I cleaned my e-mail in box out this week. It sparkles now. I worked.
I also found a notary and got the doc shipped off to the bank. Then I came home and had a coughing fit (got something caught in my throat, NOT the virus) and threw up on myself. I looked down at my nice clean navy dress, now pretty disgusting, and thought, “This is a metaphor.”
Which is when I realized I was overthinking things and it was time to get over myself and get back to work. So I’m back to work. Bob and I did the third week post for HWSW and we’re agreeing on pretty much everything. I’m starting to think this isn’t a good idea. But at least it’s access to the old stuff. Krissie and I are doing a Zoom on collaborating for ARRA (Hello, Australia!). The recycling goes out today and the trash tomorrow. I ordered watercolors and supplies to start painting again. And tracing paper so I can do some of Lily’s drawings.
Nothing but good times ahead.
What did you work on this week?
I love cleaning out my e-mail inbox. It feels so satisfying.
I wrote the mayor about the police budget. I prefer to write a letter rather than an e-mail because something about it forces me to take my time and really find the words. Plus, I have nice stationary.
I’m going to write my ward rep today. He lost the primary, but he’s still representing the ward until the election.
And today, laundry probably. Always laundry. . .
My work inbox has, ulp, 37,144 emails in it. Just letting you all know that to make you feel better.
This week, I washed a couple of curtains and cleaned a bit of mould off some windows. The joys of a house with lousy double-glazing and no wall insulation in the bedrooms.
I’m going to see if I can keep on top of it this winter. It needs a few minutes of work every day, to dry the windows and make sure the mould doesn’t get a foothold. I’m SO not a few-minutes-a-day type of person; I let things build up then tackle them in a burst. This weekend it occurred to me that my life would be much more pleasant if I did do stuff like this every day, so maybe I should jolly well develop that habit instead of letting myself be limited by thinking I’m not that kind of person.
I didn’t actually read most of them. I just deleted everything that was there. Took about five seconds.
I once saw a notice on a friend’s phone that she had over 10,000 unread emails. She said she just couldn’t keep up with email and now had way too many. I suggested just deleting all her inbox and folders and starting fresh. But she couldn’t make herself do it. It seemed like such a logical step to me, and one that might feel really delightful.
I have over 12000 emails at home and I am in email jail at work. I might clean up the home one for my husband’s birthday.
Mine has 3,560. Thank you for this. You have made me feel on top of things!
Your inbox makes me twitch. My home one gets read about once every 2-3 months, and I just start filtering and deleting with abandon. Gets around 3-4k a time, i think
My work email I live by, and I have to have it reduced. I strive for zero inbox… but can’t quite get there.
We are clearing out our garage prior to a downsize when our lockdown for shielded people finally ends. This enforced stay at home has hardened our resolve to move nearer our son and my sister and her family. I am a hoarder so we have a bin bag full of candles šÆ I bought years ago. Biscuit Tins we kept just in case etc. A skip comes next Tuesday for us to load all this stuff in and they will take it all away. My husband dismantled our old rickety greenhouse. I am allowed to walk around our garden which has been lovely this spring so Iāve been taking lots of photos so we have memories when we do find somewhere new to live. The pandemic has made us realise that our initial idea of moving to an apartment is now out. As I have been restricted to the garden since March and my husband has also not gone out in order to shield me that green open space is an imperative. Jenny hope you continue to feel only good times ahead. Your books are my must reads and they make me happy.
The garden was our saving grace too. I now say gratitude over it every morning. š²š³š¾š·š»š¹
Best wishes with the dehoarding. I know what that’s like. If you cannot KonMari it, I’ve heard good things about Swedish Death Cleaning.
I stayed up really late putting borders on the quilt Thursday evening, and dropped it off at the longarm shop Friday afternoon. It’s huge, and will cost a pretty penny, but it has been satisfying to finish it. In fact, I’ve been wallowing in that finish all week.
Meanwhile, I’ve been working out the specs for a block (or two) I’m presenting to a group of quilter friends. We’ve been taking turns each week, meeting on Saturday morning virtually, and working on a block. At the end of the process, we’ll have a quarantine quilt of multiple different blocks that helped us get through the isolation. Of course, I’ve not made any of the previous blocks, being focused on the big quilt, so after I demo my blocks, I’ll need to go back and do those first several. It’s always something.
I need to get back to a crochet project. I’ve been staring at the big box of squares I made back in Feb. It wouldn’t take much to get them together into a blanket, but I’ve had a hard time motivating myself. Maybe this week.
