Keeping Repaired

Spending time lately on repairs.   



Our furnace had a new problem and was leaking.   From the blue tank.  One guy came out Saturday to help dry up the floor and another guy came Monday to put the new release tank on.









My watch band broke and I bought a new band.  But I couldn't manage, even with a small screw driver, to release the spring bars that hole the band to the watch.  So I looked online to see how much the right tool would cost.  It wasn't much - under $5.  Shipping bumped it up over $10. 

Digital watches can be pretty inexpensive, but it just seems silly to have to buy a new one because the band breaks.  It was so easy to fix with this baby.  







My van's battery was dead when we got home after sitting at our neighbors for almost
three months.  When the ice that held the rear driver's side tire tightly to the ground melted, we jumped it, I drove it, and parked it.  And a few days later it was dead again.  So, with summer coming up I scheduled a service for the whole van and today we jumped it again and took it in to be serviced.  I'm hoping to get some pre-bus Denali time in. 

And the cold I'd fought down in LA, had lingered and flared up again.  (Didn't want to be too graphic, so took this picture which I kind of like, but not sure how many people can figure it out.)

Dr. Schwartz, my incredible doctor for probably 30 years, maybe a few more even, retired last summer.  I've been thinking I should meet the new doc before I really needed him.  Wanted him to know who I was.  And let him know how much Dr. S spoiled me.  He'd already heard that from every other patient he'd inherited.  Well, he thought I could heal without taking anything - my preference anyway - and so I have to start working harder to get rid of this thing.  I asked to take a picture so I could remember what he looked like - that part of my brain that remembers faces is also in need of repair - and I promised not to post it, so I've photoshopped it. 






And, finally, if I were still in my 20's maybe these jeans would be ok like this.  But I think that's pushing things for a geezer.  But they were really comfortable. 

It turns out there are lots and lots of videos online that show ways to patch holes like this. 
The one I first found used a spray adhesive and an iron.  J took over this project and ended up with a liquid adhesive.  These jeans have years left in them now. 


There's more stuff that needs repairing or uncluttering or just doing which is making blogging harder - unless I blog about things like this. 

Lost Tooth

I was visiting friends on the way home from getting some errands done the other day when the youngest daughter suddenly said she lost a tooth. 

It's been a while since I was around when a tooth was lost.  But I'd been thinking about this milestone, because just a couple days before, while cleaning the garage - yes, that's still happening - I came across our kids' tooth fairy pillow case.  My wife says she thinks that Auntie Esther made it.   The tooth pocket  is at that little rectangle at the bottom with Bambi on it. 

Borderland Hack and Clutter Followup

Doug at Borderlands has  been cleaning up his blog.  I got there without a warning today, but he's not sure it's all clean yet.  Turns out he found out about the hostile takeover of his blog from my post. He's done a new post about it - Hacked and Back - and set up a new blog:

"I started a new blog at WordPress.com, where I won’t have to think about server-level security issues. I plan to blog there until further notice. Just a “Hello World” post up there now. I’m going to take a little more eclectic approach to the subject matter there than I have with Borderland, and see how it goes. Might be fun."

Meanwhile, I continued with the garage decluttering with a skype session with my daughter going through a box of her old clothes.  She said "give away" to more than half.  Thanks to all those who commented on that post. 

Ptolemy Grey's Apartment Motivates Me To Renew Clutter War Efforts

In The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Walter Mosley writes about a 91 year old man whose grand nephew comes by his apartment twice a week to take him shopping for cans of tuna.  I'll skip ahead to where Reggie is out of the picture and 17 year old Robyn is now over to look out for Ptolemy.

Ptolemy's mind is not always in the present and his apartment is a mess.  No, that doesn't describe it.  In fact, reading this made my mom's garage seem eligible for a spread in Better Homes and Gardens.  Let me give you the picture.

"What is that smell?"  Robyn asked him.
"I don't know.  There's parts'a the house I cain't get into anymore.  The bathroom, half the kitchen.  I ain't been deep in the bedroom since before what's-his-name, uh, Reggie, would come."
"You got a bedroom an' you sleepin' under a table?"
. . .
"Don't go in there," Ptolemy said when Robyn opened the door to the bathroom.
"I got to, Mr. Grey,"  she said.  "If I'ma be comin' here an' looking' aftah you I got to have a toilet to go to."
While Ptolemy tried to think of some other way he could have Robyin's company and keep her out of the bathroom, she opened the door and went in.
"Oh my God,"  she said.  "What is this?"
A large wad of blackened towels flew out from the doorway and landed with a thump on the small bare area of the crowded floor.
Ptolemy covered his face with his hands.
"You got suitcases in the bathtub,"  Robyn called out.  "An' there's black stuff growin' in the commode.  There's, oh my God, oh no. . ."

