Cleaning - Organizing

After letting my home get into a terrible mess over the last few years, I have begun to finally make some progress in cleaning and organizing things.  My friend Phil came out a couple times and helped me to get started as this job was just so big and so overwhelming.  Phil can't sort and organize my stuff for me, but he was able to put things into boxes and sweep the floor.  Now the place has some clean spots that look really good, and I like that a lot, so am working at making those small clean areas larger.  It is almost like when you throw a rock into a still pond and the little ripples go out, out, out further, so are these clean areas going to go out, out, out further.  Today I cleaned off the top of my one standing cupboard thing and washed it all off, then cleared off a shelf until I had in my back room, putting all the books from it into a box for now.  I unscrewed the 3 huge screws that were holding the shelves on the wall, carried it to the kitchen, washed the dust off it and put it onto the top of the standing cupboard.  I then washed all the tin canisters and filled them with bulk food items, then put them up onto the 'new' shelf.  It looks pretty good.... way better than it was before I started.  Not everything I took down has been dealt with so is still sitting on the table, still needing to be washed and put up somewhere.... but where is the question.  I also have been thinking about moving all of the furniture in the living room into different spots in the hopes it will all 'work better' once reorganized... and I look at the mess at the front door and wonder what I will do there to clean and organize it.  I used to have a standing coat rack, then went to hooks on the wall but they have all broken as they were cheaply made and couldn't stand up under the weight of my coats.  I need to replace those hooks and/or figure out a different place to put my coats.  This is all a big job and a definite process to reclaim my home from the mess I allowed it to become.

Nice Surprise Too

As Friday continued, I left Superstore and headed to WalMart.  Just down the street from Superstore, a van was coming out of another business and as I drove by I got just a glimpse of the woman driving the van. "Is that...?" I wondered, the name momentarily escaping me as names often do. I stopped at the red light and the van pulled up behind me.  I looked in the rear view mirror on my drivers door and the driver of the van started making funny faces at me. "It IS, it IS..... Teresa!!" with her daughter Dusty in the passenger seat. The light turned green and, along with some vehicles in front of me, I got through it, though Teresa didn't as it again went red.  I hoped she was going to WalMart too as there was nowhere else I could pull off before there anyway.  Sure enough, they came along and saw me standing beside me truck, we waved, they came in and parked behind me.  We had a great visit there in the parking lot and I so enjoyed visiting with both women and their big dog Bruiser.  He is such a great dog and I so miss my dogs now that I don't currently have one.  We went into the store and again stood around visiting for a very long time.  When we finally did part ways, I get the couple things I wanted to purchase and headed to the check out lines.... really LONG lines as it turned out. After so much time on my feet, about the last thing I wanted or needed was to stand in such a long line up for just 2 small items.  I got into the shortest line, with only 4 very full buggies in it, knowing that still it would take 10-15 minutes for them all to get put through... then the woman behind the till told me "this line is now closed".  I walked a short ways down towards the other check outs, looking at how crazy long the lines were, then I put  down the items I had planned to purchase, and out I walked! Those items were just not that important!!  As it was I had already been on my feet too long and 2 days later am still in a lot of pain from 'pushing the envelope too far'.

Nice Surprise

On Friday, after I had another treatment at my Chiropractor, I ran some errands, starting with going to Superstore for a few grocery items.  While there, I unexpectedly met with a lady I haven't seen for some years.  Paulette was my real estate agent when I purchased my first home, all by myself, in 1985 and she was again my agent when I sold the place in 1990.  Paulette was a wonderful person to work with, very good at her chosen career and a very kind person who I really enjoyed knowing.  When we closed on the deal with my purchase of the small house on an acre of land, Paulette gave me a gift of 3 brass butterflies, having gotten to know me and that I was an avid butterfly collector, lol.  When the deal closed with me selling that home 4 1/2 years later, she again gave me a wonderful gift, this time it was the book "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise L. Hay.  This book helped me a lot and was very instrumental in putting me onto the spiritual path I follow, bringing me into a much happier life.  Paulette is still in the real estate game with her son as her business partner, though real estate sales have been down around here lately.  From what I've heard, be it real estate louisville ky, real estate Vernon BC, or real estate Anywhere North America, sales are down.  With the current low interest rates BC banks are offering, you would think sales would be up, but I think the added expense of the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) is making people hold off with their larger purchases. We voted down this tax after it was forced upon us against our wishes so it is supposed to being removed... and is taking 3 years to happen.  Anyway, it was really great to see Paulette and to see she is looking really great!!

