Category Archives: Home

Organizing space

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

I am not going to provide a picture of my upstairs studio/craft/sewing room prior to my recent organizing and cleaning spree. Let me just leave us with – it was not pretty. I was able to walk through the room, sort of. Other than the fact that all the items in the room are actually in excellent condition and useful, it could have been a demonstration for an episode of craft-hordes.

I have supplies for: quilting, sewing, cross-stitch, machine embroidery. Oh, and knitting and spinning. Does that sound like a lot? I never think so until I write it all down and look at it. Familiar with the abbreviation “SABLE?” Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. You get the idea. If I devoted all my time and effort for the next, oh, let us say 10 years, I could not complete everything on my “want to do list.” Practically speaking, it means that I need to hone down that list, share supplies with others so that I don’t feel guilty, complete all those UFOs and otherwise develop a more realistic view of what I can manage.

Right. And then there are those two papers which are hanging over my head….

Back to the more fun of creativity. End of last week and over the weekend I spent time cleaning and organizing. Dani helped me move several boxes of cables, electronics and “who knows what” down to the garage. I relocated the contents of one cupboard and proceeded to fill it will all the hard copy audiobooks which freed up some shelf space. Taking the time to put all the embroidery threads back into their boxes – I marked the top of each in order to better locate particular colors –

thread box

That was the easy part. More complicated is the fact that the room is upstairs with a ceiling that slants on both sides (if I can locate a picture of the room before the 2014 renovation. For whatever reason – most of the photo links vanished when I imported  ww.proseknitic.de to this site about three years ago. One more thing on my “todo list” – find those photo archives, upload the photos and activate the links…

anyway –

looking toward the door

and toward one of the two windows

I was delighted to find that there was still a nice hard wood floor in reasonably good condition once threads, debris, and the occasional spot of temporary adhesive had been removed (hint–it isn’t all that temporary when used as manufacturers’ recommended amounts..)

Among the projects completed today are these –

Robo Warrior

Once Upon a Time

they have been added to the Georgia bound box leaving me only short 1 item….

Oh, right. we made the run to UCSF this morning. In spite of leaving home at 0800 it took barely more than an hour including a coffee stop at Peet’s. The secret was to drive by the North Berkeley BART and pick up a ride share passenger. This meant HOV lane and reaching the Embarcadero Exit 25 minutes after leaving the house. The rest of the time was devoted to wending our way through the traffic choked streets of SF without getting back on the freeway.  Everything went excellently, George was able to walk from the car up to the clinic, around while up there and back which meant the old wheelchair has been removed from the back of the car and is now residing in the garage. Next week should be the last of the 2x/week visits.

Flamingos? I can explain

Holly Doyne Posted on by 5

the whole flamingo thing started in 2003 when this particular set of wind chimes, seen hanging from an internal second floor window here in Berkeley, arrived in the mail while I was serving in Kuwait

flamingo wind chimes

I still don’t have a clue as to why Carmen thought I needed a wind chime. No one ever spent time outside except in transit between trailer, office, mess hall, meetings. I arrived just as we were headed into the warmest part of spring where temperatures often hit 40*C by lunch. It definitely severed  served as a conversation starter, hanging from my ceiling light in the middle of the room.

A bit later in the year, the flamingo was joined by a menagerie of origami animals courtesy of Pat. Unfortunately, I can’t offer a picture as they hid from packing when getting for my move back to Germany in summer of 2004.

Since that time, I have been gifted the occasional flamingo ornamented item, such as birthday candles, dish towels and a pair of leggings. I have, on occasion, also purchased the occasional flamingo decorated socks. Additionally, I have accumulated a number of machine embroidery files, should I really, really need to add a flamingo to something.

If I want to be honest, the whole flamingo thing started in 1978 when George and I received a couple of pink plastic flamingo lawn ornaments for a wedding present. We included them in our house hold goods for years, but some time in one of those transAtlantic moves they were lost.

The single metal flamingo that was standing guard over the lemon tree when we purchased the house is still in its location atop the retaining wall. Looking down, it can see my own flamboyance of flamingos, four with solar collectors to light the night and the other two anchoring both ends of the small area between the patio and front door.

 

The latest bird

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

added to the flock

the kind delivery guy actually managed to drop off the box containing this metal bird at the downstairs door. I am impressed. Not tossed in the bushes, not left next to the mailbox, and certainly not left in the driveway where someone might run over it.

