House In Order: What next?

[cjsmith]

There's no way my House will be In Order by the end of Lent. When that became obvious I focused down to finances, and that's getting pretty good (only thing missing now is a will).

What next?

I could follow this challenge with, say, more focused ones aimed at getting things shipshape. Each of these, of course, could spawn its own sub-list of stuff; some are huge.

• Photo organization: stuff back to 1985 or so
• Pure and simple decluttering
• Get rid of old shell/mail/web account and all links to it
• Ancient Unfinished Projects

Or I could do something health-related.

• Yet Another Thing For My Feet (new kind of doc, acupuncture, etc)
• Eating more healthfully
• Exercise challenges - weights, stretching, and/or goals related to swimming
• Bite the bullet and do the abdominal surgery

Or preparedness-related.

• First aid training (again)
• Better organization of supplies
• Update ham equipment
• Electricity
• Earthquake-strap the furniture
• Come to think of it, the surgery fits here too

Or home improvement.

• Redo the Pepto Bismol Pink bathroom
• Let the interior design person rip apart the living room
• Throw away all the furniture in my office and start over
• Work with Rob on a landscape plan

Or personal.

• Find a hobby that is challenging, social, can involve travel, can involve a side business, and can be done without feet
• Update the wardrobe (shudder)
• Start meditating again
• Try new crockpot recipes

Or hey, just fun.

• Reading list
• Do every jigsaw puzzle I own
• Find beautiful places to sit and read or to photograph (accessible without feet, remember)
• Learn Italian up to Pimsleur Level 3
• Try new things
• Bake a lot

I'm really impressed with how much I got done when I challenged myself to do it. What a nifty and powerful idea! So I'd like to continue to put that concept to use in some way. (Not 1/2hr a day though. That's pretty rough on weekdays when I'm in a work crunch or when I'm calling.) Just need to decide what and how.

Comments

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Update ham equipment

Are you a ham too???

I'm really impressed with how much I got done when I challenged myself to do it.

Congratulations! It's very wise to focus on the positive, rather than beating yourself up about not being able to do everything by the end of Lent. (Is that why you were so concerned with when Lent ends? Marty copied me on his reply -- I'm glad you wrote to him, I knew he'd give you a complete and accurate answer!)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes indeedy! Been a while since I've done anything with it. Tech Plus (or whatever they're calling it now: 5wpm plus a basic written exam).

You're absolutely right, that's why I wanted to know when Lent ends! Thanks for giving me Marty's name and contact info.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I'm not, but my maternal grandparents were both HAMs. They participated in HAM radio alerts and messages during WW2. I remember playing near the old HAM equipment in the garage... and I still remember my grandmother's HAM-lic/call sign(?) since it was on the personalized license plate of her old car which I drove (before it was totaled in an accident). I think my mother might still have the old HAM equipment.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Cool! I'm a ham, too, that's why I was surprised (CJ and I are both pilots, also!)

You don't have to capitalize "ham", by the way -- it's not an acronym. Nobody knows how it got started as a nickname for an amateur radio operator ... there are at least half a dozen theories of its origin. The two that do involve acronyms have been disproved. The most likely origin is that clumsy telegraph operators were called "hams" ("ham-handed" and "ham-fisted" still means clumsy, and come from the same root). It's said that the professional telegraphers referred to the amateur radio operators as "hams," and that the amateurs took the pejorative word and used it themselves, giving it a positive connotation (much like "queer"). In any case, it's just a word, and is spelled the same way as a cut of meat from a pig, or an actor who goes overboard onstage. :-)

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

Ah -- I didn't know that about not capitalizing "ham". I thought I'd always seen it capitalized (elsewhere) & had assumed it was an acronym, like H-something Amateur or something. I have not studied ham-radio, just been around my grandmother's equipment. My youngest brother studied it for a while, but stopped short of getting his license.

I studied flying a little in early college: an orientation flight plus, 1 run in an instrument trainer while at the US Space Academy) & 10 hours of ground-school (also while at the US Space Academy) -- but that's as far as I've gotten. I have not had the funds available for anything further.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Wow ... check your e-mail!

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

So, I'm sure you addressed this, and pardon me for rehashing and all that crap and not doing the research that would stop me from this idea, but I've been bike-riding the last few days, and it definitely gives my ball-of-foot bruise or whatever the hell it is a rest. I do not have toe clips, so I can actually pedal with the arch of my foot. I don't suppose that's something you can do?

