5/17/12

Didn’t get as early a start  as I wanted to today…was waiting outside for mechanic to show up until I got bored. Then I came in and washed a couple of loads of clothes and the dishes.

He finally got here about 2:30…do I think I will have a truck at the end of the day? Doubtful. Will I hang around waiting tomorrow? Doubtful too. I am going stir-crazy!

It was pleasant out on my front porch though. It is shaded most of the day, and it was cool. I watched Firefly playing in the crepe myrtle next door…I took a video, but I seem to have lost it. If I find it, I’ll share. (I don’t claim it is an EXCITING video…still need to learn more about my phone. 🙂 )

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UPDATE: I think he finally got the transmission back into place last night, but the truck is still in pieces. Newell said “Give him a garage door opener button and lock the doors into the house and he can finish while we are gone”, so that is what we are going to do. Fingers crossed it all works out okay…

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5/16/12

Well, I didn’t do much inside today. I sat on the porch to be close at hand while the mechanic was working on the truck. He started about 11 this morning, and quit at dusk. Almost to the point where he can put in the clutch…lol. I think it was a bigger job than EITHER of us thought it would be.

Here are some pictures of the day:

     

Truck in the garage ready and waiting…          First time she’s moved that far in months.

     

Truck up on blocks…very haphazard blocks…

     

Truck all in pieces….

     

Tomorrow is another day. Still at least another few hours of work…and then we’ll see if it actually runs again….

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5/15/12

Last night we caught up on the last movies we needed to see before The Avengers…we were a bit behind on our superhero movies and didn’t want to go into Avengers without the background. So I have been avoiding a LOT of websites for the past couple of weeks. I know NOTHING of the movie. Do you know how hard it is to avoid spoilers on a major release like that? 😉

Still no word on my mechanic. 😦 I was afraid it was too good to be true. But I’ll try to call again.

Goal today is to rearrange the bedroom. It may be difficult by myself, but I have faith it isn’t impossible. 🙂

I’ll be back.

 

UPDATE ONE: Didn’t get a whole lot more done. Decided that I would need a strong back. And I really didn’t feel like doing much after rain delay on the truck again.

I did get a bit more of the bedroom ready to move the bed:

Corner carpet is hopeless without replacement. You don’t want to know why…

Bandit was at his thievery again — and this time he brought a friend. My picture didn’t come out good enough to share though, lol.

If I feel like getting more done later, I’ll be back. At least I am doing a bit better lately…

 

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5/14/12

Well, I was hoping to report great progress on the truck by now. Left it on the charger all night, and it still won’t start. Upped the voltage on the charge. Still won’t start. Called my mechanic at a quarter till 10 this morning. He wasn’t home. Called again about noon. Still not home. Things not looking good for today. 😦

About to go try to start her one more time and then figuring it as a lost cause for today. I’ll have to get busy on something else. Did get the dishes done, but that’s hardly epic progress.

UPDATE ONE: Still no sign of or word from my mechanic. *sigh* And I have the clutch kit sitting in my garage mocking me. 😦

On the other hand, I’ve taken it out on the pile of cat-pissed on bedding in the bedroom. It’s all gone, and the floor vacuumed. That paves the way for rearranging the furniture in there. It’s a start.

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The Hills Were Alive with Wildflowers…

The Wildflower Center was lovely, as always. Everything is blooming, and the colors are amazing. Got some good ideas for more things I want to plant. I would have bought some Scarlet Sage, but the Gift Shop wasn’t open yet for me to pay. Their loss. 😦

We really liked the planters they use — large stainless steel circular containers that can be used for ponds as well as raised beds. Kathleen and I are both thinking on those…lol.

Afterwards, I came home and watched movies with my wonderful husband. Saw Mrs. Miniver which is something I had always been interested in seeing, and most of Pocketful of Miracles, which I had seen bits of before — talk about a stellar cast! TMC is a channel I forget to check most of the time. I need to watch it more.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures from the Wildflower Center. Enjoy:

Lady Bird quote that greets visitors.

Some of the red things I am going to be looking for for my garden…

     

Pretty little ground cover:

    

Lots of pretty butterflies and other bugs:

   

I even tried for a video…

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Later in the day, I got the parts to replace the clutch in my truck, so that is hopefully tomorrow’s main agenda.

 

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5/12/12

Normally, my weekend posts are full of non-cleaning/working type posts, but today I’ve been a busy bee.

Kathleen and I finished digging up the corner garden for the yard and got the plants set in. While I was at it, I added another lantana to replace the dead one…which we moved to another spot, because she is still hopeful. I think it looks pretty good, at the moment. We’ll see if all the baby lamb’s ears manage to take hold.

I also got some more hanging baskets to even out the front of the house, but they didn’t have any more of the really pretty Impatiens. We’ll see how these do.

Tomorrow if things work out, we’ll go out to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for inspiration. 🙂

Haven’t updated the cocoon watch lately, because there hadn’t been much change. Alas, either the recent storms or the birds got the one on the fence, but our original cocoon is starting to turn now. won’t be long till it hatches.

 

All in all, I think I got some good work in today. It might not be cleaning, but it is polishing. 🙂

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5/11/12

Oh, you should be proud of me today! Newell asked if I was going with him this morning, and I said “No, I have work to do.” And he said “Oh, so no Oasis. I felt bad about not taking you yesterday…”

Temptation! But I didn’t give in. I asked for a raincheck and stayed home. So I am rewarding myself with my Key Lime breakfast and The Sandlot on TV while I do bills. This little movie is one of my feel-good guilty pleasures. If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend it. One of those innumerable kids-bonding movies, but there is a lot of subtlety to it, and some fabulous acting by the kids. I don’t know how many times I’ve sat through it, and I always enjoy it. Do you have a movie like that? One that is always sure to lighten your heart no matter how often you see it?