The only downside of this pretty pink creature is the tail feathers. They are not suppose to rotate. But I am sure that they should be facing out, rather than toward the bird. Now, if the small bolt by which the tail feathers are attached were the right length, that would be the case. But it is too short to hold the wing nut in the correct configuration leaving me with the choice of a bird with a naked rear or one with the feather pointing forward.

In the manner of Joe Pike (in the series by author Robert Crais) – forward is the only direction to travel.

I am working on shoveling out and organizing the sewing room as I am finally investing in a decent sewing cabinet which arrives next week. Since it might be nice if I could get it up the stairs, through the hall and into the room….. otherwise, some knitting, machine embroidery, and the As game this evening….

Flamboyance

Holly Doyne Posted on by 9

of Flamingos according to a lovely, and slightly sarcastic reference that I found. Apparently the simple word of “flock” just wouldn’t do for something that is so obviously eye catchings. After all, they aren’t LBJs (little brown jobs in birder parlance) or high flying scolders/mockers like ravens and crows. They are that fun, bright pink color that comes from their diet.

I drifted over to Wiki to learn that there are six extant species of flamingo. The funny looking, long-legged birds really aren’t related to any other bird except maybe the grebe. They are scattered through out the world – from Africa to India, to South America, Asia, the Caribbean + Florida. (well, there are some that consider Florida it’s own separate world). Looking at the list, I think I have actually seen four/six – not the Andean or the James.

If you wonder why I am nattering on about Flamingos – just look back at the last few posts and my current entertainment.

Otherwise, I would need to focus on getting up at 0500 to drive into the city for George’s 0730 appointment (everything is going well), returning through much less traffic followed by a trip to the pharmacy, the grocery store, a couple of load of clothes, emptying the dishwasher, lunch, taking out boxes, rescuing the garbage cans …. and so it goes.

It is barely 1430 and I am tired. If I still didn’t have a list of chores, I might just take a nap…

oh – the boys are back…

you light up my night

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Yes!

the solar collector works!

both heads and bodies!

 

Not bad for 0dark30. The birds don’t provide enough light to be able to navigate, but, hey – they are fun!

I am thinking about getting

 

(the game was much harder fought today with the As pulling out a 3:2 victory in the bottom of the 9th thanks to the White Sox’s short stop who bobbled what should have been a double play ball, with the subsequent throw being off. Pinder meanwhile blasted past second and kept on going. Crossing the plate with the winning run – it was secondary to an error rather than a hit, but no one cared. It was incredible to watch and it is great to have the Sweep. Jon Jay? Left field today – but we chose to use his name rather than Tilsen who pulled right field duty. Never let it be said that we don’t know the name of the opposing team’s right fielder.

 

two is a lonely number

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I looked at those two flamingos – and all the empty space around them.

Sad.

two for the price of one

 

so there are now four birds (these two also have solar cells attached).

I am taking my entertainment where I can find it – and it normally is in small and quiet moments. These make me smile.

(As did the As game – it was a 13:2 rout.   Then there was the issue of the White Sox’s right fielder. Jon Jay. Apparently he couldn’t understand the post run cheer – “we love you Oakland, we do (x3), not you [right fielder’s name]” and filled in something else in his head. Complained. Security came to talk to us. We looked at them like they were insane. Said they should talk to any of the security who had been working the park for more than a day. Like the cheer hadn’t changed in at least 10 years. The end result is that there was a replacement right fielder starting with the 7th inning. Didn’t change the cheer – nor several repeats of “we want Jay….

I don’t think the White Sox have been in Oakland for a few years. Certainly this particular right fielder seems to have played for enough different teams over the years that he should have know about RF149. My prediction is that he will be in left field tomorrow. Since the left field bleachers had been know for flags, chants, and noise makers, I don’t think that will be any more peaceful….

and a solar friend

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

lights up!

One flamingo, all alone, that just wan’t right. You don’t see single flamingos, but small numbers to huge numbers. But not a single flamingo. The Eldest and I attempted to locate a companion by checking with the local gardening stores and hardware stores. (I attempt to buy local before reverting to amazon). Apparently it is just too late in the year and they had all flown off. After checking JoAnn’s, East Bay Garden Supply, an Ace Hardware and looking on line at Home Depot- I gave up.

