Ever notice how the longer you're away from your regular routine, the harder it is to get back into it? That's what's happening to me now ...
I spent almost four weeks coughing to the point where I could only sleep, at most, an hour at a time. Now, even though the cough has eased off considerably, I'm finding it really difficult to get to sleep. Consequently, once I do finally fall asleep - usually somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning - I have a tendency to either sleep until noon, or wake up early and then have a long nap in the afternoon. I need to get back on track in keeping (more or less) "office hours" ... I also need to re-book all the workshops I missed, and get the job search up and running again.
The switch to Daylight Saving time this past weekend didn't help much, either; my body keeps insisting it's an hour earlier than it really is. It always takes me at least four days to make the mental and physical adjustment; oddly, though, it doesn't take any time at all to adjust to putting the clocks back in the fall. Of course, then I can just roll over and sleep for another hour - and as a person who's chronically short on sleep anyway, that doesn't hurt a bit!
I'm happy to report zero food wasted this past week! There was one sad-looking forgotten apple in the back of the veggie drawer, but the guinea pigs leaped on it and it was gone in about three minutes, so not really wasted at all.
The work on my new room - shifting, weeding, organizing - is still going quite slowly. Even though I'm not coughing much any more, I still get tired awfully fast. I can work steadily for about half an hour, and then I have to stop and rest; if I don't, pretty soon I have to stop to cough for ten minutes. Baby steps. It will be finished before the end of the month. Most of the furniture is in, the computer gets moved tomorrow, and the last bookcase goes in next week. After that, it's down to organizing, and making the curtains. And I already have two big bags of donations ready to go the next time we're headed that way.
It snowed this morning! I was, naturally, utterly disgusted. But by early afternoon it had stopped and pretty much all melted, so we were able to do the Costco run for the things that are (according to my price book) better value for the money at Costco than anywhere else in our area: milk, coffee, peanut butter, mayonnaise, and toilet paper. Big Guy pouted a little when I said "No" to a $20 beef roast, until I reminded him that he had insisted we should eat out of the freezer instead of buying more meat until at least one of us is back to work. Frugal win for me!
Big Guy spent yesterday pruning the huge old evergreens along the west side of the house. Now we have a lot more daylight in the yard, and more light in the house. He was worried that the sunshine might make the yard and the house too warm in the summer, so I reminded him that in the summer the sun follows a different path in the sky and we'd still have plenty of shade.
I was checking some of my old posts earlier today, and ran across something that may have appeared to be a big contradiction, so I'd like to clarify the house-heating situation at present.
When there is no tenant downstairs, we heat with the wood stove, since we only need to keep the main floor heated. When there is a tenant, we use the furnace, since there is only electric baseboard heat in the bedroom of the suite. And since we'd like to have the suite occupied all the time - after all, that's why it's there - we invested in the new furnace. I'm happy to report that since its installation our gas bill has dropped by almost 35 %. Combine that with the almost 45 % savings on the annual water and sewer bill since we had the (free) meter installed, and the huge drop in the gas bill we saw when we had the tankless on-demand water heater put in, and you can see why I'm not as unhappy about the cost of home ownership as I used to be! Now, if we could only agree on what style of double-glazed window to put in the living room ...
I've given P the go-ahead to plant whatever she likes in the raised bed along the west side of the yard, and she has all kinds of alien-looking flowers and ornamental grasses planned. Considering how little of what we've planted there in the past actually came into the house (as opposed to being eaten by the local wildlife), it's not really a loss for us. My plan for this spring is to hang planters all along the chain-link fencing, with chicken-wire cages to keep the squirrels out of my herbs. Fresh vegetables will be dirt cheap all summer at the farmers' markets, so I can buy and freeze enough to last a long time without going over budget. Now, here's hoping the sun will shine the whole time our fruit trees are blooming!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Feeling Better, Sort Of ...
Wow. I don't remember ever being sick for this long ... it's been three weeks so far, and I'm still coughing, though not nearly so incessantly or painfully as last week or the week before. The doctor thinks I probably have/had pertussis (also known as whooping cough). Oddly enough, though the cough was a killer and left me raspy-throated, achy-ribbed, and utterly exhausted, I had no other symptoms. No fever, no rash, no green goop, no digestive upsets ... just the damn cough. Said cough, I'm told, could take another week or two to finally disappear. I'm finally starting to feel more like myself, though, and getting a lot of my energy back at last. Which is nice after weeks of being too tired to pick up the remote and change the channel!