The kitchen and the bedroom have similar problems.  But soon Robyn takes Mr. Grey to the hardware store and buys a bunch of cleaning equipment and garbage bags.  And some bug bombs.  They go to a motel for two nights while the bug bombs are killing the cockroaches and other vermin in the house and then she spends five days cleaning the apartment.

Five days.  That's all.  I was embarrassed.  I've been fighting the clutter wars at a downright leisurely pace.   I've even got a clutter war tag on the blog.

Five days.  I need to set some deadlines for making room in this house.  Mind you, our commodes have no evil black gunk nor are there suitcases in the bathtubs.  There's just one room downstairs which has been a staging area for things moving out of the house.  The garage is the next way station for outgoing junk.

Five days.   OK, now I'm getting serious.  And while most of you probably don't care about any of this, posting it, I hope, will force me to speed up the pace and really get the garage and downstairs storage room into much more aesthetic and usable space.





An hour tonight in the garage.  It's not a lot, but it's a start.  I find taking pictures of big jobs before I start, helps remind me when I'm done for the day, that I actually have accomplished something.  (I hope you can tell which is the before and which is the after picture.)



I still have to figure out where to get rid of a couple of old computer printers.  OK, thanks for indulging me here.

By the way, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey isn't a great book, but it's good, and it did get inside the mind  of a 91 year old who is having troubles staying in the present.  As a youngster myself, I can't judge the accuracy, but it did make me think about what the world might look like when my brain isn't always functioning right.  

Clutter Wars: Old Photos - Checkpoint Charlie 1964-2010, Loussac Opening

My new strategy in the Clutter War is to get rid of things in the garage to make room for boxes from the house.  But I'm being distracted by what I'm finding - like old photos.

Here are some pictures from the year I was a student in Göttingen, Germany.  I'm in the window the day I painted my room in the Forum student housing building on Brüder Grimm Allee, on my scooter (I think it's a Lambretta, but I don't remember for sure and can't find pictures on line that match this model.  But I did find a history of the Lambretta here, beginning before it made scooters, including a 1939 declaration that the factory was  a "model of fascist establishment.") There's a picture of me at the Fasching Party and one with Claudia in Berlin at Schloss Charlottenbe[u]rg.  These are all 1964 and 1965,

In 2010 we visited Berlin and I took and posted this picture of Checkpoint Charlie which is now just a tourist attraction with a guy in a soldier suit in the middle of bustling Berlin.  But I couldn't find my old pictures until today.  The back of the 1964 picture says, "Checkpoint Charlie from ramp on Western Side looking over the wall.  Barbed wire on bottom of picture is on top of the wall."  That's me looking at the sign.   In those days the space between East and West Berlin was no-man's land and today it's just a historical footnote in the middle of Berlin at a point where you otherwise would have no idea this had been the border.

In the last set, you can see Loussac library at what I think was the official opening in 1986.  Then there are two kids preparing for Halloween (this picture is here for their spouses to enjoy).  And finally a picture my son took of his father during the red beard period.  I don't have exact dates but these are mid 1980s.  

OK, back to the garage.  I don't think I've made much room today.

How Creatively Do You Lose Things? Disappearing In Plain Sight

I think I should get a prize for how well I lost this punch card to the Spenard Jazz Festival.  We came home from the poetry night.  I knew I'd put the card in my shirt pocket.  But the next day I couldn't find it.  I called the Organic Oasis to see if anyone had found the card.  No.  It wasn't in the car.  Not on my desk.  Not in the cubby hole I put things from my pockets. I couldn't find it anywhere in the house.  We at least got two punches used up of the five.   When I finally find things, I usually try to note where they were, so that I have a list of places where to look for, say, the keys, or other items that I can't find.  So, this is a note for all of you.  A place where a small card can disappear in plain sight. 

Yesterday I was sitting on the bottom stair putting on shoes.  Now look at this picture and see if you can find the punch card. 

