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Discussion of the Month
July and here
I come. I'll be in Sharon around 2:00 p.m. on July 8. Can't wait to see
everyone. I'll be staying at the Hotel Patti. I'll be at Patti's house in
sunny, hopefully, Sharon. I'll be in Sharon until Tuesday July 13. On the
13th, my plane leaves Pittsburgh around 9:00 a.m. I'll be pulling out of the Valley around 6:00 a.m.,
so no early send offs for me. I'll be among those
early bird Pittsburgh commuters. At least there won't be any snow. Well, let's hope
not.
Did you hear,
Patti is getting another pool. As of this writing, June 12, they have the
outline of the pool in, now they are waiting for good, dry weather to
construct the pool. Let's hope for a hot summer. Hot when we are at the
pool, cool when we are working, etc. Oh those lazy, crazy days of
summer.
Update:
The pool is ready. Patti was doing the chemical thing. The deck should be
up soon. See you poolside!
July, I
remember Mom hanging out clothes to dry, lady bugs, fireworks, bar-b-q's
and good old summertime living. As a kid, a couple of years ago, I
remember July's that were so hot and humid, the only comfortable place was
in the cellar. Of course this was before the days of mass air
conditioning. I remember eating many a supper in the basement in our house
on Downing Lane. Then came the days of A/C and we were still in the
cellar, until Dad came home from work. Mom wouldn't turn the A/C on until
the last possible minute. She didn't want to wear it out or spend too much
money on the electric bill. Those were the days my friend. And the hot,
sweaty, uncomfortable nights with no A/C, but we survived. Thank goodness for the 1980's
and today when most of the civilized world has A/C, I should say at least
our world.
In this 21st
century a day without A/C would seem like cruel and unusual punishment.
Although a lot of the world, including parts of the United States, does
not have the luxury of A/C. But they survive. That reminds me of last
Labor Day weekend. Picture it, Saturday of Labor Day weekend 2003 around 11:30
a.m. I was in my condo and suddenly it felt like the jungles of Africa. I
check my A/C, it was blowing out hot air. I called my neighborhood air
conditioning company - closed until Tuesday (Labor Day weekend, remember).
So I thought that I would rough it out. I spent Saturday afternoon until
Wednesday morning without A/C, in south Florida mind you. Don't let me
fool you, it was bad. Although I did survived. Thank goodness Monday
(Labor Day) it was overcast, that helped a lot. It rained Tuesday.
The A/C guy said that he couldn't put in the new A/C unit until it
was dry outside since the unit on the roof was the one that needed
replaced. I don't remember what that particular unit is called. I have it
written down in my files. But the unit was installed Wednesday morning,
life seemed grand.
If you
remember, that Wednesday afternoon I found out that I had a class 3 (on a 4 point scale)
melanoma on my back. That sure put things in perspective for me. The rest of the
story...you probably know. If you don't, then where have you been. I jest.
Just because that experience was life altering for me does not mean that
it would have had the same affect on you. Now, I figure, a few days with no A/C, that's not so
bad.
I received an
e-mail from Jamie saying that she and her boyfriend and his parents are
coming to Florida the week of June 28. From her last e-mail, they are
supposed to leave on July 17 (today) for North Carolina, then on to
Florida. Tom has a tour of DMAC,
Digital Media Arts College, in Boca Raton scheduled for June 28. Boca
is about 20 miles north of me. Hopefully they will visit me sometime that
week.
Update: Jamie called me on Monday, 6/28 and I met her in Boca
for dinner that night. Jamie, Tom and Tom's parents (Tom and Sue) and I,
met at a great Italian restaurant, Renzo's
Italian Restaurant and had a delicious supper. The food was
great, but the company was even better. Tuesday morning they were going to
head for Orlando. They plan to spend four days at the Disney attractions.
They should be back in Champion around July 4.
What have I've
been doing on my summer vacation? You know me, never a dull moment.
On Monday, June 7, I was filling the kitchen sink with dish water to wash
a few pans. I put on the water, and being a muti-task person, I had to do
a couple of other things at the same time. I walked into the den to check
on something. In no more than 10 seconds I became engrossed in something
in the den. I have to confess, it was my computer. I was doing an
installation on one of my auxiliary machines and a situation arose demanding my full attention. I know, no
excuses. I totally forgot about the running water in the kitchen sink.
