Cold Turkey

In my office, I have a crate in which I put recycling. Everything from frozen food meal trays to paper to plastic gets tossed into the crate. When it gets full, I bring the crate home and empty it into my recycling bin. Nice and efficient.

Toward the end of March, after picking up breakfast at Dunkin', I removed the tea bags and prepared to toss the styrofoam cup into the crate. There was a slight problem.

The crate was full and most of it was Dunkin' styrofoam cups. I smushed these down to make room for another and, that night, took the crate home for recycling.

Dunkin' is quick and easy, but not the healthiest of breakfasts. I looked at this and was kind of floored by what this represented. There were 2.5 weeks of Dunkin' cups in here. Those you can't see are under the paper and plastic miscellany added to the crate. I can't keep eating donuts for breakfast. That's not, at all, healthy. And, in reality, stuffing the money for this habit onto my Dunkin' card is not good for the budget, either. I would have to start making plans to get up in time to make myself breakfast AND have the food on hand to make that breakfast.

I didn't realize how difficult this would be for me. Then, the Dunkin' I frequent made it easy. The owner of that store sold the franchise to another couple. All the people I knew in the store were let go. I walked in and the coloring contest, the balloons, the merchandise had been replaced. The people behind the counter were efficient, but they were not nearly as friendly. It was "get us in and out as quickly as possible" mode.

This made cutting back, way back, on Dunkin' for breakfast, much easier. There are two Dunkin' on the way to the office. I thought I would see how friendly they were. Not any better. They are bigger stores than the one by me, but the whole tone of these places, the whole atmosphere, is one of "get people out as quickly as possible". I added more money to my Dunkin' card back at the beginning of June. Normally, I would add something every month, but I have not had to add anything in July. I don't see I will use up what's on my card before next month. I have no desire to.

Part of me is sad. One of the reasons I had this habit was that I was recognized at the local Dunkin'. They took the time to get to know me, know what I liked. Yes, they did things as fast as possible, but a testament to a place is the line out the front door. Since the change in ownership, I haven't been to this place when there has been a line, even at the most popular times.

I needed to cut back on my habit. It was a crutch. I didn't have to get up with any speed because I could swing by Dunkin' to get breakfast. But, this was not a healthy obsession to have. While I could afford it, my budget is better off not spending $15-$30 per month on donuts. I miss the camaraderie with the people who used to work there. A friendly, "Hello" on a morning when I stumble in at 5:45 because I have to be somewhere by 7:00, always started my day off right. It's certainly not what I experience now when I choose to go there.

What's the aphorism? "The only constant is change."

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Probably About Time

There's a Highland Festival this weekend. I haven't been to one in 3 years and then, I couldn't stay the full time because I hurt all over. I'm much better now at managing my RA and have progressed to a better place. So, I was gathering the few things I'm bringing to the clan tent.

I see there's a broken fluorescent bulb in the basement which I need to clean up on Sunday. And I think I'm finally ready to cut this box down and recycle it.

The photo dates from 2009. That's probably when I bought this new but I'm really not sure.

Why is it that I've kept it all this time? All it's done is take up space. I need to find a place in Chicagoland which recycles computers and give this away. It sits, taking up space, on the back corner of a desk in the office, along with a pile of cords I no longer use. When I put the things for the festival away in the bins, I have to clean up the bulb, and I will recycle this. I promise.

Are you Windows users this attached to your computer boxes or is it just me?

Beverage:  Klarbrunn Black Cherry Seltzer

Deb

Residue of Tidying

Recently, I took a few days off. The car needed an oil change and I had an eye doctor appointment. I like my eye doctor very much. She's nice, friendly, and extremely thorough. RA can affect your eyes so I have to see a specialist. Yet, getting in to see her can be an ordeal necessitating hours of my time so I took the day off. Then, realizing I had days to use up, I just took extra days off. We all need time to rest and recharge.

Part of that involved tackling a small spot in the home office. I have saved all the receipts from medications dating back to when I was diagnosed with RA. Insurance covers my prescriptions, but I felt it was important to keep tabs on my medications. But I realized, when I sorted the filing cabinet over Christmas, I get a running report with every doctor visit. I don't need to save the receipt. Some of the medications come with a patient information sheet. This adds up to a lot of paper, sitting in a stack, in the home office.

I shredded it; all of it; excepting the information sheets. They had no identifying numbers or my name on them. All of it went in the recycling can. Before I could send a receipt through the shredder, I had to remove staples; lots and lots of staples.

I get my prescriptions at CVS. There were, sometimes, 3-4 staples in a receipt. That's a lot of metal. I recycled these too.

The area where 5 years of prescription receipts was is now clear. I can use it for more important storage or just leave it empty.

Beverage:  Assam tea

Deb

Well, That's Done

I was sick in December, really sick, with a cold that went around the office before it stopped by me. By that time, it had mutated beyond recognizable proportions and I spent Christmas in my pajamas nursing mugs of hot tea and practically snorting Vick's Vapor Rub. You know how it goes. You're tired, so you take a nap and sleep 5 hours. Then, when 10:30 pm rolls around, the last thing you want to do is sleep, but you're tired of surfing the web or playing World of Warcraft. What to do.

Reading was a disaster. I started a new book but the head cold made everything so fuzzy. I had this raking cough which, when it started, took a good 5 minutes to stop. (Quick! Where is the cough syrup AND cough drops?) I tried cross-stitching on my current project, but I couldn't count right and will have to rip out the stuff I did because it's wrong. I paced. I swept floors. I was having a sewer drainage issue which wasn't going to get resolved until the day after Christmas so thoroughly cleaning wasn't possible. (I'm still behind on laundry.)

Then, I spotted the filing. I was way behind in that. It was the end of the year and I would be needing to file income tax forms. Somewhere in the pile are the receipts for donations. I need to find and organize all of that. I like to file early and get it over with, but to do that, I was going to have to dive into the pile.

I did so with a vengeance. I went through all the folders. Anything 10+ years old or things I don't need to keep which had an account number on them were shredded. The shredder jammed several times and got really warm once. I've had the shredder for 15+ years. It's chewed up a lot of paper.

The kitten was given a few slices of paper to play with but he got bored with that. None of the kids liked the sound and ran when it jammed. Eventually, they figured out I was possessed with sorting and cleaning so they left me alone. I had piles on the bed, which Pilchard took to lying on so certain folders didn't get cleaned until she moved.

In the end, my recycling can was three-quarters full of shred.

I filed everything which needed to be filed. There is nothing errant in a pile on the table in the bedroom awaiting the chance to be put in the right folder. It's completely clear of paper. I found ALL my bookmarks. I am so proud of myself.

