Morning! Oh Annie appears to have been scribbling on Mom’s notepad…she sat on it to hide the evidence!! Who me? 🐈 she does have a bit of mischief in her sweet smile…or is that a stare down?
No new snow and it appears we shall be snow free for the next week. Well there is that little snow flurry expected tomorrow afternoon but nothing to really talk about…..
Childhood friend who left Ohio on vacation to escape the snow found herself in Flagstaff AZ yesterday….snow is stalking her movements and she is stuck there for a bit! Is it normal for Flagstaff to have snow?
I am trying to not be anonymous today. There, I put my name in the box.
Son said he was leaving at five this morning because he wanted to ride his bike in to town so he could help with the FFA breakfast. I suggested it should not take him that long and he could probably leave by five thirty. He was concerned about getting through the snow but said he was planning to take the gravel road. It snowed another few inches last night and supposedly feels like six degrees. I hear him just getting up now at six. He is probably leaving. The bus should be by in about an hour but he does not want to wait for it.
Yesterday, the principal gave him a ride home from school. He is supposed to stay after school and work on his homework for a couple hours with her most days. He doesn’t. She emailed me yesterday to tell me he needed to do so. I told her he has been in town until after eight every day for the past two months, since she said she was going to have him do that, except the last day, when he took the bus home. He had told her he could not stay after because he had to catch the bus. She is beginning to understand. She says she is now going to keep a written record of when he comes in to work. Good idea. Maybe she is starting to understand why, with all this extra help, he is still getting F’s. Because he is not availing himself of all the extra help and she did not notice. Oops.
I told her I was not interested in coming in to get him when he stays late. He has gotten himself home late for years, he can figure it out. She seemed a bit surprised that I would leave that to him rather than racing it to rescue him. I also suggested she might take away his device during school hours. She says they are not allowed to use them during school hours. I did not ask why his sibs keep getting instagram comments from him during school hours. In my opinion, he has been very clear that he does not spend his school time doing school work so I have no obligation to come get him when he stays late to do school work.
In fact, when I was ten, my parents drove the three youngest of us (none of whom had experienced snow, though once or twice each winter Mom or Dad would point to distant mountains to show us they had snow at the top) to Flagstaff for the express purpose of introducing us to snow. And they were disappointed there were only a couple of inches on the ground. (We weren’t disappointed; we had no point of comparison.) And then they realized they hadn’t brought anything for sledding, and they searched the trunk and found a cardboard box (probably one holding oil and such), and broke it down, and we went down the little hill a few times until it got too soggy. They told us we should have brought something specifically for that purpose, but they didn’t think of it. I have no idea where we were, just randomly at the side of the road, I think. And the funny thing is I have no memories at all of sliding down the hill on that box, so maybe it got wet before it got to me or maybe I wasn’t interested, or maybe it just wasn’t memorable. But we do have photos of all of us laughing, with red faces, and the dog there too. And my dad didn’t laugh very readily, so I think he found joy in being able to treat his Phoenix-bred offspring to something completely new. (The older boys had all grown up with snow, but the youngest of us were all born in Phoenix and all lived in Arizona until our early twenties.)
NancyJill- Yes, lots of places in Arizona get snow- mountains and high elevation areas like Flagstaff (7,000 ft). People don’t realize that Arizona has more mountain peaks than any other state, they just are as high as places like Colorado. The highest is 12,000+.
I thought,”beautiful cat,” and immediately tried to read the notes, wishing I had access to reporter notebooks.
I loved them.
My poor long suffering husband is still trying to figure out how to get our computer systems backed up now that Carbonite purchased Mozy. It won’t back up and I’m getting nervous with an enormous amount of research material currently stored on it.
We never had this problem with Mozy. My husband says it’s the video files hogging everything. Why do I so innocently cause all the problems in techno land?
Arizona Highways did an issue thirty years ago–my older brother showed it to me and I thought about buying my own copy, and I’ve wished ever since that I had done so–in which each of the fifty states has its own page and its own photo. Only all the photos were taken in Arizona. Fields of sunflowers for Kansas, snowy mountains for Colorado, and so forth. It was a beautiful, creative issue, and probably eye-opening to some subscribers from afar who thought of Arizona as being mostly desert. Large swaths of it are, but the ski country in northern Arizona is completely different.