This lovely bird has a solar cell (that black thing part way down the stake) which charges over 8 hours, then is supposed to light up for at least eight hours.

We will see….

Look what I found

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

when running errands.

my new lawn ornament

On sale at Daiso for only $2US.

Now, I used to have grass around my patio area. It had started to recover from the dogs fertilizing it for about a year. It was green. Ok, it was also long and full of weeds. But it was green. I like green. Apparently the weeds offended both my husband and the landscaper. I came home the one day to find that all my lovely green was gone and I was stuck with this absolutely horrid colored wood chip stuff.

Ugly doesn’t begin to describe it. I would haul it out and replace it with something else – anything else – crushed gravel, wild flowers, weeds, artificial turf. But I am too cheap to wind up paying again to fix something that is totally functional, but ugly. Oh, so ugly. And do not, under any circumstances attempt to walk on this stuff in your bare feet. You have been warned. What I really wanted, to tell you the truth, was the whole area paved.

Anyway – that poor lonely flamingo was the last one – which is why I suspect he was so cheap.

Now, anyone going in or out of the door gets to be treated to a bit of whimsy along with those ugly chips.

 

Too far to the game

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Since yesterday was a holiday – the waiting room at UCSF was jammed to the gills with both the Friday and Thursday patients. Since there was little to no traffic, the drive in went smoothly, the clinic was running at full speed and we were able to get out of San Francisco before what would normally be Friday afternoon traffic.

I was tired when we got home. Heading upstairs to finish off (finally) the one quilt, I pulled out the stitching and redid the quilting.

all but the binding

 

and then I moved on to this –

another Liberty Puzzle

with a lot of fun pieces

and decided I was just too tired to think about going to a baseball game. Sent off a message to a fellow member of the group that I wouldn’t be making the game. Then I pulled up At Bat (the app) and sent her off a second message. She concurred as well; Seattle was just to far to go in the next 30 minutes….

Not again

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Yesterday we had the trip into the city. It was not fun, as you can imagine. And, in further total destruction of my joy, George received a call last night informing him that one of his medication levels was off. Off enough that we needed to come back in this morning and get redrawn.

Oh, joy.

Deciding that the crack of dawn wasn’t needed, we headed out of the house about 0900 in order to make the 1030 deadline he had been given. So we sailed out of the house and I stopped by Peet’s in order to be fortified. Then on to the freeway, and into the maze and across the bridge where there was almost no traffic.

What the f)(*U(*&^*?

We were headed home less than an hour after parking the car (good news for me, parking is by the hour and saving $3/4 is always welcome). Proves once again that there is absolutely no way of predicting traffic in this area.

Oh, and those lab results? Turned to be an issue of which cannula the blood had been drawn from. Not an issue of his meds which meant he should continue on exactly the same meds.

Really long day ending exactly where we started.

The As are in Los Angeles along with a serious number of both Right and Left Field crews. After managing to lose last night, they beat the Angels 7:2. Some how, it is just not as fun to watch a game on TV as it is to be in the stands.

Getting there

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It seems like I spend my days getting there. From here, to there and back again. Or to the ballpark, grocery store, diner, UCSF. Not necessarily in that order, please understand. But the idea of having a whole day at home is really appealing.

I am thinking I can schedule it for next Tuesday.

Unless something else comes up, just saying.

between now and then? UCSF tomorrow day, perhaps the As in the evening. Same for Friday. Saturday and Sunday are going to depend on whether or not I can spring George, which is starting to look more hopeful than earlier in the week. If he escapes, then it will be back to UCSF all day Monday as an outpatient. Which takes me to Tuesday – which is where I started this conversation.

I spent the morning at UCSF. George actually had a few platelets of his “own” this morning so that trend is hopeful. The attendance at this afternoon’s As games was less than optimal but considering it is a Wednesday afternoon, there were the usual serious fans, retirees and busloads of school/summer camp kids. The As pulled off a nice win and swept the series. Considering we were facing the poor Baltimore Orioles, it could have been embarrassing otherwise.

Noah returned today from San Diego –

with Gwen

who is suffering a cut necessitating the cone of shame.

After taking the crew out to Barney’s for burgers – I started a new puzzle (Ecru–from Artifact Puzzles) before wiping out completely.

just started

the picture of the finished puzzle

 

Q 2 months

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

The good thing about staying in the Outer Sunset is that I was right across the park from SFVA. It isn’t bad walk; under 2 miles (US measurements) and almost a straight line. As I might have mentioned the last time, the only challenging part is this last six blocks straight up hill. Add in a bag and a travel backpack loaded with my clothes from the last couple of weeks and it turned into a real slog.

