Almost Home? - A Photo Essay

Writing Station

By placing my blue tray table with laptop between the white tray table and the white drawer on the couch I created a 'desk' that is a little wider than my spread out arms.  The tables are collapsible when not in use tho I seldom collapse the blue table.  

When I started making the couch into a bed at night a bit over a week ago I put the drawer under the white table.  And a couple days ago I moved the white table between the blue table and the couch so that it could be my bedside table at night and the drawer underneath as a charging station for devices.

Below is a better view of the couch from late August right after it was unboxed:

 

Blue Suede Couch

Notice the empty shelves?

This is why:

It is hard to recognize it but that is the same corner as in the top photo and the same shelf unit in a jumble on the floor after it collapsed and avalanched books, electronics and office supplies all across the front room nearly wall to wall in late August.

I had just finished loading the World Book Encyclopedia set and the first few volumes of the Britannica Great Books set on the top shelf (not counting the tippy top) and noticed that the shelf was no longer flush with the same shelf on the unit to the right containing the rest of the Great Books.  I pushed on the top right corner and the entire top right quadrant folded towards me and most of the horizontal and vertical pieces popped out and the contents fell out around my feet in a large puddle with some of the smaller items including my desk toys aka fidget toys bouncing and sliding across the floor.

I messaged my sister and she brought her son over and the two of them finished removing contents from what still stood, took the entire unit apart and put it back together.  Then having learned what were my probable mistakes in putting it together in the first place took a look at the first unit and pronounced it unstable as well so they unloaded it before they left but it was a month before they returned to rebuild it.

That is why there has been such a long hiatus in my blogging about settling into my new place.  That incident followed by the heatwave the next week took the oomph out of me and not having the shelves available wrecked my schedule for getting the stuff going on them either unboxed or moved over from Mom's.  It was soooo discouraging.

But eventually I got with the program again.

Wheeled Carts

These are two of the wheeled carts containing mostly crafty stuff.  The single-wide on the left stood by my fiber art station at Mom's and contained everything to do with yarn, thread and sewing.  It is currently empty after I distributed its contents among the shelves near my current craft station.  There was no sense in having the fiber art paraphernalia clear across the room from where I would be needing them. Yes the cart was on wheels but there was no place near where I'd be crafting to place it that wouldn't create a trip hazard.  

That cart will now hold electronic devices and their assorted accessories.  As well as be one of several charging stations for said devices.  Once I get those items sorted into those drawers I'll have at least three more cubes on the black shelf units available for books.

The double-wide cart holds other crafty stuff including graphic arts and papercraft and various found items that give me ideas. But also several misc aka junk drawers.  I will be distributing any items related to fiber arts over on the shelves designated for them.  

I have a vague notion that some of the drawers on the right will be used for small kitchen miscellany.  Or I might switch the carts around and use the single-
wide for kitchen stuff and split the double-wide between electronics and graphic arts.  Still a work in progress.

Moving on to the right now facing the kitchen:

Shelves

The wooden bookshelf in front of the breakfast bar contains my DVD collection.  Between that and the blue shelf unit is a charging station hidden behind the fan.

The blue shelves contain the bulk of the fiber art tools, reference and materials except for the large WIP kits and the unassigned yarn stash.  The navy cloth closet in the far corner is stuffed to the gills with said yarn stash and large WIP kits.  So stuffed the zipper is pulling away from the fabric.

This was the same wall before the black shelf collapsed and I urgently needed the wooden bookshelf for the Encyclopedia and Great Books sets.  Temporarily as it turned out.  But by then I'd found new and better homes for the clothes.

90 degree turn to the right:

Craft and Sort Station.

This is the tall 3 foot square table that was Ed's that I use for projects that I need to spread out or work at standing up.  Like sorting or large WIP in fiber art and writing/research.  Tho I've not had time for the latter yet.  NaNo is coming tho.  Fast like a freight train.