Just as southern Indiana (where I live now) is completely different from the flat land full of farm fields and barns that is probably most people’s view of Indiana (if they even think of Indiana at all). I’m now in an area that is almost an extension of the American South, with some people having Southern accents, with laidback people even by Indiana standards, with drivers hardly ever honking their horns, and with hilly landscapes full of trees. Even my husband, who has spent nearly all his life in the Midwest and a huge percentage of that in Indiana, says it is nothing like what people think of when they hear “Indiana” (I tell him most people don’t really think of Indiana at all). He has also lived in Michigan and Ohio, as well as brief periods in Florida and one year when he was a teenager in California–his dad was a school principal who got two Ph.D.s and tried to move into being a superintendent but never was able to get to that level, so they moved around a bit before he finally did the last decade or so of his career in northern Indiana, where he retired and spent the rest of his life, and his grown children ended up moving back to be near him because of needs in their own families.
Yes, I have been through Flagstaff more than once when they have snow. Very pretty area.
I like my unscented dryer sheets. I hate getting shocks, so like the static help. I use tennis balls when washing new fabric. I usually wash different colors separately and the tennis balls help keep it from bunching up. I never use any softener on my towels, since they will stop being absorbent if you do so repeatedly. I wash my eye glass wipes and micro clothes in that load, since softener is bad for those.
I think those of us whose furnaces run lots in the winter need dryer sheets more than folks further south. The air is really dry and then we dry it even more by heating it up. In summer I don’t use dryer sheets at all and like Kathaleena, definitely not on the towels.
For those of you who have dealt with cataract surgery or have friends/loved ones who have done so, what eye drops did you use?
Did you know that most eye drops for cataracts have a potential side effect for anxiety or depression? I don’t need anyone’s details, but a friend is looking for something without those potential side effects. Suggestions beyond reading the labels?
No dryer sheets on towels for me, either. I read about that once.
Pic was taken after I’d come back from interviewing striking teachers on the picket line in the rain. The notebooks were very wet so I thought maybe Annie was trying to dry them off for me.
This weekend I’m hoping to work in the ‘den,’ I need to set up a proper work space/office for myself as I’m guessing I’ll be working from home more often after all our offices get moved around to smaller spaces here and there and everywhere. We’re having a staff meeting this morning about all that.
I have a late story to cover this evening (but am planning to pre-write it mostly today, it’s embargoed until after 6:30 p.m. though). I’m taking tomorrow off, I am in much need of a 3-day weekend.
It rained through most of the night, but off and on and more like showers than real rain. It’s all been glorious for those of us not in the mud-impacted zones. And the snow levels also have dropped again. The surrounding mountains look beautiful.
The thing about working from home is you need a separate space to go to and to leave.
Working in your regular ‘living’ spaces is awkward as it feels like there’s no end to the day. You realize you’re off the clock and there you are, where you’d be (physically) anyway. You just throw everything back into the work bag and that’s that, but it doesn’t feel like there’s enough separation. I’m thinking with an office space to go into and out of, it’s a set-aside spot where work happens and you can up and leave it when you’re done.
(Not the relaxing ‘den’ Kim and I envisioned, but for now I think purposing it as a work area makes sense.) I’ll try to do a bit of a combo space in there down the line, but having a dedicated work area I think will help since I will probably be splitting my time more between work and what will be a (new and smaller) office space. Editors have told us “be mobile,” we are free to work anywhere we want, from home, a coffee house or the desk they’re leasing for us.
These new spaces are “shared” work spaces with people from other companies and industries, so it’ll feel quite different for us. The lively newsroom of the past is fading away. 😦
Cheryl/Michelle, anyone else who freelances/writes or otherwise work from home — advice on how to separate the space and time? I like working from home especially when I have to run out and cover something that’s local and close by to where I live. (And it’s certainly easier to get little things done around the house like throwing laundry in on a brief break.) But it has its drawbacks.
I have my own office in the house where I can close the door and focus. I wrote amidst the chaos of the family room for years (when we made sure all computer use was in an open space to “protect” kids).
I’m far more productive in my upstairs office, now, but I can’t smell food burning on the stove. It’s a good idea to have a designated spot, though I do break out the laptop or use the IPad while watching a movie. You’re right. The workday never ends and I never really “clock out,” even though I try to turn off the computer at 6 pm. 😦
I never worked from home, but I have a special room, “My Room” where I do all my business, such as SS lessons, financial transactions, etc. I was once briefing Chuck on what to do about my affairs if I should die suddenly. I started out with, “Everything you need is in this room.”
That is: computer, safe deposit box, file cabinet, etc.
Our new spaces will be minimalist — desks and chairs, basically, “bench” seating ( https://www.steelcase.com/products/benching/frameone/ ) where we sit next to the next guy with no partitions, plug in, work, then leave.
No storage to speak of, so a lot of things (except ongoing story files, but maybe even those) will be tossed from work in the next couple weeks. Some things will go to my garage, but not a lot. I’d already cleared out all my desk drawers during the last layoff scare and I never re-populated those knowing something else would be coming down the pike here, so my stuff is all on top of the desk and I’d say 3/4 of it can and will be tossed.
