by jphilo | Jan 23, 2012 | Daily Life
Have you seen the Pioneers of American Industrial Design stamps issued by the US Post Office last June? I am totally in love with them. Maybe because the sleek modern lines – with a few art deco flourishes here and there – soothe my soul. Or maybe because the Fiestaware pitchers, the black rotary dial phone, and the box camera stir up the kind of sweet childhood memories I like to carry around with me the older I get. Whatever the reason, I’m toying with the idea of purchasing a lifetime supply of these new Forever stamps.
The stamps also got me thinking about a new Forever Stamp idea. I settled upon a collection of household innovations developed during the lifetime of Baby Boomers. The featured items in that category will be near and dear to anyone – male or female – born since 1950 (give or take a few years) who’s in charge of making a house run smoothly. Here are the innovations on my top ten list.
Top Ten Household Innovations
10. Automatic car lock fobs – While these are not actually in the house, anyone who has
tried to use a key to lock a car while carrying groceries knows it belongs on the list.
9. Liquid hand soap for the home – How come it took so long for this one to move from
schools, rest stops, and gas station bathrooms to the home?
8. Baby carrots – No explanation needed on this one.
7. Stackable washer and dryer – Again, why did this take so long?
6. Reusable grocery bags – I know, Europeans have been using these for decades, but
the bags took a long time to get across the pond. If the Beatles had used them on
the Ed Sullivan show in the early 1960s, plastic grocery bags might never have been
invented.
5. Pampered Chef nut chopper – No explanation needed on this one, either.
4. Pampered Chef and/or Tupperware can openers – I’m not endorsing Pampered Chef,
but these can openers have prevented cuts from the jagged metal piece left by
traditional can openers, they make the list.
3. Self-stick stamps – No, I didn’t add this one to ingratiate myself with the Post Office
come stamp selection time. But, eery time I plop a self-stick stamp on an envelope, I
remember the horrid taste of the gummed stamps that required a quick lick to stick
and offer a prayer of thanks.
2. Post-It Notes – Love ’em.
And now, for the top household innovation since 1960…..
1. DOUBLE ROLL TOILET PAPER – Need I say more?
That’s my top ten list. But, let’s go for the top twenty. Leave a comment to add your favorite household innovation since 1960.
This is gonna be fun!
by jphilo | Jan 10, 2012 | Daily Life
I’m a woman on a mission. Every free Saturday this fall and winter – which only amounts to about three, maybe four – have been and will continue to be dedicated to decluttering.
My motivation?
The possibility of a move in the next two or three years. Possibility is the key word here. Nothing is for sure. But if we do move, the prospect of packing everything we’ve squirreled away since we moved into this house in June of 1991 has me scared spitless. So I’m on a mission to sort, stow, or throw the contents of every closet, dresser, and cupboard we have.
And we have plenty.
In November and December, I attacked the coat closet, the broom closet, our bedroom closet, my dresser and night stand, and the closets and dressers in both the kids’ old bedrooms. (Those weren’t a really big job because the kids had already hauled away much of their stuff.) Needless to say, the garbage men, the staff at Good Will, and I are tight friends these days.
Real tight.
This weekend, we got a whole lot tighter. It started innocently enough when I decided to sort through and get rid of extra Christmas ornaments before taking down decorations. Since Hiram had all the Christmas bins and boxes out of the attic, I decided this was also a good time to go through what was left of the Allen memorabilia (hauled out of the attic a couple weeks ago) he and his wife sorted through while they were here over New Year’s. Once that was done, I was overcome by the urge to purge our dark, musty attic of the dozens of cardboard boxes and packing pillows stored there…in case they were ever needed. That urge resulted in a heap of boxes destined for the recycling bin, and several other small boxes just the right size for packing and hauling away Hiram’s old nursing books stored in the upstairs hall bookcase.
With Hiram’s permission, of course.
By the end of the afternoon, the Christmas decorations were neatly stowed on the attic shelves – with room to spare. The upstairs hall bookcase had two empty shelves. Good Will was the grateful recipient of five cartons (maybe more) of really good stuff. Our garbage cans were overflowing. The recycling bin was stacked with card board boxes broken down and scrunched together.
Life was good.
Until I unpacked the forgotten cooler which my brother had put in the trunk of the car last Tuesday. It contained several dishes I’d forgotten there after New Year’s, my pie carriers, and about a ream of paper towels wrapped around…more clutter. Two figurines Mom bought at a Home Interiors party in the late 70s or early 80s.
