Monthly Archives: January 2010

Now THAT was a cold

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I’m just rejoining the land of the living after checking out for awhile due to a nasty cold.

I’ve never missed 3 days of work before due to a cold!

I felt it coming on hard and fast last Tuesday.  I had the feeling of razor blades in my throat, pressure in my face, runny nose, headache, mush brain and it went down hill from there.  Unfortunately the symptoms were all miserable and none of them let me peacefully sleep so I was a zombie for most of the last week.

Mom said she’s been sick too. But she is several provinces away, so I swear it wasn’t me who spread the germs!

Hello highspeed wireless Internet!!

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The Seaside Communications installers were just here to install our wireless internet.

Buh bye Xplornet Satellite Internet!  Now we’ll have faster high speed for half the cost ($54 instead of $107 a month).

Here is the antenna:

Highspeed Wireless

Highspeed Wireless

Highspeed Wireless

Highspeed Wireless

And here is my latest speedtest result.  I should have done one before, but with the latency of satellite internet, it was no where near that.

My indoor garden

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Jeff gave me an indoor light garden for my birthday!

I love growing plants.  We tried out a vegetable garden this past summer, but the vegetables weren’t ready for harvest until the frost was setting in so this year we are going to try to grow some starter seedlings for outdoor planting to get a head start.

But I just couldn’t let an indoor light garden collect dust through the winter!

On December 30th I found some herb seeds I had left from an unsuccessful herb garden attempt.  So I planted the remaining coriander, basil, and oregano.  The grow lights are on a chain so they can be lifted or lowered and I set up a timer to control the light period.

We set up the garden in a corner of the basement near the wood stove.  Jeff put a peg board on the wall for me so I can hang up my gardening tools :D

Here it is:

My Indoor Light Garden

After Christmas we finally lucked out finding seeds at the garden co-op store.   I did a bit of research to figure out what we could grow inside, so we selected tiny tim’s (cherry tomatoes), parsley, chives, and a lettuce mix.

The lettuce mix was sprouting within 48 hours!

My Indoor Light Garden

In this one (shown above), the first row from the left is tiny tims, then a vertical row of chives, then parlsey. The 3 rows on the right were the herbs planted a few weeks ago – oregano, then basil, and on the far right, coriander.  (:oops: confession: I have no idea what coriander is.)

My Indoor Light Garden

Here is the lettuce mix.  I planted an entire tray.

My Indoor Light Garden

My Indoor Light Garden

My Indoor Light Garden

I learned that the oregano is very sensitive to watering.  I killed off almost every oregano sprout in the back two cells from overwatering I think. They turned brown and rotted away.

The coriander is the tallest and has started to fall over.  I don’t know if it is growing too fast, or if that means I need to light the lights up, if they already need to be transplanted, or if coriander usually falls over.  I will have to Google :)

Hoarders

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I’m fascinated by the show ‘Hoarders’.

If you haven’t seen this show, it is an hour long look into the miserable life of a hoarder.

It seems there are 3 types of hoarders.

  • Those that can throw nothing out and life in a house full of garbage.
  • Those that have a shopping addiction and have a house full of things they’ve never used or worn.
  • Those that pick up garbage and bring it home, thinking they can ‘recycle’ it or fix it up,

And sometimes the people featured are all of the above.

These people are very very mentally ill by their hoarding.  They don’t see their clutter, can’t smell it, and don’t acknowledge that their hoarding is a problem.

The show features a therapist and a clean-up crew.  They are called to help when the hoarder is faced with an ultimatum.  So far I’ve seen hoarders who have had their children taken away, a couple hoarders who were facing eviction, one that was facing a divorce, and another who’s house was about to be condemned.

Tonight we just watched a husband and wife who had their children taken away and put in the custody of their grandparents.  The wife was the hoarder.  Every room was stuffed with trash and clutter.  Some of it was waist high or higher.  The entire kitchen was full and every surface covered.  There were barely paths through the trash.  There was dirt, mold, and mice feces everywhere.  The woman was unable to throw away anything.

These therapists have found that they achieve the best results when the hoarder acknowledges their hoarding, and makes the decision to start throwing their stuff out.  If they simply come in and remove all the junk and clean it up for the hoarder, the hoarder will focus on the resentment and the loss of their stuff and will feel victimized.

This woman on tonight’s episode wanted her children back, but could not throw out anything.  She was up in a dump truck that was waiting to be filled with her stuff, her house was full, her yard was full, and her driveway was full, but she jumped into that truck and took out a 7-11 plastic slurpie cup because she didn’t want to part with it.

Because she was faced with a tight deadline and wanted her children back, the therapist and clean-up crew simply removed the garbage and put everything else in a storage facility for the woman to sort through later.  A cleaning crew cleaned the house.

At the end of the show the update on the screen said the authorities were not convinced she had addressed her hoarding and did not return the children.  Six months later the couple filed for divorce, she moved out, and the father regained custody of the son.

This show fascinates me, and drives me to clean :D

I’m sure there is a little hoarding instinct in me.  I’m a pack rat. But over the last few years, after moving a few times, and now having a nice house I want to keep clean, I am getting really good at having pitching sessions.  I don’t want my house overrun with stuff.  I crave cleanliness.

I wonder how these people started hoarding.  Were they born like that?  Did they have a tramatic event?  A period of depression?

How do they think it is okay to live in a garbage dump? Some of the houses are full of feces. One didn’t have a working toilet.  In that one the clean up crew found the flattened carcasses of 2 cats under the trash.

Most of the houses featured on the show are cleaned out with shovels.

Yes. Shovels.

Hoarders is on A&E. You can watch full episodes at http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/

It’s a new year… time for a new look

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I’ve updated the “skin” again to give the blog a new look.

I’ve taken off two items that made the page load really slow – the radar and my book shelf.  If you actually used either, let me know and I’ll add them as a link.

I’ve added the latest picture saved by my webcam to the sidebar.  You can click on that image for a larger view, along with our current weather forecast.  The webcam is sitting in my office window and looks out towards our driveway and front lawn.

I upgraded the software running the blog too and for once.. it went smoothly!

Check out this forecast!!

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Tonight
Cloudy. 30 percent chance of flurries early this evening. Wind becoming northeast 20 km/h overnight. Temperature steady near minus 4.

Saturday
Cloudy. Snow at times heavy beginning late in the morning. Risk of freezing rain late in the day. Snowfall amount 5 cm. Blowing snow in the afternoon. Wind northeast 20 km/h increasing to 40 gusting to 60 in the afternoon. High plus 1.

Saturday night
Snow at times heavy changing to periods of rain near midnight. Snowfall amount 10 cm. Rainfall amount 10 to 20 mm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 60 becoming east 60 gusting to 100 late in the evening. Temperature rising to plus 4 by morning.

Did you see that gusting to 100km/hr part??

I had a massive head/face/sinus ache today from the weather change. Winds are supposed to be 160km/hr up in the highlands in Cape Breton and a storm surge is predicted for Guysborough county’s coast line (where Jeff works).