…the arrival of Eamonn Oliver Hawrylyshen.
http://eamonn.polyphase.ca/
Announcement…
Coming soon!
Hold this space…
Coming Soon!
A and I are going through some rather exciting times and I am looking forward to the unveiling that will happen in the next couple of weeks. It is what we have been working on for the past year or so – give or take a few months.
Here is another one of our mysterious updates:
Step 1 – Complete – time to complete – 2 months
Step 2 – Complete – time to complete – 1 month
Step 3 – Complete – time to complete – 8 months
Step 4 - Awaiting with bated breath
Step 5 - Prepared and ongoing – time to get up and running – 3-4 months
“Why Are You Laughing?”
The phone rang this morning and when I got to it, I knew that it wasn’t going to be a friend as the call display showed: 0000000000
I answered it anyway and the Indian accented male voice came on the line and said to me.
“Hello Ma’am, I am calling you about your computer.”
I burst out laughing and said that he should try someone else and hung up.
Within seconds the phone rang again and it was the same M.O.:
00000000000
I answered it again and when he came on the line again, his first question to me was,
“Why are you laughing?”
I replied that I thought it was quite funny that he was calling about my computer.
“Yes, but why are you laughing?”
I replied, “Sweetheart, you know NOTHING about my computer, and never will and therefore this is likely a scam of some sort and that the sad thing is that you will actually ‘get someone’ at some point with it.”
His response to me was,
“I am not a sweetheart.”
I laughed more. Then he hung up on me. 
I’m still laughing. I’m pretty sure that the next call I get will be someone asking me if my fridge is still running. 
Merry Christmas to All!
A and I decided to celebrate Christmas this year. Last year we put the tree up but really didn’t do much else than that. We were just dealing with a couple of life cards and celebrating Christmas felt like just a wee bit too much to add.
But this year… a couple of weeks ago – I felt like it would be nice to have something under the tree for each other. Nothing much – just something. It’s been a long time since we have given each other gifts for any celebration. We didn’t need anything, or even want anything. And given our desire for decluttering we were unwilling to add something that we would need to declutter in the future.
So last night A and I chose something from under the tree to open. And… we got each other the same darn thing!
Since we have been cooking and eating meat more often, we have been feeling the lack of a meat thermometer. So I decided that I was going to get one for the house… and so did A. We chose slightly different models and so after we opened them – we spent the next half hour testing them to see which was the superior tool. I must say that while A’s choice is more scientifically awesome – my choice was adequate in that area but will serve a different purpose… so at this point we haven’t really decided whose gets to stay. For now… both.
This morning we finished opening our gifts and I got a bag to replace my bag that has been falling apart for a couple of years now and A got a sweater and dress shirt (that he knew about, as we were together when they were purchased). We didn’t go all crazy but we felt loved by the other. (sigh…)
And now… off for a walk on the beach we go.
Warm holiday wishes to everyone!
I’m Still Alive!
Yup! A and I are still here. We’ve been taking care of some business that didn’t feel right to share here and so… given that I am not very good at keeping secrets, I’ve been a wee bit delinquent at sharing how things have been for us. I am still not ready to share here what we’ve been up to but I hope that we will have something soon. We are also undertaking another rather large project, amongst other small projects, and as soon as things begin to take shape, I will be sharing everything here. We are pretty excited about everything.
The DeCluttering Project
This has been going very well. A and I have slowly but surely been both selling and giving things away. Craigslist and Freecycle are our friends. I love Freecycle – people actually come and pick up and all you need to do is bag the stuff up and set it out on the step. Lovely. 
I don’t know if we’ve managed to fulfill our commitment of a specific number of items each week but I think that we’ve been close. Here are a few of the things that are now gone or soon to be on their way:
What’s not showing here is the list of stuff that we’ve sold on Craigslist. A has been mostly taking care of that so he has all of the photos. But here is one thing that we’ve recently sold. It’s still in the garage but we have a rather large deposit on it showing the serious intent of the buyer. It should be finalized in the next week or so. I have some sadness, but yet some relief around letting it go. I have been feeling guilty every time I look at it and we all know that we don’t need to keep things around that make us feel guilty.