The grey shelf unit on the back wall is still a mishmash and may be for some time.  The far left column contains small to middling containers for organizing larger containers, shelves, cupboards, drawers, closets etcetera.  The middle to far right is all fiber art stuff still in flux.

Under the big table is another wheeled cart facing out.  That contains office supplies and vision aides and more junk drawers.  Behind that wheeled cart facing the other wall is a plastic dresser full of small to middling crochet WIP.  And left over yarn and thread from finished WIP.

The white shelf unit next to the front door contains outerwear accessories.  Hats on top.  Scarves in the middle and Shawls on the bottom.  My shoes are in a shallow box that slides under the couch.  My jackets and favorite handbags hang on the back of the door.

Next the self-care station aka bathroom:

Sink

HABA

Clothes

It is hard to tell in that last pic as it is such poor quality but that is 8 folding boxes on four shelves over the toilet tank.  They contain the kinds of things I might need to get dressed after a shower when I'm not planning to leave the apartment: T-shirts, sweats, pajamas and grunge.  That way I can get showered on an impulse even on a cold morning or evening without having to hunt clothes out and without having to heat up the whole apartment as the bathroom has a very toasty heater.

There is still a lot of work to do to get my clothes, HABA (Health and Beauty Aids) and self-care miscellany sorted and organized but the 'homes' for the items are in place.

On the way out of the bathroom we encounter:

Read Watch and Listen Station

That's the beanbag chair atop the mini-tramp that becomes like a recliner where I watch videos, listen to audio books, music and podcasts.  When I'm just listening I'm also crocheting now.  That is new this past week.  I am on the third project. since picking it back up 9 days ago.

The same listening activities can accompany mini-tramp workouts.

Next the kitchen:

Food and Drink Prep Station

Visible are the blue toaster oven above the electric tea kettle, crockpot and red microwave.  Next to the microwave are the knife holder and spice rack.

I turned all my plastic crates into kitchen storage for the space between the fridge and the back door.  I made them stable by using bungy cords to snug each to its neighbor above and beside.  They contain:  Pots and pans too large for the other cupboards, mixing bowls, small appliances and produce that doesn't need refrigeration.  

And I left a space in the back corner for the mop and broom.

This was a recent development.  Like last week.  It was a major step in making the kitchen workable, preventing that corner from being a junk collector and also established homes for the empty crates that I'd been schlepping from place to place whenever the place they had landed was needed otherwise.  I was beginning to wonder if I needed to give them up.  But I was planning to try them inside the closet for clothes organizing before deciding but I have other options for that and I'm liking this better every day.

So the answer to the title question?

I think maybe yes?

I'm still ambivalent about it because most of the time it doesn't feel so but evidence that it is so is in these facts:

• My days for at least two weeks now have been more about daily living than about the moving in tasks.
• I started crocheting again
• I started serious reading again
• I started writing again.
• Last week coming back from grocery shopping with my caregiver I was startled to see we had arrived and I spontaneously asked 'Are we home already?'

So yes, almost home.

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Sunday Serenity

Longview Dike

I took this picture when I went running on the dike last June.  I'm dreaming of running again.  Running was once one of my greatest joys.

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Sunday Serenity #391 -- Remembering Merlin Moments

Merlin Sitting Pretty

Merlin is still with us tho fading fast.  Still drinking but no food since the several slivers of salmon Tuesday evening.

This is another photos essay with pictures from better moments.

Merlin Loving the Light

Merlin Resting after Playing

Merlin's Throne
My Phoenix Office

Merlin Asleep on Arm of Ed's Recliner

Merlin Satisfied with Himself
[cropped from a pic of him sprawling on my crochet as I attempted to photograph it]

Merlin Thumping the Stuffing out of His Ball

Merlin Rests on His Laurels

Merlin at Freeway Reststop
Between the big dog nearby and the scolding bird strutting a circle around him, he had nothing to give.