You can see (above) why I couldn't find the card.  But let's look a little closer - which I was able to do when I was putting on my shoes.

All I can imagine is that I pulled the various pieces of paper out of my shirt pocket at the stairs and the card somehow flew out and, against the odds,  got caught in the molding.  There are a lot of things that I misplace, and fret that I should have been paying better attention.  I feel no guilt over this one.  It was just a freak event.  Now, if the card had slipped in there facing the other way around, I would have found it easily as you can see in the next picture.

I'll just have to chalk this up as a donation to a non-profit that does a lot with very little.

[UPDATE 10:00am:  In the comments, Barbara says she's reminded of Beethoven's Rage Over a Lost Penny, Vented in a Caprice.  So, here, via Fledermaus1990's Youtube you can vent over whatever you've lost today.





In an untitled piece in Notes (June 1950) retrieved through JSTOR, Jacob Avshalomoff writes that Rage over the Lost Penny, Vented in a Caprice is 

“a title made up by the first publisher, Diabelli, when he issued the work posthumously in 1828 from the same manuscript used by Dr. Hertzmann.”  

He goes on to say that Dr. Hertzmann’s edition after the manuscript resurfaced in 1945 is far superior to the Diabelli edition.  He also tells us more about the piece itself:

Dr. Hertzmann demonstrates quite convincingly that the piece was not a late work, but was probably sketched by Beethoven between 1795 and 1798.  He thinks that Beethoven did this as some preparatory “homework” for his frequent public demonstrations of ‘improvisation,” and that this is why the composer did not finish up the piece and have it published.”

Thanks Barbara for the tip here.

To Do List Already Gone Astray

I don't make to do lists much any more. Part of being retired is the ability to ride time more naturally and not keep trying to box it up into task units. But now and then a list helps get things done a little faster. So I made a list today.

I'm actually not too far off.  The real distraction has been this post.  In a comment to a recent post, Jacob wrote that if you don't keep practicing you forget Photoshop quickly.  And I got hung up on these curvy lines.  A quick google should solve that, but the instructions I picked were way more complicated than necessary and I had all sorts of trouble doing what is essentially pretty easy.  I found a video by xPsychoxStevex that made it much better, but it's still seems like it should much simpler. 

So, nothing can be checked off.

Shovel the deck - I've got the driveway cleared.  But I haven't touched the deck.  But that's my "powerglide" stuck in the snow there - a low tech exercise tool for back and shoulders and some leg work.


Download Ecamm - Ecamm is the software I found online for recording skype calls (including video) for Mac.  The Anchorage Apple User Group checked with the distributer to see if I could get a copy to review and I can.  So I have to download it, try it out, and review it.  I'm hoping it will allow me to do more skype interviews with better video quality.

Blog - Three items.  I want to do a final review of the book Fate of Nature.  Two of my distractions this morning related to the Veto post.  One was an email from the executive director of the National League of Cities confirming he was not aware of any local governments where a mayor can veto an amendment before the ordinance it's amending is approved.  That doesn't mean it doesn't exist somewhere, just that he's not aware.  He also gave me a name of a professor in Arizona to check with.  (Turns out it's a new one for him too.)  Anyway, I can count this time as working on that post.  I also got a return phone call from Fred Boness who wrote the memo the mayor used to justify the veto which raise new questions for me to pursue.  Some things take forever. 
And we saw "The Interrupters" last night at the Bear Tooth and there were some interesting points in there I want to explore.  It's about ex-gang members and prisoners who now go back into their community to interrupt violence by talking from their positions of experience to current folks to show them they have choices other than violence.

Drawers on Craigslist - we sold a chair last week via Craigslist and now I want to see if I can get rid of the drawers.  The chair was in great condition.  The drawers aren't.  One side bulges out a bit so two or three of the drawers on the right slip off the track.  I suspect someone could fix that.  I don't even want money for it.  I just hate to waste the good drawers and fixtures and was hoping someone with more incentive and skill than I, would take it and recycle it.

Wedding Card - I'm embarrassed here.  This couple got married a year ago.  We had the present, but it took a long time to wrap it.  And there were issues of where to send it since they live in Pakistan.  I have a US address of a relative now who will make sure it gets there.  But I forgot to put a card in when I packed it.  This is an easy one, but I've been doing other things.  So it's on the to do list in hopes I just do it and get it sent.  An anniversary present now.