This gave me a bit of pause. If someone opened the can when it was out at the curb and rifled through it, they would see all this shred. Would it arouse suspicion that, perhaps, someone was shredding their identity? Were they getting rid of a life to start something new?

No, nothing so intriguing, although it would make a good starting sequence for a novel. "She closed the lid on the recycling can. Her life, all of it, was in thin strips of paper, commingled with soup cans, water bottles and cut down boxes. Perhaps someone, with vast amounts of time on their hand, could reassemble the bills and the statements, but she hoped the recycling company would get to this before anyone else."

It felt so very good to do this. It was one of those onerous jobs, way down on the list, I needed to do, to gain more control of my life, to make spaces in the house more enjoyable. After a couple hours, it was actually fun. Electric bills from 2009. SHRED!

When I paid bills at the beginning of this month and gathered up the receipts, I walked into the bedroom and didn't feel the compulsion to just shove them in the pile of paperwork awaiting filing. I felt the need to file them where they belong. It takes but 5 minutes after bill paying. That the spot is clear and the paperwork caught up makes me want to keep it that way.

Beverage:  Assam

Deb

The End of Summer

So many photos with stories to tell. It's been quite a summer; quite a year. I'm going to start here and move backwards and probably sideways and maybe forward. One never knows where the road will go.

After last year's washer replacement, I took at look at my other appliances. The refrigerator was probably the next target. The seal around the door had, for years, not been flush with the upper left and right corners. The upper left corner allowed warm air to seep inside, particularly during the summer. It would condense and "rain" occasionally onto the items on the left side. Usually, this happened when you opened the door to reach in for something. When I bought yogurt, it went on the upper left shelf and the tops of the containers were always wet. Mold would, occasionally, grow on the upper right corner of the door because there was a semi-sealed environment with warmth and moisture. I was cleaning the door and the roof at the upper left of the fridge 3-4 times per week.

The lights would short out because of all this moisture. I haven't had an interior light in months. I bought a replacement bulb in the spring, installed it (That was an adventure.) and it lasted 3 weeks before there was a fizzle one day when I opened the door. It was then that I realized there were 2 bulbs in the fridge, one at the front left and one at the back right. Well, I'll get around to replacing both of them.

And the seal at the lower left of the door wasn't flush anymore. Chilly air would seep out, since cold air is heavier than warm air and would cause mold to grow on the bottom corner of the fridge. I didn't see that until this summer when I dropped a bottle of seltzer and it sprayed all over the floor. What's this on the side of my fridge? Ewwwww.

We bought it in 1993. I would say I have gotten my money's worth from it. It wasn't quite level but that's also a product of a 1953-built house and the floor in that location isn't quite level. It has served this family and me well, but it had started to run a lot more than in the past. It was simply dying, albeit slowly, but dying nonetheless.

I'd read where appliances are cheapest at Memorial Day. Also, the time to replace the fridge is before you need it. I intended to buy one over Memorial Day weekend, but life intervened and I didn't have the funds. I limped along. It wasn't quitting on me, just running more and more. That could be chalked up to the loose seal and the summer temperatures and, perhaps, it would stabilize once fall got here. But I kept looking in the event there was some deal which would be too good to pass up. Enter Labor Day.

JC Penney, of all places, is starting to sell appliances. They had a Labor Day sale. I compared the above fridge with other places that sell it and Penney's had the best price, including free delivery. I had to pay $15 to haul the old one away. Then, I got an additional 10% off the price because I used my JC Penney card AND because I'm an "exceptional customer" (Not sure why. I don't buy that much stuff from them.) I got 18 months no-interest. As I intend to pay this off by Christmas, or sooner, the no-interest made the whole purchase that much sweeter. It was delivered yesterday.

I couldn't remember whether we brought the old one in the front or the back. They went around back and determined they had to take the old one out the front because it's bigger than the new one. It seems the freezer space is the same, but the fridge space is smaller. Yet, I don't need all that space. When I was cleaning out the old one, I found sour cream way in the back of the fridge with expiration dates of 2012 and 2013. Stuff is less likely to go to the back and be forgotten in the new fridge.

They tried to bring the new one in the back because it's smaller but it just wouldn't fit between the wall for the basement stairs and the corner of the sink. In the process, they bumped the paper towel holder which has a shelf on it and down it came. It turns out the unit, which was wood, had developed a soft spot on the shelf right where the dish soap usually sits. At some point, I would have set a bottle of soap back on the shelf and it would have fallen through. Plus, there was a section of wall behind the unit which had bubbling in the paint. I've scraped that off and ordered a new unit, almost identical to the old unit. I need to paint the rear entry now. Remember when I bought the paint? Um...yeah. It still sits under the kitchen table.

They also knocked off the wall, one of the spice racks I've had for decades.

My dad made two of these. Simple construction. I think he made a bunch to sell at flea markets, too. This one was held up by one screw in the middle of the unit. The two screws on the end didn't work anymore. The unit which fell was above this. I have a smaller unit on the wall next to the microwave. It was the template dad used to make these two units which are almost twice as long.

I don't use spices much anymore. I don't cook much anymore. Yesterday, after the guys left and I was putting things back, I looked at the spices off the rack that fell. Some of them had Eagle grocery store price labels on them. I don't remember when Eagle left Chicagoland, but they haven't been here in a very long time. Some of the spices had no scent. Some were discolored. Some were hardened.

I knew I needed to replace spices. There are recommendations to replace some every 6 months, but there is a part of me that screams, "Money down the drain!" whenever I'd look at these. Quite a few were purchased for one or two recipes and never used again. These bay leaves aren't even green.

I had an unopened bottle of curry powder. "Best used by 4-20-02." I don't remember the last time I made curry. I love the smell of curry and turmeric, particularly when cooked. The last spice I bought was in July and it was ground cloves. It's to keep the cats out of the house plants. They don't like the smell of cloves.

Looking over all of these, I decided part of tidying up is to critically assess household staples. If I haven't used allspice in 25+ years, why am I holding onto a tin of it, a tin with rusted edges? I had some berries which needed to go to the compost pile. I would dump the old spices into the bowl, haul the bowl to the compost pile and I'd have the best smelling compost pile in the neighborhood.

All the plastic, glass and metal containers and their lids have gone into the recycling can. I have, currently, 6 spices on the rack next to the microwave. I want to move that rack. It's never been in a great position. I took down the one rack left and will add them to the recycling can. They are wood, after all. I found a rack I liked on Amazon and it's going where the wood ones were. Then I will take down the one that's on the wall by the microwave. So I have to walk a few steps for the cinnamon. It will be more convenient in the long run.