Of course, the job search had to be put on "pause" along with everything else; there's no mileage in applying for a job you can't go to the interview for, is there? "Yes, I'd love to come in for an interview. How about three weeks from now?" That, I figured, wouldn't make a very good first impression. So the plan right now is to spend the rest of this week getting the new workroom in order, and gear up the job search again next Monday morning ... including rescheduling all the Resource Centre workshops I missed.
Big Guy, bless his heart, tried to take care of me. He made chicken soup, brought me Benelyn (with codeine for the aching ribs), intercepted phone calls ... then again, he also did his usual You-are-a-plague-rat-and-I-will-feed-you-with-a-slingshot routine.
And ... he painted my new workroom. Just got up one morning, grabbed a roller, and did it. Over my protests that I would do it as soon as I could stand up long enough, He claimed he only did it because my new desk is taking up too much room in his workshop, but we all know better. And I love him too.
So ... the painting is done, the windows are sparkly clean inside and out, the curtain rod is back up. We're still working on the floor; it really needs professional refinishing, but for the moment all we can do is try to get all the paint splatters and scuff marks (from J's furniture) cleaned away. I'm hoping to get the desk in there some time tomorrow; after that I can start shifting everything from the current room. And yes, I'll be sorting and tossing/donating as I go ... nothing is going into that room until I'm absolutely sure it will be used. I refuse to move things in that I'll just end up taking back out!
Our downstairs tenant gave us notice for the end of March. Whereupon daughter P and son-in-law N promptly asked if they could move in on April 1st! The suite is pretty small for two people and a dog (and two cats), but the price is right as P is still looking for work (she was laid off last fall), and N likes the closeness of the Skytrain for his daily commute. So they have given their notice to their current landlord, and the weekend of March 31st - April 1st is going to be interesting, to say the least. Oh, and did I mention that March 31st is daughter J's birthday? "Interesting" may turn out to be far too mild a word for it ...
On the frugal front, things are going well. Instead of buying paint for the workroom, I used primer and paint we had left from painting the living room a couple of years ago. It's a lovely soft, warm oatmeal colour, with a white ceiling to reflect more light. For drapes, I'll be using some fabric Mom gave me; a sheer lightweight silk patterned with pastel flowers. Not my first choice, but it will work well with the room and is mild and inoffensive. And if we can't get all the paint off the floor, I'll check out Freecycle and the local thrift stores for a couple of nice light-coloured throw rugs or sisal mats.
Convincing Big Guy to cook in smaller quantities is going to be harder than I thought. Good thing we have that big chest freezer - which he now says we should be eating out of instead of grocery shopping! I've been saying it for months - but now that it's his idea, it's a good idea! ::sigh :: But it looks like he might be back to work soon, which means I'll probably have to take over the cooking. Now, I hate cooking. Frankly, I'd rather scrub toilets than cook. But if I do the cooking, I can control how much gets cooked, which in turn means I can cut the food waste way down. We ended up tossing a quart of homemade chicken soup last week, because he made a huge pot of it and then stalled on batching it up for the freezer, and I was too exhausted most days to eat more than a tiny bit.
I was enormously amused by something I got in the mail a while back. Last year I joined BC Hydro's "Power Smart" project; a couple of weeks ago I got a little package from them in the mail. I opened it up to find ... half a dozen wooden clothespins accompanied by an estimate of how much I might save by hanging laundry up instead of using the dryer! I giggled madly as I tossed them into the basket with the hundred or so I already have - I guess they had no way to know I've been hanging all my laundry for years!
Anyway, back to the floor cleaning. I've been taking pictures at each stage of the room conversion; I'll post them when the room is finished. Can't wait!
Of course, the job search had to be put on "pause" along with everything else; there's no mileage in applying for a job you can't go to the interview for, is there? "Yes, I'd love to come in for an interview. How about three weeks from now?" That, I figured, wouldn't make a very good first impression. So the plan right now is to spend the rest of this week getting the new workroom in order, and gear up the job search again next Monday morning ... including rescheduling all the Resource Centre workshops I missed.
Big Guy, bless his heart, tried to take care of me. He made chicken soup, brought me Benelyn (with codeine for the aching ribs), intercepted phone calls ... then again, he also did his usual You-are-a-plague-rat-and-I-will-feed-you-with-a-slingshot routine.
