Unique Aspects of Days – May 2022

The majority of unique aspects of May involved our move….but I also treasured the ones that could have happened independently.

Paper or bubble wrap. After a few days of packing, I discovered I like paper better than bubble wrap most of the time. I thought when I starting packing that I would use both --- whatever I had --- and was surprised that the paper ‘won.’ As an added bonus – I bought paper made from recycled materials and it can also be recycled after our move!

Finding the top to my cake container. I had lost it several years ago and thought maybe it had somehow been discarded….but I found it again as I unloaded the old China cabinet. I’d already packed the other part so I’ll endeavor to get then back together in my new kitchen.

Last macro series of the Maryland yard. As I walked around with my macro lens…I realized that next month I’ll be doing it in a whole new place!

Selecting a real estate agent/starting the process to sell our house. While not totally unique since we have sold 3 houses previous…it was the first time in almost 28 years!

Arranging for our house to be re-carpeted. It is the first time we’ve ever replaced all the carpeting in a house.

1st box packed from the garage. I was surprised at how much of the garage fit into just a few boxes.

Getting the karate kick bag out of the basement. It was quite an effort with sand in the base…much easier to move once the sand was out.

Finding an iris that was getting ready to bloom in the chaos garden. Usually I forget they are there and the garden is not in my normal line of sight.

Male goldfinch at the feeder. I haven’t been watching the feeder as closely since we started preparing to move…so I was thrilled to glance out at the perfect time to see the bright yellow bird. I’ve seen them occasionally in previous years but this is probably my only sighting for this year.

Broken molar. It was my first broken tooth since my dentist has generally anticipated problems. I discovered when I went to the dentist that it was actually a large filling that had cracked. The solution was the same….the molar got a crown!

House Maintenance

My husband has taken the lead in getting our existing house ready to go on the market. We are enjoying a new refrigerator as a result because the old one’s ice maker was expensive/time consuming (a special order) to replace. We bought another black, side-by-side. It is the same size on the outside, but the inside seems to have more room and there is no ‘handle’ that sticks out from the door so the area in front of the refrigerator seems larger. I like it….and I hope a new owner will as well.

He also did a radon test; the sump pump (that wasn’t working) replaced by a plumber when the result was a little high. Now he has done another test. If it isn’t low enough, he’ll have a specialist in radon remediation decide the best approach.

We are getting rid of our lawn mower before we leave so he has already hired a yard mowing service to mow the yard every 2 weeks. Right now he is leaving it to me to clean out the flower beds and we’ll put down mulch in some of them.

Last weekend we started the process to get the house recarpeted shortly after our belongs are out of the house.

Since we already did one round of interior and exterior painting touch up back in March – we are hoping that we won’t have more to do after the furniture is gone.

Hopefully we have identified the most significant maintenance items…we’re primed to contact a realtor!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 14, 2018

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Solar Power Works in Many Places You Might Not Expect | CleanTechnica – Solar power is not just for sunny, hot areas! Sometimes assumptions we make early on about a technology are hard to overcome.

The secret world of babies – Techniques for improving our understanding of how baby’s develop their sense of the world…and some cute baby pictures.

How 'Bad Medicine' Dismisses and Misdiagnoses Women's Symptoms – Gender bias in medicine

Wild Birds of the Night – National Geographic -  Lot’s of owls in this group

Business Lessons from A Radical Industrialist (#CleanTechnica Occasional #Bookclub) | CleanTechnica – Ray Anderson’s carpet company set a goal back in the 1990s to have no net impact of the environment. They are on track to achieve that by 2020! As I looked at the summary in this blog post and took a look at the company website, I found myself wishing they made residential carpeting…not just industrial carpeting.

Sunset Crater Volcano and Capulin Volcano – I always enjoying seeing articles about places I’ve visited. I’ve been to Sunset Crater more recently (back in February 2015). Capulin Volcano was the first interesting stop along our route from the Dallas area (where we lived 35 years ago) and Colorado!

An Alternative to Burial and Cremation for Corpse Disposal | WIRED – Maybe there should be other options to cremation and burial….the ‘greener’ the better.

Six Ways to Help Bees and Beesponsible : The National Wildlife Federation -  Good ideas to add to your spring gardening.

How a Black Bear Wakes Up from a Long Winter’s Nap – Cool Green Science – Tis the season!

Pulling valuable metals from e-waste makes financial sense -- ScienceDaily – I hope it gets easier to get e-waste into a place that the value metals are extracted. In our community, it does not go in the regular recycle stream…it either is taken back to the store (traded in) or to a central collection point. We have a group of it now to load up and take.