The last thing to do is sort through all the stuff that was on top of the fridge and was on the kitchen table. I moved all of it to a table in the office. The kitchen table was tipped up on an edge to make room for the movement of fridges.

Unfortunately, this room has become something of a dumping ground. I have stacks and piles of things to look through and make decisions on. I walk in with every intention of doing a little bit, get overwhelmed and walk out. I tell myself to just pick one pile and sort through it. I can't find my note cards to write letters to friends. They are somewhere in here.

I've cleared off half of this table. I had a lot of magnets on the old fridge. I'm not sure I want to put them back. With the new fridge being shorter, I can now, easily, reach the cabinets above it. That Dutch Oven on the table, can go back into the cupboard. Cat dishes will still be on top of the fridge and I keep my peanut butter on top of the fridge. It's my go-to meal when I'm too tired to cook.

I watched them take away the old fridge. It occurs to me the only appliance I have left from when I was married is the stove. That doesn't seem like it's having problems. The oven still heats to temp and the burners still come on and heat evenly. It was purchased in 1991. I thought, "Well, I should replace that next year", but, realistically, do I need to? It's not giving me problems.

So, summer ends with a new appliance. Heading into fall, this is a good thing. I would hate to have to figure out the fridge doesn't go through the back door when it's 15 degrees out.

Beverage:  La Croix Berry Seltzer

Deb

Here We Go

It's two weeks until the office starts its move north. Part of the move is to pack unessential items. On October 24, three of us went to the office and began that process. We got pizza and pop and spent 6 hours stuffing things in boxes.

But we also pitched. According to our legal department, we are to save things for 14 years. So, with that in mind, we looked at all the things we have saved. My former boss would keep all sorts of things. Mike is much more ruthless. "We'll never use this." "There isn't any reason to save this." "We'll never look at this stuff again." We filled 10 garbage bags of junk.

One of the things we have is a steel filing cabinet with shallow drawers. We put roll tapes from on-site monitoring jobs in the cabinet. Also, you'll find micro cassettes of inspections. And you'll find drawers of 3.5 inch diskettes.

You have to buy special machines to read these diskettes. In fact, new computers don't have CD slots. Everything is downloaded. But, we have to keep some of these because they fall within the 14 year time frame, even though we'd have to send these to some place to have the data on them extracted.

We found these.

This is Windows 5. I think I remember when this was sent from corporate. Remember having to change discs in order to install programs? We had 2 sets of these.

Perhaps there is a place which could recycle discs but we couldn't find them. We had a stack of electronic equipment. I dumped my old printer into the mix. We found a place to take electronics for recycling. Bundles and bundles of packing peanuts went to UPS. It was pretty funny. Mike had the back of his SUV full of bags of peanuts. He also stuffed his car with cardboard. We get a lot of that due to shipping equipment. We also sent 5 boxes of miscellaneous parts and excess packing materials to our shop. The office seemed sort of empty after getting rid of all that material.

Yet, we've filled the space with packed boxes. We had a storage unit and that's been closed with all those boxes coming to the office. December 5th is the date for the moving company to come. We'll be in this space for December 7th, but the next day, all the computers move north.

Back when we were planning this, December 5th seemed so far away. Our offices at the new place have drywall and electrical. We all picked colors. Of course, I'm the weird one in that I want 3 colors in my office. Everyone else picked one. How dull. As they say in the musical business, "It's show time."

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Last Shirt

I cut out and started stitching the last of the three shirts for BlizzCon.

It's hard to believe that it's T-23 days and counting. I'm starting to think of the clothes I want to bring along and are they clean, particularly the shirts. As I don't do wash but once a week now, I have to actually plan for things instead of just what happens to be next in the closet.

I had purchased all the fabric on the bolt, when I was at JoAnn's. This was to give me a cushion, in case I screwed something up. As it turns out, I needed the cushion just to cut the pattern. Not exactly sure how I miscalculated, but I wound up needing all of the length. I do have a chunk near the end which wasn't big enough for anything. I just set it aside in the scrap box. Some day...

It was intriguing to see how the cardboard bolts are fashioned now.

After determining that I'd take the whole thing, the gal at JoAnn's simply rolled the fabric back on the bolt and gave me the whole thing. I unrolled the rest of the fabric and discovered the bolt is just folded cardboard. I remember when this was a fairly sturdy rectangle. Maybe that's still true for some fabrics, but, for this one, it wasn't. This is, actually, easier to add to the recycling bin.

Now that I'm on the third shirt, it's going together rather quickly. The hard part is the collar and front facing. Once that is done, it's a piece of cake to finish. BlizzCon, here we come.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Oh Yeah. I Sort of Remember

Another find in the basement stacks.

I vaguely remember this storm. We were supposed to go to an Iowa Hawkeyes-Northwest Wildcats basketball game the Saturday the storm arrived. After some brief discussion, we decided that was not a good thing to do so we stayed home. When we awoke the next morning, we had 2 feet of snow, more in the driveway because of the small hill and the drifting. The snow had ended overnight and the clouds broke to reveal one of those impossibly gorgeous blue skies that are so common in the winter.

What I remember most is the digging out and not for a positive reason. We didn't own a snowblower so we had to shovel. At the time, there were three of us living here. We did a two hours on, 2 hours off rotation. Carole was a sophomore in high school so she could shovel. By noon, a neighbor came by and blew out the drive. We shoveled the driveway apron and had shoveled the walks, the front steps and the deck. We started in liberating the cars.

That afternoon, the Green Bay Packers were playing the San Francisco 49ers for the National League title. My ex was a big Packer fan. There was a game before this one, so the Packers-49ers was not slated to start until 3:30 our time. We got the ex's car freed and he backed it out of the drive to make sure he could leave in the morning. Carole and I started working on freeing my car. My ex came back from a drive around the block and dashed inside. I went in and said, "My car needs about 45 minutes worth of work. If you come help, we can get it done faster." He looked at me and said, "Absolutely not. The Packers are going to be playing football. That was the deal. I'll shovel until the game and then I don't have to shovel any more."

I just stood there looking at him. First of all, there had been no such deal. We were going to dig ourselves out. The only thing that could have waited was the sidewalks, but getting to the drive was easier if we shoveled those out, so that's what we did first. Secondly, the other game was still, at this point, 10 minutes from completion and if you know anything about pro sports, 10 minutes left in a game means it will take 30-40 minutes to play, what with all the time outs and TV breaks. He went into the bathroom, took off all his winter gear, left it in a pile and plopped down in front of the TV. His car was free and that's all that mattered.

Carole and I spent the next hour digging out my car and widening the front walk. When we came inside, the first game was still going and he had made no effort, during commercials, to take care of his winter clothing. It was still in a soggy pile in the bathroom. I knew, at that point, that unless there were major changes in attitudes, I did not want to be married to this person anymore. He would not have missed any of "his" game and we would have been done much sooner if he'd helped. That idea wasn't remotely in his mind.

