Healthy Wealthy and Wise

For 2008, my New Year's Resolution was to be Healthy Wealthy and Wise. The reasons for this "catch-phrase" I will try to explain and let you know how I fared this year.

Healthy:

Last year I got a membership to the YMCA and wanted to get back to my workout routine. Except for a couple of weeks where I had to go into work early, I have been going most mornings during the week. I also am very pleased that one time when I weighed myself I weighed the lowest I have been for several years— though I have not weighed myself lately to know if I kept the weight off.

Wealthy:

At year's end last year I was struggling financially and wanted to get a second job to help make ends meet. After this didn't seem to pan out, I changed it and tried to have a wealth of friends instead. However it does not appear that I have an overabundance of friends either. In fact… I may have acquired someone who considers me their enemy— but I cannot be sure of that. I must admit that my financial situation has leveled off and I am not struggling anymore— so I guess I should have stuck to my original resolution after all.

Wise:

It is hard to say if I have gained any wisdom. I guess it all depends on what you consider "being wise". I'm sure if I look back on the year, I know that I have learned something… but if what I have learned has made me wise is up for debate.

Though it may appear to me that I have failed many of my resolutions— I realize that it is a process and that it does not end once the year ends. I will continue to apply these resolutions in my life moving forward, and also have a new resolution for 2009.

Happy New Year!

Kichen Sink-Gate

The saga continues…

As a follow-up to my previous post I left you indicating that the plumber would be installing the common drain pipe— well… when it rains… it hails! Everything seemed to be going fine until my wife got home around 4 and we were debating if we wanted to go out to eat or order out (since there still was no sink to do dishes with)— when my wife smelled smoke. The plumber indicated that was probably the torch they used with the solder on the pipe. We took this to heart until my wife comes down the stairs in a panic telling me to call 911 and report a possible fire. By this time we could smell smoke upstairs as well as in the basement and I could not find out where it was coming from.

I quickly called 911 and reported that we have a possible fire between our two apartments due to plumbing work being done next door. Three minutes later we hear two fire trucks barreling down the street. How many firemen does it take to put out a fire… I counted at least 20 people milling around. The tricky part was that it was somewhere in between the two units making it difficult to figure out where it was. They were using infra-red detectors and pointing it at the walls trying to figure out where the smoldering was. The other interesting thing was that there was an extra vent that did not match up with any of the other unit's configurations and smoke was pouring out of it.

Most of the time the firemen were next door, but from time to time they came in our unit and poked around. By this time my wife grabbed the dog and camped out in the car waiting things out. She called her daughter who showed up and offered support. It was at this time that the firemen determined where the source was and was proceeding in hacking away at the neighbors kitchen to try and get at the fire. One fireman came in and told us that they might have to get at the fire from our side and suggested removing any dishes from the cabinets… (You don't know how many dishes you have until you have to remove them quickly).

Scrambling to try and get all the dishes out from above the sink we managed to get all of them out only to hear that they got at the source and did not need to rip our cabinets out after all. I should have taken pictures, but I'm sure some people would say "I don't see any difference in what your kitchen looks like anyway". Rather than try and put back all the dishes again, we opted to wait to allow us (me) to go through them and determine which ones can be given away.

Since the house still smelled smokey, my wife decided to invite us and the dog to stay at her daughter's apartment overnight. So, we packed up our sleeping bags, some PJ's, and some dog treats and proceeded to go over there. We left a set of keys with the neighbors in case they needed to get back in (wouldn't want the firemen to return and break down our door just to get in). The neighbors thanked us for calling and wished us a happy new year which choked us both up after seeing the aftermath in their kitchen.

Our daughter's family made us pizza (yes it wasn't delivery… but Digiorno's)— and we slept on their living room floor… (why does my back hurt). I think that the only one who appeared nervous afterwords was the dog who was panting most of the evening— probably because he never stayed there before.

My wife had to be at work at 6:30, so we left around 6 and left a thank you note for her daughter and family and went back home to assess the damages. Things were still a bit smokey, but not to the extent that we could have if we didn't catch it as soon as we did.

I'm currently trying to get all the dishes back, but thought I would at least tell everyone that we're OK and that we are very fortunate. What a way to end the year— so looking forward to 2009.

