Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Grim, gray morning, but covered in ice. A bit of sun would have made it gorgeous, but alas not a sunbeam in the forecast for several days.


Thank goodness for the fireplace!

Gutters or Shutters?

Today was that rite of winter-wishing-to-be-spring ... the Home and Garden Show. You know The day when everyone who has a product or service even vaguely related to home, hearth, and garden brings it all together to that folks who are yearning for better weather [that would be me!] come to spend money they don't have on projects... that they might need.

We have had both good and bad experiences in the past. The first year in our new house we found a great blind cleaner, i.e, he comes to your house and cleans your mini-blinds, as well as a guy who molded concrete borders for our garden. Both are now out of business [for which we are sorry!] but we got good service from each.

Other years we have wandered around and found nothing that we needed, and nothing that was interesting. The main trends today were gutters or shutters, garden rooms and food.

1) Gutters - It seems that there are lots of things one can do to avoid cleaning one's gutters. There were three different systems to cover the gutters and prevent leaves collecting in them, as well as my personal favorite - a gutter that flips down and dumps out the leaves. You gotta love flip down gutters! In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that our house came with gutter guards, so we passed.



2) Shutters - well, actually siding, but shutters rhymes so well. You can get siding in all sorts of colors, patterns, and materials - all apparently preferable to vinyl. Paintable or with the color baked in, colonial or textured - they come in many different styles and prices. Fortunately, our house came with siding, so we are set there.

3) Food - I think the tie-in is that you make food in your home - assuming that you have a kitchen. Today you could choose dips to mix with cream cheese or mayonnaise in 20 different flavors. Three for $10 or six for $15. Clearly a deal. I couldn't decide what flavors, so passed on this opportunity.

4) Gardens as rooms - Apparently people are not moving to larger homes this year (had you already guessed that?) so they are enlarging their existing homes by incorporating garden rooms. We saw huge patios, huge patios with pergolas, and huge patio kitchens. Big stone, big walls, just plain big. Acres of large pavers were lovely, but who has a yard that big? Passed on this, too.

4) Food - cheese from a cooperative, Virginia raised beef, cheese straws, peanuts (this is Virginia) or jellies and preserves. Lots of opportunities to taste, but we passed again - at least on purchasing.

5) Solar - Saw some interesting things here. The state-wide solar green initiative had lots of information on building with solar panels and going greener. We are far enough south that one day all homes built in Virginia will have solar panels. We're going to look into a solar powered attic exhaust fan. It's reasonably priced and we can get a 30% tax rebate since it's solar. I think it might save enough to pay for itself in a couple of year. Definitely on the follow-up list. There was also an interesting solar oven. I've had a bit of curiosity about getting one.

6) Food - well, wine. Three local wineries were giving tastings of their wares. Couldn't insult them by not at least sampling... right? Didn't actually add any bottles to our "cellar", but did try a couple of things that we liked enough to write down for future reference.

Two others vendors with whom I plan to follow-up are a company that refinishes kitchen counters and one that installs pull-out shelves in existing kitchen cabinets. I'd like both for my kitchen. Like others, we plan to stay here for the long term so we are upgrading a bit over time.

If the Home and Garden Show is here, can spring be far behind?

10-10-10

Didn't post last weekend because somehow my obsession with losing weight seemed very frivolous with all that was happening in Tucson. Down 10 pounds and 2.5 inches. Had a couple of hard days this week and regained a couple of pounds, but am back on track. Clothes are fitting noticeably better now.

The pundits have had a day of it analyzing and examining the shooting in Tucson yesterday. And, until the suspect is arraigned,tried and has an opportunity to testify, we will probably not know what really caused this awful act - if then. It may have been a political act, or an act of terrorism, but I suspect it may turn out to be something else... the act of a mentally ill young man.

In the past 15 years there have been 56 school shootings world-wide, and in the same time period there have been 12 work site shootings that have killed five or more people. Some have recognizable names - Virginia Tech, Columbine, Nickle Mines School - and others are only remembered by those who were directly affected. A few were family-related, a few appeared to be shooting of opportunity and some clearly were revenge for a perceived wrong. We've even coined a term for worksite shootings - "going postal" - from one of the earliest events.

It seems to me, tho, that frequently the shooter is a young man with "issues". The reports today are that the suspect wrote rambling rants on his web site that made no sense; that he interrupted classes at his community college with rambling rants; that he asked questions of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that made no sense and then was angry because she could not answer him. The Virginia Tech shooter clearly needed mental health care and did not receive adequate attention.

All of which makes me wonder if we have let our community mental health system fall into such disarray that people who need help are not being identified and not receiving the help they need. I would never suggest that we should go back to the huge mental hospitals of the 1950's or that we should slap a diagnosis of mental illness on everyone who is a little different. It does seem, tho, that there are a lot of young folks who need some mental health care and that too often they end up involved in mass shootings. Perhaps using a gun to solve a problem seems more logical if one's reasoning is a bit off.

None of that helps the six people who died yesterday or the 10 who were injured. This incident may have "only" been political, but maybe not. Maybe it could have been prevented with a timely intervention.

Santa Came Late

Santa arrived Monday morning in the guise of three strapping young men, who marched into my house and started ripping up my carpeting. They were expected!

After 10 years walking on lovely white wall-to-wall, it wasn't so white any more. We did bring a chocolate lab into the mix and it's a open-plan house, so the main walkway is directly thru the living and dining rooms. I guess we are pretty lucky to have gotten 10 good years. We could have managed a couple more, but both of us were tired of the constant visits from the Rug Doctor to clean and spot.

So when we perched on Santa's knee back in late November, we whispered in his ear, "Please, Santa, may we have floors for Christmas?" [I have found over the years, that when you have a big request, you need to go to see him early, so that you get a good spot on his list - that one he checks twice.] And, he delivered. Well, those strapping young men did.

Three days of hammering and sawing and walking carefully on the plywood, and by Wednesday evening we were putting furniture back in place and re-hanging the pictures. Did you know that for new floors they ask you to take down your pictures? I guess they worry that those strapping young men will bump into something valuable.

We love it! We know it will be a little cooler on the feet, but it feels so good! And I love the look. We carried the wood into the kitchen, too - I have been assured that "modern floors" can take the spills and traffic there - so the whole house looks larger. [What is it about moving into a smaller house, and then wanting it to look larger?]

Thank you, Santa!