All of these memories flooded back when I looked at this newspaper. Since 1999, I've endured 3 more blizzards. I've faced them on my own. It can be tough, but there is a great deal of satisfaction in handling winter by myself. I tossed this paper in the recycling bin. There are some milestones you want to remember and some which are better off being pitched.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

One More Clear

This year, for the first time in roughly 8 years, I have to handle my own lawn mowing. My neighbor, Zeke, has retired and as soon as his house sells, he and his wife are moving. I contacted a few lawn services, but they never returned my call. Therefore, I decided I would mow my own lawn. This is a huge decision because it means I'm feeling reasonably decent enough to take that kind of step. It won't take a long time to mow and it's good exercise. Lord knows I need that.

So the first step was to research lawn mowers. Several people pointed out I need self-propelled. If I have to do the physical work of pushing, I will overdo it which leads to an RA flare up. I'm trying to avoid that. Next, I needed big rear wheels to facilitate moving the mower over rough terrain or through taller than usual grass. I also needed it not to cost an arm, leg and spleen. 

As if the universe was looking out for me, Ace Hardware had a mower on sale over the weekend. I checked it out and decided it was the right mower for me. They had one on the floor that I could have and they put it in the Jeep for me. 

The next step was to clean out the shed. Since I don't have a garage, the mower has to fit in the shed. But in order to get it in there, I had to clean it out. 

This has long been on my "to do" list. I have so many flower pots. It's not organized. I can't find the things I actually use. Needing to buy a lawn mower fit right in with the tidying I'm doing gradually around the house. On Sunday, when the clouds cleared and the sun came out, I jumped into cleaning the shed. I would make a pile of 'save' and a pile of 'pitch'. 

Two years ago, when I was getting pots out for planting, I saw a mouse. I never saw any last year, but there was the unmistakable odor of mouse urine in the shed. Donning gloves, I slowly started pulling pots out, hoping not to see anything gray scurry away. I didn't, but I found the source of the smell. 

They had made a nest in this pot. I actually like this pot. It's heavy-duty plastic. So, I'm going to dump everything in the pot into a garbage bag, rinse out the pot and I should be able to use it. There were no other pots with mice nests in them. 

I found this guy on the floor of the shed. 

I wonder how long he's been in the shed. 

After some work, everything had been removed and I saw the floor was covered in potting soil. 

What a mess. I really can't tell you how old this shed is. I'm thinking I got it in 2000 or 2001. Carole and I assembled it ourselves. I'm fairly certain the dirt on the floor of the shed hasn't been there all that time, but I do know I haven't bothered to clear out old dirt when it spilled. So, I took the broom and swept it out. 

Looks pretty good. 

Now it was time to get the mower out of the Jeep. The guy at Ace said he thought the mower weighed about 50 pounds. That seemed kind of heavy to me, but if the salesman could get it into the Jeep, I could get it out. 

Turns out, it's not 50 pounds. It's more like 30 so it was easy for me to maneuver sideways and lower to the ground. That alone made me feel really good. 

I rolled it over to the shed. From a distance, it appeared the mower was 2-3 inches too wide. What would I do then? I shouldn't have worried. 

It fits perfectly. The handle folds down. It comes with a rear bag but I won't ever use that. The manipulation of the bag is not something I really want to do. It comes with a side discharge and I'm very happy with that. 

The bag will go into the basement for storage. They filled the tank with the gas oil mixture I need and gave me the bottle of oil so I can make sure to buy the same kind for the next fill-up. I need to read the owner's manual this week. 

Once this was done, it was time to finish sorting my flower pots and other stuff in the shed. 

I don't have a grill so I have no need of the charcoal starter. There is a small wire piece that's off the front arbor. I keep meaning to super glue it back on. The brown things are pot trivets. They keep flower pots off the deck proper and allow air to circulate under the pots. Half of these were used continually. I thought I had more, but could never find them. Funny how things show up when you're cleaning. The brackets are for the deck pots and the yellow sponge things are kneelers. I probably could give those away as I don't kneel while gardening anymore. But I hung onto them, figuring that I probably will need them when I stain the deck next month. All this stuff stays although I would be happy to sell the charcoal starter since I don't use it. 

All of this is going. This year, instead of going to the nursery and buying plants, I ordered plants from a catalogue. The company sells heirloom flowers and vegetables and I thought I would give some of their plants a try. Some of these pots are cracked and broken. I just don't use most of them. A lot of the plastic ones I can probably recycle. I'm going to dump out all the dirt and get rid of these. Yes, the hose is going too. It's cracked on one end so it won't hook up to the outside spigot. It's also about twice as long as I realistically can use. I'll drag it to the street on Wednesday and see if one of the scavengers who drives around on garbage day takes it. Otherwise, it will go into the garbage can. 

This is what's left. 

I have my art pieces, which includes the plinth with the cardinal directions. The three at the bottom are the ones I put on the front porch. I have the two that hang off the deck and 4 bigger pots, including the one that needs to be scrubbed. I also have all my geraniums which I overwinter. There is also one large pot at the base of the deck. I think this is plenty. I'll go to the nursery next month and get begonias for the front. Impatiens did not do well on the front last year. They were eaten to stalks by some bug. The begonias filled out the pots very nicely. I anticipate delivery of the plants soon and then, if I need another pot, I have it before getting rid of the others. The cat house will be emptied of bedding and put in the basement. I hope I don't have to use it again this year. 

I noticed my Easter Island head is cracked. 

I'm unsure if I should try to fill this crack with something. There is no drainage hole in the bottom so water and debris accumulate over the course of a summer. You plop a gazing globe in the head but I've just left him as he is. He looks kind of funny with a translucent blue globe in his head.

There are two of these in the shed. These are citronella torches. I have a bunch in the basement in various stages of use. All of them are cracked, horizontally, between some of the rings.

You jammed these in the ground and sat "near" them and they warded off mosquitos. We would put them around the perimeter of the deck or in a circle and then we'd sit inside the circle. I think the optimum distance between each was 6 feet. That was more than enough room to get through the circle of torches if you needed to go inside.

I don't remember how well they worked. They looked cool when lit, like typical torches, and burned fairly slowly. The hard part was getting them into the ground, particularly if the ground was hard. I should see if the shortest of these two will still burn. If it does, then perhaps I should take these to Virginia for the next guild meet up. We like to sit outside, even in screened porches, so warding off bugs would be a good thing. If it doesn't light up and stay lit, there's the garbage can and I won't feel guilty about chucking them. They've been in the basement for years. It's time to use them or pitch them.

