This Old House Summer 2010 In My Garden

I didn't post much this summer (as in only once) but I've been hard at work on the house on the weekends where weather and time allowed.

The following pictures are of my new gardens.  I put one  of the front gardens in and worked on the west side of the house.
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You can see bridal veil spirea in the back, it'll bloom early in spring in white.  There's also bleeding heart in white, a Japanese primrose, a bloodroot, some delphinium for blue and mid season bloom, and 3 azalea for late season color, and along the stonework is some pachysandra I had left over from the west bank.  At least that's the plan for when the garden is established.  It was a bit of a struggle keeping it watered this summer with the record heat.  Also  Centaurea montana, keeps trying to take over the neighborhood.  It's pretty,  but it is also an extremely aggressive self seeder and I never planted it.

pacysandra

Centaurea montana

Most of my early mornings were spent removing the grass and planting the west bank of the house with pachysandra.  It's another fast spreading plant, but it is contained within the retaining wall and sidewalk. In spite of the heat, and the fact that i was told it couldn't tolerate the heat you can see by the photo below that it is doing well.  This side of the house gets all the storms and afternoon sun.  So, though I spend a lot more time weeding i no longer have to mow this slope.


As the yard slopes into the backyard I've planted agastache ( not  nearly as large as this pic).  I love the smell,(and so do the bees) somewhere between licorice (anise) and root beer.  I don't know how tender this plant is but it is certainly in the warmest spot in my yard.  Beside it are some hybrid daylilies in Moroccan sunset and another of the lavender/purple color whose name I've forgotten right now.


In addition to gardening, which I love in spite of the back breaking work of it, I've been painting and doing some landscaping.  Pictures of that are in the next post.

The Legacy Continues

My mom, as a military wife with husband on deployment a lot of the time, taught me when I was young that you always needed to be able to take care of yourself.  You needed education or training in a field so you could be self-supporting, you needed to know how to take care of a car, how to mow a lawn, how to do minor electrical fixes.  Thanks in part to her advice I have a career in a field I truly enjoy, with the bonus of being able to support myself (and my daughter and grand kids right now), and my hobby is rehabbing.  I'm proud that most of the inside work and about half of the outside work on my house has been done by the crew of me, myself, and I.

So where am I heading with this?  Well, the garbage disposal died last week, thank goodness it was under warranty, and last night we installed the new one.  Now, I still have stitches from the carpal tunnel surgery so Angie was more than game to try it herself, including the wiring connection.  It was an interesting feeling passing on these hard won skills as I introduced her to wirenuts and grounding wires.  Our work interests are so vastly different that I am no help with those skills but I can pass on these skills.  She did a careful, great job, once the power was turned back on the disposer ran first time and didn't leak..  Hope she was as proud of herself as I was.

Going Greener

As you know I have worked hard to rehab this old house of mine, so last night I did some taking stock, to see if all these changes have been worth it financially to me.  Not surprising, there is a savings with the changes I have made, what shocked me I guess is how much of a savings the three major changes made.

In the first winter I lived hereI did put in a programmable thermostat, and since I was at work a lot I programmed very low settings for those away times, then I also programmed the house at 67 degrees when the furnace was running.  So the numbers for the three coldest heating months (December, January & February) were about $1300, if I had been home all day every day those numbers would have at least doubled.  The furnace was old and listed at 60 per cent efficient.


That summer I replaced the furnace with a 98 percent efficient gas forced air furnace.  The house had already been ducted so I had little choice but I am comfortable with forced air.  That winter's heating bills for this three month period were less than half or about $624.  I was very pleased with the savings and learned to put up with the noisier blower until I can work on the basement.

Last summer I did two major changes, I finished replacing all the windows with new for the first one.  This was a major change.  When I first moved in you could see curtains moving in the wind even though the windows were closed, some of the drafts were amazing.  I would love to say I continued the tradition of wood windows but the price was prohibitive but there is still the beautiful woodwork frames around the window.  Also last year, as you've seen in last summer's posts I had the house insulated and then sided.  So how much did these 3 months cost me this last winter?  I kept waiting for what I've always thought of as the big spike, and it never came.  This is in spite of the fact that the house was occupied 24/7 in December, and kept several degrees warmer due to small children in the house.  So drummmmmrolllll my winter heating costs for the same three month period this last winter were $303. 

For those of you who may think it was a warmer winter I checked the heating degree days for the three years and 2009 was the coldest of the three years, with 2008 being just a shade warmer.

