Volunteer Activities

In a previous post I referred to my volunteering activities, but gave no details. For those who asked about it, I will try to explain. When I worked as a social worker with seniors over 60, I , together with other service providers, noticed that there were many needs of seniors in our county that were not being met. Among them were transportation to medical appointments and to buy groceries. People needed just a friendly visitor, light housekeeping or small repairs to their home. Together we formed a committee, did a lot of brain storming and research. We learned of a national organization that financially helped start such organizations. So we started this not for profit project. In short, we now have about 200 volunteers who give about 10,000 hours of assistance to about 200 people over 60 years of age. The organization recruits and trains the volunteers, sends the request to them when we receive it. I have been on the Board of Directors for 6 of the 7 years.

Our challenge now it to find a fund raising plan that will keep it viable and how to get the word out into the community that this service exists. There are many charitable organizations in the community and it seems with the declining economy (i.e. loss of jobs) it is a challenge. We started out with service type people on the board (social workers, pastors, nurses) but now have added several business people. So we have a talented and committed group to address this program.

Right now we are trying to put together numbers to show what we really get for each dollar. That seemed to be the best first step in even asking people for money. The whole thing has been a great education for me since I had never been involved in such a project before. So that is the overview. I probably will refer to this again, since it still is a part of my life.

Two success and one pending

It seems that DH has found the cause of the hot water heater not working. A rubber or plastic cap was cracked allowing the electricity to arc through. I am impressed that he found the problem.

I have had several root canal treatments in my life, and had another one Thursday. The interesting thing was that I had no symptoms, i.e. pain, but it just showed on the x-ray that the tooth was dead. This one is not responding as great as the others did. I now have the throbbing pain, but am trying to be patient while it heals, realizing that I still have the tooth, which was the whole purpose of the procedure.

Last night we had guests for dinner. DH met the man in his dirt bike riding group. I had not met him nor his wife. It turned out she and I had plenty to talk about since she had given a wedding reception for her daughter at their home. She had 250 people at a buffet dinner. They had rented three tents and decorated the barn. The reception I am planning will not be that formal.

The entree was a double pork chop stuffed with brown rice, mushrooms, celery and onion. This was a keeper. If anyone wants the recipe, I will email it to you. The cherry pie for dessert was also a hit.

Mr. Fix Everything

Those of you who have spouses or significant others who do not think they can fix anything in the world may want to count your blessings. Actually it is good and bad. Case in point: we have two hot water heaters in our house. I am not sure why, but the explanation was that one was just for the whirl pool tub in the master bed room and for the laundry room. The one that covers the rest of the house has been not working properly. So DH, with me by his side, spent all day Saturday and Sunday and now several evenings "fixing" it. We first drained each one and replaced a couple tubes that go in from the top. Then he worked on the problem that appears to be in the electronics. He drew out all the electronic schematics and done a lot of testing of the circuit. In the mean time I have to go down in the basement and hook two wires together every time I want the hot water heater to go on and then take them apart when the water is hot. But the good part so far is that it has not cost us any money. :) He looks at it as an education on how things work. We do still have hot water so I am grateful for that. And I have a DH who definitely makes life interesting.

Report on project

I have finished the desk, which included filing and paying bills. I quickly took a picture, because it just does not look like that for long. I seem to always have an unfinished project on top of the desk.

Next, came the alcove or dormer area. I sorted through the boxes, editing a lot of stuff. There were some things I chose to keep, but the boxes are in the closet and labeled. These are the before and after pictures of that area.















My initial goal was to also sort through both 4 drawer filing cabinets. I haven't decided whether to call this a success if I do not get that done. Yes, I will call it a success.

As those of you who have seen the shop know, G is really good a finding free stuff that he will someday use. I will say that he does use some of it, but not all. But it is stored there just in case. We have been looking at a couple sets of bunk beds for the Summer guests. But guess what! The company he works for makes mattresses for hospitals, along with other home health equipment. They had some that they had tested and now were putting then in the dumpster. (Can you see where this is going?) Yesterday I hooked up the trailer and met him after work. We are now the proud owners of 16 single size mattresses. Some have springs inside and some are a very firm foam. He plans to build a couple sets of beds for these mattresses. Tonight we plan to sleep on them (only 2) and then decide which ones to use. He really does love projects like this, when he can build something and save the money. One set will go in the alcove in my room.