And ... he painted my new workroom. Just got up one morning, grabbed a roller, and did it. Over my protests that I would do it as soon as I could stand up long enough, He claimed he only did it because my new desk is taking up too much room in his workshop, but we all know better. And I love him too.
So ... the painting is done, the windows are sparkly clean inside and out, the curtain rod is back up. We're still working on the floor; it really needs professional refinishing, but for the moment all we can do is try to get all the paint splatters and scuff marks (from J's furniture) cleaned away. I'm hoping to get the desk in there some time tomorrow; after that I can start shifting everything from the current room. And yes, I'll be sorting and tossing/donating as I go ... nothing is going into that room until I'm absolutely sure it will be used. I refuse to move things in that I'll just end up taking back out!
Our downstairs tenant gave us notice for the end of March. Whereupon daughter P and son-in-law N promptly asked if they could move in on April 1st! The suite is pretty small for two people and a dog (and two cats), but the price is right as P is still looking for work (she was laid off last fall), and N likes the closeness of the Skytrain for his daily commute. So they have given their notice to their current landlord, and the weekend of March 31st - April 1st is going to be interesting, to say the least. Oh, and did I mention that March 31st is daughter J's birthday? "Interesting" may turn out to be far too mild a word for it ...
On the frugal front, things are going well. Instead of buying paint for the workroom, I used primer and paint we had left from painting the living room a couple of years ago. It's a lovely soft, warm oatmeal colour, with a white ceiling to reflect more light. For drapes, I'll be using some fabric Mom gave me; a sheer lightweight silk patterned with pastel flowers. Not my first choice, but it will work well with the room and is mild and inoffensive. And if we can't get all the paint off the floor, I'll check out Freecycle and the local thrift stores for a couple of nice light-coloured throw rugs or sisal mats.
Convincing Big Guy to cook in smaller quantities is going to be harder than I thought. Good thing we have that big chest freezer - which he now says we should be eating out of instead of grocery shopping! I've been saying it for months - but now that it's his idea, it's a good idea! ::sigh :: But it looks like he might be back to work soon, which means I'll probably have to take over the cooking. Now, I hate cooking. Frankly, I'd rather scrub toilets than cook. But if I do the cooking, I can control how much gets cooked, which in turn means I can cut the food waste way down. We ended up tossing a quart of homemade chicken soup last week, because he made a huge pot of it and then stalled on batching it up for the freezer, and I was too exhausted most days to eat more than a tiny bit.
I was enormously amused by something I got in the mail a while back. Last year I joined BC Hydro's "Power Smart" project; a couple of weeks ago I got a little package from them in the mail. I opened it up to find ... half a dozen wooden clothespins accompanied by an estimate of how much I might save by hanging laundry up instead of using the dryer! I giggled madly as I tossed them into the basket with the hundred or so I already have - I guess they had no way to know I've been hanging all my laundry for years!
Anyway, back to the floor cleaning. I've been taking pictures at each stage of the room conversion; I'll post them when the room is finished. Can't wait!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Making NO Progress
Because I've been so sick ...
It started last Saturday. I cough. And cough. And cough. And cough. And cough. And COUGH.
My skull feels too tight. My throat is lined with broken glass. My ribs are being chainsawed apart. I'm too exhausted to eat, let alone do anything else.
I'll be back when I'm better.
It started last Saturday. I cough. And cough. And cough. And cough. And cough. And COUGH.
My skull feels too tight. My throat is lined with broken glass. My ribs are being chainsawed apart. I'm too exhausted to eat, let alone do anything else.
I'll be back when I'm better.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Making Progress
Not as much as I'd like, but every little bit counts, right?
My original timeline for getting my new workroom done failed to account for how much my neck and shoulders would ache by bedtime, or how badly I would stiffen up overnight ...it also failed to account for how cold and damp the weather would be all this week. Therefore, the timeline has been revised. I work on the room every other day, and spend the in-between days catching up on paperwork, reading, mending, and knitting. (I'll post before, during, and after pics once the room is finished ... I might even post pics of the knitting projects I've done between priming/painting days.) And of course, the daily search for a job goes on.
The spackling that should have dried in eight hours took three days! Followed with an afternoon of sanding and dusting/sweeping. Two days later, the first coat of primer went on, and two days after that, the second coat ... let me tell you, no matter how good your primer says it is, one coat is not going to completely eradicate bright neon green!