I did the bulk of my workroom sort-out. Iām down to some oddments on one shelf plus a few spare boxes-for-keeping-things-in. I got diverted into sorting out my gardening info – ring-binders and folders full of magazine articles – and have made a start on that, just keeping plant info relevant to my (presumably) permanent gardens.
The new proof-reading job arrived: 640 pp of āThe Golden Age of British Short Stories, 1890-1914ā; it starts with Kiplingās āThe Man Who Would Be Kingā. The colonial attitudes are a bit indigestible this week, especially. But interesting worlds.
On the last week of my Writerās Block Detox course. Itās going pretty well, and Iām keen to keep going. Fingers crossed I just do it. Iāve decided on half an hour a day, first thing, as my practice.
I am always fascinated to hear what you are proofing, Jane. Such a wide variety of material!
The grade 7s are back. In anticipation of the rest coming back, I’m making charts and other, non-touch resources. Nothing worthy of a photo. Maybe I’ll post last week’s work.
Working on garden, garden, garden. My “Mr. Stacky” arrived so today I’m filling it and planting it full of herbs (it’s a vertical gardening unit). The name makes me laugh so that’s going to be great to live with. The blueberries, raspberries and highbush cranberry are planted in, 2 fruit trees are ready to plant when their tree mats arrive today (to go around them in the grass so they don’t get butchered by lawn mowing), everything but peppers, broccoli and eggplant has come up in the veggie garden, and I’m growing an experimental cucamelon for the first time so that’s fun. (Cucamelon is a lemony-cuke flavored vegetable that looks like tiny grape sized watermelons and climbs a trellis)
I managed to do a pretty thorough clean on half of my kitchen – cleaning out all the cupboards, and really giving it a shine. Alas, the other half!
No, no, it’s “YAY for this half!”
Cool. I admire anyone who can get halfway through anything.
Whooaaa, we’re halfway there, whoaa, livin’ on a prayerrrr.
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Reminds me of a neighbor who was a nurse and trained during WWII. She said that when she was a new nurse, to clean the medicine cabinet at the hospital one moved the bottles to one end of the shelf, wiped down the empty side, moved the bottles back, and wiped down the second end . . . by the time she told the story, the variety of meds had expanded to fill the shelves, which somehow hadn’t grown any.
I keep the inbox on my accounts naked, I don’t let that stuff accumulate. The side folders, however…
The Commonwealth of Virginiitis has a spot on the income tax form for anything you bought on the net and didn’t pay sales tax on, so I’ve been saving receipts in the receipt folder. To clean out receipts, I deleted anything older than 2020, because I already paid the taxes on that crap. (I have folders for warranty info, so some stuff just moved. Not much.) Then I went through and opened each email to determine if taxes were paid. If yes, I deleted it. If I read the tax law correctly, ebooks don’t count, so I deleted those, too.
As of today, Receipts is empty. This year’s taxes may be easier than last year.
Well, that makes my tax return look a lot easier. Thatās a crazily complicated system, what a thing to expect everyone to do!
Love those side folders. I try not to buy from companies that don’t charge the state sales tax; it’s just a pain getting a letter in the mail and having that one more step in the taxes.
Two years ago, Amazon was very hit-or-miss. This year, like I said, that folder is empty. I can’t tell if the states leapt on them or they just got smarter. Either way, another thing I don’t have to worry about.
I think the states got smarter about collecting sales tax at point of sale. It’s an automatic transaction for, say, Amazon — compare zip code with tax table — and the state gets its money earlier.
So glad you are feeling better Jenny ā¤ļø
The shutter company is back to work. Mine are ready to be installed. Yay! Friday is the day.
It has been over two months with tinfoil on the bathroom window, a pillow case on another, an old curtain taped to big bedroom window, but unfortunately the air from the fan kept hitting and it fell down twice in the early hours of the morning. An amusing but embarrassing situation. There are a lot of walkers in this neighborhood, but I think the chance of me mooning any at 5am is slight. I hope.
Look at it this way: anyone who is organized enough to be out walking at 5am deserves a bit of a thrill. And now that the shutters are finally going up, you won’t have to worry about repeats.
A little late, but could you have used Command Wall Hooks to hang a light weight curtain?
I suppose so. My brain wasnāt working too well at that point. Beginning of shelter in place and everything closed. The company said they would put up paper then they closed.
Have left the watercolors out, so I can drop by an add a glaze or fill in a pepper. The thing is that the peppers are going to rot or shrivel up, so I shouldn’t be so leisurely.
Also gardening, had a battle royal with a huge woody-rooted bush my mom wanted moved. Phew.
