Friday, October 31, 2008

Ahhh!


My recliner is no longer a trap.

I bought my recliner for $13 at a thrift store twelve years ago. It has served me well, but it has also seen better days. The vinyl is cracked and torn. The stuffing is dried and crumbly, and falls out through the cracks.

The biggest problem, however, is the effect of Arizona's climate on the wooden frame. The wood has dried and shrunk. Bolts started falling out several years ago. I was able to put them back a couple of times, but earlier this year they stopped staying in place.

I can't remember how long it had been since I was able to recline past the first position. This summer it got worse. The seat started listing, first to the left, then to the left and back. I began to worry that it would fold me in half and I wouldn't be able to get out.

In October friends came to help me replace some of the furniture that was moved for the remodel. I asked them to take a look at the recliner. Instead of just sticking the bolts back in their original holes, Wes drilled new holes. It was worth enduring his comments on the quality my drill.

My recliner works better than it has in years, and I'm able to recline all the way.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Woo Hoo! I love my portable external drive.

More later.

Ups and Downs

I've really been neglecting this blog!

The week after my last post I finally flew to New York. The following week I extended my stay by a week.

I've had good days and bad days. I've been more conscious of including the daily practices that helped me bring my numbers down in May. I'm still tired, and I'm having intermittent sinus and digestive problems. But enough of that!

I spent a lot of time with my great-nephew last Wednesday. He had left a homework project until the last day, so we worked on it together. He entered his narrative on my sister's computer while I found and cropped some photos on mine. He called his mom to ask her to find two particular photos and have them ready when he got home. I think it came out pretty well!

I've been spending more time in a particular sub-forum of Scrap Share. It's a smaller group, very close-knit, very supportive and caring. We've all be dealing with adversity of one kind or another, lately: job loss, illness, bereavement, moving. It's been really good for me.

It's raining in New York. Not only that...the temperature has dropped. It's 55F right now, at 11am. We call that winter!

I'm excited about a new computer tool, but I'll put that in its own post.