Me and Blue Tape

 After getting my floors refinished, I noticed that the baseboard in one of the rooms had orange, green and yellow markings that did not look good with my "new" floor. I mentioned to my daughter and friends that I would paint the area to cover the colors that the room had been in the past. No one agreed with me and I heard, "It is harder than you think, repainting is hard work, the fumes will overwhelm you, get someone else to do it, how will you get up once down on the floor," and so on. In my mind I pictured myself lowering myself to the floor, sitting on a cushion and agile and handy as ever!

I shopped at Lowes for paint that matched the room, two small brushes, and wide blue tape. Yesterday I decided to put the blue tape along the floor so that the new floor would not get painted. Nothing was as I had pictured it. As I slowly lowered myself to the cushion, I missed it and ended up on the hard floor. I tried pulling and pushing the cushion underneath me, but I could not raise my body high enough to slip the cushion beneath me!

Somehow, the best position to put the tape down was leaning on my elbows and before long they hurt. Then I tried sitting with my legs crossed and that hurt my hip area. I tried to get to my knees and couldn't. I prayed and somehow, with the floor feeling like it was as if there was no skin, just hard floor and bone I scooted around the four walls of the room and I had the blue tape in position. Now came the hard part of me trying to stand up!

Before starting the blue tape chore, I brought a chair to use to help me get up but it did not help. My muscles did not have the strength to pull me up on the chair. I managed to get up on my knees and hands, push with my hands, get my rear up in the air and stand up. Today I will begin painting but I will sit in a chair and bend from my waist to paint the baseboard. I will see how that goes!

How odd that in my mind the scenario is so different than the reality! Something that should have taken about 1/2 hour took me over an hour. 

Today I shook the can of paint, opened the can by prying edges with a screwdriver, poured a bit of paint into a cottage cheese container, picked the small brush and I was ready to paint. Bending over and painting seemed to be the best way but before long my back began to hurt. I pulled up the chair and that helped my back but it bothered my hips. Slowly I made my way around the room until the baseboard was painted. The color I had picked was lighter than the wall but what the heck, white looked better than the orange, green and yellow!

I did have one splatter on my floor but it cleaned up right away and I carried a damp paper towel with me in case I splattered again. Luckily, there were no more drips. The next move is removing the blue tape to see if any white had seeped to the floor! I am glad the job is done, my hips hurt and I am walking slower than yesterday!

My advice to anyone over seventy is don't try to do a paint job yourself unless you can run up and down steps, sit on the floor and get up without aid and are agile enough to do summersaults! 

"If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, 

then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

Vincent Van Gogh

A Regret

 There is one day in the whole year that I have feelings of regret! Thanksgiving Day is difficult for me because my small family lives in California and I live in Colorado. We try to visit each other on Thanksgiving with me flying to California or they come to Colorado. No matter if here or there the first thing I do is attend mass to begin the day. 

The regret I have on Thanksgiving Day is not having a large family! Seeing Facebook postings of large families around the table fills me with sadness. I am fortunate to have wonderful friends who "adopt" me during this holiday. On other years I have spent Thanksgiving with at least four different families and it is all right, but not the same as being with my very own family.

During Covid, it was not bad because everyone seemed to be spending the holiday alone or with their immediate family. The saying of misery loves company is true because I did not feel bad when everyone was spending the holiday alone! This year of 2023, I felt the need to be with family even though I had been invited to two different homes, I had decided to spend the day alone.

The sadness began when I saw the postings of how much fun everyone seemed to be having in different homes. Phone calls were nice and I enjoyed texting with my family but the feeling of loneliness bothered me. I am always alone, but never lonely, except on Thanksgiving. That depressing feeling lifted around six in the evening and today, the day after the holiday, I am okay.

I still ate turkey, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, and sweet potato pie. I gave special thanks to God and prayed for peace. Not quite the same as being surrounded by noise of family or friends, yet it got me through the day! Today I have leftovers and it amazes me how feelings can change in a day!

"We can always find something

to be thankful for, no matter what

may be the burden of our want or

the special subject of our petitions."

Albert Barnes

Keys Galore

Every house, every car, every suitcase, every locked thing requires a key to open it! My question is once that key is no longer functioning, why do I keep it? I had no idea how many keys I had gathered until I was clearing out a drawer. I found a few keys to my Ford, Toyota, Wrangler and Subaru; some keys that belonged to a previous home, some luggage keys plus many more keys that I had no idea what they opened! 

Odd shaped with jagged edges may look the same but will not open anything but what they were cut to open. I put the picture of the keys on Facebook and a couple of the comments were: Trash them or make a collage of keys. Since I will not do anything artistic with the keys, I will toss them in the trash!

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"Keys open locks,

but what do I do with the keys

when they are no longer needed?

Seems a shame to toss them away

to never to be used again

but that's okay!"

E. Moscoso

London Fog Coat

 

Around the '60's I purchased an expensive, well for me it was expensive, coat by the brand of London Fog. As the years went by, I stopped wearing it though I would use it for Halloween when I dressed as a spy or detective. Every time I downsized, I could not bring myself to get rid of the coat. I would push it back to the rear of my closet so for sixty years I have looked at the coat but did not have the heart to get rid of it. I knew I would never wear the coat and I could not understand my attachment to it.

The look of my coat today is not the same as when I wore heels and proudly wore it to work. I put it on and the look with sneakers just does not do it! The coat seemed heavier than what I remembered! I wondered if the brand is still in existence and looked it up on the Internet. It surprised me that London Fog trench coats are very similar to mine so it never goes out of style!

This year, in 2023, I did a major clearing of many of my clothes, yet I could not get rid of my London Fog. It still looked brand new! Then I happened to read on Facebook where someone had entered: Do not think of what you are giving away but think of someone who might need it.

