assign a whole bunch of them to the garage sale/charity truck pile. Needless to say, there is entirely too much stuff in my kitchen!

Technorati Tags: cleaning, clutter, de-cluttering, organizing

May 25, 2008

More progress on de-cluttering

There’s a problem with letting clutter accumulate. Well, actually, it creates a lot of problems. Here’s the one I’m thinking of right now, though. See the stack of washcloths between the two stacks of towels? There are - wait a minute while I count - forty-one washcloths. There are a few more in my bathroom - maybe three or four - plus some in the laundry basket. Let’s say I’ve got about fifty washcloths. Why in the world would a single adult living alone need fifty washcloths? She wouldn’t, of course. But if she frequently shops, sets the booty aside to deal with later and then forgets about it, she might not remember that she bought a cheaper-by-the-dozen package of washcloths. She might forget that several times and buy them again … and again. When she finally starts de-cluttering her home she might find some WalMart bags with stuff she bought. One them might be in a corner of her bedroom and contain a twin-pack of deodorant and some hair gel in addition to a jumbo pack of washcloths. Maybe there was another hiding in the floor of the guest room closet containing some washcloths along with a sympathy card that was never sent and a few other bits and bobs. There might even be a full, unopened pack in the hall closet, hiding behind some towels that are in such disarray that no one has a clue what else might be in there. That’s how it could happen, maybe. Just speculating, mind you, but it could happen that way, couldn’t it?

My decluttering frenzy has continued on a daily basis. I tackled the hall closet today. Sheets, tablecloths, towels and washcloths can now be found when needed. The biggest chore in the closet, though, was two shelves packed with a miscellany of health and beauty products. I found prescription drugs that were years out of date. Lots of stale over-the-counter cold and sinus remedies, too, and crinkly tubes of antibiotic ointment, dusty bottles of eye drops and multiple bottles of hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol with a little product remaining in each. I have lots of first aid supplies. Super-sized sterile bandages from when I burned my foot, ace bandages and self-adhesive wraps and plenty of regular old bandaids, of course. I filled a large rubbish bag with all of that stale, out-dated stuff, plus body lotions in which the oils had gone rancid and shampoos that had turned funny colors. I’m happy with the results. There were several little baskets in there, but not enough to actually organize things, so I improvised with some boxes to handle the overflow. Each is labelled and things are sorted by type so they can be found quickly. Next time I have a large burn or am bleeding profusely I’ll peek in there and know that I have enough wound dressings to last a week. It won’t be a problem if you forget your toothbrush or floss or razor when you come for a visit. These are good things to know.

I couldn’t bring myself to take a photo that showed the whole closet “before.” The picture above was about half-way through. I had emptied out most of the stuff that was in the bottom of the closet originally - dog-bath towels and throw rugs and vacuum cleaner attachements and such. Then I used the floor of the closet as one of my sorting bins. Most of that is sick room supplies left over from when I was taking care of Dad. There are suction syringes and tubing, feeding tubes, catheters, and even a cheap, plastic stethoscope used to make sure the feeding tube hadn’t gone astray into a lung. There are braces and thumb splints for each phase of the tendon problems in my hands. Most of this ended up in the rubbish bin, but the tubing has various hardware uses (and is in the shed now) and the stethocope is with my first aid supplies. The gallon jug of hand soap is still right where it started.

I’ve worked on my office some more, too. I’ll post about that in a little while, after I eat some supper. It’s been a busy day and I need to re-fuel.

Technorati Tags: cleaning, clutter, de-cluttering, organizing

May 18, 2008

What have you been up to, skeet?

I’m so glad you asked! I was just coming around to tell you. Remember my new committment to doing stuff on a daily basis to de-clutter my life? I finally picked up some momentum on that quest a few weeks ago and I’ve stuck to the task this time. The last few days have been spent on the most tedious chore of all - organizing my office! You probably can’t tell from the photo above, but it represents signifigant progress. That’s the work table in my office - the table I haven’t been able to use in ages. I used to do my property drawings there, and enter my inspections into the books and put my bank deposits together. See the bin in the picture, and the stack of paper & stuff next to it, and the stand-up file over at the right? That’s all that’s left of four boxes of stuff that needed to be organized or gotten rid of.