So figuring just over $1000 per year per 3 month savings  I'll have saved the cost of the changes in about five years.  Not too shabby.

This summer I plan to replace the front and side doors and next year the water heater and then I'll be just about as green as I can get.

Tempus fugit

Einstein is known for his theory of relativity.  His favorite illustration of relativity was to compare a minute spent kissing a beautiful woman to sitting on a hot stove for a minute.  Clockwise they are the same amount of time however one passes faster than the other.

We all feel this, in fact I would love to add to his theory-- I believe the speed at which time passes accelerates as we get older.  When I was young those summer vacations lasted forever, now what seems like days pass and suddenly I'm ten years older and wondering what happened.

There is nothing, I think, to prove the speed and relativity of time than small children.  Three years ago (Yesterday)  these twins weighed less than five pounds each and could fit between my elbow and my hand.  We used one bassinet for both of them. Now they are big kids, go to day care, talk your ear off.....

Right Handedness

Sorry for the long quiet time, I guess I needed some thinking time and quiet grieving time.

My birthday has come and gone yeah hooray.  I got cards from AARP, the Scooter Store and the Hard of Hearing Clinic.  How many ways can we say OLDER than dirt???

Well, I finally got the carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand after months of having to postpone it.  I bet they were wondering if I was one of those kind of people.  This brought home to me that I am neither ambidextrous nor am I sorta right or left handed.  I am a dominant right handed person. 
I had to close my eyes in order to brush my teeth with my left hand.  I had to have help putting on my sneakers and bra.  Those were the normal to be expected type of problems what surprised me was how often I was brought to a standstill by my inability to do something with my left hand.  I NEVER pick up my purse with my left hand.  Apparently I pick up everything with my right hand.  I open doors with my right hand, I even close doors with my right hand.  How do I know these things?  Well, my hand hurts every time I try to use it.

True cross dominance is apparently rare, however a lot of lefties appear ambidextrous because they had to learn to do some things with their right hand because I guess -- they had to.  A lot of people teach themselves to be ambidextrous for sports.  Weirdly enough, my side stroke is left hand dominated I wonder if the person who taught me was a leftie.

This has to be a short post.  I'm writing it with my left hand and spend most of the time backspacing to clear the incorrect keys.  More later.

There and Back Again

As Bilbo Baggins should have said, getting there was the adventure!

Sonny's memorial service was to be held Friday (2/12) in Cucamonga CA.  The blizzard of the century hit Pittsburgh just before that and dropped feet of snow.  I made my reservations so I could land in CA at a decent time for family to pick me up and get up to LA but I never really thought through the getting to the airport details for myself.  As has been said many times, the devil is in the details.
Unbelievably another storm came hammering into the NE bring tons more snow.  All flights to NYC, Boston, Philly and D.C. were closed, Buffalo flights were sold out and I had originally scheduled Pittsburgh because the winter weather in Buffalo is so tempermental.  That one gave me a good laugh.

In order to make my flight time I had to leave the morning after the latest snowstorm at an incredible 3 a.m.  I-80 and I-79 were not allowing motorcycles (duh), cars pulling anything, empty tractor trailers and the speed limit was 45 mph.  That's when I started to worry.  I did promise myself I would stop if I got scared, but it didn't happen, the main roads were clear enough.

I got to PIT and then the fun began.  I planned to park in extended parking but didn't know it had never been plowed, vehicles were parked every which way.  I was so glad Miki had convinced me I needed to take the winter beater truck,  I put that baby in 4 wheel low and powered her over as much of a snow bank as I could get and ran for the airport.  Then another mistake:  I needed to check my bag.  Southwest Airlines is a fantastic way to fly and inexpensive, but totally no frills so I had to check my bag myself.  That wasn't bad but since so many flights had been canceled days before, all that day's flights were 100% full.  The line was forever.  Starting to get even more nervous.  Then I had to go through security, at least with so many Eastern flights still canceled that wasn't so bad.  Now I'm running for the jetway.  Forget the fact that I had planned to have breakfast at the airport, forget that I was supposed to call daughters and boss to let them know I made it to airport.  As I got to gate they were already past boarding my seat so I hightailed it onto the plane and sent a quick text to let someone know I was on plane.
That should have been the end of the excitement but no way.  First we had to wait for last minute luggage, a little cringe here, I think mine was in that pile.  Then the chain is attached and they start to pull the plane out.  NO WAY.  We're stuck firmly in the snow bank.  The chain breaks, men with shovels appear, NOPE, then finally after an hour the front loader appears and breaks us free.  Everyone applauds and a little voice in my head says, "Geez I hope they de-ice us".  We start taxiing and we are going to a part of the airport I have never seen before.  YES.  We are being de-iced.  We left Pittsburgh 2 hours late.  I do want to stop here and say how great the Southwest Airlines crew was.  We were kept informed by both the steward and the flight crew during this entire time.  We also got a free drink.
By this time I figured there was no way I was going to make the flight connection to San Diego.  However, when I asked the steward he said about 10 of us were on that flight and he would see what he would do.  I don't know how they picked up the delay but we made it to Las Vegas I transferred planes and so did my luggage.  In fact I have no idea how the luggage was able to make it.  I walked out of the jetway from my PIT flight, into the jetway for the next flight and was seated -- all within about 10 minutes.