I pictured someone in the cold wearing my coat and that was all I needed, I put the coat in a goodwill bag!

"Living in the past and thinking 

someday you will wear a favorite outfit

is not enough reason to hang on to clothes

hanging in your closet!"

E. Moscoso

It's A Small World

After I decided to have a floor refinished, my son-in-law from California found a name of a person in Colorado who worked on floors. We noticed that the young man was punctual when we met him and he seemed to be honest with a nice personality. When looking for someone to work on your home one never knows who will show up! The date was set, and he began working on refinishing the floors in three rooms and every day we chatted about our lives. I enjoyed talking with him and found him to be nice and friendly. I got to know him and his family and he learned about me and what I do. I happened to tell him about volunteering at my church, Spirit of Christ Catholic Community, and he told me that his aunt was a parishioner at Spirit of Christ. I looked her up in our church directory, but her name did not come up.

The following day he mentioned that he spoke with his aunt and when he mentioned my name she had remarked that she knew me and that she had traveled to New Mexico on one of my trips. I asked him again what her name was, and he said that his grandmother's name was "Mabel." Immediately I remembered his grandmother and his aunt, and I said, "Yes, she wore a lot of turquoise jewelry!" And his reply was, "Yes, that is my grandmother who raised me!" 

I recalled how sweet his aunt was on the trip and what a lovely lady she is every time I see her and we stop to chat. His grandmother was impressive and fun to talk with and here they were, related to the young man doing the floors! It was like finding a lost friend! I laughed and told him, "Well, gee whiz, we are almost related!"

"Your aunt is a friend of mine and I see her at church all the time! In fact, I will probably see her on Thursday at our Young At Heart Thanksgiving dinner!" I liked the young man and how dedicated he is in working to make my floors look better. And now that I know who he is related to, I liked him even better. We both found it strange how we were closer to each other than we thought! 

What amazed me about the young man was his work ethic. Reminded me of an older person who grew up in the 30's and in fact, some of the things he said reminded me of my father. I mentioned it to him and he said, "My grandfather took me to jobs when I was a tiny tot and I learned what I know today from him!"

It's really a small world when two lovely ladies traveled with me and I got to know them, that the young man found by my son-in-law to do the floors was related to them, and how great my floors were looking! I really believe that God has a hand in our daily lives. I give thanks that a worker hired is now a friend and I have spectacular looking new floors!

I would recommend First Step Hardwood Flooring to do the work on any floor because I know the finished product would be excellent!

When the floors were done, we finalized the three days we were together by taking some photos!

"There is just one moon and one golden sun,

and a smile means friendship to everyone.

Though the mountains divide 

and the oceans are wide,

it's a small world after all."

Richard B. and Richard M. Sherman

I Became a Hoarder Overnight

 Without much foresight, overnight my house began looking like a hoarder's home. It all began when I decided to tear out the carpet in my bedroom. For years I would look at the carpet and wish I had a hardwood floor in my bedroom. I mentioned it to my daughter and son-in-law and they decided to make my wish come true. On one of their visits they tore out the carpet and it turned out to be more difficult than I thought. The floor where the carpet was torn out had black blotches! After all the pieces of carpet were bagged I ended up with a lot of garbage bags that did not fit in my trash bin.

I found out that for $3.62 I could buy yellow tags to put on the trash bags so the bags could then be picked up by the trash company. Like six chubby soldiers, all in dark green, the yellow tagged bags were lined up on the curb! And then they were gone! 

The room had the original oak floor but it needed to be sanded and finished. My son-in-law located a young man to come out to give us an estimate. As the case of any project, they seem to multiply and instead of the one room I decided to have a total of three rooms sanded and finished and the work would begin Monday the 13 of November.

Now, my job was to clear out every room and as I brought loads of clothes from drawers and closets, papers, folders, and everything off of bookshelves I quickly filled up the front room. I tried keeping the area in special sections; everyday clothing, underwear, socks, jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc.  I clocked three miles and I still had not finished emptying the rooms. My family arrived on Veteran's Day to finish moving the heavier items like my computer, printer, file cabinets, bookshelves, dressers, desk etc. Loads of music cassettes tapes and music discs I sorted and even though I hated parting with my music, I knew I would never listen to them so I said goodbye to Bublé, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Virginia Lopez, Ricky Martin, Beethoven, Jerry Lee Lewis, Arthur Fielder, The Mills Bros., Juan Gabriel, plus many other artists. A set of Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus will help some couple mend their relationship! There were many discs of religious hymns, Greek music, polkas, Christmas songs by different artists and easy listening for relaxing that joined the Goodwill box! This whole blog could be filled with the many CD's and cassettes I got rid of, so I am only listing a few of them!  I kept about ten that I hope to listen to someday, but as my daughter said, "You can listen to whatever music you want over the internet!"

Sorting through my books was even more difficult but I did manage to donate some of my books and DVD's to the library, while the rest were put in a bin for Dream Books. Someone else will enjoy reading my books! I kept Isabel Allende, Manuel Ramos, and Kurt Vonnegut plus a few other favorites, and I still have many books in the shelves downstairs that I will need to sort through.

The dressers are in my garage in case I have a garage sale or put them on Facebook! For a couple of weeks I will sleep in my front room with all my belongings and then comes the work of getting everything back in its place! I went from a three-bedroom home to a studio for a few days but the floors will look great!

I now have eight trash bags ready for pickup on my trash day and somehow I feel lighter and more at peace! Getting your floors done is one way to downsize! 

With the help of my family, the rooms are now empty and the floors will be refinished.  In a few weeks my family will return to help me put everything back in its place. And then I can relax until I decide I want to tackle another project!

"Does your stuff and things around you represent 

who you are today, or who you were in the past?"

The Uncluttered Angel