Tracks in the Snow

I was somewhat taken aback at a complaint that I noticed on my flyer route last week. The complaint was "Carrier is walking on the lawn". I know for a fact that I never walk on the lawns (except on the few occasions where I saw that the resident had actually shovelled a path in the snow), then I realized that it was the day that I had someone deliver the papers for me.

I investigated the complaint (quite certain that both parties that got the job done for me in my absence knew the rules of 'Do not walk on the lawn') and upon discussion we figured out that the paper must have been delivered before the walks were shovelled (our city had received 10 - 15 cm of snow that weekend). Because my substitutes did not regularly deliver papers, they didn't know where the sidewalks were located. So we guess that what probably happened is that they walked straight towards the city sidewalk, guessing that would be where the sidewalk was located.

Mystery solved, we just went about our lives and forgot about the trivial little complaint.

The next time I delivered flyers, I specifically took note of the snow at the address the complaint came from. One would assume that if this person took the time to complain about someone walking through their snow on a day when a person couldn't tell the difference between the sidewalk and the grass, they must have a pristine yard where no one walks in the snow. Wrong.

This snow in this particular yard was completely full of footprints. Comparable to the days when my daycare was full to capacity and I had kids playing and walking through the front yard on a regular basis. Why would a person who sees such high traffic in their yard take the time to complain about something so trivial???

Yes - newspaper and flyer carriers have a small manual that reminds their employees of these small courtesies that are expected. We knew the rules. I follow the rules. To the letter. I can see the person complaining if this was a habitual matter. But it was an isolated incident. On a very snowy day ... where one simply couldn't see the sidewalk. There was an explanation.

It just makes me wonder about the stress that this person must accumulate in a day when they take the time to complain about such a trivial matter. Stress levels are far too high these days. Why sweat the small stuff??

I have given this petty complaint more energy than it deserves. It doesn't matter. It's small stuff. I am simply sad for the person that made this into 'big stuff' in their world.

I strive to live a life where the tracks in the snow are inconsequential. They mean that someone brought something and delivered it my home. Or came for a visit. Or took time to play in my yard. There would be nothing more lonely to me than to have a home where no one came to call and left 'footprints' of their presence in my life.

"Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff.” ~ Richard Carlson

Just Plain Thankful ...

I awoke to find positive, uplifting messages where ever I looked.

Today is Thanksgiving for our southern neighbors so it was not surprising to find my daily inspirational message was one of a thankful sort. It was different than most because it dwelled on the fact that every day should be one of thanks. Not just once a year. Perhaps (they suggested) we should have an unthankful day if we are just going to devote one day out of every 365 to focus on it. And be grateful for the 364 remaining days. Good point.

I eventually found my way to Facebook (where I sit back and lurk) and found people from all corners of my (Canadian) world putting a voice to their gratefulness. From sitting in front of a fireplace wrapping presents ... to finding a loonie already in a shopping cart ... to being thankful for honest people out there ... to a montage of security videos that have captured the goodness in our world.

Even before I stumbled across a morning that was filled with gratitude, it was my plan to write a post about 'service with a smile' and recap the various incidents that I have come upon in my quest to take care of the Odds & Ends around here. 

Unfortunately my newly 'fixed' computer is preventing me from moving at an efficient speed (I started this post a half hour ago and the computer keeps freezing and preventing me from moving about various windows as I have tried to add various links to this post). I am certain that there is a lesson on the pitfalls of multitasking to be learned from my computer's refusal to work on more than one task at a time. So I guess in a roundabout way I will find a way to be grateful for the inability to accomplish what I set out to do before my Daycare Family arrive this morning.

But for now, I will wrap up this post with the video that our local radio station posted on their Facebook page this morning:



Happy Thanksgiving!! Today, tomorrow and always...

Quick to Blame ... Slow to Learn

I went downstairs to say good-night to My Youngest last night and the room was silent. Absolutely silent. This was the first time in forever that the furnace wasn't running.

My Second Son turned the furnace fan from 'on' to 'auto' last week. Throughout the time the fan has been on 'auto', I have yet to notice the furnace turn off. In fact, I have been cooler than I was before this adjustment (probably due to the fact that my son also rearranged the upstairs registers to direct the heat downward so that they don't freeze downstairs this year).

Long story short ... the furnace runs. All of the time. It has since we got it (and we ran the fan on the one we had before as well).

So when the furnace was eerily silent last night, the first thought that crossed my mind is that our furnace cleaning had resulted in a broken furnace. And so the story goes ...

I woke up to a warm room this morning. It's never warm in my room. As if my brain turned on as a result of a good night's sleep and a warm room I thought, "The furnace cleaning actually fixed the furnace!!" Finally. A positive result from our maintenance binge. I was elated.