I have no recollection of the San Diego flight except for a very nice lady in the aisle seat smiling at me the one or two times I opened my eyes.  As far as I know that flight lasted 5 minutes.  It might have something to do with 2 Bailey's and Hot Chocolate (some breakfast huh?).

I landed in SAN, my family picked me up, and within an hour we were on our way to Ontario CA.  I remember most of the drive, dinner at a lovely French restaurant and then I slept and slept and slept.

Bruce Redux

 A brother as friend.

After high school we all started going our different ways.  Work, and college and dating and shortly after that marriage and family and children, they all got in the way.

What happened is common, we lost touch.  We weren't playmates any more, we were no longer in competition for attention, and grades and who could spit watermelon seeds the farthest.  I moved with my husband and kids to the East Coast and our lives didn't touch as much.

I heard second hand from Mom what was happening in the lives of each of my family members but we just lost touch personally.

Then, children grew up and went out on their own and suddenly we had time, time to travel and visit, and maybe even regret a little.  Bruce came East to Virginia to take part in a road race, I went down to visit with him and Jeanne, and we rediscovered each other.  Without the competition, and with the grace that age gives us (sometimes) it was great to connect with someone who shared some of the same memories and weirdly, looked at the world in the same way I did.  We found we had a lot more in common than in difference.  We talked and laughed and shared memories.  How cool it was.  It was great to find someone as curious as I am about everything.

One memory I will treasure forever now, we decided to meet in Niagara Falls in the fall and it was so much fun.  His wonder at the falls, his enjoyment of pitting himself against that water spray.  However, my favorite memory, is of all things, the Butterfly Conservatory.  We stood there talking and grinning and there were butterflies of every color flying around us and we stood with our arms out letting some of the braver ones land on our arms.  I don't need a camera to remember that time and now with him gone I will hold that memory close.

I had a brother and a playmate when I was young, and a friend when I was old.  Thank you Bruce.  God bless.

Requiem for My Brother

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine :

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

In memoria æterna erit justus,

March 26, 1950 to
                 February 6, 2010

You all know and remember Bruce the husband, the father, the grand father, but I remember Sonny, my younger brother, my playmate and recently my friend.  I'd like to share some of my Sonny memories with you.

Sonny was born in Oakland Naval Hospital in March 1950.  He was in such a hurry to start living that he was almost born in a hospital closet as they rushed to ready a delivery room.  Of course he was premature, anyone with his love of life would arrive early.

We spent a couple years in Grafton ND with Mom and our grandparents.  It's a time we never remembered clearly except for a flight or two to California.  In those propeller plane days Sonny was allowed into the cockpit to see the pilot flying the plane.  How exciting that was!!


From ND we moved to San Diego where we spent all our growing up time.  First we lived in Linda Vista where Sonny loved to play in the canyons behind our house.  It was the beginning of his love affair with the outdoors.  The canyons started just beyond the end of our lawn and extended as far as the eye could see.  We had forts and castles and everything a child could want to fill their fantasy world.

He grew up the only boy in a family of girls.  There were many times he felt overwhelmed I'm sure but he held his own.  Even he admitted it was cool to have your own bedroom when everyone else had to share with several others.

Later, in Clairemont, he got involved in organized sports:  he belonged to the Boys Club, and the Boy Scouts, he played Little League.  He was always busy for sure.

We didn't have many toys but we learned to make our own, we made kites from newspaper, strips of wood and string with a tail made from a ripped up sheet, and they may not have been pretty but they flew.  We took an old rusty pair of roller skates (the kind that needed a key to make them fit onto your shoes), and a piece of wood and made our own ugly skate boards.  Really only good for falling off and scabbing your knees.

