Protect and Serve

Sometimes I see things that just make me smile all day. 

As I was driving to work this morning, a police car parked in a lane going the other way caught my eye.  It was in the fast lane of a busy street, just on the other side of the median from me.  Odd, I thought… no accident that I could see… why would he be stopped there?

Then I saw it; there was a seagull standing right in front of the car.  The gull didn’t appear to be injured, but it also didn’t appear to be in any hurry to move.

Now, I don’t know the background story but what I’d like to think is that the gull had been causing cars to change lanes to avoid hitting it.  Somehow the cop became involved and decided to park his car there to protect the gull (and probably help the traffic flow) until either the gull flew away or someone was able to retrieve it. 

With everything crazy going on in this country and throughout the world, it did my heart good to see a policeman make the time and effort to protect a helpless bird.  People can be violent and cruel at times, but they can also display care and tenderness that demonstrates the best part of our “humanness.” 

How great it that?

Save a little water and energy

Here’s an easy tip to help you save both water and energy:

Keep a small watering can under your kitchen sink.  As you are running your tap to heat up water, fill up the watering can.  Then, use that water, which before would have gone down your drain, to water your plants.

The can I have under my sink is just the perfect size… when it’s full, the water is warm.

I know it may seem like a small step, and it is, but each of these “small steps” we take day-after-day add up quick and help to make our planet a little healthier

Piles of files

Several weeks back, as I was going through my parents’ house in preparation for its sale, I realized that I came by some of my packrat tendencies honestly.  I’m not in any danger of having to create pathways in my home through stacks of newspaper and garbage as seen on the show Hoarders, but I do have several file cabinet drawers full of magazine and newspaper articles I’ve cut out over the years.

I’ve collected articles on vacation spots, recipes, party ideas, health and exercise, investment tips, and many other topics I find interesting.  I have them grouped by subject in file folders and every once-in-awhile, I actually look through them to find some information.

My father did much the same thing.  His topics may have differed from mine (it was a bit of an eye-opener to see what articles he choose to cut out and keep), but basically he had similar files full of articles that he kept for future reference. 

The big difference is that I live in the era of the Internet, he did not.   When I want to find more information on a place I’d like to visit, a recipe that uses egg yolks after I have a few left over from a recipe that used egg whites (key lime pie!), or how best to get a red wine stain out of the carpet, I just go online. 

Although I will probably keep some of the articles I’ve collected, I’m going to set aside some time soon to go through my file cabinet and purge most of these files.  I am much more likely to research the information online anyway and, frankly most of the articles are fairly old and probably out-of-date.  In addition, I don’t want someone to be cleaning out my house one day after I’m gone and laugh at the irony of me clipping out and filing all those articles about reducing clutter.

Don't put off creating a home you love!

I enjoy watching all types of home improvement shows, whether they are about construction, decorating, or searching for just the right home to buy. 

The show theme I find most interesting is the one that features a home (usually one that has been on the market for awhile) that, with minor upgrades and proper staging, morph from an ugly duckling into a inviting home, ready for a quick and profitable sale. 

These shows highlight easy decorating projects that most of us can do on a fairly limited budget.  They also demonstrate how easy it is to become blind to clutter and how we “learn to live” with bad design and dysfunctional living areas.  I think it’s sad that these people are only able to enjoy attractive and well-planned living spaces because their home is on the market.  Once the staging is done, many of them remark that they wished that they had made these changes years ago.

I understand that these staged homes are often void of the day-to-day objects that we need to live our lives and run our homes.  But, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of stuff that is taking up room in our houses and our lives that we can probably do without – and, by getting rid of it, we can create a calmer, better functioning, more comfortable living environment.

It's funny but also true... being organized can save you time and wasted effort. 

Just remember the other two “R’s” as you Reduce - Recycle and Reuse (in this case, donate or sell) as much as possible – our landfills will thank you for it.

We are paved!

Yesterday was my day to stay home and monitor the job.  Even though I didn’t have to lay conduit, I still needed to make some decisions on the fly – the kind one makes and then has to live with.  Up to a certain point, adjustments could be made.  Pretty soon, though, things start happening very quickly and  it’s hard to reign the momentum back in.  Of course, changes can be made at any time, it just gets progressively more expensive to make them.

Paul couldn’t stand being away and came home in the early afternoon.  By then, everything was rapidly moving along and we both just stood back and admired their work. 

Although we don’t often contract jobs out (we are fairly handy and, um, cheap), when we do, it’s nice to watch experts at work. The good news: things got done quickly; they’ve done the job so many times before they didn’t spend time agonizing over minor nits.  The bad news: there was a lot of waste.  When just a small corner was needed from a brick, the rest of the brick was tossed (hopefully to be ground down and used again).  A lot of small corners equal a lot of waste.  If we had done the job ourselves, we would have used parts of one brick in several spots – much less waste.

Towards the end of the day, several cars of new workers began showing up.  We were told that these were all crew chiefs.  As their individual jobs finished, they’d send their crews home and gather at any remaining job sites that could benefit from extra help.  Watching these men work was truly amazing; each had a role and knew how to perform it.  In no time at all our job was complete (2 days!) and they were off to enjoy their weekend.  

Now that the pavers are in, we will begin to prepare the soil for planting.



This photo doesn't show the finished installation - we still have to clean and seal the bricks.



Finally, some progress!

The crew showed up at 8:30 this morning to begin the pre-installation work.  I have a previously scheduled meeting in LA today so my husband stayed home so he could be on site to “supervise,” answer any questions, and lay the conduit when it’s time.  In addition to taking digital photos for our records, I have asked him to text me with pictures throughout the day so I can see the progress.  Since I will be on the train for a good part of the day, I hope to get regular updates so I can feel at least part of the process.

I came home from my trip to find our front yard transformed to a gravel and sand lot.  I guess it’s better than the dead grass and weedy mess we had going on,  but I’m anxious to get the pavers in.   Paul said that a lot of the neighbors stopped by to see what we were doing (they probably were reluctant to ask before when our yard looked so bad, fearing the worse). 

The Big Dig

Our front yard is looking better and better!  I’m pretty sure our poor neighbors are wondering what the heck is going on; first, our lawn started to slowly turn brown (thanks to an overall spraying of Round-up), then large sections have been scraped of vegetation (albeit brown, ugly vegetation) and trenches have been dug for irrigation and lighting conduit. 

My husband and I have never done anything quickly so this process has taken longer than we hoped.  Since we seldom pay for someone else to do work we can do ourselves, what we save in dollars we lose in efficiency.   

Now, we wait until we are scheduled for the paving stones to go in.  The company we contracted with will remove soil and hardscape in the areas the pavers will be installed, slope the area for proper drainage, and lay the DG and sand foundation.  Then, the bricks will be installed.  The whole process should take around 2 – 3 days.