Wordful Wednesday - Puppet Hand

When I was a child my mother made a sock puppet out of an old sock, some buttons and a pom-pom and called him Cecil the Sea Serpent Sock Puppet. This year my grandson was using the "puppet hand" when we were playing board games and I had to pull out Cecil… we had so much fun I neglected my turn every time. I always find that the "puppet hand" has so many uses that I thought I would highlight on one of them to in order to participate in Wordful Wednesday.

In theater I tend to use the puppet hand as a marker— indicating where a given person is if they are absent. You just take your hand and bend it a bit closing the thumb with the upper fingers. You can pivot the wrist a bit and have the hand puppet look around "playing their part". You can even go so far as to say lines by opening and closing the thumb and upper fingers accordingly.

When I was in the play Deadwood Dick there is a scene where we have a hangin' and proceed to take Pong Ping out to the nearest tree and hang him. Because we had to have off stage voices during the scene— and because Pong had to have a costume change— the posse would act out the scene in the far corner of the stage and use the puppet hand for Pong. Because we couldn't risk a flash during a performance, I had someone snap this shot in the green room as proof of what we were doing.

No socks or animals were harmed in the making of this post.

Everything but the kitchen sink

Why is it that during the holidays I have problems with our kitchen sink. Several years ago during Thanksgiving a pipe in our sink broke. This was fine in itself… but because we share a common drain with our neighbors— every time they used their sink it leaked through our broken pipe. What a sight it was seeing my nephew and I scrambling to bail out the water from the aluminum roasting pan under the sink. I had to go next door, ring their bell and hope that they understood enough English to understand not to use the sink because it drained into ours.

Believe it or not, a few years later on Thanksgiving we had problems with the sink again— but this time it was the common drain pipe that was clogged and had to be rooted out through the connector that was only accessible from the neighbors side.

I know that turnabout is fair play— but when it effects you it's not so funny. Fast forward to Christmas Eve this year… I'm doing the dishes in preparation for our annual Christmas brunch when the doorbell rings. It's the neighbors telling us to not use our sink because they have problems with their sink and it's backing up into their sink. Twenty minutes later the neighbor comes with pipe in hand trying to explain to me that the pipe is cracked and they might not be able to get a replacement part because the hardware store is probably closed.

Hoping that they got to the hardware store in time, I proceeded to test the sink on Christmas morning. At first it appeared to work, but then started to back up. Thinking quickly, I bailed out the sink into a bucket and sucked the stuff I couldn't bail out with a turkey baster, then emptied the bucket into the toilet which thankfully shares a common pipe with our other neighbors. Knowing that a plumber could not get called on Christmas day, I proceeded in doing my dishes into a roasting pan emptying when it got dirty into the bucket and emptying the bucket into the toilet. If you ever wonder how much water you actually use— may I suggest you try this technique… you would be surprised as to how much you use (waste).

Hoping that things were to be fixed on Friday, I waited til evening to try again, and again I get a ring at the door asking that we don't use our sink since the common pipe is backed up again.

Saturday rolls around and I see the plumber asking that he check to see if the rooter is going down to the common pipe and not into our sink by mistake. Cool… things will be fixed by evening so we can prepare our roast duck… NOT.

As of today (Monday) it appears that the common pipe has corroded and needs to be replaced— probably from too much rooting. The pipe will not be replaced until tomorrow— so keep your fingers crossed perhaps by New Year's Eve we will have our sink again.

2009 Polar Bear Plunge

At noon on Thursday, January 1, 2009 I will be at Loyola Beach participating in the annual polar bear plunge. If you are curious and want to know why I do this— read my post here.

Depending on how many people come to cheer me on will determine if I have people over at my place for "hot" drinks— hot-chocolate, hot-apple cider, hot-toddies, etc.

Hope to see you there.

The best Christmas gift ever

I must admit that my wife knows how to get gifts that have a personal touch. This year she got me a stick which was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame. She also included her own set of instructions:

I especially like the fact that she also included the 2007 Hall of Fame winner— Cardboard Box. Her cleverness never ceases to amaze me.

Paula falls into a pile of rocks

When I was at ISU I had a classmate who showed up to class on crutches. When I inquired about what happened, she proceeded to tell me the story of how she was with a group of friends who were carrying her and she sprained her ankle when they set her down. I forget the exact details of the story, but it did inspire me to write a poem.

---

Paula falls into a pile of rocks
was she drunk this time I say not

But careless she was while carried in sway
when we put her down her legs just gave way

And what is to be learned by this gracious tale
not to wind up in jail when put on your socks

cj86'