bag reuse north and south

One thing I got used to even on the far fringes of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley in Gilroy was that it was fairly common for folks to take their own bags into the grocery store. We certainly did.

It’s much less common down here, which is disappointing. We however persevere.

local radio

As in Gilroy, so here in Hemet over the air radio reception inside the house is pretty minimal. I continue to rely on my Internet radio, which I love. Given that it’s Internet, I could keep listening to my San Francisco and Monterey Bay NPR and classical stations.

But we’re here. We’re not there. And so I listen to the San Bernardino and San Diego NPR stations, and to the Los Angeles and San Diego classical stations.

That is as it should be.

our new kitchen

Our new kitchen is much smaller than our old kitchen. In fact it has even less storage space than our pre-remodeled kitchen. We’re going to have cabinets built to hold our tools, utensils, dishes and glasses that now reside in boxes in the garage. (Although the galley layout of our new kitchen means Terry and I can work in it at the same time without running into each other. That’s a plus. )

There is less work area. I find that somewhat frustrating.

But then I listen to the wisdom of an expert. The author of the popular blog Smitten Kitchen was interviewed a while back on NPR. It seems she produces her gourmet recipes in a small apartment kitchen in New York City. In the interview she made the point that the normal sous chef in a large restaurant has a very small workstation. Given that, she said that she had no problem creating recipes for her blog in her small home kitchen.

Advice I need to take to heart.

supporting local business

One of the very first things we did after moving to Hemet was to buy a washer and dryer. We went to a locally owned appliance store and found the models we wanted. Terry wanted pedestals, which had to be ordered. This was a Monday and they told us they would be in by the end of the week.

On Tuesday Terry was at my dad’s house doing laundry when the appliance shop called and said the pedestals were in and they could deliver and install that afternoon.

You’ll never get that kind of service at Lowe’s or Best Buy!

on not thinking straight

Here’s a story from last week.

When one moves one is not always thinking clearly. There is too much going on and too many things to juggle.

So when our garbage disposal stopped working we were not tracking. We have a service contract as part of the purchase of the house so I called them about the disposal. They told me that I could un-jam the disposal myself.  Well, duh! I knew.that.

I  went to Home Depot and bought two tools. One for in the sink and one for under the disposal unit. I used the former tool to un-jam the disposal.

That’s all there was to it.

We’re doing much better this week.

starting to feel settled

We went into Sunday having accomplished a lot. Still we had books in boxes in our great room and boxes of dishes, glasses, and kitchen tools still in the dining area. The latter was mostly because we have way less storage space here than we had in Gilroy and don’t have a place to put everything. I had planned to go to church yesterday, but I decided to sleep in and also wanted to knock out the books and get the kitchen boxes moved into the garage. Those boxes in the kitchen area shouted “transition” and “unsettled.” I was getting tired of that and it was starting to make me crazy.

So I engaged in a marathon work day yesterday. I put the shelves together in our great room, and got all the books onto the shelves. After taking a break and having a tasty lunch at our nearby taqueria, and then stopping by to see dad on his Sunday shift at the railroad museum, I lugged all of the kitchen boxes into the garage, where they will remain until we can have some kind of shelving unit built. That pretty much puts an end to the lugging of boxes,

This morning I put most of our artwork on the walls.

The house is starting to look settled and we are starting to feel settled. I can attend church on Sunday without being preoccupied.

This is a Good Thing.