The Downstairs Room - This is one of those never ending tasks.  As bad as it looks, it's much better than it was.  The bookshelves mean that boxes of books are now gone from the closet and the garage.  But this has been our storage room for years now.  It's the staging point before the garage for stuff on the way out of the house.  It gets cleared up and then cluttered, but it's different stuff.  Here's a post from last year of this room (picture from the other side though.)



This post is NOT on the list, but a good distraction.  Maybe posting my todo list for everyone to see, will spur me on to get through it.  The only hard items are the posts and I won't get them all done today.  Working on the room downstairs is never ending, but an hour is doable.  And if anyone can use the drawers, let me know.

More Snow, More Shoveling, Full Circle, Photoshop

You're going to get bored with these driveway pictures - or else I'll have to start learning some better photoshop tricks.  But once again, there were about 4 inches of snow on the driveway to be shoveled.  And the snow on the sides of the driveway are getting higher.  This is about the fourth snowfall since Oct. 30. 

But inside we had our new Full Circle Foods box.   It's nice, and something of a challenge, to open the box every two weeks and see what's inside.  J does most of the cooking these days.  I think I figured out why - she prefers eating it to what I cook.  So do I.
I think going into next summer we need to scout out the more local options.  Suggestions? 


We also moved forward on the uncluttering today via Craigslist - got rid of a nice chair that just doesn't work right for us.  And the buyer seemed very pleased.   

OK, I decided to go play with the FCF photo.  (I realized later it was the snow stuff I should jazz up, but when I tried, I wasn't impressed.  I'll have to find something else.) 

I found a website - photoshop essentials - tutorial on blending layers in photoshop.  Here I'm only using the persimmons and the carrots. 

For the carrots, I went through the different blend modes in the Layers window and decided I liked Light Color best for this.

For the persimmons (one's an apple), none of the Blending options appealed to me.  I'm not sure how it got open, but the styles window was open, and I tried the different options until I found "Light Dissolve" which, while not perfect, seemed best.  I'm using Photoshop 3, so I was pleased to read on photoshop essentials that the latest version isn't (essential):

But do you really need the latest and greatest version of Photoshop with all its bells and whistles in order to complete most of your day-to-day photo editing tasks? Adobe would like you to think, "Yes, absolutely!!", but chances are, more often than not, the answer is no. With just a little knowledge and a few basic skills, you can usually accomplish most of what you need to do. Even though each new version of Photoshop comes with new features, new options and new toys for us to play with, the core skills you need to have are the same in Photoshop CS3 as they were back in Photoshop 3 when Adobe first introduced layers into Photoshop.
So what are these core skills? Knowing how to make basic selections is one of them. Knowing how to use and work with layers in Photoshop is definitely one of them. Understanding how layer masks work is very important. And knowing how and when to use layer blend modes, which just happen to be the topic of this discussion, is absolutely essential.

Clutter Wars - More Locks and Surprise Hoya Flowers

In March I posted a picture of two Master locks I'd found uncluttering.  I'd always been frustrated with locks with lost combinations.  But this time I googled a way to get the combinations from Google.  (Luni left a comment on that post with links to websites that showed how to crack the locks, but I couldn't make it work.)

As uncluttering continued, more locks showed up until I had six, the most you could get combinations for with one request. 

Not sure what I need six locks for, but I've sent in for the combinations.







And today I discovered how cluttered (or maybe just busy) when I found that our hosta [for some reason it came to me later this is a hoya, not a hosta] plant is now blooming.  How did it get this far along without me even noticing buds?   Well, this is positive neglect. 

Maybe  I've concentrated  too much on the philodendron jungle that's been in there.  This floor pot had vines growing up the wall and then dangling down.  I figured I could clear the floor space for better things by repotting.  So here I've pulled all the vines down and started untangling them and cutting them for repotting. 







I'm not sure I made a wise move, we'll see in a few weeks I guess.  I thought I could cut them at the joints and put them in new soil, build a shelf that got them well off the ground.  The shelf worked, but they are struggling to gain traction. (I found the white pot cleaning out the backyard greenhouse!)

The ones on top are still green after a couple of weeks, but limp.  But nothing as bad as the yellow, curly leaves dangling down on the left. 

We'll see.   I did leave a few in the old pot in case these don't make it.  And we gained a lot of room on the floor. 