I marvelled at the warmth within the house this morning. Then as I sat down to write this post, I was aware of a cool breeze from the register beside me. Sure enough. Air was circulating when the furnace wasn't blowing heat. After it stopped last night and this morning. What happened???

Then it came to me.

I noticed that our windows were starting to accumulate moisture at the bottom of them this morning. Last night, I checked our air exchanger to look for evidence of it being cleaned yesterday. I closed it up but I didn't check to see if it turned back on afterwards.

When I finally remembered to go and check to see if the air exchanger was running, I was not surprised to find out that it didn't automatically turn itself on after I opened it up last night. So I turned it up to its maximum efficiency and went about my day.

It wasn't until I sat still that I felt the cool air circulating. It wasn't until I started writing, that I realized that the furnace cleaning had absolutely nothing to do with the furnace running. It is completely and totally related to the air exchanger and it overrides the 'automatic' switch on our thermostat.

I was so quick to believe that nothing good could come from the furnace cleaning. I was ready to (first) blame them. Then I was ready to give them all the credit. Now I see what I (suppose that I) should have known all along.

Now the dilemma. Warm house and moisture on the windows? Or cool house and dry windows? At least we know that we have a choice in the matter now. The mystery of the cold rooms has been solved at last.

I must now go solve the next mystery of how to get the VCR to work now that the digital cable box is hooked up. I'm on a roll ...

Patchwork Fixes

I have put off maintenance around the house for a very long time. Now that I'm finally tending to a few things, I am finding that the patchwork fixes don't always work ...

I bought a used digital cable box from a Kijiji ad last week. I hooked it up and everything appeared to work okay. One 'quick' call to our cable company to do whatever-it-is-that-they-do to make the on-screen listings work and we'd be off to the races. Wrong. Strange and unusual things happened. I talked with two different technicians over the course of the hour that I was on the phone. They had never seen this particular problem before. A service call has been placed. We decided it would be best to wait until our other boxes arrive just in case we have any problems with them. Proactive thinking. I hope it works.

We bought weather stripping, door knobs and dead bolt locks for our existing doors this past weekend. We can still see daylight between the front door and the door jam. The back door doesn't close quite good enough for us to rely on the keypad door lock to do its job. The door and door jam have seen so many different door knobs and dead bolt locks in their days that (even though my son assures me that this is no problem) things just don't look as secure as they should. I would still like new doors ...

Our computer was running so slow that I was starting to feel that there was a serious underlying issue which would result in the computer crashing and burning and losing everything that is on it. So I called my Computer Doctor. He came yesterday and cleaned things up and added more RAM. He told me of the issues that were probably slowing things up on the computer, but he thought that what he did should make a noticeable difference. Well? They did. We now have no sound on the computer. Not only that, it seems to be running just as slow (if not slower) than it did before. He is coming back this afternoon ...

We are getting the furnace, ducts, air conditioner and air exchanger cleaned today. I am fearful of the ramifications. Everything that has been 'patched' has resulted in more work, follow-up and the revelation that perhaps getting rid of the old and buying something new is the best answer.

What is it about this disposable society that makes me feel victimized by the inability to simply fix what works? I am doing my best to keep what has worked for me in the past out of the garbage dumps. I feel like I am being thwarted at every turn. Are new products not meant to be fixed? Are the repair and maintenance people not capable of repairing something that is over five years old (often as a result of parts not being available)?

We went through a fairly massive renovation and repair of things-around-the-house in 2003. Everything worked. Everything felt new and improved. The downside is that was over nine years ago. Now what was new has become antiquated and effective repairs and maintenance seem to be illusive. Granted ... our doors are most likely 47 years old. They are most likely the one item on the list that could work effectively with a few minor adjustments. The rest? Is one step away from the garbage dump.

I am trying. I am truly trying. I would love to be able to toss out the old and buy new. But the budget doesn't allow it. Heavens! The budget doesn't even allow for repairs and maintenance!! But I'm trying none-the-less.

Something tells me if my dad was here, he could make a lot of these things work. At least the stuff that isn't electronic or computer related. Dad came from a generation of fixing what you had and nothing went to waste. This stemmed from necessity, but the generation who lived through the Depression years never lost that way of life. 'Waste not want not' was the motto of the day.

One step forward, two steps back. Patchwork fixes used to work. Now the patches seem ineffective and a waste of time and material. But I'm trying ...

It Just Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

Some weekends stand out from the rest. It can't be planned or expected ... but when it happens without design you just sit back and enjoy the ride. This past weekend was exactly that.

I tended to that-which-needed-to-be-tended Friday night. From delivering flyers, to grocery shopping; to cleaning the house and doing laundry. By the time I sat down to enjoy the moment at the end the day, I could barely stay awake to enjoy it. But in those few conscious moments that I had I thought to myself, "If I accomplish nothing else this weekend ... I have done enough."