Finally, I was moving stuff about and suddenly had a feeling I was being watched. It took me a bit to spot her.

She never moved, even when I spotted her. Could this be a nest? I thought they liked more cover than this, not that she's in real danger in my yard. She was there yesterday when I got home from work. Part of me wonders, because she hasn't moved, could she be sick? Oh that would be lovely, in a not so great way. I'll keep an eye on her.

After asking about, my cousin is going to take all of the pots I want to give away. The cracked ones I won't send her, but I'm happy to be rid of everything else. "Don't spend a lot to ship them," she said. It is worth it to me to spend $20 to get them off my hands. Now to set about emptying all the dirt.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Customer Service Done Right

Why is it that when you get a positive response from customer service, you are surprised, really surprised? And it's particularly surprising when you're not really angry about something, just a bit vexed. Have we become so used to being rebuffed when we complain that we just don't expect to received any kind of response? Or, if we do get a response it's snarky or implies that you're just a whiner.

I bring this up because I got a response, in less than 12 hours, to a not flattering observation of the grocery where I do my shopping.

I hadn't really shopped since early March because I just haven't been home, so yesterday's shopping trip was of the "I'm out of this and this and this and this" variety. I take a small cart which, when filled with my bags and my purse and groceries, makes me consider the impulse purchase more strongly. "I don't have room for a bag of chips," I can say, and pass the enticing display right by. (I did get the vanilla ice cream because there is an NPR brownie recipe to try.)

I get to the check-out and we're moving along swimmingly. The clerk asks if I want my meat (pre-made hamburger patties which I'm more likely to cook when I don't have to make the burger. I know that sounds weird, but when you must cook as you have energy, you look for short cuts.) in a plastic bag. I said, "No, thanks. It will be fine." I didn't watch the bagger.

When I get home and start unpacking, I find the bagger has put my meat, the cat treats, the dish soap and the toothpaste and cough syrup into plastic bags. I have four plastic bags. I stood in my kitchen shaking my head. It's not the bagger's fault, necessarily. She was doing what she is trained to do. I know the rationale behind putting dish soap in a plastic bag. If the top pops open unexpectedly, the bag contains the soap that might squirt out. But the chances of that are remote if you handle your bags carefully. And the cat treats and the toothpaste and cough syrup? Those were completely lost on me why they would be separately bagged.

At first I wasn't going to say anything. It's just a bag. But the ability to easily recycle plastic bags is gone. Mariano's had has to replace their small plastic recycling bin with 2 large ones and both are usually full to overflowing when I attempt to recycle bags. I guess I just don't hit the right time for a clean bag.

As I put groceries away, however, I got to thinking. I bring my own bags. I have a hard time recycling plastic bags. The clerk asked if I wanted the meat in plastic. I said, "No." She didn't ask about anything else. Was she supposed to? I don't want plastic bags. If this is how baggers are trained, then I need to express to Mariano's that some of us just don't want plastic, that we bring our own bags from home for a reason. So, I logged into my account and sent them a comment with that sentiment. I also expressed the feeling that it must be hard to provide bag recycling but if we reduce the need to use plastic bags in the first place, Mariano's bottom line is increased by having to buy less of the things.

Not 4 hours later, there was a reply in my in box apologizing for the less than stellar service. The store manager, himself, wrote the email. "I will speak with our Front End leadership to touch base with the baggers to be sure they are asking each customer that uses reuseable bags if they would like plastic bags." It's not a criticism of the bagger herself. She didn't squash my bread, In fact, I really liked how efficient she was in packing things. It's just that she put stuff in plastic bags that didn't need to be in plastic. The acknowledgement of this and the decision to talk to the bagging leadership is impressive, as is the fact that he wrote back within 4 hours of my sending the email. They have offered me a gift card "for my trouble".

So, the bottom line is, a well-reasoned, calm expression of a concern is appreciated. It always has been. My reaction to the acknowledgement that I had a legitimate concern is something which struck me. I wasn't expecting a gift card, far from it. I wasn't even expecting a reply. I just wanted to point out something they, maybe, hadn't considered. I assumed they would read it and chuck it into the digital equivalent of the "circular file". I'm grateful they responded how they did. Good customer service makes strong bonds with customers.

Beverage:  Coca-Cola

Deb

Has Craft Project Written All Over It

One of the stipulations for having a party for my mother for her 80th birthday was that there were to be no gifts. Cards were acceptable, but gifts were right out. "I don't need anything," was her comment. This is truth, with a bit of reservation. There are things she needs but they don't tend to be of the perfume or stationary or trinkets kind. And then there are the things she wants.

Wants and needs are different but can become muddled in one's thinking. When we headed to Carole and Larry's wedding in March, we stopped at a Panera for a snack. They had Republic of Tea tea flavors but not the kind she loves, Ginger Peach. In the car, she allowed that she'd looked for the tea online and was kind of appalled by how much it cost to order a tin. My gift radar went off. Here was a want. She missed this tea and hadn't had it in many months. Bingo. I can get her something that skirts the "no gifts" request.

So, after the wedding, in fact, the very day she drove home, I ordered two tins from Republic of Tea's web site. She was thrilled and I know it's something she will actually use. (I later found Ginger Peach at Mariano's for a dollar less than I paid off the web site and she found it for $1.25 more than I paid at a specialty grocery near her. This means she will always have Ginger Peach in her cupboard.)

When the box came, the tins were packed with these.

I've seen all sorts of packing materials, some more recyclable than others. This was a totally new material. I dumped a few onto the table.

Holy craft project, Batman! Some spray paint and heavy yarn and I have a garland. I could insert flower picks in the holes, wrap the garland around a foam circle and have a wreath for the front door. I don't need one right now as I have my spring wreath up which will be changed, at the beginning of next month, for the lilac bough Carole and I made years ago. I happened to think that if I lived closer to my nieces and nephews, we could make mini-garlands for their rooms. At the very least, if I don't do anything with these in 6 months, they are all recyclable.

I like Republic of Tea's Blackberry Sage flavor. It's not a flavor I find anywhere. Although I need more tea like I need a third eye, I'm thinking of ordering a couple tins of this flavor for myself, just so I have more of these packing triangles to work with. That's a silly reason to purchase anything, to get the packing materials.

Once I finish the cross-stitch I'm doing and the book I'm reading, then I can turn my eye toward using these. Maybe, when I get into working with them, they won't turn out to be as cool as I expect, but we'll see. Imagination in overdrive.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Everything In Its Place Then,

My friend, Meredith, gave me this folder last year.