Sonny needed challenges, always striving harder for something, never content with the status quo.  He took every math class our school offered and they had to come up with math seminars to keep him busy.

He played football and he was much too small to be front line but in one game the fumble came to him and he ran it in for a touchdown.  Which, unfortunately was recalled as blown dead.  His one shining football moment.

After school he continued his love of life, his need of a challenge --  he backpacked Yosemite's back country among other hikes, he white water rafted, he broke a leg on a motorcycle, and then he discovered long distance bicycling.  It offered everything he needed, a challenge, lots of variety in the rides, and a huge sense of accomplishment.

I leave others of you to fill in the adult moments of his life, he loved his wife and children and was proud of their accomplishments.  He loved his grandchildren but again, those are his grown up days.

My brother loved life, and lived it to the fullest.  He was seldom bored, he died doing what he loved, and he is mourned by those of us who remain.  What more can we ask for in this life?

Sonny, I will miss you every day.  Thank you for being my brother and my friend.

State of the Union

A man's wealth is not measured by his riches but instead....

Good thing!! with the state of the economy only the very rich are getting richer and the rest of us are rapidly losing ground.  I used to think I was middle class; a professional woman in a good job.  Now I think I'm hanging around like a pinata, waiting for the next blow.

And I'm luckier than most I guess, I carried tiny credit card debt, my mortgage was almost paid off, I do have a car loan, and my retirement account is a train wreck but eight months of supporting a full-size family and I wonder how on earth people are doing it.

It's been hard, and the cash reserves are running low but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Angie has found work in a professional position.  She was able, in this economy to find the job she wanted and to land it.  No small feat.  Of course, since it runs in the family she too is working in a non-profit.

So are things getting better?  Yes and no.  I think we're in for a lot of aftershocks, and someone needs to fix the situation that stated this depression -- unregulated banks to start with. To me it looks like deregulation was a bust.  And the feds can't fix the economy by lowering the interest rates if there is a next time -- do they offer negative interest rate loans?

I understand the reason for the bailout, and it wasn't truly to help the banks, but the entire economy but I wonder if the fix wasn't too easy.  How can some financial institution who takes subsidies turn around and justify paying bonuses.  That's like being a weatherman -- where else can you get a job that lets you be wrong every day and still have a job?  How can you get a bonus when you rip the economy to shreds?

So Obama, we're just barely hanging in there right now, and much as I want better medical care I can't afford to pay out of my pocket, and if you think my boss will say ohhh goody let's give her premium costs back to her, I want the drugs you're taking.

My only hope is that somewhere before I'm 70 and can retire (maybe) the economy will be better.  And maybe I'll be able to see a few of the places I've dreamed of visiting.

I wonder if that is too much to ask?

Frosty Weather

The forecast was for single digit to teens.  So of course everyone had to get outside and make snowmen.  I actually created this post only to post this picture.

Angie says its a great picture of Frosty!  everyone else is a bit distorted.

That building behind them is the garage, due to be painted to match house this spring.

It's times like these that I sit here shivering and remembering Januarys in San Diego.  Do they really have outdoor seating for restaurants all year round?  Did I really never own anything warmer than a light jacket?   How wonderful.

Brrrrrr.  Too cold to make any other comment.

Second Christmas

Since family lives at some distance, and have their own family traditions being established, we find ourselves working hard to establish a tradition that gets us all together for a Christmas celebration.

We decided to call it Second Christmas and hold it somewhere between Christmas and New Year's.  It fell on New Year's Eve this year.

(A view of the tree from the bottom up)

Here at Number 10 we celebrated family Christmas Christmas Day and it was the first year the twins were truly aware of the gifts.  They weren't happy with visiting Santa but helped me with  the cookies and milk treat, and listened while I told them how Santa was going to bring them each a gift that night.  It's not like the year Miki tried to go to bed at 3 p.m. so Christmas Day would hurry up and get here but they were feeling a little excitement.

I don't have a lot of pictures from Christmas as my new camera lens got hung up in the Christmas mail but here's a couple from the Day.    My most favorite Nativity.  The faces of the children are priceless.

A sleepy Eddie with Mater, Eddie on 2nd Christmas with building toys and Zoe with her doll house and a pretty red skirt that plays Jingle Bell Rock, what sheer heaven.

On 2nd Christmas all the packages containing "clothes" had arrived from family and Eddie was getting a bit distraught worrying where the toys were.  Thanks goodness for the building toys. Mom sure appreciated all the thoughtful winter clothes!!  for all of them.  Angie starts her job on Monday the 4th.