Daughter P has come out on both priming days to help, bless her - she volunteered, I didn't ask. In fact, I was determined from the start that this is my project - mainly because Big Guy started grousing about how much he hates painting as soon as I mentioned re-doing the room. So far all I've asked him for is advice on what kind of spackle/filler to get, and if he offers to help I will thank him sweetly and decline. Something like "Oh, honey, it's so sweet of you to offer, but I'd really like to see if I can manage this on my own."
So far, the whole room is patched, sanded (except the floor) and primed. Tomorrow I'll finish off the ceiling; that's a smallish job, so I think I'll be able to do the walls and window on Sunday. Allowing two days for the paint to be completely dry everywhere, I'll fill the closet on Monday (it didn't get painted, just cleaned thoroughly), measure and hem the curtains on Tuesday, sand the floor and baseboards Wednesday, and by Thursday night I'd like to have all the furniture moved in. Friday will be for shelving books and organizing everything else, and then it's done! I can't even describe how much I'm looking forward to having a workroom I can actually work in!
* * * * * *
The job search is going about as well as I expected ... I've had two interviews so far, neither of which went anywhere. There are so few jobs posted that I qualify for, and so much competition for every opening. So I'm now signed up for a series of free workshops on such topics as creating a winning resume, writing killer over letters, searching the "hidden" job market, interviewing, and so on. I have nothing to lose and everything (i.e. employment) to gain.
My original timeline for getting my new workroom done failed to account for how much my neck and shoulders would ache by bedtime, or how badly I would stiffen up overnight ...it also failed to account for how cold and damp the weather would be all this week. Therefore, the timeline has been revised. I work on the room every other day, and spend the in-between days catching up on paperwork, reading, mending, and knitting. (I'll post before, during, and after pics once the room is finished ... I might even post pics of the knitting projects I've done between priming/painting days.) And of course, the daily search for a job goes on.
The spackling that should have dried in eight hours took three days! Followed with an afternoon of sanding and dusting/sweeping. Two days later, the first coat of primer went on, and two days after that, the second coat ... let me tell you, no matter how good your primer says it is, one coat is not going to completely eradicate bright neon green!
Daughter P has come out on both priming days to help, bless her - she volunteered, I didn't ask. In fact, I was determined from the start that this is my project - mainly because Big Guy started grousing about how much he hates painting as soon as I mentioned re-doing the room. So far all I've asked him for is advice on what kind of spackle/filler to get, and if he offers to help I will thank him sweetly and decline. Something like "Oh, honey, it's so sweet of you to offer, but I'd really like to see if I can manage this on my own."
So far, the whole room is patched, sanded (except the floor) and primed. Tomorrow I'll finish off the ceiling; that's a smallish job, so I think I'll be able to do the walls and window on Sunday. Allowing two days for the paint to be completely dry everywhere, I'll fill the closet on Monday (it didn't get painted, just cleaned thoroughly), measure and hem the curtains on Tuesday, sand the floor and baseboards Wednesday, and by Thursday night I'd like to have all the furniture moved in. Friday will be for shelving books and organizing everything else, and then it's done! I can't even describe how much I'm looking forward to having a workroom I can actually work in!
* * * * * *
The job search is going about as well as I expected ... I've had two interviews so far, neither of which went anywhere. There are so few jobs posted that I qualify for, and so much competition for every opening. So I'm now signed up for a series of free workshops on such topics as creating a winning resume, writing killer over letters, searching the "hidden" job market, interviewing, and so on. I have nothing to lose and everything (i.e. employment) to gain.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Hunt Continues
The job hunt, that is.
Yesterday I went over to the Employment Resource Centre, and got a referral to another local centre that does various workshops on resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and so on. I signed up for six of the workshops - it can't hurt! My work history - and job acquisition history - has been so full of serendipity over the last fifteen years that I really have very little experience with things like crafting a winning resume and acing an interview. All my jobs to date have either been through temp agencies, or through being sought out by employers. Flattering, but not presently useful!
Funnily enough, I actually had an interview today. A forwarding company had found my current resume (such as it is) on monster.ca, and called me to come in on about five hours' notice - was I glad I'd touched up the grey roots last week! The interview went well, though rather quickly, but I don't think I'll get the job. They seem to want someone with a lot more forwarding and NVOCC experience than I have. But you just never know ... as I told Big Guy when I got home, "It's always a fifty-fifty chance - either they hire me or they don't."
