Spring Cleaning In Winter--Day 4--Same Room

Today's high temperature was: 35 degrees

Beautiful sunny skies all day.

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We only got a couple of inches of snow last night--not the 3-5 predicted.  It just freshened up the old snow, so that it looks nice and clean outside.

Continuing on with the rearrangement-----

When you walk in the front door and look to your right,

this is what you would see.

I got my printer and scanner off the corner of my desk

and put them and the modem/router/surge protector plug

on the cart.  I don't really like the looks of it, but

I now have more room on my desk.

I wanted to put it on the other side of the desk, but the cords wouldn't go that far, so.....

If you stuck your head in a bit further, you would see this. 

and a bit farther--you'd see this

This is the view to my right when I am sitting at my desk.

I do not like all those binders--they are on the far end

bookcase, so they are not visible to someone entering the house.

30 years of scrapbooks/pictures.

Every now and then, I use them to find an old picture or to

check on what went on in 1987--whatever.  I should probably

buy new binders-all the same color, and put on new spine labels.

The view of the cubby when I am sitting at my desk.

I like it.

and if I turned around in my chair--this is what I see

I wish I could have painted the walls--they need it, but I couldn't move this unit, nor the desk, so I just scrubbed the walls where I could reach.  I use this area when I am putting together my albums, or wrapping gifts, or need a larger space to work

I especially like this bulletin board with all the old pictures of my family

.

So--I am done and I really feel good in this room--very comfortable.  BTW--those Command Hooks work fantastic!!  I have dry wall that doesn't want to accept a nail, unless it has an anchor drilled in the wall first.  Just stick those Command Hooks on the wall and hang the picture.

Now--the next to attack will be the kitchen--I need to get some Murphy's Oil Soap and do every single cupboard door--and do not look forward to that chore at all!!

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I gotta tell you--Dan was here to clean off the driveway and car.  Yesterday Dar called and told me to have him come and do hers too.  (She has his phone number, but apparently, I am her secretary.)  So I told him and he said, "I just stopped there and she said it was going to thaw so she didn't need me."

"Oh.  She told me last night she did."

"She's weird!"

"Oh--really?"

"Yeah--really.  Half the time I don't know what she is talking about.  You ever talk to her very much?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think she is weird?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then."

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Everyone is having problems with ice dams on the edges of their roofs.  Dan has been shoveling the snow off roofs and putting down some calcium chloride to melt the ice.  I have a 2 year old roof that had special panels laid along the edges to prevent ice dams--so far I have no problem.  When the ice and snow melts--many people are going to find they have roof leaks--not a good thing.

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Have I ever told you about Mary--the lady who lives behind me?  Last year, I saw her trimming her 6 foot hedge with small hand shears, like you'd cut flowers with, so I took my hedge trimmers and trimmed if for her.

Mary has a heart of gold, but she is the dizziest woman I have ever met!  I think she maybe forgets names because she calls everyone "Honey".  One day, I walked between her house and mine to get to the other street and noticed big balls of dust hanging out of her dryer vent--on the outside.  So, I stopped in and told her she needed to clean that out or "you might have a dryer fire."  It was apparent she had no idea what I was talking about.  So, I came home, got my big round brush on the heavy wire and went over and reamed out her dryer vent.  Then I asked if I could check her dryer and she invited me in.  I checked the lint trap, it was full.  I pulled it out, cleaned it off and then came home, got my smaller vent brush and cleaned out her vent all the way down.  It was stuffed!  I told her she needed to clean it out "often".

"Well Honey, I never knew that.  I thought something was wrong with my dryer!  I had to run the clothes through at least two cycles to get them dry...and the dryer is only two years old!  My other one quit working!"   <I wonder why.>

Mary has a beautiful, large home--at least 1,600 square feet with three bedrooms, an en suite master bedroom, an open kitchen and huge dining room, a really nice living room.  Mary's house still looks like a model home because, she vacuums every day, she cleans very week and once a month....she pulls everything out from the wall and cleans behind and under all the furniture.

So--last week Mary came over.  She is selling her place and moving into government subsidized apartment in Brighton.  The same place I first checked out, before I moved here.

"They only charge you 30% of your income for rent.  I will only have to pay three hundred fifty dollars a month."  <She now pays $360.00 here, on a nice corner lot and large home.>

"How big is your apartment?

"It's a one bedroom, living room, kitchen with a dining nook.  It's seven hundred and fifty square feet.  The laundry is just down the hall about ten feet.  I am so excited!"

"Why are you moving?"

"To save money."  <okay--she will save $10.00 a month on rent.>

"Well, you won't have such a big place to clean anyway...that will be nice."

"Oh Honey, that's not why I am moving.  I am so afraid that all of my appliances are going to quit working.  One after another.  After all, I've lived here twelve years and if they all go at once....and the furnace and hot water heater....Honey, I just couldn't afford that."   <Who's to guarantee that the appliances that come with the apartment are not going to quit?  Maybe the landlord's have to replace them?>

She paid $60,000 for her place 12 years ago.  

She has just sold it for $17,000.

She likes the quietness of living out here--she is moving into an apartment with people above, below and on both sides of her--and they aren't all Seniors.  It is going to be noisy.

She is moving from 1,600 square feet to 750.

There must be something wrong with me, but I just don't get it!

<at least she won't have to worry about cleaning out her dryer vent!>

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I don't want to sound like a snob, but...honestly...I have never met women like this--like Dar and Mary and even Pearl.  They don't act like they have a lick of common sense.  The friends I went to school with, the women I've known, they aren't like these women.  I ponder on the differences.  We all grew up in the same State--at the same time--the same kind of lifestyle--the 40's and 50's.  The only difference I can see is that, my friends and I grew up near or in a small town--a lot of us were farm kids--I suppose we learned a lot about work and had common sense.  Dar, Pearl and Mary all grew up in the city.  They didn't have the "outside" responsibilities we farm kids had.  They didn't have to work in the fields, the cow barns--they went to bigger high schools.  Their Saturday afternoons were spent going to the movie or shopping or playing with their neighbors.  

Us farm kids Saturday afternoons were spent, mowing the lawn in the summer.  Helping bale hay, bringing in the cows, helping milk them, gathering the eggs, feeding the rabbits..  My nearest "kid" neighbor lived a mile away and we didn't play on Saturday's because he was helping out on his farm.  In the winter, we didn't go or do much--except the farm chores--they always had to be done.

I don't know--but these women are very different than I am.  They can't do anything on their own--they don't even know where to begin or how to finish.  It's a wonderment how they manage to live alone.