If you're gonna bake a lot, swimming a lot is probably also a good idea... :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I can do that with stationary bikes, although it sometimes puts my butt in the wrong place on the seat. I asked at the local bike place about doing that on my regular bike (eg: putting clips under the arch) and they all but hissed at me while making the sign of the cross. They said it would do heinous things to my knees and hips... or something. I don't know WHAT they thought it would do. They wound up their crazed response with "Have you tried running?" So I'm not sure they were entirely sane.

Time to get that ol' bike back in shape and give it a go. If nothing else it would be good to have the thing cleaned and in repair so I can sell it.

You're absolutely right about the baking and the swimming :-) :-)

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

The toe clips make the legs work more efficiently ( or use both the up and down sets of muscles), but I think that without toe clips, it's less hard on the, well, toes...

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I don't have any kind of clips on my bike -- just old fashioned basic flat pedals. I have heard that clips would allow the legs to work more efficiently (as wooddragon said), but I have not made the transition. Maybe that's just as well as my arthritis problem is in the big toe joint.. then again, as long as my toes are not bending a lot, then I'm fine (even on bad days). I think I am usually pressing down on the pedals with the ball (not toes) of my foot & sometimes the arch. ...Having no clips allows me to switch if I want to & put my foot down on the pavement quickly if I want to (no un-clipping).

I'd wonder if part of the problem with putting clips under the arch is that most bike shoes (that I've seen) don't have the mounting points anywhere but under the toe-ball of the foot.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, toe clips are Right Out. As are bikers' ball-of-foot shoe clips. Nope nope nope. :-)

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Wow. This is very inspiring. I am not sure I am up to this level yet, but I think I am going to try to start pointing in that direction. (First step: buy Quicken. Make budget, dammit.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ooo, make budget! I knew I forgot something.

Seriously. To this day I don't have a budget. When the bank account gets low I quit buying things. This leads to some odd behavior, such as a tendency to eat lots of peanut butter sandwiches after IRA deposits.

*sigh*

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

Your organization efforts are encouraging. I have Quicken, but I think my first step will be reorganizing / filing the papers that are currently stashed in a combination of files, boxes, and piles. I know I can do better, I just have to apply more time to the effort.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

All of those look like good goals. Do any of them feel like it has a higher priority than the others?

re: pepto bismol pink bathroom: You have one of those too?
I'm starting to wonder what % of houses built in the 1960s were done with pepto bismol pink tile. My mother's house had it. The last place jemstone & I had it, the older of the 2 bathrooms at our current rental has it.

My mother's place no longer has it as she has redone the tile in both bathrooms since I moved out. The main bathroom is beautifully done with blue-white 1x1 ft marble tile squares all around the bathroom/shower surround and around the sink. We added to this: a teal shower curtain, and light teal paint on the walls with a white sponge wash over it simulating clouds. The one thing that my brother wouldn't recommend (even though it turned out ok): If he ever does a tile job again, he's NOT going to use floor files on the walls. He says they were a pain to work with. (I'm guessing too heavy to stay very well on the walls -- but he got them to stick.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't it scary? Everything furnished in the late 60s / early 70s had avocado green fridges, if they weren't mustard yellow, and now I'm seeing that a lot of bathrooms are pink. Very weird.

Wish I weren't so intimidated by tile work. I'd have that bathroom ripped out in no time.

[nosrednayduj]

You mentioned abdominal surgery in another post and other context made me wonder if it was for endometriosis. I had my endo surgery at 39 and after my first pain-free period I was like why didn't I do this ten years earlier?? The recovery wasn't great (a week off work, another 3 weeks kinda moving slow), but I liked the result.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, you had/have endo? I am glad you did finally get the surgery. I have a friend who's about to go in for her third (she just keeps growin' it) and she is very pleased when she gets them done. It gets to the point where it's a quality of life issue. You must have been SO happy!

Mine isn't endo, sadly, although we thought it was for a while. They went in and looked, prepared to zap any if they found it. What I was finally diagnosed with (at 36) is something I call in layman's terms "misrouted nerves". The pain is apparently similar in magnitude (and in its monthly timing) to a good solid case of endo.

I am told the surgery for mine is significant. Recovery is said to be "very painful" (by people who know from pain) and lasts for months. I'm leery of it. But I also need it. I'm under quite the hormonal pounding to keep the pain down, with partial success, but the hormones aren't good for me.

I suspect I would very very much like the result. It'll be like the time I got my wisdom teeth out and spent the whole afternoon saying I'M FREEEE! But I'm just a bit scared is all, so I keep putting it off.

Oh, plus insurance won't cover squat. Fooey. :-/