Since it's minion-themed, it was cute but, at the time, I had no idea what I'd use it for. Then, as I prepared to get Christmas cards out the door, it hit me. My stickers. It's perfect. I keep the sticker sheets I'm currently using on one side and the extra sets, address labels and stamps on the other side. I was just using a file folder but, being carried about in a messenger bag had left the folder quite beat up. I kept telling myself I needed something else to hold my stickers because the folder didn't have edges to contain the small sheets that Meredith will sent me. And, it had been opened so often, it was slowly falling apart on the fold. This folder is heavy duty cardstock. It has fallen off the table onto the floor several times without showing wear.

It's funny how you look at something and it's cute, but that's it, but when you look at it again, it's incredibly useful.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Lacking

Shopping resulting in any accumulation of more than one bag leaves one with a dilemma. Witness the accumulation of bags on the recliner after last Saturday's trip.

We didn't go into a lot of stores. I tried, every time I purchased something, to see if they would add to a bag I had already accumulated. "No," was the universal answer.

Three years ago, that wouldn't have bothered me. The Dominicks grocery store across from the office had a large bin where a recycler would take your plastic bags. I never threw one into the garbage. But Dominicks closed and Mariano's is not stepping up, indeed no one is, to fill the void. I have 2 large bags filled with plastic bags accumulated over the past 2 years since Dominicks has been gone. I have myself so trained that I still stuff a large plastic bag with smaller bags out of habit, even though I know I have no place to take them. Mariano's does have a small, very small, bag recycling bin, but I could fill it just on my own.

According to the little bit available online, recycling bags is a headache. Black and colored bags differ in composition from white bags. Inks used to print logos have to be removed from the chemical soup which results when bags are ground and then melted to make more bags. It's expensive. The market for recycled paper products is huge and it's easy to turn used into new.

I understand the mindset of Lane Bryant, where I bought a pair of jeans. Your bag is somewhat free advertising. Seeing someone walking around with a Lane Bryant bag might make you consider going to that store to see what they have for sale. But companies need to also understand that consumers want to make greener choices. If I get a large bag because I bought a pair of jeans, I'm just going to stuff the other, smaller bags inside it. We've been doing that for centuries. Why lug around 15 bags when you can lug around 3? No one's going to see that I went to the Carter outlet because that bag is inside another. The mind set also can't be chalked up to loss prevention, either. I'm stuffing my purchase inside another bag. If I'm going to steal something, a bag from the Carter's outlet is NOT what I'm going to be using.

I don't shop much anymore. I try to remember, when I do go out, to grab a reuseable bag. I feel very bad about shoving my plastic bags into a garbage bag and setting it out with my garbage, yet I don't have an option. Maybe bag recycling needs to figure out a better way to be done. It's something very lacking in all the recycling we are able to do.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

A Change of Meds

There was a doctor visit in November. At that time, Dr. Francis and I discussed the state of my RA. I don't necessarily feel worse. I have little aches, but, come on, we all have those from day to day. It wasn't pain. It was an ache in a joint; a thumb, a wrist, a toe, a shoulder. On a few days, at the end of the day, I'd take an aspirin or, if I knew I would be on my feet for awhile, I'd take an aspirin at the beginning of the day. I can't take more than two aspirin in a 24 hour period and, if the need for an aspirin continues over more than 3 days, I need to call Dr. Francis. I felt I was doing well, all things considered. That Vectra test changed the perception of what I'm dealing with.

One simple number, 42, changed everything. Joking aside that it's the "universal answer to life, the universe and everything', it says I have moved into severe levels with RA. Left untreated, joint damage will occur. I'll get the bent fingers I remember a number of my great aunts having. It was time, Dr. Francis said, to add one of the newer biologic drugs to my arsenal.

At first, we tried to get Xeljanz. You might have seen their elegant black and white commercials on TV. It's attractive because it's a pill taken twice a day. It's relatively new to the biologic market. But, my insurer would not approve it. I was going to need to take one of the older established biologics and see if I have an intolerance issue with them before Xeljanz can be considered. They said I needed to start with Enbrel.

You might recognize this name if you watch sports or a lot of TV. Golfer Phil Mickelson is the celebrity spokesperson for this. He has Psoriatic Arthritis and Enbrel was developed to treat that. But it's also useful for RA and for Plaque Psoriasis. Dr. Francis has a number of patients on Enbrel and she likes it. She has fewer on Xeljanz, but they are doing well. It is newer to her than Enbrel is, so she has less experience with it. Still she went to bat for me to get what I thought would be much easier for me to take.

This comes as a pen-type injector which I need to do myself. This scared me to no end. I know of people who have to give themselves shots and I admire their fortitude. But, if I'm going to progress on, I needed to get over my fear and learn to do this. Just telling me "it's easy" is not helpful or mind settling.

For drugs like these, the data sheet rivals a small novel.

I spent last night on the phone with nurses from the pharmacy that sends me the Enbrel and with my insurance company going over the side effects. Unfortunately, there is no magic "by" date to tell me if I tolerate this without side effects. I can say that I haven't grown a third eye or have been covered in hives. One side effect to consider with the holidays approaching is that my immune system is suppressed and I will be less able to fight off colds. That means there probably aren't going to be a lot of "Aunt Debbie" hugs at Christmas, particularly if someone has the sniffles. I got the flu shot this year but am slightly worried about my health since reports are that the flu shot may not help one's immune system fight the flu. I've been informed that what is usually a 7 day battle with a cold, could be a 2 week battle for me. That's a long time to be sick. It means hand washing is huge for me and, although I like you, you might have to stand over there to talk to me. Nothing personal. Just know I don't want to be near you if you're sick.

An interesting thing about this medication is that it comes chilled.

It needs to be kept refrigerated. I had it sent to the office where we have a mini-fridge and I could keep it cold. Technically, deliveries in the winter shouldn't be affected, but the last thing I wanted was for someone to swipe the box off the front porch, too. Since the delivery is next day, I can call for a delivery on a day when I know I will be in the office to sign for it and put it in the fridge.

My first box came with all this stuff.

There are small circular band-aids, alcohol pads for cleaning the injection area and a sharps container. I'm not a bleeder and often, after having blood drawn at my RA appointments, I will forego a band-aid. But I've noticed that there is just a pin prick spot at the injection site and a band-aid is helpful for a couple hours. I don't know, yet, when I will send the sharps container back, but I like that it's small enough to sit on the shelf in the bathroom yet it appears it will hold a couple months worth of pens.

The drug itself arrives in a styrofoam cooler.

It was a perfect fit for the box and getting it out at the office involved removing the top, grabbing both sides and shaking the box so it would drop off. It fits nicely in the office fridge.

It's not very big.