This is one of the smaller boxes. It contained mostly mail, though there was other stuff there, too. I pay most of my bills online these days, and some of them at various service centers as I travel around the island doing inspections. It’s an efficient bill-paying system and there’s really no need to open the paper bills, so they’ve been accumulating for quite a while. They’re mixed in with junk mail, a weekly local paper, some magazines I intend to read someday, and numerous other bits of detritus.

I spent most of one day shredding junk mail and envelopes. I filled two large rubbish bags with the results, then realized I’d never get done if I shredded everything. Thereafter I only shredded credit card applications and other things that might be useful to identity thieves. Everything else was either torn or disposed of whole. That made the work go much faster. I’ve filled five or six bags and the rubbish bin is full, awaiting pick-up on Tuesday morning.

I’ve also sorted some stuff for a future garage sale or charity pick-up. That computer got badly burned by a virus. I need to remove the motherboard full of sensitive data, and then will offer the rest for parts. The box is full of cables and cords. A rice cooker and some clothes have also been added to the pile. I expect it to be much larger before I’m through.

I stirred up a lot of dust and dog hair beneath the table and in the supply closet. My allergies are acting up (of course,) and I’ll probably need some acne treatments to counteract the grime my skin has absorbed. Small price to pay, though. I’m feeling good about the progress I’ve made and am committed to staying on top of things better once I finish the big clean-up. I’ve let the enormity of the job overwhlem me for way too long, but it’s really not all that bad once you get started. That was the hard part!

Technorati Tags: cleaning, clutter, organizing

May 14, 2008

Schwim - the other dog

The last time my friend was away from home for a while I kept her beagle, Gwen, while her big dog went to a boarding kennel. We thought that handling both girls plus Lance might be a little difficult for me. Schwim is a Weimaraner and gets on great with Gwen. She’s older and can get snarky sometimes, though, so we didn’t want to risk a dogfight when there was just me around to separate them. She had a great time at the kennel.They have a large fenced area where she could romp with other big dogs. She “holds back” when playing with the smaller beagles, so it was nice for her to have a chance to throw caution to the wind and have some fun. My friend has been staying in my guest room just lately. All three dogs have been getting along just fine, though it took a few days for Schwim to convince Lance that she was not a potential humping partner. The beagles can be somewhat scampy at times, but, overall, I’ve been happy with the way everyone has been behaving.

Then I came home yesterday and found this mess in the living room. The beagles were in the kennel while I was out. Schwim had the run of the house.

I asked her who could have done such a thing. She gave me a look of wide-eyed innocence, but had nothing to say about the matter.

I picked up a piece of shredded cardboard and held it to her face, asking her if she was the culprit. Her guilty look was the canine equivalent of a confession. She was very sorry to have caused a problem andshe’ll never do that again. Right?

Technorati Tags: dogs, Schwim, Weimaraner

May 10, 2008

Still rolling along

I’ve been working on my security door for a couple of days. I live on the Leeward Coast, the dry side of Oahu. We don’t get much rain, but the ocean is just a few blocks from my home. Rust is an inevitable part of life even here. My poor door has not been looking very welcoming, so I tackled it this week. On Thursday and Friday I sanded. I know you can’t tell in the picture, but that’s the door after many hours of sanding by hand and with a belt sander. I didn’t make much headway. This morning I taped the hardware and draped sheet vinyl all around the door.

As you can see, the paint looked pretty promising as work progressed.

The sun was very bright on the door while I was working. I thought the door was looking pretty good until I saw the pictures. What looked like a nice solid coat was thin and spotty, so I knew I’d have to do a second coat. This photo makes it easy to see which part has already had two applications.

The outside of the door was finished. I moved the draping and started on the inside surface of the door. You can really see the splotchiness of the first coat here.

I can see a few areas that will need touch-up, but I’m pretty happy with the job. The door is looking much more presenatable.

Next up - reed screening to be wired to some ugly chain-link fencing.

Technorati Tags: chores, home maintenance, painting