Merlin Struts His Stuff

Merlin Getting Allover Skritches from the Driveway

Merlin Meets Bradley

Merlin Eating

Merlin Claiming His Latest Throne [My Longview Office]

Merlin Scoping Out the Front Porch at Mom's

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Sunday Serenity #382

Practicing My Happy Face

I took this with my Aspire laptop camera.  This was my first selfie.  Tho it took me five tries to get an acceptable one.  I'm out of practice at smiling so it feels forced and then looks forced.  The first four also displayed four separate emotions not usually associated with smiles: bored, confused, anxious and in pain.

To get that one I had to tap into memories of laughing babies and squee LOLkittens and the last laugh I shared with Ed.

It's rare for me to post a full face photo.  This time its because my sister and I got haircuts last evening and I guess I wanted to showoff share the result.

All ready for spring and summer now.

It had been about a year since the last one and my very thick hair had reached my collarbones.  It's like wearing a wool blanked on my head.

It was also getting to be too hard to take care of and took twelve to twenty-four hours to thoroughly dry.  Using a blow dryer caused it to frizz.

Having it done was as much in honor of my new morning routine as of the arrival of spring.  This past week I spent three times as long on the hair then on the face and teeth.  I actually had to fuss with it twice as I had to get it pinned back to keep it out of the way for washing my face and brushing my teeth and then primp it for the vid chat with Ed.

Now doing my hair should take less than 90 seconds. Thus brushing my teeth which requires 2 minutes minimum will probably earn the honor of longest task of the three.

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Sunday Serenity #372

My Two Favorites of Mom's College Paintings

I found a stack of a dozen or so of Mom's paintings from college.  I was hoping to get pics of each of them but time ran out and I had to settle for one pic featuring two of my favorites.

I've been into Peacocks since I became a fan of the novelist Flannery O'Conner who raised them.  And blue is my favorite color.  Nuf said?

The house is another story.  It needs a story to explain its meaning to me.  This was my grandparents' home in Tahama county California.  Mom spent her teens in this house.  I visited it an average of twice a year until I was fifteen when Grandpa and Grandma Myers moved in with my Aunt Helen in Longview WA.

I'm pretty sure Mom drew this from a black and white photo taken in the early years of their residency here.  By the time I knew this house it was covered in climbing vines of various kinds, the trees were twice as tall and the yard was full of flowers and flowering shrubs.  If this was a photo then behind the photographer is the field where the milk cows grazed and off to the right aka the back there was a chicken coop and a small barn for milking the cows.  There was a vegetable garden which I'm not quite placing in my memory.  Grandpa was a truck farmer while raising his family.  Before he married he was a school teacher as was Mom's mother.

I could go on and on but I have appointments with both my med nurse and counselor tomorrow afternoon so mustn't linger over this now.

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Sorted

Today was my weekly duty day with Mom as my sister works a job out of town.  I'm responsible for both lunch for me and Mom and dinner for Mom, my nephew and I.  Which includes cleaning up the kitchen.  Two things added to the angst of the day--Mom has laryngitis and I had an extra task to fit into the day.

Every three weeks or so it is my task to sort out Mom's Rx and supplements into daily pockets, bottles or cups for the next 21-26 days.  There are only 26 of the little glass bottles for the AM pills and often a few of t hem can't be accounted for at the time of the sort.  This time there was one missing but I found it on the counter after it was all done.

The three pill boxes are her PM pills as are the plastic cups I use to bring the PM total to match the AM total.  Those are also used when she spends the weekend at my brother's.

I set up on the breadboard with the box on a stool to extend workspace.  I compacted it here for the picture as I usually use the breadboard to set the pill bottles down on.  The pill boxes are lined up on that orange ledge in back.  That little blue pill box is for a med she takes in the middle of the night.  It's kept in the bathroom and get's refilled once a week.