Grrrr.
The figurines are sitting on the dining room table awaiting execution. They’ll be buried alive in a box destined for the Good Will, wrapped in Hiram’s long underwear, since the elastic in the waistband is shot. If there’s a box to pack them in.
Ahh, the dark side of decluttering rears its ugly head.
by jphilo | Jan 3, 2012 | Daily Life, Uncategorized
Sigh.
The kids left Monday morning, and ever since the house has been quiet. Too quiet in my opinion, even with the washer, the dryer, the dishwasher and the radio going. Nobody wanted the celebration to end, and the good-byes were hard. To keep the good times in mind a little longer, I’m rolling out the top ten events from our holiday weekend.
10. My blow dryer died. You may consider this a wacky top ten entry unless you’re privy
to this important fact. The blow dryer was over 30 years old. Used almost every day.
If word of its longevity gets out, the blow dryer industry could pay big bucks for the
relic. They’ll want to study it to learn how not to construct future blow dryers since
they prefer small appliances to wear out the day after the one year warranty expires.
9. The Google Analytics program installed as part of this website’s facelift is working.
No big deal to computer geeks, but this aging non-techie goes to sleep dreaming of
conquering the internet one successfully installed program at a time.
8. I won 2 (or possibly 3) of the half-dozen Carcassonne games I played. Granted, the
wins were due more to lucky draws than well-thought out strategy. But it’s nice to
know a strategy game can be won by someone more at home in Candyland than in
medieval France.
7. The most hotly contested item in our extended family’s white elephant gift exchange
was the Romance Novel Magnetic Poetry Kit. The copy on the package described it
as “a box full of bodice-ripping word magnets.” And as their final winner, all I can say
is boy howdy, are they ever! Should the fact that they were my son and new
daughter’s contribution to the game disturb me?
6. Integrating word magnets from the Romance Novel Magnet Poetry Kit into its
owner’s turns while playing Carcassonne makes for a very interesting game. Don’t
ask me how I know this.
5. The winner of the New Year’s drawing at www.DifferentDream.com (for a copy of
Different Dream Parenting) was a mom who stumbled onto the site looking for a
devotional book for parents of kids with special needs. How cool is that?
4. We met my brother’s new vizsla pup, Maisie, during our extended family Christmas
on Saturday. His beloved dog Maggie was recently diagnosed with cancer, and he
will be saying good-bye to her in the next few months.
3. The digital picture frame was a hit with Mom. She spent all afternoon on Saturday
watching the pictures go by.
2. Sunday was a blast: cooking with the kids, watching the pilot of Parenthood
together, playing games, opening presents, walking, and talking. (Watch for
recipes from our holiday week in future posts!)
1. Our Christmas Eve service was a time to reflect upon how deeply God loves his
children. These good times with family are just a foretaste of the eternity made
possible through the gift of God’s Son, Jesus.
What were your top family events this holiday season? Leave a comment to share a few!
by jphilo | Dec 30, 2011 | Daily Life
Apparently, I didn’t think getting ready for Christmas, scheduling a blog tour for Different Dream Parenting, doing a half-dozen author radio interviews, and helping the kids move to Wisconsin was enough to keep me busy this month. Otherwise, why would I schedule two major facelifts in December.
No, no, not cosmetic surgery.
A refinishing project.
And revamping this website.
The kind of facelifts I was sure would be quick and painless.
Hah!
My husband thought refinishing Mom’s old red and white stool was craziness. “Don’t ask me to help you with it,” was his response when I dragged it onto the porch. But when all by myself, I found someone who would sandblast and prime it for $20 bucks, he relented. Pretty soon, he was removing screws and demonstrating the finer points of spray painting and sanding. Near the end of the project which took much longer than I expected, when it was evident the stool was going to be bright and cheerful in it’s new life as a plant stand, he even said, “It’s kind of fun doing a project like this together.”
No, no, revamping this website was not very fun.
Even with the nicest tech guy in the world doing the tricky stuff.
Even though I hoped he could take care of the WordPress part while I ate bon bons.
But instead I needed to learn to do it, following “simple website tutorials.”
Hah!
On the back end of the revamp, my personal opinion is that the words “simple” and “website” should never appear next to each other in a sentence. Or in the same sentence. Or paragraph. Or tutorial. Also, one of those two words should be banned from the internet.