Motorcycle Safety and Awareness

As I talked about in my last post,  I want to make about a 2 week ride this summer to the coast, ferry to Victoria, ride up Vancouver Island, ferry to Prince Rupert, ride back home via Hwy 16 and 97. I want to make it a ride for Motorcycle Safety and Awareness, to have lots of other riders join me, and have it widely publicized so people will see it on TV, read about it in newspapers, and hopefully think about us when they get in their cars and head off down the roads.  Here are some maps to show more about where I plan to ride.

This map shows part of British Columbia, the Canadian province I live in.

If you click on the map you will get a larger view of it.

Find Kelowna on the map... I live about an hour drive from Kelowna. 

Find Vancouver.... the plan is to ride to this area and take a ferry across to Victoria which you will see at the bottom of Vancouver Island.

In the top left corner of this map, you see Haida Gwaii, formerly called Queen Charlotte Islands.

This map shows the north end of Vancouver Island

The plan is to ride up Vancouver Island and take a ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert.

 This map shows Haida Gwaii, formerly called Queen Charlotte Islands, on the left as well as many other islands and the mainland on the right.  You can see Prince Rupert on the mainland.

The ride will continue from Prince Rupert to Prince George, which you see on the 1st map, then back down to the Kelowna area.

Motorcycle Safety and Awareness

I just sent an email to British Columbia Coalition of Motorcyclists (BC COM). I want to make about a 2 week ride this summer to the coast, ferry to Victoria, ride up Vancouver Island, ferry to Prince Rupert, ride back home via Hwy 16 and 97. I want to make it a ride for Motorcycle Safety and Awareness, to have lots of other riders join me, and have it widely publicized so people will see it on TV, read about it in newspapers, and hopefully think about us when they get in their cars and head off down the roads. I have invited BC COM to be part of this event and have some other plans/thoughts to put into place.

Some things still on my 'To Do List' for this ride:
- Find sponsorship to help with costs of the trip (I was 'low income' and am currently 'no income', so need help)
       - Write to Chevron re: supplying fuel for my trike (if they say no, try other gas companies)
       - Write to BC Ferries re: free ferry rides for this trip (hey, it's worth asking, worst they can do is say no)
       - Be open to private monetary donations to help cover my expenses
       - Contact hotels/motels/campsites/friends re: places to stay along the way
- Pick a firm date for this ride to start (should I go to Boogy Bash first and leave from there, or got straight from home?)
- Contact CHBC News and invite Rick Webber to join the ride
- Get some work done on my trike so it's in top shape for hitting the road
- Take long rides to 'get in shape' for the big one
- Let lots of people know so I have lots of other riders joining me for this ride
- Get map of BC, hang on my wall and plan the route we will take.  Get tourism booklets to study, of towns along the way.

This list is just a start, I'm sure.  Other lists will be made, like what to take for food, clothing, camp gear, etc. etc. etc. This should be fun.... putting it together, then actually doing the ride.

DVD Burning Completed

Last night, Dan MSNed me a DVD burning program and I was able to burn 3 movies to a DVD for my friend.  He still came and got all his blanks so he can take them to the other friend to have more done, and that's okay.  At least I did what I said I would do.  I followed through on a promise and that is important to me.  Now, if I want to burn any more DVDs I can in future, though this is not something I tend to do a lot.  I just don't seem to need them too often.  I do plan to get the necessary cable(s) so I can plug my computer to the TV and watch my downloaded movies on the big 51".  Maybe I can even plug in to the older TV in the bedroom so I can watch movies while relaxing on my comfy bed. I am very Grateful to my friend Dan for helping me out once again.

DVD Burning

I downloaded some movies from the internet, and a friend without a computer wants me to burn him some.  He even brought some bland DVDs over today for me to do this for him. I've burned DVDs before, but not for a long time and not on this particular computer, and not with the program this computer has on it... Windows DVD Burner or something like that.  It was taking a terrible long time and not really getting anywhere.  I talked to my friend Dan on MSN and he said he could send me another program that would work better, and walk me through using it.  He uses Ashampoo all the time, apparently.  So fine, I cancelled the one I had going and he sent me the file over MSN, but after taking a long time to transfer the file, just when it's about to be done, suddenly I get a message that it can't be completed.  We tried different ways, including zip file and still it can't be sent to me.  So after hours of trying to get the program, all I have is a beastly headache and a ton of frustration.  Guess I'll re-start the Windows DVD program and just let it run all night, hoping it's finished by morning.  I could have used all these wasted hours for something much more productive.