* * * * * *
Moving J went more smoothly than I'd expected, all things considered. We had everything loaded, moved, and unloaded, and the truck back at the rental place, by about 6 p.m. Friday. Her helpers were willing and able, nothing (that I know of) got broken, and I only hit my knees on the trailer hitch six times. My hands and wrists are still kind of sore, but I suspect some of that may be from a weekend spent almost entirely either knitting or winding yarn. Once I can get some clear table space (don't go there!) I now have three completed sweaters to sew together.
The room proceeds, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd originally planned. The walls, ceiling, and woodwork have all been washed, but I won't be doing the primer until my right wrist is less stiff and achy. So it looks like I'll be priming on Friday, and painting on Sunday and Monday. Furniture etc will start shifting Tuesday or Wednesday, since I want to give the paint plenty of time to harden up first.
* * * * * *
We got up this morning to another dry, sunny, beautiful (but very cold) day. I spent the time before I had to get ready for the interview wandering around the yard, making mental notes of everything I'd like to do to prepare for this year's garden, and thinking I'd get started on the winter debris cleanup tomorrow morning. All the fruit trees need pruning, the lawn needs a good raking to get rid of what the evergreens have been dropping on it all winter, and there are monster weeds everywhere. Naturally, the morning paper is predicting rain for the rest of the week ... It rains with monotonous regularity this time of year, especially on those rare occasions when I have the energy, the motivation, and the time to get out there and do something. Sigh. I may have to console myself with graph paper and seed packets.
Or maybe I'll start another sweater.
Yesterday I went over to the Employment Resource Centre, and got a referral to another local centre that does various workshops on resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and so on. I signed up for six of the workshops - it can't hurt! My work history - and job acquisition history - has been so full of serendipity over the last fifteen years that I really have very little experience with things like crafting a winning resume and acing an interview. All my jobs to date have either been through temp agencies, or through being sought out by employers. Flattering, but not presently useful!
Funnily enough, I actually had an interview today. A forwarding company had found my current resume (such as it is) on monster.ca, and called me to come in on about five hours' notice - was I glad I'd touched up the grey roots last week! The interview went well, though rather quickly, but I don't think I'll get the job. They seem to want someone with a lot more forwarding and NVOCC experience than I have. But you just never know ... as I told Big Guy when I got home, "It's always a fifty-fifty chance - either they hire me or they don't."
* * * * * *
Moving J went more smoothly than I'd expected, all things considered. We had everything loaded, moved, and unloaded, and the truck back at the rental place, by about 6 p.m. Friday. Her helpers were willing and able, nothing (that I know of) got broken, and I only hit my knees on the trailer hitch six times. My hands and wrists are still kind of sore, but I suspect some of that may be from a weekend spent almost entirely either knitting or winding yarn. Once I can get some clear table space (don't go there!) I now have three completed sweaters to sew together.
The room proceeds, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd originally planned. The walls, ceiling, and woodwork have all been washed, but I won't be doing the primer until my right wrist is less stiff and achy. So it looks like I'll be priming on Friday, and painting on Sunday and Monday. Furniture etc will start shifting Tuesday or Wednesday, since I want to give the paint plenty of time to harden up first.
* * * * * *
We got up this morning to another dry, sunny, beautiful (but very cold) day. I spent the time before I had to get ready for the interview wandering around the yard, making mental notes of everything I'd like to do to prepare for this year's garden, and thinking I'd get started on the winter debris cleanup tomorrow morning. All the fruit trees need pruning, the lawn needs a good raking to get rid of what the evergreens have been dropping on it all winter, and there are monster weeds everywhere. Naturally, the morning paper is predicting rain for the rest of the week ... It rains with monotonous regularity this time of year, especially on those rare occasions when I have the energy, the motivation, and the time to get out there and do something. Sigh. I may have to console myself with graph paper and seed packets.
Or maybe I'll start another sweater.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Time Flies ...
... whether you're having fun or not.
So far today has been a complete waste of clean underwear.
The job search, of course, continues. I'm not finding many jobs to apply for, but I keep looking. One that I did apply for last week - a reception/customer service position - actually came through with an interview, for which I dutifully coloured my hair and shaved my legs last night. The interview was today, and I had fairly high hopes going in; everything listed in the posting was stuff I can almost do in my sleep. They seemed quite impressed with my resume, and it sounded like a job I'd want, and it was fairly close to home - ten minutes by car, just under half an hour by public transit. All in all, pretty much exactly what I've been looking for. Until they mentioned that the salary is $11 per hour. I was polite and didn't actually say out loud what I was thinking: Are you freakin' serious? I'm getting more than that from EI! I thanked them nicely for seeing me, indicated that I'd wait to hear from them, and came home hoping I don't. Hear from them, that is.