I’ll be back after bills and progress. 🙂

UPDATE ONE: Made a huge dent in the pile of bills. That feels good.

Emptied two or three boxes completely. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but that is sorting, tossing, and pricing things for the October Garage Sale, so it added up to more than it sounds. And — while I am sure I won’t “finish” the Junk Room for some time, it now has floor space so that I can bring up the chairs to make that Reading Nook out of it.

See?

That is a huge step forward, don’t you agree? And when the chairs are in place, sorting papers directly into the shredder will be a lot less tiresome on my back!

I was very proud of myself. I took several old college era notebooks and the teaching manual from my old job and tossed them directly into the trash without even trying to salvage the page sleeves or anything like that. Yeah, they might have still been useful. But in the end, those things are cheap, and time is worth more.

Now that I’ve rested a few…I think I’ll go get those chairs set up. I’ll be back later.

 

UPDATE TWO: Well, now. That was easier conceptualized than done. 🙂

The chairs weren’t heavy, but awkward maneuvering upstairs. And then they barely fit through the bedroom door… But all set up now:

Sorry that’s slightly out of focus. Phone gets lazy sometimes. Yes, my chairs need re-covering or at least patching. It will be done. But cleaning comes before fixing. 🙂

I have a load of laundry to hang up, and then I believe I will be done for the week. I feel like today wasn’t wasted. Still a long way to go, but it’s getting done again.

 

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5/10/12

In some ways, I was bad today…I went in with Newell and didn’t clean house. But in other ways, I was good. I organized all the apps on my phone into folders so that everything is organized and easy to find.

That counts for something, doesn’t it? Yes, there is a research folder there. I’m toying with the idea for a new short story collection…collection of references has begun.

So, not a completely wasted day…and I have Key Lime pie for breakfast to motivate me to finish my sorting. 🙂

Till tomorrow…

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5/9/12

Leftover Orange Flavored Beef for breakfast…yum!

About to go and entrench myself in the Junk Room with my new shelves and the audio book of The Stand and sort my brains out. 🙂

I really think having the concrete visualization of the shelves will help immensely with the sorting. What tricks do you use to motivate yourselves?

I will be sure to take lots of Before and After shots today. My goal is to have the Reading Nook replace the Junk Room by the end of the week. Think it is doable? That doesn’t mean there might not be a wall of storage in there, but it won’t be a Junk Room any more.

BTW, just curious…how many Organizing/Decluttering Books do you have around YOUR house? I can see 6 from here… Do they ever do you any good? I don’t see my favorite, Clutter’s Last Stand: It’s Time To De-junk Your Life! from my desk…who knows where it has gone…but I have actually read most of it. (I even have the first edition on this one.) These others…may go in the next purge box. 🙂

Enough dilly-dallying. Off to work.

UPDATE ONE:  Back starting to hurt, so I’m taking a break. Feel like a lot was done, so I may or may not go back…I am a bad cleaner… 😉

Much panic earlier as I lost my camera again. (Do they make those locator gizmos for cameras?) But it turned up on the bookcase in the Office.

So…here’s where I started today:

     

and here was where I stopped:

     

Hard to see a lot of progress, but bear in mind that the two cardboard boxes full of October Garage Sale (or earlier donation) stuff USED to be full of papers to sort, old photos, etc. and they got emptied along the way. Psycho Kitty seems to be enjoying the emptying floor space…

Now… Here are those Clutter Books I was talking about earlier:

I decided to get rid of all of them — even the one that Newell bought me several years ago…I think it was a hint. But, I thought that someone might get use out of them, so I am offering you guys first shot. If there is a title there that you would like to have, drop me a line at herestheclean@yahoo.com and I will be happy to send it along. First come first serve on titles. 🙂 I will post a list on a separate page, and if one is taken, I will update that list. Or if I find others, I will add them to the list as well.

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5/8/12

I washed all my dishes this morning (had a bit of catching up to do) and then promptly dirtied a sink full again by finally making up my Watermelon Gazpatcho. I think I went a little heavy on the lemon elements, because it has a bit of a bite I am not sure about, but it’s still good. A MESS to put together, but I am always glad I did. 🙂

Then my cousin Eve got here and I showed her the progress since her last visit and we decided what to do today. I told her one of the main things I needed in a helper was someone to sit and listen to the stories about each thing as I decided if I should keep it or not. I illustrated with a handful of photographs — half of which ended up in the trash because I no longer felt the need to keep them.

My beautiful cousin Eve Holmans-Hoppock Raine.

We had so much fun today, and actually got quite a bit accomplished. First we went and got something to eat…because who can work on an empty stomach? But THEN we got quite a bit accomplished. 😉

First we took all the Garage Sale remainders to Goodwill except the books and VHS tapes, because I thought I would still give Half Price Books a shot with those. We searched three Goodwill stores and Wal-Mart looking for some kind of plastic shelving units before winding up at Home Depot and getting some nice, easy to set up units to help with facilitating my “Trash, Give-Away, Sell, and Keep” sorting piles.

Along the way I also picked up another over the door hat rack to help organize the pretties and some more diffuser oil for my bathroom.

I also got an Impatiens to hang on my front porch and brighten things up a bit.

 

Then we set up the shelves, vacuumed the floor, and sampled the gazpatcho. Now it is time to go make dinner. See y’all tomorrow.

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