The pill bottles are arranged alphabetically on the carousel in the cupboard above the counter to my right and stuck by magnets to the stove hood is the list in alphabetical order showing how many of which go into AM and/or PM.  This was my sister's system so I don't get credit for the set up.  She taught me how to do it last spring and I committed to it as one of my duties.

It takes between 55 and 115 minutes depending on how many snags occur:

• running out of pills from the small bottles on the carousel and having to refill it from the big bottles in the pantry cupboard across the room
• opening new big or small bottles
• having to note where shortfalls start when even the big bottle hasn't enough pills
• having to note when supplies of something are too low to accommodate the next sort
• dropping pills and having to hunt for them--on the floor, board, box or counter, inside the red box in or between the bottles or in that box of lids, in the wrong pocket in the PM boxes
• putting a PM pill in all or some of the AM bottles and having to sort them out one by one and move to the box pockets
• forgetting where I left off when resupplying hand from pill bottle and starting in wrong place either missing a few bottles or pockets or doubling up
• forgetting to replace one or more bottles back on carousel and finding the spot usurped by the next in line and having to slide the line right to make room.  note: bottles to not slide smoothly in a circle especially when that circle spins if you don't hold it with the other hand.
• having cats underfoot begging or mock fighting

Last night took me 95 minutes due to refilling small bottles, opening new bottles, putting a PM pill in all of the AM bottles, forgetting where I left off in the middle section of the AM bottles and then doubling up on four and then removing wrong pill with similar appearance from several and in the midst of this dropping one pill out of my handful into a random bottle then having to pull out eight bottles and compare their contents until I was sure each one was right and I'd found the dropped pill and then carefully sift through the pills in my hand to be sure none of the wrong ones got mixed in before I put them back in their bottle, and more than once dropping a single pill on the floor, and my Merlin winding around my legs as I traversed back and forth to the pantry cupboard.  All of which is always an adventure for the visually impaired.

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Morning Cuppa

This was the first picture taken with my Blaze 4G smartphone.

I took this picture of my breakfast because I was amazed how much it looked like a cup of fancy espresso coffee.  It is not.  It is my hot farina aka cream of wheat.

I doctored it with cinnamon, sea salt, Truvia and Pumpkin Spice before adding the water and heating and water was absorbed by the wheat.  Then added a tablespoon of peanut butter and a half cup of applesauce and heated it again.  By then I could tell I had not added enough water at the beginning as it was so thick it accumulated on the stirring spoon in a big clump that would not fall off.  So I added a third of a cup or so of water and heated again.

When it was just the right thickness for my taste (which is on the soupy side) I filled the 16oz cup two thirds full.  Then put a big dollop of plain yogurt on top with a couple teaspoons or so of half and half around the rim,  Then I sprinkled flax seed and hemp hearts over the top and gave the pumpkin spice jar a few hard shakes over the surface.

I spent many hours again today with my fingers glued to the Blaze,  But I had three clear goals:

1. figure out why I still can't make or receive calls. Very frustrating since the main reason Ed wanted to do this for my birthday was so we could communicate more often during the day.  We've only connected via the phone three times and they were all cut off after a short time.  Most attempts don't even get through.
   
   It's still a mystery but I think we're closer to solving it. Two error messages keep getting are clues.  One saying the SIM card is not ready.  The other saying something about not registered on network.  And that last seems to have something to do with using the Wifi here for calling.
   
2. get ebook aps for all the formats my ARCs come in and get all my ARCs loaded on the Blaze.
   
   I have Kindle and Adobe aps now but still need to find an epub reader.  Still haven't loaded any books and am thinking will run into the same problem as with any other attempts to connect device to device.  Error messages.
   
3. the third goal was to gather all the aps etc. needed to create a blog post start to finish.  Learn to use the camera.  Find and learn a photo editor. Learn methods for sending the photo where I can access it with Blogger.  I was hoping Picasa but every time I tried I got error messages.
   
