We were Cute!

My cleaner/helper came to scrape and paint yesterday. At least that was the plan. But she was tired, so I told her to come back when she was better rested. We did go over what I was expecting, at least in terms of scraping and painting. But we did not talk about how long I thought the rest of the job should take. I really have no sense of time when it comes to painting since I do it infrequently. And I dislike doing it so much. At least she came, though! We shall see when she will return. I am guessing not until May.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before or not, so I will mention it here. My boarder has a penchant for leaving lights on. I don’t know what the deal was in China or in her home, but the desire to have lights turned off when not in use is sort of baked into my habits. So when she leaves a light on, I often turn it off. Not in her room, though. Anywhere but there. I don’t go in her room unless she asks me to.

It was really easy to set up the printer that SM gave me. I guess since I am her printing guy, she has no need of one anymore. And now I have a scanner downstairs. And one that I can move onto the porch if I want to. Or anywhere. And Preview scans from it just dandily. As a test, I took an envelope that said Karl and (Au)Gus(tus) (parentheses mine) kid pictures and found 10 pictures. Mostly of Karl though there I was there in one and had one of my own. Off to a good start!

Karl and (Au)Gus(tus) Ages 5 and 2 maybe

The day started off a little shakily. I think I had a bit too much fun last night. But I rallied.

First task, picking J up from the Center over in Canandaigua. I had forgotten how long it takes (20 minutes), so got there early. After dropping J home, I headed to Tractor Supply and bought some hummingbird flower seeds. Not that I am growing a hummingbird. But I hope to have some flowers that hummingbirds might like. I think I have to wait a little while longer before tossing them on the ground and spraying them with some water. Come the apocalypse, I hope I don’t get asked to grow things…

Oh, forgot a stop at the library. I picked up the two books I put on hold last night. That was zippy of them. I guess they had copies available in the Geneva library.

Then to Tractor supply. Then to the grocery store to get the ribs and things for tonight’s dinner. I also got some snackage that I really didn’t need. I am a bit over-snacked right now. This too shall pass, though.

At home, I played mostly. Though I did take the time to make a delicious grilled cheese (sharp cheddar with a little bit of blue cheese, pepperoni slices and a bit of banana pepper) sandwich for lunch. Then more playing. And a bit of work on the GLO spreadsheet. It is going to take a bit more work than I had anticipated. It is way longer than previous versions (maybe 400 more names?) for some reason. not sure why. Since I don’t really want to go through the actual management of the list in the detail that LL did, I simplified the sheet. Sadly, Numbers doesn’t have automatic functions for date created and date modified. (We so need a database for this mailing list.) And there are some bits I don’t understand. I will work on it some more tomorrow and Sunday and then touch bases with SN on Monday to see what his thoughts are.

Cooking time! Making BBQ ribs. I boil mine first. Does anyone else do that? Ribs, coleslaw, baked beans and french fries. That’s the dinner plan. Wish me luck!

Too Many Plans

Too many plans ruins the life. Is that the saying? I guess I need to think again about what I want the next few years to look like. Do I want to focus on this, or that? Or the other thing? How important is money and where does that come from? How much travel is enough travel? How important is it really to have a significant (That is the weirdest sounding “c”) other in my life? And what time frames are we looking at?

Plodding (or even floating) along and going with the flow are perfectly acceptable ways to live life. And I guess if all of your material needs are met, then life is a bit easier. So which comes first, the going with the flow or the getting of one’s material needs taken care of? Can one do both? Because that’s what I seem to be doing. At least so far.

On the macro scale, I don’t know that I really want to get involved. Sure, I wouldn’t mind being president of the US. But it would take a lot of work. Same for Sirius Theatre. A lot of work. A lot of focus. And for what? A legacy? And how long does a legacy actually last? I mean, sure, in some cases, a name lives on for millennia – even if the person that we think of when that name pops up wasn’t at all like the image we have of them today. I mean, who was Gilgamesh, really? Or the Buddha? Or more recently, Shakespeare?

On the micro scale, what do I want to do about my current plight: too much crap and a paralyzed feeling when I start to think about what to do with it all.

I always come back to the notion of tortoise steps. Little moves hopefully in a good direction. Good of course being a matter of perception. Who knows what any choice will really lead to? But what is my ultimate destination, besides death and oblivion?

I’ll keep talking about this issue in the future. For now, I am a bit disheartened. Not in a huge way. But a little way. I can’t find the box of Genealogical research that I had put together. I know it is in a plastic container. I thought it was under my bed. Which is where it lived when I was sleeping in the Orange room. And then I thought it might be in one of my bedroom’s closets. It wasn’t. (Anyone in the family interested in coinage and money – not from a utilitarian aspect, but from a collector’s or perhaps a potential area of work sort of way? – I found a lot of coins from a lot of places and times – I just added some money from Colombia to the boxes) And I thought maybe I had put it with the pictures that are in the front hall closet. Nope, not there either. Which means it is probably in the attic. Which is too cold to really do anything in just now. But I might make a quick foray up there and see if the box is easily gotten to.

I did come across a whole box of stuff that Adele Stevens (Aunt Dell) had on the other half of my mom’s heritage (her mom’s family). Someday I will look at it in more detail. I bet there are a few cousins lurking about that might be interesting to track down one day.

And I decided that if I were to start scanning pictures from the myriad pictures I have collected in the house so far, I would start by only scanning pictures with people in them. And then work up to cool images – if there are any – but I would think that there are – amongst all those pictures, a few really spectacular ones.

Speaking of pictures, about 10 years ago I think, maybe a few less, I scanned and emailed out some pictures that I had found that I thought might be pictures of Pa’s father. And Pa. Black and white images. One was on a boat/ship. If anyone has easy access to those, please let me know. I know that 10 years ago we probably all had different computers and phones and email addresses etc…

I even folded everything and put it all away!

It’s been a while since I made breakfast for dinner. I think I will make an omelet tonight. Plus hash browns. And bacon. So excited!