Since the coffee stand was open in the lobby, I was able to reward myself with a nice latte and a croissant.

(skipping forward to 1535) I was able to take the shuttle over to UCSF and spend a few hours with George. He is doing better on the white cell front and may actually escape this place within a week or so. It is the lack of platelet recovery that is holding things up. My original plan was to then head to the ballpark, but by the time I hit the N-Judah stop, I was exhausted. Stomped back upstairs, pulled out the backpack and extra bag and just headed home. Dani was able to bail me out of BART which saved me the significant hassle of trying to work my way home after all the buses had quit running.

And the game I missed? Home run slug fest. Darn.

004

Without Cowbell

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Color everyone around me amazed.

I survived this mornings removal of the old fridge and placement of the new. It was a real slog for the delivery guys since they had, once again, a big truck. They parked on the street. Wheeled the fridge up the steep driveway on a dolly, then hauled it up the 20 slate stairs to the house. Plus the two steps up into the house, and the steps back down to the kitchen level (via the living room so as to avoid narrow corners and doorways.

 

It was after 1100 by the time the new one was hooked up and working. From there it was off to BART (usual route to UCSF) and spent the afternoon with George. Snuck out about 1800 and headed to Oakland.

Just barely made it to my seat before the first pitch. The Mariners have left town and the Orioles have arrived. And, since I hadn’t had enough sense this morning to pack for the game – I was completely without my cowbell…The As managed to squeak out a win. I headed back to SF and the Outer Sunset for the night

Forever on BART

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system covers portions of Contra Costa County, essentially all of Alameda County and San Francisco. It doesn’t cover south on the Peninsula much past SFO. There is the underway runnel connects San Francisco with the East Bay. Since the system was developed in the 1970s, maintenance was not exactly factored in. Not sure why but in order to work on the tracks under the Bay, the whole system has to be taken down to uni-directional for that stretch. Admittedly, the weekend is the best time to conduct this sort of work, the ridership is much less than that of weekdays. If people are smart, they will plan to stay on one side or the other.

And then there are those like me who need to get across the Bay, or from Berkeley to the Coliseum which did not involve a train change for Alex & me. However with just one train from our station, it meant that we also had the entire “going to San Francisco” crowd on the train.

We will ignore the As game, Lou Trivino, dropped balls and the Mariner’s four run 8th inning.

The real fun began on the way back. Only one train from Freemont/Dublin etc and going to Richmond. Want to go anywhere else? Change at 12th for SF or MacArthur for Antioch. When we finally were able to get on the ONE train headed across the Bay to SF, it was sardine time again. A change to the N-Judah at Embarcadero saw only minimal improvement. It was also packed. End result was that it took almost 90 min from the Coliseum to UCSF.

And, it took just about as long to get back to Berkeley with N-Judah -> BART with the same only one train going under the Bay -> change at 19th.

When I got home, it was more than time to crash.

D+15

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It seemed sensible to take you back to the count up (rather than down) so that all of us would have at minimum a clue without having to spin the wheel or ask Vanna White (Jeopardy – old TV show game for the non-US). George is getting really, really bored. Since he is occasionally coughing (which I don’t think is infectious but related to side effect from the chemo) he is stuck in his room. I thought about making him a t-shirt that says “help, I am a prisoner on 12-Long.” If I went with black and white stripes? Nah – the staff is wonderful and I am not sure that they would fully appreciate the attempt at humor.

We seem to be back to normal weather for this time of year. The fog is rolling in regularly and the temperatures have dropped down so that it is chilly at night again.

Quiet day, I am trying to find all the files that I have tucked here and there on the computer in order to make some progress on those papers which are still hanging over my head. It was Graduation Day for the five Norwegians who were here this past year for the LLM program. Thanks to WhatApps, they sent us pictures.

I elected not to go to the game tonight, just headed home on BART, stopped at the Safeway for food and made a bit more progress on my puzzle before heading to bed early.

maybe 1/3?