I dug out the peony, which turned out to have a mass of large potato-like roots. Thereās a lovely space there now. (It was pretty, but I didnāt love it.)
Peonies are difficult. Lovely flowers for may two weeks and they have to be staked. I only have one and at one time I must have had twelve (aunts collected them and gave me starts and the ones that they removed to make room for more). I do have three tree peonies which do not need staking but still only two weeks of flowers. I saw a gorgeous yellow tree peony this spring that really tempted me until I saw the price tag.
Iād be tempted by a coral semi-double, but this is a small garden. The one I inherited took up a square metre at least. It was fully double/frilly, and started almost crimson, fading through sugar pink stripes to pale pink. In two weeks or so, as you say. Iām thinking of using the space for a favourite rose – Lady Emma Hamilton – which flowers for months.
Smart. I am discovering that if I am careful in my rose selection, I do not need to worry much about black spot or mildew. And they are forgiving when things dry out a little, they bloom a lot and they don’t always need maximum exposure and will still bloom well. so this year I added KokoLoco, Bronze Star and Westerland. Last year it was Ebb Tide, Rhapsody in Blue, and Hot Cocoa. The year before was Cinco de Mayo, Easy does it and Apricot Candy. Prior to that I only had four roses: two each of Altissimo and Voodoo. And I never spray.
Iām after Westerland as part of my four-shrub very informal āhedgeā for the front garden. I havenāt seen it in person, but love the colour and the slightly wild look (because itās semi-double). Waiting until autumn – the bedās full of dahlias for the summer.
I sorted and cleaned off my dining room table! Since this was the dumping spot for all sorts of paper, this was a major accomplishment for me (the piles were at least six inches deep in spots.) Found my son’s passport, many printed recipes, title to my car, many senior trips suggestions, etc. Also, my tax info for 2019, so today I’ll figure out and file my U.S. taxes! And also prep and fax my paperwork for my house refi (taking advantage of the current low mortgage interest rates.) Feeling smugly today. Oh, and the bananas are nicely brown, so I’ll make banana bread today.
Jenny, I feel your pain re finding a notary to handle an estate. My dad passed away late March, and we are s-l-o-w-l-y getting the estate handled. Finally cleared out the house enough to bring in the estate sales experts, and they are holding the sale in a couple weekends. During this pandemic. We have no idea what to expect. After the sale, we have companies lined up to come give us bids on the rest of the stuff. Dad lived in that 3500 Sq ft house for 62 years, and Every. Closet. Was. Full. Inspired me to start cleaning out my closets!!!
I cleaned out email yesterday, but only because my connect speeds have slowed to dial-up standards for reasons unknown to AT&T and I was trying to do anything that I thought that might be part of the problem that was in my power to change. Nope.
Apart from work and a bit of reading, I’m not getting much accomplished. Working on the latest assignment for a mystery quilt class I signed up for pre-covid-19. It’s now more project than class since we aren’t meeting but it’s nice to play with fabric apart from mask making.
Our governor announced yesterday that schools will reopen in August so I see more mask making in my future. I do not envy school administrators having to plan for this.
I did a bit of yard work over the weekend. I have a postage stamp yard, but compared to what I see of new housing developments these days, it feels like a country estate. My spring garden was really lovely this year, and the summer stuff is getting ready to bloom, but its currently in that wild in between state. This past weekend I tackled trimming back what was getting faded, trying to clean it up a bit. My iris was here and gone so fast, but working from home meant I got to enjoy it while it lasted. Just waiting now for lilies, black-eyed susans, and cone flower to blossom.
I had started a cardigan a while back, stopped to knit socks because my feet were cold, then went back to the cardigan. Discovered an error and frogged back but fortunately I didn’t have to go too far and I didn’t mess it up in the frogging. On the upside, I am more practiced now with this particular stitch combination. We will see how far I get before socks lure me back (because I finally perfected my personal pattern, and my feet can be cold year round).
Started reading a book given to me a hundred years ago about the children of Henry VIII. No particular reason why I hadn’t read it before except that there was always another book to read. But I like history and so far it is reasonably well written.
I’m working from home and thankful that our return to the physical office has been postponed indefinitely because the view out my window is much nicer than my cubicle wall. Making myself get up and actually go outside and walk around or at least take the opportunity to declutter a little. I have realized that much of what is around me is just there because it always has been, not because I have any particular memory associated with it. That’s not a good reason so I’ve been chucking stuff. There are some big things that will have to wait until we can reconnect with the outside world.
