This year marked a first for me. I learned about a major event happening in another country via Twitter instead of from a television or radio news announcement. Getting the information on my phone, less than an hour after the crisis started, made me realize how fast world news reaches us today. Compare that to a catastrophe occurring a hundred years ago. For example, if an earthquake hit a remote region of China in 1915, it wasn’t likely that anyone outside of that country would hear about it. The news might not have even made it out of the impacted region.
When bad news travelled slowly or not at all, it was easier to feel comfortable that all was well. Tragic events happening close to home were usually few and far between, which if you think about it is actually still the case. What’s different is that every world event can come into our homes at amazing speed. An earthquake in one country, a terrorist attack in another, drought on another continent—we may hear it all in a single newscast. At best, it’s unsettling. At worst, it depresses a person’s spirit.
We are now world neighbors. There’s no escaping the fact. And we need to start living and thinking that way. In some ways we have, such as when we donate to relief efforts. In other ways we haven’t. You can find plenty of examples of people being bad neighbors in much of the politically charged rhetoric being espoused today.
Technology and economics made us neighbors. I believe it can help us become good neighbors and even friends. Technology makes it conceivable that my wish at the end of this blog could actually reach people worldwide. It’s a hope. It’s a start.
To my world neighbors, as we end this year and begin a new one, I wish you peace, goodwill, and safety for all our days together on this planet Earth.
Hurrah! The work on my bathroom is complete. Is it worth all the trouble I went through? Totally. I couldn’t be more pleased with how it looks. Calder the cat seems to like it, too. Whenever I allow him in the room, he explores the space like it is new territory.
Now that the contractors have finished their job, I have work to do that I didn’t anticipate. Starting with shelf liner and drawer organizers, I have to try to fill all the great storage space. After that, the soap dispenser and other accessories must be replaced. Hmmm. Now shouldn’t I also get new towels? A new vanity chair is a must-have, too. How about some rugs? The economy of my community is about to get a huge boost.
In a future post, I’ll share some useful tips for surviving a bathroom remodel. For now, in homage to every home improvement show I’ve ever watched, here are some before and after pictures.
As I write this, it’s more than a week into the remodel of my master bathroom, and I’m happy to say there have been no ugly surprises. Well, when my contractor, Vince, took the mirror down he uncovered some of the horrible pink and green wallpaper that used to be in the master bedroom. I shivered at the sight as I remembered the days spent with my dad trying to get that stuff off the walls. However, I’ll take the memory of monstrous wallpaper over the experiences I’ve heard from other people. For example, my hair stylist found black mold permeated her drywall and had to have men in hazmat suits remove it before she and her husband could continue with their remodeling.
Each day after work, I’ve gone into my bathroom to see the progress. Vince completed almost all the demo work on the first day. Only a small patch of yellow and white tiles in one section of the floor remained. The next day he roughed in the electrical. After that, it took him a couple of days to put up drywall, mud the seams and rough in the shower drain. On day five he cut the niche in the shower. As goofy as it sounds, that has made me the happiest so far. My old shower had no place to put anything except a bar of soap. Now, I will have a niche to put all my stuff and no longer have to risk kicking things around the shower. Yes! Already that makes all my current inconveniences worth it.
To make things as easy as possible, I moved into the guest bedroom. As much as I planned ahead, I’m finding it takes longer to do many things due to the disruption of my routine. I’m also slightly more sleep-deprived because I’m in a different bed.
My cat, Calder, has had to adjust as well. When I leave in the morning, I put him in my home office to keep him safe and out of everyone’s way. He has all the essentials – food, water, and a temporary litter box. I think he likes having an upstairs restroom, but the novelty appears to be wearing thin since he’s begun trying to escape when I take him into the office. So far, I’m winning the fight to keep him in there.
Though the remodeling is going well, there’s still much to be done, and I remain somewhat braced against the unknown. So, please keep sending your positive thoughts my way. It certainly helps! Ohmmmmmm.
I’m embarking into the world of home improvement and remodeling. “Oh no!’ my internal counselor says. “Don’t do it! Your home will be in a shambles for weeks if the contractor says days. Months if he says weeks. You’ve heard all the horror stories. It’s not worth it.” I should listen, but I hate my master bathroom. It’s the only room in the house I couldn’t stand when I purchased the home.
