Evolution-Part 1

Furniture and 90% of the office was moved on Saturday, December 12th. Our computers stayed behind because we didn't have service in the new space. At noon, my new office looked like this.

"Yeah, those bookshelves were in my old office so I guess just put them in my new office."

Originally, we were going to use the extra office we have as a library, of sorts. As you can imagine, we have a lot of reference material for construction, mining and demolition. It's a very narrow slice of the publishing world, but there are books printed about these topics and we get a couple every so often. As our area of work is not taught in universities, much of our knowledge comes from on-the-job experience and the rare tome or paper detailing the effects of ground vibrations on structures. Books tended to be scattered about people's offices and we thought it would be better if we had one spot for them.

But, files this idea under "best laid plans". That "library" is going to be someone's office in the next few months so the shelf units were stuck in my office until further notice, since that's where they had started in the old space. On Wednesday, December 16th, with Internet up and running, we moved completely and my computer was set up.

Things are a mess, as you would expect. I had to empty the desk so I tossed all my files and stuff into bags and boxes. The shelf units were moved away from the hole in the wall where the sliding window was to go so I could see anyone who walked in. At this point, I have sorted through the empty box to find all my files and at least get back to working, sort of.

Since mid-December, things have come along. The corner cabinet was moved into place and my photos and mementos placed on it.

That's a paper recycling cube to the right. Our cleaning service doesn't quite understand that we actually recycle here so all of our carefully sorted recyclables have been dumped into garbage bags. But, they are new and we are new and we'll get this sorted out.

The bottom of this unit now has my rocks from various projects. That might seem weird but I've been on some big jobs and I have rocks or chunks of concrete from Soldier Field and 1930's-era Sheridan Road, terra cotta from a building that once stood where Prentiss Children's Hospital is now and rebar from Michigan Avenue. These pieces were scattered about my old office. Now, they have a place to be. The piece of rebar is going to hang on the wall, but I need to get my posters and other wall things up first.

They finally got the window installed right before Christmas. At one point, I was kind of sad to lose a whole wall of potential display area, but I have to say, being able to see people coming in is huge. We don't get many people here; UPS, the mailman, building maintenance; but seeing them and my co-workers come into the building is very important. The other thing that I've discovered is how expansive it makes the office feel. I have huge windows to my east but being able to look out of the office in what amounts to another window is wonderful. I generally don't have claustrophobia but extra light is a good thing.

Two of the bookshelves, of the four I had, were commandeered by Tara. I still have one plus this corner unit. I really had no use for the other ones. I was kind of amazed at how much stuff I kept because my former boss said "It will be useful sometime." Um...no...not really. Back in October, when we started the packing process, we took 8 construction garbage bags of garbage to the dumpster. Since moving and, as we've all settled in, there have been 8 more bags of garbage out the door. In a typical week, we don't generate much. Our data is 80% digital now. Our cleaning service comes every other week. It works.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Click Click Click

I took two pair of shoes to BlizzCon/Disneyland. One pair is a pair I use when I do inspections and have to be on my feet for a time. The other pair, I purchased specifically for the vacation, knowing I needed a comfortable pair for walking. My inspection shoes turned out not to be very good. I got a blister on my right foot the first day at Disneyland so wound up wearing the other pair. But, because both are Clarks, the new pair turned out to be a godsend for my tired feet. I wore them all day Sunday at Disneyland and on Monday's trek home. I set them aside for a couple of days and came back to them later that week.

Something was awry, however. There was a sound; a "click, click"; coming from the right shoe. These have a soft rubber sole with what seems to be a spandex and canvas upper. They are lightweight, but sturdy for walking around doing inspections. I should go get another pair as they are very comfortable and came in several different colors. But none of that should have a "click click associated to it.

After puzzling over it all day on Friday of that week, I came home from work, took off my shoe and turned it over.

One of the things people can do is collect and trade Disney pins. They buy cards and can, throughout the resorts, shops and amusement parks, trade duplicate pins for pins they don't have. These are just like tie tacs with the squeeze clasp on the back.  That's a monorail pin stuck in the bottom of my shoe. I would have picked it up most probably at Disneyland on Sunday or, possibly, at the airport on Monday when I left. It did not penetrate the sole and I wouldn't have known it was there except for that annoying "click click" noise when walking across uncarpeted surfaces. Having been on the bottom of my shoe for almost a week, it was a wee bit worse for wear.

This caused me to wonder. So many people wear flip flops or flimsy sandals to parks which have this pin trading available. When one's feet are uncovered like that, a pin like this would cause real pain and injury. How many foot injuries does Disney treat daily which could be pokes? While the parks are kept wonderfully clean, this pin was upside down. I never saw it. The length of the shank would go right through some of the flip flops I saw. I wouldn't want to be impaled by Mickey, Snow White or the monorail.