About 30 or 45 minutes later I casually meandered out to the kitchen. When
I turned the corner I instantly heard the water, it was like Niagara Falls. Water was everywhere. I shut it off. The stopper
wouldn't come out of the sink. I think the pressure was preventing it from
being released. I broke the stopper and pulled it out of the drain. Water
was running down my counter, running down cupboards, encircling my stove,
totally engulfing the silverware drawer, I was totally shocked. I even
thought I saw a family of cockroaches on an S.O.S. pad using it as a
makeshift raft. Actually I exaggerate about the roaches, I have no
roaches, visible anyway. In the midst of all of this the phone rang. The
caller ID said it was the president of the condo association. I thought,
boy news travel fast here. She asked me if I had a water leak. The lady
below me sent her visiting son to the president's unit to let her know that water was
starting to leak through the lady's dining room ceiling. Just then I
noticed that my dining room was flooded in the corner adjacent to the sink counter,
about 2 inches of water. The carpeting was drenched. I embarrassedly told the condo
association pres that the sink was overflowing and I was already starting
to clean it up. The son of the lady below got on the phone and said not to
worry about it. It was just starting to leak through and it would be
alright. I started to wipe up the kitchen, moved out the stove and cleaned up
the cupboards below the sink. Then I tackled the dining room. I started
wiping up the water. I knew I had to do something about the carpeting. The
same kind of thing happened to me in my former condo when the hot water
tank leaked, but nothing like this situation. I knew that I had to pull back the carpet and padding. So, that's what I did. I moved the table and
furniture into the living room and pulled back the carpet and padding. I
kept checking the carpet for moisture, it went a long ways into the dining
room. In the end I
pulled back the carpeting to the living room area. You know wall to wall
carpeting,
in the process the carpeting in the hallway had to go to, it was all
connected. Well, I got the situation under control, put up my two table
fans and turned on the ceiling fans. The recovery started. For the
next 4 days I adjusted the carpeting and fans and waited for the all clear
signal. Thursday of that week I put down the padding but kept
the fans a going. Friday the carpet went back, but the fans stayed.
Saturday, everything was back to normal. As normal as normal can be for
me. Everything seems fine now. I did spry Lysol, etc. to help prevent
mildew, but the drying process is the thing that saved my carpet. The
carpet was newly installed when I bought the condo almost 2 years ago. I
was planning to remove the carpet and put tile throughout my condo, but I
wanted to wait for a few years. As it stands now, I can still wait a few
years to do the tile thing. In Florida tile is more practical and
healthier than carpeting. During the whole process I just laughed at the situation. I
thought it was funny.
By the way, in
the state of Florida condo laws say that each unit owner is responsible
for any damages that his or her unit may incur. It's kind of like no-fault
insurance. No matter who's at fault for any catastrophe in the building,
each unit owner is responsible for the damages in his or her unit. Of
course the condo association is responsible for damages to the
structure.
Now about the
light fixtures in my bathrooms... This summer I plan to do a little fixing
up. As much as I can do anyway. The bathrooms have light fixtures in the
ceilings for heat lamps. In Florida most homes do not have a furnace. The
only heat source is the reverse cycle of the A/C. Most people never use
the heat cycle. The winter can be rather chilly, especially when it is
cool and also humid. Heat lamps are installed in many Florida bathrooms to keep one warm
while drying from a bath or shower. They look like big flood lights in the
ceiling. I never use mine. I decided to check the bulbs to see if they
needed replaced. I began unscrewing on of bulbs, it came apart in the
socket. I went to the other bathroom. I unscrewed the first one, and then
tried to screw it into an empty socket to see if the socket worked. It
went in, then it suddenly came apart and the globe part fell to the ground
and shattered. It sounded like a gun shot. I thought that the lady below
me would here it and wonder what I was doing. Of course the lady below me
is 94 years old and hard of hearing, so to her it probably sounded like a
footstep or something mild. Getting back to the light fixtures, I shut off
the breaker for the bathroom lights and investigated. I couldn't get the
remaining part of the first bulb out of the socket, the second one I
managed to unscrew it using needle nosed pliers. I went to Lowe's and
bought a replacement socket for the one that I had ruined trying to remove
the end of the bulb that I never did get out. I prefer doing business with The Home Depot, but they
didn't have the correct socket. Ever since Lowe's added to the demise of
Stambaugh Thompson's in Hermitage, I try not to deal with Lowe's out of
principle. I digress, I replaced the socket, activated the breaker and
everything is going fine. At least for now.