Thursday's report on office project

I am on my third day of the office project. I did not think to take a before picture of the book shelf, but here is the after picture. I am donating nearly 20 books to the library. The ones I am keeping I truly love or need for the information. The book shelves were Day 1. I would like to add a couple fun items to the shelves, but that is for another time.

Day 2 was to clean off the desk, which included going through mail, filing and such. No picture of that.

Now I am on Day 3. I have had 14 boxes in the window alcove since we moved. I am looking at each item in each box. This has become an emotional process for me. One box held old letters. I found one my father wrote to a man in Germany after WWII. My father was was trying to sponsor the man to come to the US. It did not materialize, but showed what a caring person he was. Another letter was one I wrote to my father when I was in college to encourage him when my brother was dying. It was 40 years ago, but I still shed tears when I read it.

I am now on 3 of 14 boxes, so it is back to work.

Office Project

My last blog was on Thursday and it is now Tuesday. The reason I have not written was that we had dear K (granddaughter) staying with us those days. She does a great job of entertaining herself, but it still is quite consuming of my time. To those of you reading who have small children, I have a new appreciation of how your lives are. I am so grateful that we live close enough that we can be involved in her life.

With the help of DH, I have rearranged the furniture in my office. I had a tiny desk, that just was not working and he had a large one in his "office" that was just being used to store things on. We moved the large one into my office, moved two large book shelves (which of course meant taking all the books off). And there is enough space left for bunk beds. With the upcoming reunion and wedding reception at our house we need beds in every room upstairs. So I am trying to plan ahead. It is causing me to get things done that I have neglected to do until now.

Back to the topic of rearranging my office. I plan to take enough time to actually look at what I have and edit down. My goal is this: By next Tuesday morning (seven days from now) I will have edited everything on the bookshelves, there will be no boxes left over from the move on the floor, and I will have sorted through everything in the closet. There - I put it in writing. I am hoping that will help me be accountable and just do it.

Dinner guests

Last night we had a couple over for dinner who are members of our motorcycle club. As is the case with most of the clubs we are in, we are an hour away from other members, so it takes planning. (Guess that is expected when you "live in the sticks"). I made salad, lasagna, and green beans. I have tons of frozen beans, having purchased a peck at the local Amish auction in the summer. The challenge has been to find a recipe to make then interesting. Now I sauté garlic cloves in butter, then mash them in the butter and pour over the beans with herbs.

Since we did not know the couple well, I asked if there was any food they could not eat, but neglected to ask about drinks. So I opened a really good bottle of Merlot, only to find out I was the only one drinking wine. Poor me! For those of you into proper entertaining, is there a protocol for that situation. I enjoyed my wine and just removed their glasses. For desert, we had my signature peach pie. Yum.

G and I received Mexican domino game for Christmas. So we played that. It is an easy game to play and you can then get to know people by the chatting that goes on.

The Unmentionables

When G and I were looking for a house, which took many years, one of our children finally asked us to not talk about it until we signed on the "dotted line". I believe she was tired of hearing of each and every property we were looking at. That was an understandable request since it went on forever. For those of you who don't understand what was going on I will explain. We moved to Ohio 22 years ago and rented property. Once the children where in High School, we did not want to have them change schools so looked at houses in the school district. We did not find any that worked for 8 years. After they left for college we expanded the area we looked at.

But we found our requirements constrained us. Initially we wanted it within a good driving distance from G's work and my work. We wanted a relatively new house and then the biggie: either space for a shop or one already built. We found shops with lousy houses, or nice houses with no room for a shop. G also did not want it within a couple miles of a RR track as he did not like to hear the trains. We did make offers on a few, but they did not materialize. Finally we bought 5 acres of land and drew up plans for a house. This took a year, and then the employment situation in the area became terrible with layoffs, with included G's employer. We felt we could not invest in a new house, with the risk of a layoff for G and the dim prospect of selling it. During this time, we occasionally looked at house that were being sold at sheriff's auction. We found this one, which met our requirements. All except G has to drive about 50 minutes to work and is within one half mile of a RR track. It seems to be a good financial decision and we were able to sell our 5 acres in a year.

This same process seems to be going on with purchasing a car. We have two that are in constant need of repairs. So we are looking for a newer one. I am guessing the request again would be to not talk about it until we are ready to purchase it. So all I will say is that we are actively looking and will let you know when it happens.