If ever I go back or go to another amusement park, I won't be wearing anything other than full foot coverage. I need the support for walking, to being with, and the sturdiness for my RA, so, other than wandering about my property, you won't see me in flip flops. Consider this a PSA for watching where you step and for wearing appropriate foot gear, even at the happiest place on earth.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Words

Every year since 1980, I have purchased the "365 Word-a-day Calendar". Some words, when I rip off the new day, I know. Some I'll never add to my vocabulary and some have found their way into my lingo. Some words have special meaning. I saved them. I found three when I was cleaning in the basement in preparation for a new washer.

Thankfully, I wrote on the page what happened so, when I cleaned years in the future, I could remember exactly why I saved that word from that date.

This was the last day Carole lived in Wheaton. Since this date, she's lived in Connecticut before moving to her current, and final, home in Virginia. We didn't have any kind of religious ceremony, but I do remember crying while sitting on the front steps watching her drive away knowing that this was a necessary part of raising a child. You give them wings and trust they paid attention to some of your instructions on how to use them.

Here are two more which also elicited tears. This word seemed particularly poignant on this date.

Penney was a gray cat we adopted in 1992, I believe. Kidney disease made her waste away and I finally couldn't stand watching her try to walk to the bathroom to get a drink of water. Pam drove me to the emergency vet my vet recommended and I said, "Goodbye". Even though it's one of the kindest things you can do when a beloved pet is suffering, it's still a heartbreak. That day, the world went haywire.

Finally, there is this word.

2007 didn't start out very positive.

Anne was my English pen-pal. We had known each other 35 years at this point. We were the best of friends and confidants. We went through first crushes, high school, college, engagements and marriages. My ex-husband and I flew to England in 1982, while I was pregnant, to attend Anne's wedding. We had children within a month of each other. She had twin girls. We went back in 1996 so our children could meet. She was with me when my marriage crumbled and when Carole and I were on our own. We went through the raising of children and their lives.

Then liver cancer struck. She was diagnosed in 2004 but seemed to have it beaten to the point that, in April of 2005, I met Anne, her husband, Graham, and son, James, at Walt Disney World for a week of fun. She looked so healthy. We had a fantastic time.

But the cancer returned in early 2006. She never told me how bad it was. Her Christmas letter was filled with news about the family. We always talked at New Year's. She would call me at the stroke of midnight and hold up the phone to the TV so I could hear Big Ben ringing in the new year from England. She did the same thing as 2006 turned to 2007. She never told me she had been in bed since 5 that evening and had to be helped up to call me at midnight. She wrote a short, one-page letter, "from the couch in the living room, by the fire" as they called the gas furnace, in early January. I never heard from her again.

One of her daughters called me the above evening to tell me she had passed in her sleep. Her husband, Graham, had contacted me at the end of January, after receiving my reply to her early January letter. He realized she had not told me, in an effort to spare me worrying, how sick she was and that hospice had been arranged. They were just waiting. I have to admit that every phone call from January 28th onward brought dread. In a way, it was kind of a relief knowing she was not suffering and not trying to keep the British "stiff upper lip" anymore. Graham said he never told her that I knew what was going on.

I looked at these words as I paged through a stack of papers, invitations, mementos which were on a shelf. At the time, it was important to save these. Now, I have reached the point where I can let them go and be, simply, words of the day. I don't save words that have a special event occurring on that date anymore. I unconsciously decided they were just words. I miss Carole. I miss Penney. I miss Anne. Time has moved on but the memories stay with me in my heart where they belong.

Beverage:  Dunkin' Donuts tea

Deb

It Only Took 5 Years

Back in 2008, a had a friend come for a week-long visit. He brought his lap top so I set up the card table in the office so he'd have a place to connect to the Internet. At the time, a wireless router was not on my radar of possibilities.

After he left, that card table became a dumping ground for all manner of paper goods. Pilchard used to "nest" on it and sleep while I played WOW.

Or she would try to fit into a box clearly 2 sizes too small for her that happened to be on the table top.

Over the years, the piles on the table would get bigger, then smaller, then bigger as I would simply toss things I didn't want to deal with onto the table for the proverbial time I'd "get around to it". Gradually, the pile grew to where Pilchard didn't want to sleep on the top because she would continually knock things off.

While watching the box score of the Iowa-Central Michigan football game, I decided this was the day to seriously clean and deal with the stuff on the table. I had managed to whittle it down to this.