By the way,
Lowe's is so much nicer than Home Depot. Home Depot has a way of hiding
the exact item you need to purchase. The Lowe's I frequent now, is so big,
many selections and so clean. I could spend hours in Lowe's just looking
and thinking and planning for the future. Now, Lowe's is my #1 hardware,
home furnishing, etc. store.
I recently
ordered, before the flood incident, the Scunci
Steamer from www.dutchguard.com.
I saw it advertised on TV. It seems to be a great cleaning tool. It cleans
a variety of surfaces by steam. I expect to receive it in the next two
days. During my light socket search at The Home Depot I ran across the
same Scunci Steamer for $10.00 less than what I paid from www.dutchguard.com.
Another lesson learned, check the local hardware stores before you pay too
much on the Internet. Live and learn.
An update
concerning the Scunci Steamer: it works great. I cleaned both of my
bathrooms, the sink cupboards, tub, shower and even the tile on the
walls and it worked fine. I was starting the kitchen yesterday (6/18) and then it
happened. It stopped working. I called the customer service number and I
have to send it back and they are going to send me a replacement. I guess
my number came up. I never have problems with new products. This time I
did. Life goes on.
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Entertainment
Did anyone catch the TBS
premiere of Sex and the City, see March
2004 Newsletter or April
2004 Newsletter for a discussion of Sex and The City. It premiered
on TBS June 15, not TNT as I previously reported. Two different
episodes will be broadcasted one at 10:00 and another at 10:30 p.m. June 15 through
June 19. On Tuesday June 22, the very first episode in the series will be aired and each succeeding
episode will be aired each Tuesday at 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. Encore on
Wednesday night at 10:00 and !0:30 p.m. Well, I
missed the episodes on June 15, forgot all about it. Looked forward to
seeing the show all day on the 15th, then after Larry King Live I
fell asleep and forgot all about it. I did watch it on the second night,
June 16. I was so looking forward to seeing the show again. I got bored
half way through the first half hour and fell asleep. I think I liked it
better when it was on HBO. Oh well, anticipation is usually better for
me than the actual event. I'm trying to enjoy the events in my life regardless of
the anticipation, but this is a work in progress and transcends most
aspects of my life.
The summer movie season
has started. I saw Soul Plane
yesterday, June 17. A disappointment. I thought that it would be
funny. Oh yea, I did have tears in my eyes, not from laughing, but from
crying because I wasted $5.50 on that movie. It was suppose to be a take
off on Airplane!
vintage 1980. It turned out to be a disappointment. Rated "R"
(for rotten) it was disgustingly vulgar with the language and sexual innuendo,
racially stereotypic and a total loser. I can't recall one shining
aspect of the movie. I went to that movie because it was the last day
that it would be shown during the matinee hours, cheaper price and
nothing else really interest me at the time. I'm eagerly looking forward
to seeing many of the movies due out this summer, The
Terminal with Tom Hanks and others opening in the next few
weeks.
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Mattie
J.T. Stepanek died on June 22 from complications of his MS disease.
I first met Mattie on Larry King Live. Mattie was only 13 years
old, but his wisdom surpassed his years. He was a poet, a storyteller
and most importantly a peacemaker. Read about Mattie:
http://www.mattieonline.com/
http://www.mdausa.org/special/stepanek/p2.cfm
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_past_20011019_b.jhtml
http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=mattieStepanek
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?sourceid=
00390002887875424068&bfdate=06-29-2004+08:42:42&ATH=mattie+
stepanek&bninfo=mattie_stepanek
If you don't know him,
after you read his poems you will feel that you have known him all your
life. Mattie was a survivor. Death may have conquered his physical
being, but his spirit survives and will forever. Mattie was a
peacemaker. A true, sincere and humble peacemaker.
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