Only a two-year lease which speaks volumes as well.
“The last time it snowed in Los Angeles was in January 1962, according to Los Angeles Public Library archives. During that storm, heavy snow fell in the mountains and high deserts and dusted parts of downtown and West Los Angeles. Most of the city snow, however, melted quickly.”
Oh, Michelle, I am jealous of you getting to Phoenix. 😦 Last visit I had was for my mom’s funeral (15 1/2 years ago–yikes, how time flies!), and I’m homesick.
Hmm, I just told you about the snow in Yucca Valley that one New Year but it is not hear. Must have been talking to myself. So I will remain anonymous so you won’t know.
I have not read all the comments. My eye is still slightly dilated.
A friend sent me a set of dryer hedgehogs to deal with dryer static. I prefer not to use them because they are rather loud when they bump around in the dryer. I stopped using dryer sheets many years ago. We only have static occasionally. A bit more might be a deterrent to Miss Bosley wanting to help with the laundry.
The cataract eyedrops are a mystery substance made of three pharma products at a compounding facility that the eye clinic contracts with. The drops are known on the paperwork as PGB or at least that is what I think they are. The person who did the quote on cost wrote it up as dilating drops. But Tues. the doctor’s assistant said they are not dilating drops. Medicare is supposedly no longer covering the expense of drops. In researching, I found that some docs don’t use drops, especially in Europe. Seems that is the trend so maybe that is why Medicare is not covering the drops as of 2019. I have not noticed any depression or anxiety yet from the drops. Do you have a source for more info, Michelle?
Know what is hilarious DJ? My brother who lives in the LA area is out of the country this week–so he may well miss the chance of a lifetime. (He was born in 1960, so he was alive during the last LA snow, but barely–and he didn’t live there till about 1979 or ’80–that’s a lot of years to “wait” for snow and then miss it!!)
I grew up hearing my dad talk about the last snow in Phoenix, flurries only when he was driving a school bus, with mesmerized children who couldn’t wait to get off the bus. That bit of snow doesn’t appear in the record books. Here is what I found about snow in Phoenix:
A History of Snowfall in Phoenix
. . . The greatest amount of snow ever recorded at the official reporting station in Phoenix was 1.0 inch on January 20 1933, and on January 21 and 22 1937.
Other times measurable snow was recorded include:
0.5 inches on February 2 1939
0.4 inches on December 21 and 22 1990
0.2 inches on March 12 1917
0.1 inches on November 28 1919
0.1 inches on December 11 1985
. . . The most significant documented snowfall event in Phoenix occurred on January 21 and 22 in 1937. One inch was officially reported at the federal building at Central and Fillmore. However…up to 4 inches was reported in other parts of what is now the metro area. Snow was said to have remained in shady areas until the 24th of the month.
…and from a weather summary written by an unknown author in 1898…
In the vicinity of Phoenix…while snow melted almost as fast as it fell…it is estimated the measurement would have exceeded 6 inches…had the snow lain on the ground. As the meteorological records of this station extend over 3 years…and during that time there is no record of snow…we depend upon tradition when saying it was the heaviest snowfall within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. (http://southwestweather.com/wx/wxsnowhistory.php)
That 1985 snow was the one I experienced. Some areas got more than 1/10 of an inch, and I didn’t even realize the official total was that small. The front page of the paper had a photo of a couple who built a tiny little snow man (they were kneeling and I think bending over just to get in the same frame with it), and it looked like it had a lot of dirt in the snow but somehow they made a snowman. Who knows, maybe they cheated and got most of it from their freezer! That was the closest Phoenix kids got to seeing snow, most of the time. I also remember the 1990 snow, though I was in Chicago by then. I called my mom’s house for Christmas Eve, and she passed the phone around so I could talk briefly to everyone. (It was my dime, but the only time I talked to most of my siblings by phone, since they didn’t call me in my college days; I made the call every year but the one year I went to Phoenix for Christmas.) Anyway, my oldest brother asked if we had had any snow yet, and I said yes, it had snowed lightly the day before. He laughed and also expressed surprise–he told me that Phoenix had had its “first” snow of the year the day before we did!
DJ, if you have a bit of money budgeted to set up a home office, you may be able to go to a used office furniture store and find a variety of helps in setting up a new feeling space that does not feel like your home space. You may be able to swap out something you don’t need for something you do need. Think of how much time you will need to spend there and what it is worth to you to have a pleasant and efficient setup.
Thanks, Janice. I already have a desk, file cabinet and computer table in there (my printer also is located in that room. I’d originally set it up to be sort of a work/study area, but it needs a bit of reorganizing (the desk is cluttered for example). I also bought a nice, high-backed padded desk chair some years ago that’s in there so it will be much more comfortable than a wooden chair.