   I have Blogger and Google Drive, Gmail and Google Calendar.  And having listened to Ed rave about it for months, I got EverNote.  That might have solved the problem of getting files to where another ap or device can access them as it apparently syncs across devices and interacts with several common aps.
   
   I wanted to be able to make this post start to finish from the Blaze but finally had to give up and email the photo to my sister so I could get to it via my Gmail on the Aspire to download it.

But if I had succeeded in creating this post from the Blaze, it would have been much shorter--little more than a caption for the photo explaining: 1st pic taken with Blaze.  1st post created from Blaze.  Because it is still a challenge getting any text typed on those tiny touch keys.

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Sunday Serenity #349

Sun breaks through storm clouds over Phoenix OR 8-10-13

Ed took this pic with his phone on his walk home from the library after our vid chat Saturday afternoon.  He dallied enough to get this and four other pictures he was caught in the fierce five minute deluge before he got home.

He sent me the pics as a salve for my fierce homesickness that is more than a bit like a storm this week.

Seeing this I can almost puts me there with him on that familiar walk past the Phoenix High School that is about the halfway point between the library and the trailer park.

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Purrroled: A Photo Essay

Merlin was finally paroled from the laundry room where he's been incarcerated since we brought him back with us from Phoenix OR on May 11.  My sister just went ahead and treated him this week for worms, though we never saw any, as it was cheaper to treat than to take him to the vet again to get tested which would have cost close to a hundred bucks.  This way we can be sure he is safe to mingle with and share a litterbox with Bradley, the family cat here at Mom's.

Merlin had actually made a jailbreak tonight.  I had been in the laundry room with him to make sure he had food and water and his litterbox was clean and to love on him.  Then when I ducked out the door, shutting it behind me, lo there he was already on the stairs heading up.  Yep, that's our Merlin.  Our Mr. Wizard the escape artist.

It is no accident he was named for a wizard.  For when we first got him, while living in Sunnyvale CA in November of 2000, we had to keep him isolated from our cat Grimlyn for a week and several days into that week he disappeared out of a closed room.  It was hours before we figured out that he had pulled the cover off the heat vent under the bed in our trailer house and crawled down into the ducts.  We worried he would get stuck somewhere in there under the floors.  We called and called but heard no answer back.  We saw nor heard nothing from him until the next morning when he casually walked up and rubbed against Ed's leg when he was out on our front porch having his morning cigarette.

We had been testing out half a dozen names for him before that incident but that morning Ed said it had to be between Merlin and Houdini.  Because we were both huge Arthurian Legend fans that was an easy choice.

Yesterday, when I brought Merlin back in from his walk, he got off his leash while I was distracted by going around a chair leg to get tension on it and then stripping out of his harness much like Houdini would out of the straight jackets.  Then he led me on a wild chase around the upstairs.  The kitchen, dining room and living room are connected in a big circle and he ran me around the circle at least ten times before he stopped at the stairway door and waited for me to open it and then led me back to the laundry room downstairs where his food was.

I was afraid he was about to repeat that performance but when I reached the top of the stairs my sister said to let him stay.  So instead of chasing him down to return him to jail I followed him around with the camera for an hour.

After their fairly energetic greeting, Merlin and Bradley settled down with Merlin on the floor studiously ignoring Bradley who had gone up on the back of the couch just above him to gaze down upon him like a parole officer.

Bradley had wanted to groom Merlin but Merlin wouldn't sit still for it so Bradley bit the back of his neck to hold him still and Merlin struggled and the two ended in a standoff with paws raised and ears laid back.  But Merlin showed deference by lowering his head  below Bradley's.  He was willing to allow Bradley dominance but he was also willing to defend himself.

Here Bradley is looking past me to watch Merlin drink from his water dish in the dining room.  See that narrow path around the end of the couch?  That was part of the circle Merlin led me around last night.  The kitchen is to my left as I stand there.