So, I’ll be back and will not take so long between updates.
When Your Life is Unconventional
When you do things differently from the pack, some people applaud you and some people try to put you back in your place, the place where ‘they’ think that you belong.
Why do people do that?
The best that I can figure is that they are challenged by your lifestyle and when you ‘change the rules’ for your own life it makes them look at their own lives and that is too uncomfortable. So it is easier to demand that you return to your old way of being. They don’t wish to change their thoughts and beliefs; it’s too uncomfortable. Change is uncomfortable.
My mother (a Life Skills Coach) calls this a ‘change-back maneuver’. When you change something, there will be people who ask you to change back. Sometimes it can even be extreme. Like hurting themselves or hurting you. And even the simple words can sting. And they can lash out at the ones that you hold most dear. And they can gossip hurtfully about you to other loved ones or to anyone who will listen.
And it does really hurt. It hurts to be the person to whom it is directed at, it hurts to see it directed at others. It hurts.
I think that this is one of the hardest things to have to go through with friends and family.
But does this mean that you shouldn’t change? Does this mean that you shouldn’t live the unconventional lifestyle that works for you? Does this mean that you should be whoever or whatever it is that they expect of you?
Hell no!
When you are making conscious changes to increase value in your life, why would you stop? When you love your life – where is the ‘wrong’ in that? When you are living your life consciously and not hurting others, what exactly needs to change?
I’ve changed when others have asked me to… both verbally and by their actions. In all honesty, it doesn’t matter how the message comes across, the end result is that I feel resentful of those requests and demands of me. At times, it meant that I needed to step back from the friendship or the family relationship, so that I could see my way clearly again. It is really my responsibility… they really don’t know what they are asking. When I can see my path clearly again, I can step back into those relationships with a firmer resolve and maybe, just maybe, they too can see a different way. But if not, I know to steer away from particular conversations or to share wholeheartedly and be ok with their fear.
I am not particularly religious but this prayer by Jesus kept coming to mind as I wrote this:
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
This prayer was as he was dying and he was still being persecuted for who he was.
But he still did not change.
Our August To-Do(ne) List
We have 6 rental units that I mange remotely from Santa Cruz. We’ve had a few ups and downs but in general this works well for us. But every year for the month of August, I am committed to being in Calgary to do all of the little (and sometimes big) things that need to be done.
We try to do a couple of ‘big’ things to upgrade our units each year. It keeps the units looking good and keeps the tenants happy. We only had one unit turn over this year and all who stayed were happy with what we had gotten done this year. At the end of the month we got our tenants each gift certificates as thanks for their patience throughout the month as we randomly (accidentally) turned off their power or worked beyond ‘business hours’.
This is what we accomplished last year.