Let's see. There is a container of CD cases, most of which have CD's containing photos and videos from my World of Warcraft guild. There are a bunch of photos stuck in packages. There is a stack of newspaper clippings and whole newspapers dealing with the great flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There were football articles and old newsletters saved by my grandfather. There were books and sewing supplies. My Bullwinkle Moose, Marvin Martian and Spot from 7UP dolls and the wooden shelf on which they sat, which had tumbled off the wall several years ago. And there were other things, letters, magazines, genealogy items, stuff that just needed to be sorted and either pitched or filed.

It took roughly 2 hours to empty off the contents of the table, decide if I really wanted to save it, and then, if so, do something with it, not just stack it in another pile "to be dealt with later". Nope, this was going to be a deal with it now event. Finally, there was nothing on the table.

Well, not quite nothing. Cat fur. There was a lot of black fur on the table cloth. This is one of my grandmother's bridge club table cloths. It has been on this table since 2008. It is time to wash it. Then, I took down the table and stowed it in a closet.

Immediately, the room felt more open and spacious. When you have a small house, as I do, the stuff of life can slowly turn a room into a cave. Removing this opened up the area in front of the bookshelves to the right of the table.

There's the chair Pilchard sleeps in when I play WOW. There is a rolling stool my friend bought when he was here. I always meant to get rid of it, but, I can see its value in helping me do some cleaning and organizing in the kitchen, since getting down on the ground is currently difficult for me. There is an antique magazine rack which held catalogs from, I kid you not, 2007. It has 2 empty slots in it now, thanks to the pitching of a lot of paper items. Plus, I can get to the cedar chest where I store the music CD's not in a tower, and my sewing materials. The machine sits in front of the shelves. I think I still have maybe too much stuff and could whittle further, but this is a huge, huge first step.

Mija and Pilchard like to sit on the padded top of the stool so it's a win that it's freed now for them to use. I put a bunch of items I won't ever use again into a bag to be given away at the next opportunity. My recycling can had to be emptied once, too. I could use a scanner and then I could get rid of more paper items that I really don't need to keep except they have meaning to me.

Best of all, I no longer have a place to dump things "to get to them later". This clean up forces me to deal with items when I use them or receive them. I can be the best procrastinator in the world but this forces me not to be and that's a plus for me.

Beverage:  water

Deb

Finishing

Found it.

After a long search, which did involve sweeping the floor because I was moving things about, I found this piece I stitched several years ago but never finished. This is to be a Christmas present for a friend. It's a wall or door hanging.

In order to finish it, I need to wash it, then iron it. I need to get backing material; I'm thinking a green fabric. I had thought about green felt, but felt isn't the sturdiest of fabrics. This piece isn't very big so a quarter of a yard of something is going to give me a chunk of fabric left over. Oh well. That fabric can go into the "some day I'll make a quilt" box.

I need to purchase a dowel on which to hang this and some yarn or heavy thread to make a hanger and it's done.

While searching for this, I came across a piece I stitched a very long time ago. I think this might have been the first piece I ever did, come to think of it. It was stamped cross-stitch on linen and I think I did this when I was in 8th grade.

I have decided to wash and iron this and, when I take the geese sampler just finished to be framed, this goes too. I think the gap in the bottom middle was where you were supposed to stitch your name. I never did. I don't remember that I had any plans for this other than doing it. I think it will look marvelous on my wall and it really is a memory of the past. 

I found the chart for my next project. I completed my taxes today, too. Once I get my refund, these pieces will be finished. It's a gorgeously sunny day. I feel quite productive. 

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

My mother was cleaning.

Mom has been going through stored boxes lately. The next visit will have boxes of things for me to look through and decide if I wish to save the contents. But she sent a letter and inside was this.

I think this is the earliest example of my writing. It's got to be from around 3rd grade since it's not in cursive and I don't think I learned cursive handwriting until 3rd grade. It's also possible it's from 2nd grade.

I don't remember the context for this poem. What were we studying at the time? Was this a unit on poetry so we were asked to create our own. Was it a unit on the desert and we were asked to create something about the desert? I don't remember.

What is striking is that this survives at all. Several years ago, mom handed us box with stuff she'd saved from our grade school years. There was a lot from my sister and youngest brother, but very little from the brother closest to my age or from me. I have a "hand-print" turkey from Kindergarten I need to frame and there may be a couple other art pieces but that's about it. Mom didn't know why she didn't save more when Steve and I were in school.

I'm thrilled that written material survives, not just a hand-print turkey. I've always wanted to be a writer when I "grew up". Whether I have "grown up" or not is debatable but here is proof that I've been writing since I could hold a pencil and make the words. Thanks mom.

Beverage: Scottish Blend Tea

Deb