Here is the other side of the circle where the kitchen meets the hallway.  The door to the stairs is straight across from that doorway there and the living room to the right.  Mom's room, the office and the room I'm using as my office and closet is down the hall to the left.

Carri wanted Merlin's food dishes set up in a separate place from Bradley's so I chose this spot as there is a light above it and Merlin like's caves.  What he is standing under is a wrought iron produce stand that is nearly shoulder high on me with three swinging baskets for holding fruits and vegetables.

The laundry chute through which I would chat with him during the day over the last weeks is to my left where I'm standing.

Here Mers has followed me down the hall and into my 'office'.  For the first hour and a half that he was roaming free, he didn't let me get too far away.  The box he is strolling past is one of the more than a dozen boxes that I sorted today.  Well that one isn't done yet.  Never got back to it after Merlin's getaway and now I won't before tomorrow.

Now he is exploring the cushions on the mini-tramp which are there because I'd planned to set there to sort that box after I got back from tending to Merlin.   Change of plan.  Instead I settled there to work on this post so that Merlin could sit beside me.  I haven't used the tramp for working on the netbook since I finally got my desk area working nearly two weeks ago.  But besides wanting Merlin to be able to stick close, my desk over in the cubby has a sorting station set up and I didn't want to dismantle it.

I had planned to take the netbook into the  bedroom tonight since Mom is spending the weekend at my brother's.  But the only place to sit in there now is the bed and before I can do that I need a shower as I got rather scummy during my six hour box-a-thon.  I was up and down the stairs and in and out of the garage and opened at least twenty boxes, unpacking, repacking, emptying, lifting, stacking....

Below Merlin checks out one of the boxes I unpacked today.  My magazines, which I decided to store under my desk like this in the box's lid so I could access them.  The other half of the box is now part of the sorting station, holding household items for including in boxes going back soonest.

I had two main goals for this project today.  One was to identify the content of all of the boxes from my house in the garage and in the rec room downstairs and to shuffle them until the garage stacks were all boxes containing household items for going back on the first trip after Ed is into a place again.  Which could be much sooner than we anticipated.

This involves many trips up and down the stairs and some unpacking and repacking to make sure that things I need to keep with me here were not in the boxes going back.  That project is still in progress.  But all of the boxes in the garage now have been gone through and are ready to go back when the time comes.  And downstairs I've set aside all of the boxes containing household stuff--bedding, towels, dishes, appliances--for bringing up to the garage.

The other goal was to locate all of the elements of my sorting station that I'd had set up in my office at home before the move.  I needed all of the boxes containing stuff still to be sorted and all of the shallow boxes that served as trays or drawers for sorting into.  Many of these are just the right size for holding 8x11 paper and I have a HUGE paper sort to start working on as over the last week I've been consolidating all of the loose unsorted paper into a single large box as it came out of the boxes I'd unpacked.  Today that box overflowed and I had to start a second one.  There wasn't room for one such box in here let alone two.

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A Different Drummer

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 I always knew I was marching to the beat of a different drummer but who knew she had such style.

Well the Frightful Read-a-thon has 24 hrs left in it.  I just finished Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer the third book in the Twilight saga.  I've just read all three back to back and tho I'm anxious to get on with the story I feel that's partly due to wanting to just get it over with.  Maybe I'm just burning out on it but if I were to write my review of the series right now I'm afraid I'd be less than enthusiastic.  Whether that is because I'm burned out or because I march to the beat of a different drummer than the millions who have gone gaga over the story who knows.  On the other hand, I did read something like 1200 pages in less than a week compulsively turning the pages.  The feeling of distaste building up and that compulsive page turning and the fact that I continue to think about the story when I'm trying to do other things doesn't jive.

I'm thinking I should wait on the forth one for now and move on to one of those four library books due on the 17th.  Ah, but will I...

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Let Me Just Look at You

print for sale at art.com

photo by Norbert Rosing

Temps here in mid 90s today. Don't make me speak. I just want to gaze in longing.

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