These are the things that we managed to complete this year:
- Multitude of trips to Home Depot, Plumbing stores and tons of phone call time logged – KC
Renfrew House – 3 units:
- Tree trimming – hired arborist – managed by KC
- Tree trimming of birch in front yard – City – managed by KC
- Put new dampers on two screen doors – KC
- New screen for screen door – A and KC
- Door repair of under-the-deck storage space – A
- Outdoor fixture with motion sensor replaced – A
- Replace lawnmower – A and KC
- Restored Electricity to the garage – A did this one all by himself (it was quite the feat)
- Replaced timer for bathroom fan – A
- Put water director in shower – KC
- Re-leveled fridge in one unit so that the door would not open on it’s own – A and KC
- Tightened bathroom faucet – KC
- Pulled down ceiling in kitchen area – KC
- Replace galvanized piping with Pex – 2x 15 feet lengths – hired plumber – Managed by KC
- Replaced drop-down ceiling – hired handy-man – managed by KC
- Sourced out and purchased ceiling tiles – KC
- Re-attached dryer vents so that it was no longer venting into the laundry room – A
Erlton Townhouse:
- Dig out dead tree – A’s father
- Cut down volunteer tree – under the deck (!) – A’s father
- Replace ceiling fan – A – with KC assisting
- Replace range hood – A – with KC assisting
Mount Royal Condo:
- Cut to fit, sand and stain wood tiles on deck – KC
- Replace kitchen tap – A
- Remove (damn) garborator – A
- Put soap dispenser in sink – A and KC
- Repair plumbing after garborator removal – A
- Replace all cupboard/drawer knobs – KC
- Put bumpers on all cupboard/drawer doors – KC
- Tightened screws and repaired sliders on all cupboards/drawers – KC
- Replace all doorknobs – KC
- Replace all door hinges – A
- Scrape out old caulking in bathtub – KC
- Redo caulking in bathtub – KC
- Replace bathtub faucet – A and KC
- Clean all (icky) taps – KC
- Redo caulking around one toilet (ugh) – KC
- Replace shower head in Master bathroom – KC
- Repair chips in all of the floor tile in the kitchen and bathrooms – KC
- Clean ALL of the windows – KC
- Clean all of the sliding door sliders – KC
- Deep clean ALL of the (gall-darned) unit – KC
- Clean carpets – hired Sears – Managed by KC
South Calgary House:
- Columnar aspen, too close to the house, cut down – hired arborist – managed by KC
- White spruce branches hanging over house from neighbours yard, cut back – hired arborist – managed by KC
- Birch trees trimmed for health – hired arborist – managed by KC
There is a very real possibility that I will need to return in October for a couple of weeks for a major repair in the Mount Royal Condo. We shall see. If the repair is as major as we have been told, we may do a couple of upgrades at the same time.
Leave a comment, let me know what else you think we could have done this year.
Another Trip – already!
I’m off on a trip again. I know that I haven’t even been home for much more than a week yet but a very good friend is getting married and I want to be there – so off I go. I was going to fly but figured that I would… yes… get in the car again and drive. I’ve offered rideshares on Craigslist so we’ll see how that goes.
I truly enjoyed my last car guest, sweet Isabel. We traveled together from Santa Cruz to Salt Lake City and then on to Idaho Falls where I dropped her off. We then reconnected in Calgary. I took her to dinner at my in-laws. Good and not good. They were challenged by her lifestyle and choice to hitch hike. They have a ‘evil people out there’ mentality. So I stepped in and shared with them that I used to hitch all the time… and that I always got picked up by people who told me how dangerous it was ‘out there’ and I always replied that I was so thankful that they picked me up. That always quieted them down. The reality is that there are wonderful people out there and they outweigh the ‘evil’ heavily. A asked me to stop hitch hiking when we got married and so that form of travel has stopped for me, however, I would do it again in a heartbeat. (As an aside, I asked him to stop ice-climbing – so it’s fair.) There is something so freeing about standing on the side of the road with my thumb out, waiting for the unknown. I loved it.
So, I await, with excitement, replies to my rideshare offer. Who will it be? What conversations will we have? What will I learn? What will I be able to teach? I have already gotten one reply for the trip back but I am hoping for some company on the way out.
I was also thinking that I would drive straight through. It’s a long day, but possible. But… I think that I am going to go to Reno and hang with a Couchsurfer for the evening and then start my trip early the next morning. That feels very doable. And I will meet some new people and probably drink some wine along the road as well. No problems there.
I’m going to take A’s camera and take photos at the wedding. I have been getting better, I’m still basically point a shoot but a couple of pointers that I have picked up here and there have improved my photos a bit. Maybe I’ll have something worth posting here. I shall see.
I haven’t forgotten about my yearly download of what we accomplished in Calgary while we were there, it’s coming… it’s long.
Another Update
Well…
We had a slight mishap with Step #3, so we are back to the drawing board on that one. :-/ Pretty much everything hinges on step #3, we can look at and prep for the next steps but without step #3, not much else will happen. So for now, I have skipped over #3 and #4 and have begun prepping for step #5.
I can’t wait to be able to share this with everyone.