Friday, March 28, 2008

ARRRRRGH!!!!

We had ordered a new washer and dryer from Sears to be delivered and installed today.....
By 3:00 they still had not arrived
I phoned Sears and tracked down our salesman....
Apparently there is a jam up at the loading dock and the company that is to pick up our w/d and deliver and install it, can't get it off the truck that it came in to Sears on.
Bottom line: ....it won't be here today and it's questionable about tomorrow...he will keep us updated....HAH!!!!
Frustrating part about it is....we are to have overnight guests tomorrow and I wanted everything washed and dried and put away and the laundry room tidied up before they came.
Now....nothing washed.....still crap (sorry..junk) in the hallway and that probably won't be moved before they arrive.
ARRRRRRGH - A pox on Sears and their totally inefficient delivery service. It seems that if you're not in a prime location (i.e. Lower Mainland) the service is the pits.....BAH!!!!

Ok...now I've vented, I'll try to see what can be salvaged from this mess!!!!

One more for good luck....ARRRRRGH!!!

Slainte!!

My life in this moment...as I see it....

Creatively speaking I am in the " stop and collect and organize" mode....which gives me time to think about what I want to do and how I want to do it. I have sorted through books, and kept a few aside for some altered book experimenting and now after sorting through various and sundry things upstairs, I now have to go sort through all the stuff from upstairs that I decided to chuck downstairs, i.e. my workshop. I have retrieved an old accordion folder which I plan on labeling for use as a storage for small bits and bobs to add to collages and I also have to devise some form of storage for papers, pictures and larger additions to the collage collection.

I do realize that I tend to do more organizing than actually creating...but sooner or later I am confident that the actual creating will begin...in fact it already has, but is in a state of quiescence for the moment due to "life" enacting it's usual "get in the way" mode. I feel that if my mind is still creative then sooner or later the rest of me will follow suit. I mean....all you have to do is read this post and you can discern the activity that is going on inside my head in order to type this all non-stop (except for checking out words in the dictionary!) Sigh....whew.....I think I can stop now.....

...except to tell you that I am knitting again....I think there must be a psychological thing to this "knitting" phase that I go into more and more frequently.... I am now on my 2nd dishcloth...so simple and quick....and I actually found a shawl pattern that is the same as the dishcloth pattern....but you just make it in wool instead of cotton and make it MUCH bigger. How cool is that!!!!! I'm also finding myself getting excited at the thought of going into the wool aisle at Walmart. It must be the colours....for sure...that must be it!! How about many dishcloths in a multitude of colours...and shawls glowing with warm and fuzzy colours...the possibilities are endless!! I do find, though, that knitting seems to soothe my soul...I have even started doing it sitting up in bed before sleeping each night...it unwinds the day...gives me a chance to cogitate and spit the messy stuff out of my mind before I try to sleep (now THERE'S a visual!!).....at least that's how I see it.

Gosh I'm using a lot of exclamation marks.....my life is just a collection of exclamations!!!
Who knew!!!

Slainte!!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Excellent weekend.....questionable week!!

Last weekend I had a wonderful if rather frenetic weekend in Victoria with D's mother. We visited with T & D and I stayed there and she stayed with another family member.
Frenetic, because we had a multitude of things to do, see, and discuss and as is usual, not enough time to do all this. However, it was good....we saw T&D's apartment, their lovely neighbourhood and yard, I achieved my ocean fix and D's mom revisted an old home, thanks to an accommodating new owner. All through this, our discussions ranged through many topics, which to my mind, is the best kind of discussion. Despite two 4 hour bus rides on either end, I arrived back home in Kamloops refreshed and revitalized......until.....

Reality kicked in....

On Wednesday, DH was downstairs getting something from the freezer, and he noticed that water was dripping from the ceiling and also running down the wall.....not in huge amounts, but enough to do damage if left unchecked. We discovered, after tracking it back, that the leak was coming from the laundry room above....specifically...the washer. (Our laundry room is on the 1st floor....not the basement, convenient but definitely problematic if there are leaks)
Now....this house was 17 years old when we moved here in Dec 2004, therefore it would be a little over twenty years old now. From what we understood, the washer (top loader) and dryer are originals with the house....so...they are somewhat aged.

A little history here....when we lived in Langley, we invested in a new front loading washer to save on water (to save the septic system). This was a few years before we sold the house...but unfortunately, we had to leave it behind. I loved that washer, it worked like a charm, used less water and the dryer used less energy as the clothes were 3/4 dry after the spin cycle. We thought that we could get a new washer and dryer soon after we moved here, but it was not to be for financial reasons. So...back to the present.....

The decision was made to buy a new washer....and it was duly noted that Sears had a washer dryer combo on sale this weekend for less than what we paid for our original front loader in Langley. We settled on getting this combo, even though the dryer was still working. It seemed a good idea to start afresh with two new appliances. So yesterday we went and did the deed...and for a reasonable fee, they will install the new and also take away the old appliances. As it turns out the washer that we are getting is almost the exact same model we had in Langley.....and it is energy efficient so we can claim a rebate from BC Hydro....so all in all, not too bad a deal.

Everything is dried up in the basement so we are hopeful that there will be no further problems. We have noticed some raised areas in the linoleum in the laundry room and adjoining bathroom, which we think is an after effect of the leakage, as there is no moisture to be seen anywhere on the basement ceiling at this point.....keeping fingers crossed.

But...you know...it's all about being a homeowner. As homes age, they need more preventative maintenance, repairs and replacement parts.

Life and times in Kamloops....

Slainte!

Monday, March 17, 2008

A wee bit of Irish for St. Paddy's day....

"Never iron a four-leaf clover, because you don't want to press your luck. "

— Author Unknown

..... and a toast!! (with a wee jar of "the creature" - better known as Irish Whiskey)

Saint Patrick was a gentleman,
Who through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland,
Here’s a toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again.

'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!'
Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Slainte!!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

An inspiring story....

I have a favourite celebrity site....Rosie.com.....Rosie O'Donnell's website and blog. It's a source of humour, information, music, art and any number of other things.

I mention this because recently she talked about a site that she had discovered called Ted.com. Now I haven't explored it fully yet, I intend to do that before too long, but tonight I specifically went there to watch a video of Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist (read brain scientist), who, eight years ago, had a massive stroke and remembered every minute of it.... Her talk about the brain, how it functions and the experience of feeling hers slowly deteriorating is so worth listening to....

So ....if you have a spare 18 minutes...please do so. It makes fascinating and inspiring listening.

Slainte!