Even though I’m still working through some emotional issues related to revamping, the website is up and running. It may take a month or so to work out some snafus. For example, to have daily posts delivered to your website, you’ll need to sign up for the RSS feed on the home page (near the top, on the right) as the old feed and the old site no longer exist. And you’ll need to get used to typing the new, short and simple address – jolenephilo.com – in your URL bar. Hopefully, the revamped site will be so much easier to load, read, navigate, search, and make comments that you won’t mind those minor, one time inconveniences.
No, no, this is not a sales pitch.
You pay no money, and you comments are appreciated.
I’ll even reply to them, which often was prevented on the old site due to tech glitches.
And because of my tendency to overschedule, which won’t happen in January.
Hah!
by jphilo | Dec 27, 2011 | Daily Life
Ever since discovering my 2012 DayRunner Day-at-a-Glance refill pack was defective I’ve been paranoid about the ides of January. The paranoia didn’t set in when I first discovered the pages for January 6 through 22 were missing, but duplicates for the 23rd through the 31st had been included. My only thought was to call customer service and ask for a replacement.
Which I did.
But when the replacement arrived on Christmas Eve, it was the wrong thing. But that didn’t make me paranoid. My only thought was to call customer service on the day after Christmas, explain the error, and ask for a replacement part.
Which I did.
But after explaining about the original defective pages, and the original call to customer service, and the wrong replacement part to the service rep named David, he said, “Um, I’ll need to put you on hold and talk to my manager. Be back in a sec.” Five minutes later, he hadn’t returned. Feeling slightly paranoid, I decided to hang up and call again.
Which I did.
This time, a very together woman named Lisa answered the phone and listened to the story about the defective pages, the original call to customer service, the wrong replacement part, and my stint in telephone purgatory. Immediately, she apologized and said, “Unfortunately, you’ve called the wrong department. Customer service doesn’t handle defective products. Customer affairs does. Unfortunately that department, which is located in Ohio, not in New York where I am (or was it the other way around?) isn’t in the office today. I’ll give you their number, so you can call them tomorrow.”
Which I did today.
Which was tomorrow yesterday.
The day I started feeling paranoid.
After introducing myself to the nice lady at consumer affairs (I can’t remember her name) and explaining the growing saga, she typed my name into her computer. “Your name isn’t in our records,” she said. Which made me feel even more paranoid. “You need to talk to customer service. I’ll transfer you to.”
Which she did.
By this time, I wondered if something so terrible was in the works for the ides of January. Maybe the DayRunner people were purposefully skipping January 6 – 22, 2019. Still, I kept the voice quaver to a minumum when introducing myself to the nice lady at consumer services and reiterating the tale with the addition of today’s chapter. At the end, a familiar voice immediately said “I’m so sorry.” It was Lisa. She still couldn’t solve my problem, but she coached me in the finer points of handling the consumer affairs folks in Ohio (or New York), and then said, “Now I’ll transfer you back to them.”
Which she did.
I was still paranoid about the ides of January, but when a familiar voice said, “Customer affairs, this is _____________________ (still can’t remember her name),” I followed Lisa’s instructions while talking to the woman in either Ohio or New York. She remembered me from my earlier call this morning. “So, they couldn’t help you in customer service?” she asked. “What’s the item number for what needs to be replace? I’ll get it right out to you.”
Which hopefully she did.
But until the new replacement for my 2012 DayRunner Day-at-a-Glance refill pack arrives, I’m planning to remain paranoid about the ides of January, customer service, customer affairs, telephone purgatory, and calendars in general.
Which I am.
by jphilo | Dec 16, 2011 | Daily Life
This gray December day,
darkness bears down
like a weight upon my soul.
Morning comes too late,
evening comes too soon,
and what light that comes is weak and faltering.
My shoulders bend beneath the burden of darkness,
my legs barely climb the stairs,
my gaze looks downward until a flash of color catches the corner of my eye.
There, in the south window,
a geranium is blooming,
its bright, pink face lifted to the light.
The petals rest on the windowsill,
separated from the cold by two thin panes of glass
and a cushion of air.
Not much protection for a plant,
not much daylight for a blossom,
not much hope for my weary soul.
Yet this splash of color is enough
to lift the weight from my shoulders
and make me smile in anticipation of light to come.