Inboxes – if it was important, I probably filed it in a subfolder already. If I didn’t and it’s more than two years old, I probably don’t need it. So I tend to got to the end of my email and select them in batches to delete. Ten or so at a time gives me a chance to check out from and subject before clicking delete. Work my way up through that year. Then do a sort by person or subject and repeat the process within those groupings. It goes pretty fast that way. Which doesn’t mean they don’t still pile up.
I’ve mostly been working on getting rid of the car that died on Friday (old age, not an accident) and dealing with the insurance and figuring out how to drive the replacement car (loaned to me indefinitely by a friend and totally NOT the type of car I’d choose to buy). It’s too high to get into easily, too big overall (a medium-sized SUV after driving tiny sedans my whole life), and it’s automatic (after driving standard my whole life). I’m adjusting to the size, I think, and climbing into it, but I can’t seem to stop reaching for the clutch and shifter when I brake.
I have been driving a standard since 1985 (only about half my life) and when I have to drive an automatic my hand and my foot paw at the air the whole time. I can’t reassure you that you’ll get used to it.
I learned on a 1954 Four-door Ford (say that ten times fast.) “H” on the column. My first shifter annoyance was when they quit putting them on the column, and I had to learn 4 or 5 on the floor. Automatics were a blessing, unless they needed repairs, then they got expensive. Now? Auto all the way.
Good luck learning not to tap dance. You’ll get used to it. š
We replaced a manual with an automatic last year. It took a few weeks to get properly used to it but I did. You’ll get there!
The only times Iāve driven an automatic are when Iāve hired cars in the US. I usually gave my left foot a special resting place, so it was out of the way. Of course, since I was driving on the wrong side of the road, I had a lot of other things to worry about. (My first time in an automatic, I tested it for the first few hundred miles, until I decided that it more or less changed gear when I would have, and relaxed.)
The first time I drove in Northern Ireland, not only was I driving on the wrong side but the gas/petrol tank cap was on the other side from my car. I came Very Close to hitting the pump the first time I pulled up.
I adjusted to the wrong side of the road and car very quickly, which I attribute in part to being left-handed and having spent my life mentally flipping instructions in my head, but the pump thing continued to be a problem.
My kids are back at school and I’m remembering just how much of my life I usually spend in the car.
I took a 3-hour Zoom Webinar on Freehand Perspective this morning from Thomas Jefferson Kitts which was really good. I have two years of painting when I was studying for my degree but this had a bunch of information that I found particularly useful. Landscape painting classes are not easy to find because (1) you have to have some demo time which generally mean white board and class room and also (2) the weather has to be good enough that you can go outside without being rained on, cooked, or a hurricane is not blowing. So some of the finer points of perspective and painting in plein-air get lost since you spend so much time inside. Unfortunately I could not get my microphone on my laptop to work so I could not ask questions (well, I did not think of any questions so it was no big deal), but if I want to take the next one next week (Starting an Oil Painting) I have to be able to ask and answer questions. So I need to spend some time figuring out what happened to my microphone.
Zoom should give you an option to call in for telephone audio on the same computer-based Zoom session that you might otherwise have heard via your computer’s speakers. In my case, the phone audio is always better than computer. Just a thought.
I tried that and so far I am not sure it worked. Will test it out today.
Same thing happened to me, My computer microphone was turned off to external sites, I enabled it in Privacy settings
I don’t have much to show for myself on the home front. I did my traditional weekend hours of yard work, but it was all in the weed-management category with non-obvious results. Have not done a lick of housework for weeks, beyond the bare essentials. Things are dusty.
Doing a bit of writing, not much. Too busy with the day job.
Today, out of the blue, three clients sent emails complimenting my work. I even had my husband read the best one aloud.
Wow! Thatās brilliant. (I rarely get any feedback at all.)
I marked my absentee ballot today, after spending a lot of time researching primary candidates, and tomorrow I plan to hand deliver it to the court house. That was work, both mental and emotional.
Have I voted now that the ballot is marked, signed, and sealed, or will I not have voted until it is in the County Clerk’s hands?
Get it to the County Clerk on time!
Until you get it in, or if mail-in, deposited with the post office with correct postage affixed, if postage is required.
Postage is not required, but if I mailed it it would be sent to the nearby big city to be processed before being sent back to the local post office to be delivered to the courthouse. It is in the drop box at the courthouse now, only a four mile trip instead of sixty or more.
(No, we were not happy when the post office quit sorting local mail locally. Neither were the local post office staff.)