 

Puzzling along

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

D+ too many to still be short on platelets or white blood cells, but there we are. (So yesterday, between running errands in the East Bay)

so, there was this lovely

smaller size, Artifact Puzzle. Less than 200 pieces so it went together fairly quickly.

which lead to –

also Artifact

just look at all those squiggly pieces

 

which meant I really didn’t spend any significant time trying to put together edges, but rather tackled a few of the objects before I needed to head back to San Francisco.

 

All of which has much more color than sitting here quietly talking, ignoring the TV and knitting while listening to audiobooks.

To hot to handle

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

A long time ago, which you will all agree 1984 literally qualifies for (if you weren’t born yet, just take a breath and remember the world has existed a lot longer than any of us have been around. Not the center of the universe, which is true, but not always fun to remember) George, Shana, and I moved back to the US from Germany. He was looking at being involved in a legal practice with a couple of school mates, I was headed to Johns Hopkins for graduate school. Shana? Well at age, she was pretty much along for the ride.

Now consider, Washington DC. It is June. Our house was just outside the beltway in Kensington. It was hot. It was humid. Houses came with air-conditioning. Cars did not, unless you paid extra. (you know where this is going, don’t you?) I wasn’t realistic, after all, air-conditioning was not exactly needed in Germany. Too hot? Open a window. And then there is the slight matter of being concerned about finances. Spending an additional $500 on A/C just didn’t make sense to me at the time.

So there I was, commuting 3-4 days a week to Baltimore over the summer in our small, red, reasonably warm car with the windows open on beltway and the Baltimore-Washington corridor. It was probably the least expenditure of calories to become heat acclimatized in my life. Now fast forward to the East Bay. It is mid-June. The temperature has been in the low 90s (think 32*C) in an area where windows open, fans aren’t standard household features, and few can even spell A/C. In fact, I was surprised at how few people were even wearing long sleeves.

The Eldest’s cats are sunning themselves, which seems totally and completely insane considering that Richmond is even hotter than Berkeley. OTOH – they do have jungle cat ancestry.

As it turns out, on this D+14 day, George’s ward is one of the few that actually has air-conditioning. Which, if you think about the fact that all the air going into the ward has to be filtered and scrubbed makes perfect sense. The windows don’t open, the double sets of doors not quite completely providing an air-lock, controlling the temperature of the inbound air is probably the easiest of what is essential for patient health. Of course, you can’t control the temp in each room, that requires a call to the maintenance people but that seems like a trivial thing to complain about.

I spent the morning and early afternoon running errands before heading back to SF. He now has clean laundry, I have a couple of projects that I can complete over the next several days. More than likely I will stay on this side of the bay till Sat night.

D+4

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

There is no chemo scheduled for today. Just a watch as George’s white count continues to drop headed for that magic zero. After that? Any and all blood cells will be courtesy of his donor. Red Blood cells, of course, don’t count at this point.

Mostly, he is resting, listening to KQED (the SF Public Radio Station). I think he is receiving good value for his annual contribution.

I have been through as many library books as I have interest in, for the moment. Instead, I am thinking about all those things at the house which I will have the wonderful “opportunity” to tackle while we are on house arrest this summer. The garage is too dusty and dirty to allow George anywhere near it.

taken July 2018.

There is one section of the garage that we had shelved with the plan to store above floor level all those items which need to be safely stored and not at risk of water, pressure or other damage. I actually started to make progress last July. From solid wall of boxes in the center, I had it down to those dozen in the center.

Then things got reorganized a few times, sometimes were shipped in. Other items left. Much of what we have falls into that wonderful category of “too good to toss” but I don’t need it. Often this involves books, hard copy movies, and those treasures which have been inherited but have limited value. Actually, I am more than glad to gift just about anything; to have things find a new home. I am resistant to the idea of landfill, it just seems a waste.

It is also the reality of getting older. One’s interests can change. One’s need for several thousand beads, ten pairs of shears, or boxes of books that will never be re-read is actually limited. All of us also have to face the issue of mortality. True – if I get hit by a car on the way home tonight – the garage will not be my problem. But seriously, is it the kind of legacy that I want to leave my family?

OTOH – at a box a day? What, a couple of years before I am done? And exactly how long will my interest level in clearing out actually last…..

A short lived balloon

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It has been a long day – and this lovely small puzzle is exactly how I feel

As I noted above – it is titled – A Short Lived Balloon. Not all that many pieces, but fabulously designed with whimsy pieces of tombstones, scythes, ghosts, bones and other ghoulish things.