My intention all along has been to redo it. Until I could decide what I wanted done, I did what I could to make it look passable. I took down the dark green wallpaper with the gold elephants. A throw rug partially covers the yellow and white floor tiles reminiscent of the seventies. I even painted, yes painted, the Formica countertop of the vanity.
Those stopgaps are wearing thin and I can no longer live with how it looks – especially because I have an open door bathroom. What that means is that the area with the vanity and linen closet has no door and is visible at all times to the master bedroom. The section with the toilet and shower is behind a door, so at least I get some visual relief on that part. It’s time for a change and to take the plunge.
I started moving forward in January when my friend, Anne, showed me the work she had done on her bathroom. Energized by how good it looked in her home and having a reference for a designer, I set up an appointment. There have been twists and turns, delays and doubts, but things are finally coming together and it looks like the work will begin at the end of September or beginning of October.
“That soon!?” Okay, Sue. Take a deep breath. Think positive thoughts. This will go well. It will not be a disaster. They will not find ugly things behind the walls that will double the cost of the work. It will look beautiful when it’s done. Meditate. Ohmmmmmm.
Please send me your positive thoughts. I can use all the help I can get!
I used to read a lot as a child and teenager. The amount of reading required of elementary, middle and high school never overloaded me enough to take away my pleasure. College, on the other hand, nearly beat the love of reading out of me. After studying the number of textbooks required of a full-time college schedule, the last thing I wanted to do was read – even if for pleasure.
When I started working after college, I found a way to fan the sparks of the dying fire that used to be my passion for reading. Since I took the bus to and from work, I used that time to start reading for pleasure again. I even mastered the art of reading while standing up, hanging on for dear life, while the bus went through endless cycles of stopping and starting.
As my fortunes rose in the form of added responsibility at work, my schedule became more unpredictable and wouldn’t accommodate taking the bus anymore. The increase in duties went hand in hand with an increase in the amount of reading required for work. Reading on the job started taking over just like textbooks had in college and my enthusiasm for reading waned again.
Vacations have helped to keep the fire burning. I always start a new book while on vacation and if I don’t finish reading it before I come home, the fun of the vacation continues until I get to the end of the book.
I don’t watch a lot of television. Even so, I use it like many others do – to chill out at the end of a busy day. At the beginning of the year, I found myself utterly bored with everything on TV – and I mean everything. Usually, I can find something to watch to relax with before I go to bed, but nothing fits the bill anymore. New shows don’t interest me and reruns of old favorites feel done to death. The void left is palpable. That makes me sound like a crack addict without a fix and the truth is that is how I feel.
One of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes cartoons is where Calvin is reading from a book and he says, “It says here that ‘religion is the opiate of the masses.’ …What do you suppose that means?” In the next frame there’s a picture of a TV ‘thinking’ this response, “It means Karl Marx hadn’t seen anything yet.” Had I been victim to the intoxicating allure of television all these years and kidding myself that I could take it or leave it? Like an alcoholic who has a moment of clarity during a dry spell, I saw that I had to put the ‘cup of television’ down and take a new path to sobriety and I vowed the path would be paved with books. The path hasn’t been easy.
To reinforce my decision, I set a goal to read twelve books this year thinking one book per month is the minimum required to maintain a healthy reading life. According to my tally on Goodreads, I’ve read four books and am three books behind in reaching my goal by the end of this year. The challenge is in trying to get excited about picking up a book after reading for the majority of an eight hour workday. The good news is that it’s getting easier. Once I get over the hurdle of opening a book outside of work, it’s not difficult to enjoy what I’m reading. But man! Getting over that hurdle is sometimes like trying to jump over the Empire State Building.
Since I don’t have the leaping ability of Superman, I have some devices I employ to give me a lift. One is to keep my current book as visible as possible so it doesn’t become out-of-sight-and-out-of-mind. Another is to take it to a room to read away from where I usually watch TV. That way, I don’t feel drawn to my old habit. Third, I bargain with myself to say I’ll only read for ten minutes and even set a timer. With this one I find that I often get engaged with the book and read beyond the time limit I set. I’ll gladly take suggestions for other ways to keep at it.
As I progress, I wonder if I’ll become as addicted to books as I have been to television. Since I’ve never heard anyone told they read too many books, I think I can live with that.