Upward (with luck) and onward, as they say. I'll keep looking.
It took three weeks, but I finally got through to a real human on the phone at EI. Yes, they do have programs for women over 55, for retraining and assistance getting back into the workforce. No, I can't come in and see someone about the programs, I need a referral. Yes, the local Employment Resource Centre can give me that referral. So I called the Centre. "Yes, we can give you that referral, but first you need to do at least one session with one of our counselors. No, you can't just come in, you need an appointment. Yes, we are taking appointments now - yours will be for Monday, February 6th." So now I have to hope that the time limit between applying for benefits and applying for the special programs doesn't run out before I can actually take my referral to the EI office, where I will no doubt have to make another appointment some time in the nebulous future. So far, the only saving grace is that both offices are within walking distance of home.
J moves on Friday, so tomorrow I'm off to the liquor store for as many boxes as I can cram into the car; I might make two or three trips. I'd rather have too many boxes than not enough! If there are any left over, well, that's what our recycling boxes are for. I still have the tape gun and some rolls of both tape and bubble wrap from when we moved here, so there's no need for her to buy any of the supplies U-Haul keeps trying to talk us into. Thursday will be for finishing the packing, and staging everything so that once her friends/helpers arrive on Friday it will all be ready to go into the truck. The truck will be here around 9 a.m. (I set up the rental for her last week, and she'll be paying cash when we return the truck) and her friends will start arriving around 10 a.m. or so.
We will miss her dreadfully, of course - she's the last one to leave home, and the place is going to seem pretty quiet for a while. But at the same time, she's almost 27 - it's time to empty the damn nest already. And as previously mentioned in other posts, I have plans for that room - and this one! I have the action plan all mapped out in my "Projects" notebook, the primer and paint are in the basement, and all that's left to do is draw a scale plan of the room and decide where the furniture etc will go.
An unforeseen consequence of having so much of her stuff staged in the living room already is that I have no flat surface left anywhere that's big enough to lay out the pieces of the green shell so I can sew them together. So I've modified my original resolution accordingly; I've started another sweater and will sew them both together as soon as there's space to set up my layout table. The new sweater is a classic vee-necked pullover with elbow-length sleeves, in a lovely soft caramel colour. I did break down and buy the yarn - for $4 at the thrift store. I was there to drop off a box of donations, but when I saw that yarn and realized there was enough to actually do something nice with, well, I just couldn't resist. The pattern is very plain, so it knits up fast; and I've used it before, so I know it will fit well and look good. The pattern is also old enough that it gives yarn amounts in ounces and needle sizes in the old British range! It calls for #9 and #11 needles; after some swatching I find that 3.25 mm and 3.75 mm are the ones I'll be using.
I've come to the conclusion that one of the really difficult things about J moving out will be getting Big Guy to scale back on the amount of food he cooks for every meal. We both hate waste, and I pointed out to him yesterday that I'd just had to throw two week-old baked potatoes in the compost. He cooked too many, the two left over got shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten ... I can see that kind of thing happening more and more often if I don't find a way to stop it. In a way the potatoes aren't a total waste - we do use the compost in the vegetable garden - but it's the habit of cooking too much and then tossing it that I want to eliminate. There will just be the two of us from now on; there's no reason to cook six pork chops, or bake four or five potatoes, or open two cans of corn.
So the short- and long-term goals are:
Get J moved, which will basically be finished by Saturday.
Relax after the move by setting up my layout table and sewing together the pink sweater that's been ready for a while, the green shell I finished last week, and - if it's finished - the brown pullover I'm currently knitting. Sans interruptions, I should have at least the first two done by Monday.
Turn her old bedroom into my new workroom, turn my old workroom into a den/guest room. I think I'm looking at about a month, maybe two. Both rooms must be finished before mid-April, as that's when my good friend S arrives from Indiana for a two-week visit.
Persuade Big Guy to cook less and thus waste less food. I foresee an ongoing struggle with this - could take years. I'll keep you posted ...
This week's food waste tally so far: two smallish potatoes, six olives (they're not supposed to be hairy, right?) and a baby dill pickle that was turning blue.
So far today has been a complete waste of clean underwear.