A 6-pack of soda is probably all that would fit in here. The box of pens, 4 to a package, was under and on top of gel packs; 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. Since this is a month's worth of drugs and I have to do this now forever, or until something changes, the thought of all these coolers and gel packs in my house makes me weak. I was informed that, once I've been on this for 3 months and if I'm tolerating it well, I will get my 4th shipment as 3 month's worth. Well, that's still a cooler and gel packs. I don't know if I can recycle those, although the styrofoam cooler I can. The last thing I need are stacks of gel packs in my freezer, although they last a long time and keep frozen dinners frozen.

I went to the doctor's office and learned how to give myself the shot. It went okay under my doctor's nurses' watchful eye. The next week, it stung a bit when I did it on a Saturday in the bathroom. Last week, however, it didn't hurt beyond the initial pin prick. I have to take the meds out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature for at least 30 minutes. This past week, I waited 40 minutes. When I use the alcohol pads to wipe off the injection site, I need to make sure all the alcohol has evaporated or that will sting. Once I see the indicator on the pen go to solid purple, I count to 5 before removing the pen from my leg. This way I make sure all the medication has been delivered.

Do I have an immediate feeling for change? No. Yeah, I was hopeful there would be some dramatic feeling better, that this almost crushing fatigue I fight would be lifted. But, with a drug like this, my body has to get used to it being in my system and that takes time. It could take as long as 3 months. I need to be better by March so I can go back to Virginia and not be completely wiped out by the travel.

And, speaking of Virginia, they provided me with a travel pouch.

It has gel inserts. The whole thing goes into the fridge before I travel and then a month's worth of pens can be put inside the case. The pouch will keep them chilled for up to 14 hours. When I go to Virginia, I'll have this and a cooler for travel. Things you have to plan for that you didn't before.

One of the questions the nurses ask when going over the drug is if you are depressed. I've been thinking a lot about that question on my own. Am I fatigued because of something else? It comes back to no and I expressed that to the nurses. I'm tired. Both the reading I've done and Dr. Francis agree that my fatigue is due to the RA. She doesn't guarantee I will feel better, 66% of patients report an easing of symptoms, but Dr. Francis feels this is the best route to go. Once there is enough drug assisting my body in fighting this disease, then I won't feel so tired anymore.

Here I go, walking down a different road. Right now, if feels as if the road is going up and up and it's hard to climb. It's not filled with pot holes or boulders, it's just steep and I'm struggling to progress. I'm hopeful this will do the trick and give me back my energy. I miss feeling refreshed all day.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Things I See-November Edition

Here's another collection of things I saw worthy enough for a photograph.

I visited Carole at the end of October. On the way back, I needed a restroom and some tea. Dunkin' Donuts is my go-to place for tea, except, maybe, in western Pennsylvania.

I couldn't toss this even after I'd finished the tea because I can recycle the cup in my recycling. So, a Penn State item made its way into my Iowa Hawkeye house. The tea is always good, even if it came in the wrong color cup.

I've always wanted to make a braided rug. I used to have one that my great-great aunt made. She used wool scraps from a variety of sources. It wore really well for awhile and then disintegrated one day as I was, I thought, gently shaking out crumbs and dirt. I have a booklet that tells me how to make these kinds of rugs and it seems easy enough. It's a great way to use up fabric and is a craft that ties us to our ancestors.

What so great about these rugs, seen in a building I was inspecting, is that they are made from plastic bags. I'm not kidding. I saw these and knew, right away, what they were. I've known, for a long time, about places doing this. It's a great fund raiser for groups and a number of homeless shelters will have residents make rugs. If you accumulate a lot of bags and have no place to recycle them, it might be something you'd like to try. Here's a tutorial on the process.

I loved the colors in the stack. I didn't find out if they sold any of these or, because there were a lot of them, and bags, shoved onto this shelf unit, had the bottom dropped out of sale of plastic bag braided rugs.

This is coal.

Seriously. That's coal on the ground. Some of the people I were with had never seen real coal. Who knows how long it's been here. It's not something that's going to decompose quickly.

Seeing it brought back memories of the manual furnace that heated the farm house I grew up in. We used wood and coal. Coal gave off a smell, but burned for a long time and gave off a lot of heat, once you got it lit. Dad would start the fire in the fall with wood and then toss in the coal. We sometimes had to endure a warm house because he didn't want the fire to go out and have to start the process all over again if the warm spell was going to be just a few days. In the morning, the house was often chilly as the fire wound down, and we got dressed for school in the kitchen with the oven door open to remove the chill from the air.

The chimney had to be cleaned periodically because the layers of soot deposited on the inside could catch fire. We had that happen once. I remember sitting on the steps in the unheated back entry because the soot in the chimney caught fire. We were wrapped in blankets to keep warm. Mom and dad were dousing the red hot coal fire with water in an attempt to create enough steam to put out the chimney fire. Oh the smell and the smoke! Windows and doors were open to create drafts to get the smoke out of the house. I remember having to clean everything for weeks afterward because there was a thin layer of soot everywhere.

It's hard to see, but there is a spider the size of a half-dollar in the upper right corner of this door. Two of my co-workers are very scared of spiders. I would not have a tarantula in my house nor would I stroke one or pick one up or have one crawl across my hand. I'm not, however, terrified of spiders. I usually try to herd them onto the fly swatter or a piece of paper and toss them outside. They do more good out there anyway.

I don't think this gal spun a web in a food-rich environment. This was a courtyard, surrounded by 10 foot tall brick walls and covered with a mesh grating. I'm seeing very tiny spiders in the house now, spiders who were hatched at the middle of fall and who are looking for food before dying off in the winter. They just sort of show up, in the dish drainer, in the corner of windows, in front of books in the bookcase. I just look at them and wonder why they thought where they are was going to yield any sort of meal. Then I squash them.

Speaking of doors,

This was the main entry to a warehouse. The building was built in the 1930's and was reused in the 1980's as a warehouse. Security doors aren't made like this anymore.

A bunch of blocks. I was in a basement and these blocks date from the 1930's. What's so special about these blocks? Well, I don't know much about building construction, particularly older construction. They are interesting on their own and make me curious. What struck me was the Reg. US. Pat. Off. mark. Reguspatoff. I know it stands for "Registered, US Patent Office", meaning the bricks have a patent. It was also the name of a computer in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Someone told me it was in Rocky and Bullwinkle but that was the WAYBACK machine, which was an homage to the UNIVAC from the early age of computing. That age coincided with the germination in Jay Ward's mind, of a subversive cartoon which has just as much relevance to today as it did back in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Find and watch "The Boxtop Robbery" or "Wossamotta U". (The Wossamotta U fight song is directly purloined from the fight song for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. I can't hear their fight song without singing, "Wossamotta, hats off to you. To your colors, ocher and Alice Blue. We shall e're be faithful and true. Hail Wossamotta hail. Better we should be in jail. Hail Wossamotta U.")