We've got visitors headed this way in June so I have motivation to step up the clutter war.  Unlike Afghanistan, this is a war I know, with determination, I can win.  (Well, it never ends, but I can get to a point where it's controllable.)

Clutter Wars - Getting Unlocked

For years I've looked at these locks in the garage.  Local stores said they couldn't help.

But it's the age of the internet and so I thought I'd send Master Lock an email with pictures of the locks including the serial numbers on the back.


But they're way ahead of me.  They have an FAQ page on lost combinations. 

Question:

I've forgotten the combination to my standard dial combination lock. How do I obtain the combination for personal use?

Answer:

A) My lock does not have a serial number:      To provide enhanced long–term security, Master Lock has discontinued imprinting a serial number on the lock body on combination locks sold through retail locations. For greater convenience, we encourage consumers to store their combination at our secure website, Masterlockvault.com, which is easy to use and offers 24/7 access. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide combinations for non–serialized locks, if the user did not register with Masterlockvault.com. B) My lock has a serial number:      Use current instructions (see below) Due to increased security concerns nationwide, Master Lock recognizes the heightened need for additional safety measures. We no longer provide lock combinations in response to phone, fax, or email requests. Please follow the procedure outlined below to obtain the combination to your lock and submit your request to: Master Lock Warehouse 1600 W. La Quinta Rd Suite/WHSE # 1 Nogales, AZ 85621 Procedure: Print out the Lost Combination Form from a printer friendly page, or download the PDF file. Have your Lost Combination Form notarized by a Notary Public to prove that you are the owner of the lock (you can include up to 6 combinations on one notarized form). Note: Inmates at a correctional facility - in addition to the lost combination form, you must submit your request on official prison letterhead. In lieu of notarization, the form must be signed by a prison official. Photocopy the serial number on the back case of your combination lock. This copy MUST clearly show that the lock is not attached to anything. Be sure to hand write the serial number on the photocopy. Mail the original completed, notarized Lost Combination Form and the photocopy of the back of your lock to the address above. Note: It will take approximately 4 to 6 weeks to process your request for a combination. Note: If the form is not fully completed and notarized with a raised seal or rubber stamped seal, or if the serial number is not legible on the photocopy, your request will not be honored. Master Lock does not reimburse for any Notary fees. Store your combination at www.masterlockvault.com - a FREE service from Master Lock! The Master Lock Vault provides a safe & convenient place to store all of your confidential data for quick & easy access from your PC, iPhone, or any other mobile devices!

It's different if you live overseas, and if the lock is attached to something, they won't help out.  

I'm sure we have more than two of these, but I'll start with these two.

[UPDATE:  By May 1 I'd found four more locks and sent the info into Master Lock.  Eventually I got the combinations to them, lost them, then emailed them and got them again.]  

Clutter Wars - New Carpet In

J has wanted a new carpet downstairs for years.  It didn't bother me at all.  I thought it worked.  But recently she ordered a new 'green' carpet and then painted the key room it's going in and it was due to arrive in Anchorage about when I got back.  (J stayed in LA a few more days and is due in tonight.)  Well, it got here earlier and there were two phone messages.  So when I called them, yes, it was possible to do it the next day, so yesterday they came and put it in.  I delayed this post so she wouldn't see the post before she saw the actual carpet.  I'm sure she won't have access to the internet before she gets home any more - and she wouldn't be looking here probably anyway. 

Someone could ask why this is in the Clutter War category. It would be a good question. Minimally, we had to clear the floor in the room and hallway and I'm hoping not everything will go back. In fact the sofa bed has been marked for disposal already. We'll see.

Clutter Wars - Low Tide

The clutter wars continue.  J announced last week that she wants to paint one of the downstairs rooms and needs to get things out of there.  The room that is my project was totally strewn with boxes and stuff.  There was no room there to put the painting refugees from the other room.  So I vowed to get the floor cleared enough that it could become a storage room for the room being painted.

The picture shows the morning high tide and the afternoon low tide.

This room has been full and bare several times over the last few years.  I'd like to think that we get rid of stuff in the process.  And that like things get closer to being in the same boxes so they can be more easily sorted later.



In any case, I did get the floor clear by my arbitrary Friday deadline.  There does seem to be more room in the closet, and I remember filling the recycle bin with stuff.  Now I have to take pictures off the walls and books off the shelves and other odds and ends that are out in the open and move them into my now cleared floor.