The job search, of course, continues. I'm not finding many jobs to apply for, but I keep looking. One that I did apply for last week - a reception/customer service position - actually came through with an interview, for which I dutifully coloured my hair and shaved my legs last night. The interview was today, and I had fairly high hopes going in; everything listed in the posting was stuff I can almost do in my sleep. They seemed quite impressed with my resume, and it sounded like a job I'd want, and it was fairly close to home - ten minutes by car, just under half an hour by public transit. All in all, pretty much exactly what I've been looking for. Until they mentioned that the salary is $11 per hour. I was polite and didn't actually say out loud what I was thinking: Are you freakin' serious? I'm getting more than that from EI! I thanked them nicely for seeing me, indicated that I'd wait to hear from them, and came home hoping I don't. Hear from them, that is.
Upward (with luck) and onward, as they say. I'll keep looking.
It took three weeks, but I finally got through to a real human on the phone at EI. Yes, they do have programs for women over 55, for retraining and assistance getting back into the workforce. No, I can't come in and see someone about the programs, I need a referral. Yes, the local Employment Resource Centre can give me that referral. So I called the Centre. "Yes, we can give you that referral, but first you need to do at least one session with one of our counselors. No, you can't just come in, you need an appointment. Yes, we are taking appointments now - yours will be for Monday, February 6th." So now I have to hope that the time limit between applying for benefits and applying for the special programs doesn't run out before I can actually take my referral to the EI office, where I will no doubt have to make another appointment some time in the nebulous future. So far, the only saving grace is that both offices are within walking distance of home.
J moves on Friday, so tomorrow I'm off to the liquor store for as many boxes as I can cram into the car; I might make two or three trips. I'd rather have too many boxes than not enough! If there are any left over, well, that's what our recycling boxes are for. I still have the tape gun and some rolls of both tape and bubble wrap from when we moved here, so there's no need for her to buy any of the supplies U-Haul keeps trying to talk us into. Thursday will be for finishing the packing, and staging everything so that once her friends/helpers arrive on Friday it will all be ready to go into the truck. The truck will be here around 9 a.m. (I set up the rental for her last week, and she'll be paying cash when we return the truck) and her friends will start arriving around 10 a.m. or so.
We will miss her dreadfully, of course - she's the last one to leave home, and the place is going to seem pretty quiet for a while. But at the same time, she's almost 27 - it's time to empty the damn nest already. And as previously mentioned in other posts, I have plans for that room - and this one! I have the action plan all mapped out in my "Projects" notebook, the primer and paint are in the basement, and all that's left to do is draw a scale plan of the room and decide where the furniture etc will go.
An unforeseen consequence of having so much of her stuff staged in the living room already is that I have no flat surface left anywhere that's big enough to lay out the pieces of the green shell so I can sew them together. So I've modified my original resolution accordingly; I've started another sweater and will sew them both together as soon as there's space to set up my layout table. The new sweater is a classic vee-necked pullover with elbow-length sleeves, in a lovely soft caramel colour. I did break down and buy the yarn - for $4 at the thrift store. I was there to drop off a box of donations, but when I saw that yarn and realized there was enough to actually do something nice with, well, I just couldn't resist. The pattern is very plain, so it knits up fast; and I've used it before, so I know it will fit well and look good. The pattern is also old enough that it gives yarn amounts in ounces and needle sizes in the old British range! It calls for #9 and #11 needles; after some swatching I find that 3.25 mm and 3.75 mm are the ones I'll be using.
I've come to the conclusion that one of the really difficult things about J moving out will be getting Big Guy to scale back on the amount of food he cooks for every meal. We both hate waste, and I pointed out to him yesterday that I'd just had to throw two week-old baked potatoes in the compost. He cooked too many, the two left over got shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten ... I can see that kind of thing happening more and more often if I don't find a way to stop it. In a way the potatoes aren't a total waste - we do use the compost in the vegetable garden - but it's the habit of cooking too much and then tossing it that I want to eliminate. There will just be the two of us from now on; there's no reason to cook six pork chops, or bake four or five potatoes, or open two cans of corn.
So the short- and long-term goals are:
Get J moved, which will basically be finished by Saturday.
Relax after the move by setting up my layout table and sewing together the pink sweater that's been ready for a while, the green shell I finished last week, and - if it's finished - the brown pullover I'm currently knitting. Sans interruptions, I should have at least the first two done by Monday.
Turn her old bedroom into my new workroom, turn my old workroom into a den/guest room. I think I'm looking at about a month, maybe two. Both rooms must be finished before mid-April, as that's when my good friend S arrives from Indiana for a two-week visit.