Back to Reguspatoff. I'm almost certain it was in Underdog, but I can't find independent confirmation. Since I don't get cable, I can't watch Cartoon Network which might have Underdog on the schedule. Seeing this on these bricks made me snicker. I didn't point this out to my companions as I was pretty sure none of them had the same frame of reference I did.

Finally, I saw this in the basement of a building.

Did you ride face first or feet first? I could never get up the courage to ride face first. My brothers and sister did, but not me. I didn't mind being in the front, but I could never expose my face to a wipe out.

I would go again. Grab the great nieces and nephews, find a hill with a soft landing, put on layers and layers and go sledding. We would start up by the garage and, if lucky, you'd make it all the way down the hill past the barn and to the bridge over the creek. Sometimes, if conditions were right, you could get across the bridge, onto the flat beyond and up the other side of the hill a bit. Ice was the worst. Hit a patch and you lost control. We'd spend hours outside. It took a good 10 minutes to drag the sled back up to the garage to ride it down again, always hoping for just the right mix of speed and dexterity to go even farther up the other side than you had before.

Sometimes, it was too dangerous to go down the hill by the barn, so we'd try to see if we could make it around the windmill and over the hump by the house. Hairpin curves are not a sled's forte. You made wide, sweeping curves. If you had to swerve quickly, the best course of action was to simply fall off the sled, which resulted in faces full of snow and lots and lots of laughter. Yeah, I'd do it again.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Dragging Myself into the 21st Century

As my daughter will attest to, I can be slow to adopt new technology. It's not that I fear it. It's more a case of information overload and what I need to unlearn in order to learn new. Plus, I have an innate fear of pushing the wrong button and, well, ...

So, I have danced around the issue of my TV not working for at least 6 months. If you would notice the intense red in the image to the right and then add some neon pink to that, it's what "white" people's skin had started looking like. Any darker skin tone went seriously close to black paint. And this was assuming the TV would come on at all. Right before I left for my May Virginia trip, I decided the TV had died and my idea of giving a new one to myself as a Christmas present became a bit unlikely.

See, we're in the fall season right now; the time of hot cider, warm butternut squash soup and Iowa Hawkeyes football on ABC. /sigh. When you can't get your TV to even turn on reliably, the idea that you're going to watch said Hawkeyes from the comfort of your recliner with a cat firmly ensconced in your lap becomes less likely. I need a new TV.

It took some saving and cutting back on other things, to have enough to buy a TV. But my technophobia was getting the best of me. I looked at deals online and they might as well be speaking Klingon for all that I understood. One of my guild mates, who lives southeast of me, offered to take me around and look at all my options, explaining what I needed to get set up and making suggestions on what would be a good TV. Plus, he'd set everything up so there would be no nuclear explosion because I connected the wrong wire.

Ta da.

Thirty-two inches of awesomeness.

Why didn't I go larger, you're wondering? Well, this is the original set up.

That's 25 inches of tube. To the right is my Play Station 2 which needed to be connected to the new TV. On the top shelf is my DvD player. I use it to play movies and CDs when I'm crafting in the living room. A new TV had to fit in this spot. Larger just wouldn't work.

You need to understand that I'm not a "typical" television consumer. I don't have cable or satellite. If I could pick and choose exactly which stations from cable I could have, I would sign up in a minute. But if I want the Big 10 network, which would give me all the Hawkeye football and basketball games, I have to have things I will never watch. Why should I pay for 85 channels when I only want 6? I am also blessed in the Chicagoland area that we have a plethora of free channels. If I want to watch MeTV, I have 3 channels from which to choose. PBS has 4 separate channels including a Spanish language one that tends to show travelogs when I'm channel surfing. Then it doesn't really matter what language comes through the speakers. The scenery is what matters.

After much discussion, I also got a Blu-Ray player. That is the new technology, although it will, ultimately, go away as content goes to online streaming. There wasn't an easy or cheap way to connect both the DvD player and the PS2 to the new TV. The player will play all my movies, and my non-Blu-Ray movies will look as good as Blu-Ray movies and I can still play my CDs from my nearly 200 CD jazz collection. (Some day, that all needs to be uploaded to the new computer, but I really dislike the new iTunes.)

Here's the new set up with Mission: Impossible on the TV.

What a difference. I had to get a new antenna but no more is the antenna duct taped to the east window in the hopes of picking up a signal. Clear and sharp, it was awesome. My friend also gave me my first Blu-Ray movie.

"Listen. Do you smell something?"

I was thrilled. The only down side was that the local primary stations weren't coming in. I couldn't, initially, get CBS, ABC, NBC or PBS. I got the FOX station, but football is carried on ABC. I needed to figure this out.

So, I resorted to (gasp) reading the instructions and discovered how to make the TV search for missing channels. Last night, for the first time in over 6 months, I watched the NBC Nightly News.

Wow. Skin colors that are actually the right color. There can still be an occasional degradation in signal which can be maddening when you're focused on a segment you feel is important, but it's less than it was when I had to run the signal through a converter box. I need to tuck the DDR pad behind the stand. The local news is, primarily, what I am usually watching on television. I missed that as my computer news feeds don't seem to reliably pull in local events.

It's quite the change. I am thrilled with this and so glad Jim could come along and help me. I took the empty box to Pam's on Sunday. My recycling can is full, at the moment, so the box would just sit around for another week until my can was emptied. Her recycling can was empty. I would have been really, really nervous about transporting the TV from Best Buy to my house in my Jeep.

It would have fit, but I would have worried. Jim drives a big Jeep so we could lie it down flat and anchor it so it would not slide.

I am now, dear reader, in the 21st Century. I watched part of "Ghostbusters" on Saturday. I want to try some of my other DvDs just to see how they look, and start up Final Fantasy X to see how it looks. I'm starting the next phase of crafting so "background" music will become, once again, a reality. The TV is going to Wheaton's electronics recycling event on Saturday. I've started accumulating the printers, cables and other electronic pieces that go. Pam and her hubby are coming to get the TV on Friday as it's a behemoth to move and they will bring the van for it. My other options were to find an neighbor to move it into the Jeep and pray that it fit in the front seat or roll it to the curb. The garbage company will take electronics but you have to sticker them.

Jim and I celebrated the purchase.

You can't go wrong with Portillo's. The whole day set me back less than $500, which is, to my mind, a real bargain. There is room behind the TV for a cat to sleep, but they have never been interested in resting on top of the TV so I don't know if someone will, eventually, figure out there's space back there. I guess we'll see.

So, bring on college football. I'm ready.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb