Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 56

Drowning in Chaos

My office has more trouble than just a messy computer desktop screen. My entire space is in chaos! I hate when things get like this, but it happens a lot.

For one thing, my office is the dumping ground when we need things out of the way because someone is coming over.

The other reason is that there isn't enough space. I need more flat writing surface, but my desktop is covered with computer monitors, a docking station, a small scanner, a machine to cut my stickers, and Post-it Notes, etc.

I find it extremely hard to concentrate when my office gets like this. Some of it is just a matter of taking time to put stuff away, but some of it is because there is nowhere to put things. I do have an empty shelf above my desk, but it's so high that I can't reach it. My other shelves are all full. My filing cabinet? Loaded! Although I will admit that most of that is yarn for knitting projects I'd like to work on at some point and not actual office stuff.

So my plan is to take almost everything out of my office and put it in the dining room. Then I will clean the office--vacuum, dust, etc--and before anything goes back in the room, I will review whether or not I need it and still want it. I moved in this house 2.5 years ago and I still have a moving box in my office that's never been unpacked! Do I really need what's in there?

I hope I actually do this. It's a lot of work, I have a lot of writing to do, and the organization is not fun. I'm all about not boring myself.

Desktop Dumping Ground

I have a bad habit when it comes to my computer files. If it's something that I'm not sure where to file it or if it's something I think I'll look at again relatively soon, I'll save it to my desktop.

(The image to the left is an Apple iMac. The laptop I'm blogging about is a Windows computer. I just liked the color of the picture.)

The reason dumping the files to the desktop is a problem for me is 1) my files are only being backed up in one location instead of two. I have Dropbox and Carbonite. If I save to Dropbox, those files are also backed up by Carbonite. If I save to the desktop, it's only Carbonite. While I'm sure one backup copy offsite is more than enough, I'd rather err on the side of caution and have multiple backups going on. Yes, I really am that obsessive.

Issue 2 was that the desktop had become cluttered with row after row of icons. That totally defeated the purpose of saving things here to begin with since I couldn't pick them out quickly or easily anyway.

I started to go through some of the files and folders. Knitting patterns for projects I'd finished and projects I'd started, but wasn't currently working on. A folder full of stuff for my dad and a folder for me...and most of the items could go in other folders. Menu plan worksheets, my folder full of helpful writer information (like when to use lie vs lay) and recipes. It was a mess!

It took about half an hour, maybe less, but I sorted everything where it should go. The things I still wanted on my desktop, well, I created shortcuts to them, but there weren't many. The vast, vast majority of files and folders didn't need to be there.

I'm going to try to remember to take three extra seconds and file my items appropriately. Also, someday, I need to clean out my computer files. Sigh.
The struggle continues.

Work From Home Evolution

Before COVID, I worked from home on most Wednesdays. This really worked well because I was able to take my father to doctor appointments and then work late to makeup time without having to battle traffic.

Occasionally, though, there would be Wednesdays without doctor appointments and I would work in my pajamas until lunch time, then take a shower and get dressed. I called them pajama days, and while they were few and far between, they were glorious.

When the pandemic struck and we were all told to work from home, I started out with every day being a pajama day. A funny thing happened, though, as the weeks rolled by: I started to shower and get dressed before I started to work.

Not dressed as in presentable to leave the house. Dressed in workout clothing. No makeup, nothing done with my hair--just washed and let to air dry--and slippers. This is my new favorite way to work.

Now at lunch time, I put on my tennis shoes, walk for however long I have scheduled in my planner (usually half an hour), and when I'm done, I put my slippers back on and go back to work. I love wearing slippers. I don't know how I'll handle having to wear real shoes all day after this.

A few guys in my department are eager to get back to the office, but while I miss my coworkers, I don't share this desire. The most important reason is COVID. My father lives with me, and because of his age, he's in the high risk category. I want him safe!

That's the biggest and most important reason, but I also like sleeping longer and having my commute be from one side of the house to the other. And slippers. Maybe I'll have to keep my slippers in my desk at work and put them on when I get there.

Calendar Boo Boo

[image error] I have a system for keeping track of story time while I'm writing. It's tried and true. I print out calendar pages and mark them up as I write, recording chapter and scene on the day/date that it takes place.

But with Wicked Intention I tried something new. I had an iPad with the Apple pencil and an app where I could import PDFs and make notes. This seemed much more efficient and neater than paper.

It started out okay. I would record the information when I finished writing for the day. Only this didn't last.

I don't have my iPad in my office when I'm working, so there was no way to record a scene while I was writing. I had to rely on my memory later. I'd frequently forget all about taking the time to open the app and make my calendar notes. When I did think of it, my iPad was usually not around and I'd forget again by the time I saw it.

And this happened often enough that the backlog became too great. I couldn't remember what chapter happened when. I'd have to read through the entire manuscript and record everything as I went and I didn't have time to do it, not when I was so close to the end.

I decided to finish writing the first draft and catch up later. Well, it's time to pay the piper. Gah! This time, though, I printed out the calendar pages and will record on hard copy.

Special Occasions Only

When I was growing up, my mom would save nice things for special occasions. If she got expensive perfume as a gift, she'd save it. If she got a nice piece of clothing, she'd save it. If she got new slippers, she'd keep wearing her old ones and save the new ones for a special occasion.

The thing was that there was never an occasion special enough for the item she was saving, and after she passed away, my dad and I donated a lot of nice stuff that she never used.

I did the same thing myself. I'll save that and make sure it stays nice, I'd tell myself. Now, I'm trying to break that habit because when I die, I don't want my house to filled with things that I never used because I was saving them for something special.

I've heard a lot of people say similar things and I have advice for you if you're like me and my mom. Wear the nice clothing, jewelry, perfume, slippers. Life is short. Every day is a special occasion.

I Can Make That: The Sewing Edition

I've made about eight or nine masks now. I'm still having all kinds of issues and mistakes are being made regularly, but I'm learning. I've learned enough now that I've reached the I can make that point.

This is not a wise place for me to wander in.

I've blogged before about how expensive I can make that ends up being. And it's already happening now with sewing. I've bought pins, a couple of pin cushions, sewing scissors, elastic, fabric, more empty bobbins, a case to hold my thread, and I ordered additional thread to go along with all the other spools I purchased.

The masks were a necessity, and with nothing available at the time the project got underway, I am not counting that against me. But now I've bought flannel to make pajama pants for this winter. (Surely, I'll be a good enough sewer by then to handle it?) Then I remembered the super cool Japanese knot project bag I have for my knitting and how much money I paid for it and I said, I bet I could make my own!

I now have three or four free PDF patterns downloaded to my "Sewing Patterns" file on my hard drive. :-/

Then I remembered Bluprint. I'm still a member there and surely they have a Japanese knot bag pattern or tutorial or something. They didn't, but they had videos for other bags including a patchwork tote bag. And as I watched, I thought: I can make that!

Now I need interfacing and all the super cool sewing/quilting rulers that the instructor used in her videos. Do you see my problem?

Oh, and I could use some good pinking shears, and a sewing basket, and....

Why didn't I keep my mom's sewing things????

Refrigerator Pain

Forgive the horrible picture. It's one I took when I first had my refrigerator delivered. At that time, I didn't realize how much I would grow to dislike it, but I did.

It started with not having any room in the freezer. Looking at the picture, you'd think there would be plenty of space. There wasn't. I ended up buying an upright freezer to make up for how shockingly little my Samsung holds.

This was never my first choice for a refrigerator. It wasn't even in my top 10, but at the time I was looking and had to buy a fridge, it was the only one on sale.

As I lived with the damn thing, another issue soon made itself known. The ice maker is the worst. The ice continually fuses into a solid block of cubes. Apparently, this is a known Samsung problem if you listen to all the repair guys who've come out to try and fix it. Also if you read reviews or talk to people who own one, you'll hear the same story. The ice maker is a problem.

We had one repairman suggest we take the ice maker out once a month and empty it. Even once a month isn't enough before it fuses solid. This is not fun to deal with.

And then it got worse.

It started leaking water into the refrigerator itself. It would pool in the pantry drawer. It would gather behind the pantry drawer and seep forward, toward the door. Toward my wood floor.

I tried changing the filter and that seemed to work. For two days. Then the leak was back. The serviceman came out and clipped a couple of things and said to let it defrost for two days. As in open the doors wide, including the freezer, and let it thaw out.

Oookay. The freezer wasn't an issue because there was room for everything in the upright freezer I already bought, but what was I supposed to do with everything in the fridge?

The only option I could come up with was to buy a mini fridge. I finally found one that was 4.4 cubic feet and could be delivered without a shipping charge. It arrived last Tuesday and we transferred everything over on Wednesday night. Or everything we could squeeze into the mini fridge. Space was tight and we left things like fruits and vegetables out because there wasn't any room for them.

And every time I walk into my kitchen and see the doors open on the fridge, all I could keep thinking is how much I hadn't liked this model to begin with and how I like it less and less all the time.

Keep your fingers crossed that this works because I don't want to have to pay for another service call if it doesn't.

The Quilting Conundrum

I do not quilt. I have no interest in quilting--it's far too detailed and takes far more time than I have. Heck, until I made face masks a few weeks ago, I hadn't even touched a sewing machine since I was a young teenager.

And yet Facebook thinks I quilt and so does Bluprint (formerly known as Craftsy).

I don't know if it's because I knit and I used to crochet or if something else triggered the algorithms, but I've been getting quilting emails and quilting group suggestions for ages!

And it's only going to get worse.

It's my fault. I heard that fat quarters material is good for face masks and that's what quilters use. Finding material has been hard! Everything I tried to order at Joann's was out of stock. Everything I tried to order at Michael's was out of stock. I found a bunch of fabric companies online, but I'd never heard of any of them before and I wasn't sure I trusted them. I ended up buying fabric from Etsy and eBay, but I didn't get a lot of variety (eBay) or I didn't get a lot of fabric I liked (Etsy).

So when Bluprint reopened their online store with a nice coupon, I went shopping and bought fat quarters cotton fabric to use for face masks. I also got a cutting mat, thread, and some magic clips to make sewing masks a little easier.

You know where this is going to lead, right? And it already has. Last week, on the same day my order arrived, Bluprint sent me an email with a link to May's quilting patterns. Gah!

The patterns were cute. Really. But I don't have the patience to cut and sew little pieces together. In fact, I'd told my dad a couple of weeks earlier that sewing wasn't relaxing for me like knitting was. Sewing stresses me out! But I will now be inundated with quilting emails. I wonder how long it takes for Facebook to kick in again with quilting group suggestions.

Everything Is Out of Stock

I might have talked about how difficult it was to find supplies to make masks in an earlier post--I can't remember--but yes, it's been extremely difficult. I ended up buying some green fabric on eBay which came promptly and then waiting and waiting and waiting for the elastic that I bought to arrive. I'm sure I talked about this.

Anyway, the fabric I bought on eBay was green. I had my dad pick out which one he wanted a mask made from and he wasn't excited about any of them, but finally chose a dark green.

Which he hasn't worn since I finished it.

I'm sure it's the color, so I set out to find something he'd wear. After some searching for in-stock items, I ended up on the Joann Fabrics website. They had elastic! At this point, I was still waiting for my supposedly-in-California-but-obviously-shipping-from-China elastic to arrive and we were using bulky yarn for the masks which presented its own problem.

So on the Joann website, I ordered a couple of fabrics, a couple of different elastics, and I needed a pin cushion, so I threw one of those in my cart, too.

It started at check out. One of the elastics were unavailable. I deleted it from my cart and increased the number I wanted on the other elastic and checked out. Then the emails started to come from the store.

First one: No elastic. All out of stock.
Second One: No fabric for Dad, out of stock
Third One: The second fabric is cancelled. Out of stock.

That left me with the pin cushion. I was concerned that they'd charge me $7.99 shipping for a $2.99 pin cushion, so I tried to go the website and cancel it. I found that orders can not be cancelled. Items can be returned after the fact. Great.

As it turned out, it was okay. Joann's charged me less than a dollar to ship the pin cushion. That was good. And I have a real pin cushion, not one of the mini versions that came in my sewing kits.

I ended up buying a darker fabric on Etsy. It did arrive and it's sitting, waiting for me to sew it up.

Handy Patti

I blogged last week about my coffee maker dying. It was only a little over a year old. While there was no way to fix that, I did tackle another problem.

A few weeks back, during a storm, we lost power for about five minutes. When it came back up, not everything returned to normal. The garage door wouldn't open and the outlets in both downstairs bathrooms also were dead. If we'd looked a little farther, we'd have discovered the outlet in the powder room didn't work either, but only guests use it, so we didn't notice or check.

I immediately went to the circuit breaker box in the garage and reset the breakers for those places. Repeatedly. But the garage door and outlets remained dead. My dad called the electrician, but Georgia had just gone on lockdown and they couldn't come out. Either they weren't essential or our problem didn't qualify as essential--I'm not sure which one it was--but we had to live without a garage door opener.

That was the kicker. The outlets in the bathrooms? We could get by without them, but no garage door opener???

Every time we had to put the trash and recycling out, every time we had to bring the can and box back in, every time I had to go to the grocery store it meant manually lifting the door. Closing it was easy--gravity was on my side--but opening it required muscles. I've only been using two-pound weights since my gym closed! The door weighs more than four pounds. :-)

After about two weeks, I was so tired of this. I decided to search online and see if there was some other way to reset the circuit breakers. What I discovered was that the GFCI outlets had one button on the circuit. (Not to be confused with the circuit breaker. No one told me this!) I had to find the button--and it could be anywhere--and press it.

I found the one for the garage door easily. One down!

Finding the button for the bathrooms proved more challenging. No reset buttons on any outlets in either bathroom. No reset buttons on the kitchen GFCI plugs. I was about to go upstairs and look when I thought of the powder room. There it was! I pressed that button and the bathroom plugs came back to life!

Now if I'd only been as successful fixing the leak inside my refrigerator.