Oh, heavens. What I’ve been doing. First, the procedure has been pushed back a week because ‘doctor has family emergency’. Which means I miss more of my commitments due to extra week of quarantine. So, I got the bright idea to try to get authorization for another Covid test so that I could break the quarantine for a few days. All day yesterday, I went round with doctor, test place, medicare, supplimental… you get the idea. Long story short, lab says test only good for 5-8 days doctor’s office goes by 2 weeks. Medicare will pay if medically necessarey. Doctor says no. No one seems to be able to tell me how much these tests cost. I gave up and went outside to destroy some weeds.
Then this morning they needed me for a quorum for the election board. I could do it from home, online. OK. Then I could not get signed on to the session (it’s been wonky but has worked with meetings before) even with remote IT help. They finally had to dropoff a laptop and sign on (mask, distance, wipe-down computer, as short a time as possible). The good news: IT guy had an incredible amount of trouble so it’s not me and it’s not my, admittedly, outdated equipment, but something in their system AND THEY NOW KNOW IT! I have to get on tomorrow and am not touching that thing except the mute the mic.
I did finish my scrap yarn granny square afghan. Next up, early to bed.
The small quirky bookstore I work at is struggling, despite doing a good amount of online orders. Most of the employees are retired teachers and many have stayed home during these past few months for health reasons, so the sections they ā motherā are overgrown and neglected. I have spent the week running reports and pulling books that havenāt sold since 2018 to return, which generates some income for the store. āKill your darlings!ā (thank you!!!) is my battlecry, especially when I get pushback from the section mothers. I am hopeful that we will survive, as itās been a Denver institution for 40+ years.
My husband and I are hoping to adopt another dog soon. We lost our elderly Lab in December and our elderly Great Dane in April. The house seems way too quiet with just the cats and the CCI puppy. We have our eyes on a wolfhound mix from a local shelter; hoping to meet him tomorrow or Friday.
Good luck with both the bookstore and the dog!
Holding the thought that you and the dog will be a great match and have a long and happy life together!
I will be watching my email like a hawk for the next 2 days because I should finally receive confirmation from the airline of the credit for my unused airline ticket. Of course, I haven’t seen proof of what I’ve been promised yet, but we are at the “Call me if you don’t hear anything in 2 days” point so I am feeling hopeful. I was ready to pull out piles of proof that the borders were closed at the time of my original ticket, but my wonderful travel agent said that the issue lately has been changing the rules on when I can use my credit, not whether or not I will get one.
Otherwise, I haven’t been doing much. I have so many T-shirts that after I traded out my warm sweaters for T-shirts I had no room for my cotton sweaters. And that is without the tees that I left on the shelf of my closet. I have to do a major rearrange and weed out, but so far I just don’t have the ambition.
Today I turned in the paperwork for the annual review for my section 8 apartment and I am going to get slammed with a BIG rent increase. I saved up a lot of money for my vacation and it is still sitting in my bank account, looking like an asset. Oh, well, at least I got my paper work in on time. And I think I’ve got another 2 or 3 months before they get around to me. They said they weren’t counting the economic stimulus payment as income, but I will believe that when I see it. In the mean time I will practice breathing calmly.
I started working on the second in my new cozy mystery series, after spending weeks writing up the outline. In theory, having this detailed an outline should make the writing go faster. In reality, starting a new book is always the toughest part–at least for me–plus my focus is just sh*t these days. Still, I finally made a bit of progress today, so there is some hope that I will eventually hit my stride.
I am trying to organize my life as I have — with much difficulty — been elected to office in the local chapter of my ladies’ organization. My home computer chose this moment to refuse to boot, and the shop is closed for repairs until . . . it reopens. The organization will be meeting online — Zoom or GoToMeeting until . . . it can resume meeting in the flesh. At least I only have to dress formally from the waist up!
Iāve been attempting to improve my sourdough baking skills. Iām pretty chuffed with the results so far, but itās difficult to practise enough while being sensible with my carb intake. Iām clearing tracks in paddocks with my mother most days, we have a lot of fallen timber and itās making weed control difficult.
I also fitted in a quick trip to Canberra with a friend and picked up some discounted cabbage seedlings (the choughs have dislodged my previous planting in their search for insects) and two new pairs of Peter Alexander pj pants on special. Do you have Peter Alexander in the US? I love having dachshunds on my pyjamas.
Lastly, someone in here mentioned dental issues and Iāve gone out in sympathy. Thanks for that! Iām working very hard at ignoring the pain.
Cleaning put my email box has become a lot like losing weight. Which is to say that my inbox now has roughly triple the number of messages in it that it had when I resolved to clean it out. ARGH.