I woke up to a perfect Saturday. A morning with My Son; and (with My Son's assistance) an afternoon tending to that one last item on my Odds & Ends list; delivering papers (the last item on my to-do-list for the weekend); then going out to a movie and refreshments with a friend.

Sunday morning quickly arrived and I was anticipating the lunch date I had with another friend when the doorbell rang and the next thing I knew, I was on the receiving end of a 'cheesecake delivery'. As I was getting ready to go out for lunch, the phone rang and the next thing I knew, I had supper plans. I came home from supper and found an email message from a friend so I replied to that message with a phone call.

One thing led seamlessly to the next. Each visit, outing, encounter was positive and uplifting. Ties with good friends were strengthened. I could fully savor and enjoy each visit without worrying about a clock ticking the time away and being committed to anything that interfered with the moment that I was in.

It was one of those weekends where an unexpected gift was around every corner. The gift of friendship. The gift of family. The gift of living in the moment with childlike innocence and feeling 'it just doesn't get better than this'. And then it does.

You Had Me at 'Hello'

I happened to overhear the greeting between My Son and His Girlfriend upon her return from work Friday evening ...

It was simple. It was happy. It was genuine.

The happy, upbeat lilt to their voices as each of them said hello to the other. "Hi!!", with enthusiasm. "Hello! How are ya?" in a joy filled response.

I hear the tones of their voices as they come and go, make a meal or simply sit at the table and have coffee. I don't hear the words. I simply hear their tone.

They laugh together. They enjoy each other's company. There is a quiet companionship between them that goes beyond the words they speak.

Words have the ability to cut like a knife. But is it just the words? When I hear the joy in their voices at their simple greeting, I can't help but think of the way the word 'hello' falls off my tongue when I meet and greet the people I take for granted in my life. Often the word is not even uttered. If it is, it is spoken as a perfunctory word out of obligation with little regard to how the person on the other end of the word will hear it.

When a person can take a word as simple as 'hello' and turn it into a paragraph full of meaning and joy ... little more is required. And it is a most excellent way to begin a conversation.

I went to see the movie "Hope Springs" last night. A movie about a couple that has been married for 31 years and how complacent they have become with each other over the course of time (and the accumulation of small things that become more-than-they-are, when they all add up). I couldn't help but think of the simple 'hello' exchanged between My Son and His Girlfriend ... they have it right. I hope they hold onto the simple courtesies as years grow into decades.

"You had me at hello" ~ Jerry Maguire. They said it all in those few words.

Some Days Go Nothing Like You've Planned ...

... but they end up being the best day you could have ever hoped for!

I allowed myself the luxury of sleeping in until 8:00 this morning so that everyone else would have an opportunity to have breakfast and start their day before I entered the 'community zone' (aka: kitchen). Sometimes people just need a little bit of space when living under the same roof. That was the thought with which my day started.

Then ... I planned to get up and write. I wanted to update my Daycare Blog, write a few lines here and possibly send off an email or two if I had some words left over. Then I had bookkeeping work to do; flyers to deliver; a car to be washed; and one or two quick errands to run.

I had an agenda. I didn't have it all mapped out in my mind but the list was made. I had a purpose.

Then ... I wandered into the kitchen.

My Son had just walked in and had a cup of coffee in hand. Conversation flowed so I took my coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. We just chatted. Conversations like we had can't be planned, but when they unfold so easily and one thing leads to the next you know that you must follow where ever they take you.

They took us door shopping. Door knobs, deadbolt locks and doors were the last item on the Odds & Ends list that I have been tackling this week. So door-shopping it was. My Son acts like he enjoys this type of outing and I knew that I wanted a second set of ears, eyes and voice on the matter so I was pleased that he agreed to accompany me.

Doors are expensive. There are some pretty awesome doors out there. But the prices can sure add up. We talked to three different people at three different stores. We got a written quote; one is coming by email; and we got a verbal estimate from the last place.

After all was said and done, I found the words, "I think I'll settle for door knobs and weather stripping" fall off my tongue. And that's what 'we' did. Well ... I did the buying. My Son did the installing (while I went out and delivered papers)...

I returned home to a message from a friend (telephone tag is a game that I seem to be perfecting) and an email message from another friend. I returned the phone call (and left another message) and replied to the email.

Thanks to that email response, I ended up going out to a movie and an after-movie-snack with a friend.

I have now just nicely settled back in at home and I am more than a little pleased that I have found excess words in me at the end of a day. This hasn't happened in a very, very long time. By the time the sun sets, it seems my quota of words for the day has been spent and I have very little left in me.

Today had great potential. I had a purpose and a plan. The day went nothing like I expected it to go, but it went better than I could have ever hoped.

Tomorrow? I also have a 'plan'. I wonder where the day will take me ...