Persuade Big Guy to cook less and thus waste less food. I foresee an ongoing struggle with this - could take years. I'll keep you posted ...
This week's food waste tally so far: two smallish potatoes, six olives (they're not supposed to be hairy, right?) and a baby dill pickle that was turning blue.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Recuperating
Last weekend was ... interesting. As in "May you live in interesting times."
Granted, there was some fairly severe (for this part of the world) winter weather going on. But it was disappointing to see just how many people who had promised to help with the move use the weather as an excuse not to. Yes, I can sympathize with the ones who were physically blocked in by ice, snow, downed trees, and broken power lines. But seriously, D - you couldn't walk four blocks to help pack and stage because "the weather is too nasty"? Besides, by Friday morning it was well above freezing and the rain had washed most of the snow and ice into Puget Sound. And with J's arm in a brace and sling, and B coughing up a kneecap every time he moved, they needed all the help they could get.
The helpers who did show up were awesome! They all worked their butts off in spite of bad weather and various ailments, and a lot more got done than we expected. And on Saturday morning, I made my usual inadvertent blood sacrifice - stabbed a finger with the utility knife trying to cut handholds in a box. It wasn't anything serious, but I did drip blood on one of the boxes. Within literally three minutes of me announcing that the "offering" had been made, the rain stopped, the wind died down, and the sun came out for the rest of the day. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But when I announced on Sunday morning that I was not going to do it again, the rain returned and stayed all day ...
It was actually good to see just how much of the thirty-plus years' accumulation of stuff was not being moved. All the people who'd asked if they could leave things there "for a little while" and never came back were e-mailed with the news that the move was January 19th-20th-21st-22nd, and whatever was not claimed by the 22nd would be going to the dump. We estimate that almost one-third of what was in the house will end up at the dump or one of the local charities. And their new place is quite a bit smaller, so that anyone who asks if J and B can store anything for them will be told "No". I can really relate to that, as Big Guy has a relative who is a hoarder and who has tried repeatedly to use our place as a storage facility.
Apart from my jabbed finger, I only collected three bruises, which is a pretty low number for me. By the time I got home Sunday night, though, I was so stiff and sore all over that all I could do until this morning was lie on the couch and read or knit. Today (so far) I seem to be mostly recovered; the puncture has closed cleanly, the bruises are fading from purple to green, and most of my joints bend again. Just in time to help daughter J finish packing for her move next week. Yay.
Granted, there was some fairly severe (for this part of the world) winter weather going on. But it was disappointing to see just how many people who had promised to help with the move use the weather as an excuse not to. Yes, I can sympathize with the ones who were physically blocked in by ice, snow, downed trees, and broken power lines. But seriously, D - you couldn't walk four blocks to help pack and stage because "the weather is too nasty"? Besides, by Friday morning it was well above freezing and the rain had washed most of the snow and ice into Puget Sound. And with J's arm in a brace and sling, and B coughing up a kneecap every time he moved, they needed all the help they could get.
The helpers who did show up were awesome! They all worked their butts off in spite of bad weather and various ailments, and a lot more got done than we expected. And on Saturday morning, I made my usual inadvertent blood sacrifice - stabbed a finger with the utility knife trying to cut handholds in a box. It wasn't anything serious, but I did drip blood on one of the boxes. Within literally three minutes of me announcing that the "offering" had been made, the rain stopped, the wind died down, and the sun came out for the rest of the day. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But when I announced on Sunday morning that I was not going to do it again, the rain returned and stayed all day ...
It was actually good to see just how much of the thirty-plus years' accumulation of stuff was not being moved. All the people who'd asked if they could leave things there "for a little while" and never came back were e-mailed with the news that the move was January 19th-20th-21st-22nd, and whatever was not claimed by the 22nd would be going to the dump. We estimate that almost one-third of what was in the house will end up at the dump or one of the local charities. And their new place is quite a bit smaller, so that anyone who asks if J and B can store anything for them will be told "No". I can really relate to that, as Big Guy has a relative who is a hoarder and who has tried repeatedly to use our place as a storage facility.
Apart from my jabbed finger, I only collected three bruises, which is a pretty low number for me. By the time I got home Sunday night, though, I was so stiff and sore all over that all I could do until this morning was lie on the couch and read or knit. Today (so far) I seem to be mostly recovered; the puncture has closed cleanly, the bruises are fading from purple to green, and most of my joints bend again. Just in time to help daughter J finish packing for her move next week. Yay.
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