In other words, I think I have mostly if not all of what I need, it just needs some major tidying up,
I haven’t used that room in a while, so recently it’s been where I put my bills, tax documents I need to hang on to, other things that come in the mail that I don’t immediately discard. I did clear out the file cabinet and desk drawers during the house project, so I need to set up some new files of papers I’m keeping, some of which may be in the garage. I had a lot of BSF materials I got rid of, those took up much of the file cabinet space. I should have plenty of room in that cabinet going forward even after I put back the things I feel I need to keep. And the desk drawers mostly remain empty as well.
I think I remember the 1962 “snow” (it didn’t appear at our house, but I remember asking if I could sleep on the sofa so I could keep watch out the window just in case); we were set to leave for Girl Scout snow/winter camp the following morning and I thought, well, if it’s going to snow here anyway, why not stay? But my mom explained it would only melt fast and we’d have more fun at camp on the sleds in the local mountains that would have lots and lots of snow.
I thought I vaguely remembered a few flakes in LA, we would have been there around Christmas/New Years. But it was probably just stories. I must have been about six. Just memory of a few flakes, nothing on the ground. Marina del Rey, Culver City, Inglewood Blvd, Santa Monica airport was the general stomping ground.
DJ, I am not always good at separating home time / space from work time / space. I found it easier when I simply worked at home occasionally (but had to put in an eight-hour day when I did work at home). The structure was already in place, and it was just the location that changed. (And I also didn’t have a computer with internet access in Chicago–when I worked at home, I took paper home with me. To this day, I find it easy to sit and focus on the days I’m editing on paper.)
I would find it easier, I think, if the work was consistent. If I had 20-30 hours per week of editing work, then I could work from noon to seven p.m. three to four days a week, and work on other things the other days, and find a routine in it. As it stands, some weeks I work 60-70 hours and other weeks just two or three hours. Doing any kind of pattern doesn’t work. Now, I could set myself down in front of my computer five hours a day even on days with no editing work (doing writing work instead), but it’s too easy to be distracted by places like this one, or news reports, etc. When I’m editing or writing, I actually do need to get on the web frequently–to check a fact, to put in something I don’t quite remember–but I need to have more discipline and set aside large blocks of time. It’s easier to stay disciplined when I have lots of work (more work in line behind what I’m currently editing).
It became harder once I got married. Up north my husband and I had desks facing each other in our library. It was sociable, but my husband is a talker. So I’d be editing and he would say something, and I’d answer and start reading my paragraph again, and he’d say something else. Sometimes it would take me three or four attempts to get through a paragraph. H was good at being quiet if I told him “I’m working,” but sometimes I was working and sometimes I wasn’t, and he couldn’t tell the difference when he was sitting across from me. I found that sometimes it was easier to do my old Nashville work schedule, in which I might work as late as 2:00 a.m., just because it was quieter. Now I have my own office space, and while it isn’t strictly private (no closing door), when it is just the two of us here, I usually have my own time and space to work. And he has a door that shuts on his studio, so if he is watching something and not using headphones, I can shut the door. The room where we will eventually get TV reception is the other end of the house from me and also has a door that closes, so if he were to have guys over to watch a game, or if we were to have overnight company and they were in bed, I’d be able to work in peace. I also had us put my reading chair in our bedroom, so if I have hard copy to edit and we have overnight guests, I can shut myself in the bedroom and have access to my editing (and to a bathroom) without any chance of disturbing a guest.
So . . . a proper space, ability to keep out at least some distractions, and discipline all play into being able to work at home.
It was quite difficult for me, the summer our daughter was courting, when her fiance would come over and both daughters, my husband, and our future son-in-law were all gathered in the kitchen and I had a deadline. It happened several times. I’d go out to say hello, and then I would go and work, shutting the door behind me. It felt unsociable, and at times it made it hard to focus, but it was necessary. Freelance work doesn’t just stop for a month because someone in your family is dating, or moving out, or sick. At the same time, I do like the ability to set my own hours, and to be able to have lunch with a friend or take the phone call from someone who’s crying. As long as I have the ability to turn back to “work” and do it, and as long as enough work is coming in to pay the bills, the flexibility is a blessing.
Oh, and it helps that overall I really love “what I do.” When I am working on a specific book I dislike, it is that much harder to stay motivated. But I like my job, in general, and enjoy most projects I edit.
In the question of whether Flagstaff gets snow . . . they’ve had 14 inches in this storm, and Scottsdale (a well-to-do suburb of Phoenix) has snow, too.
AJ, can this anonymous troll be banned? It (he or she) really seems to delight in wreaking havoc and no one having any idea who it is. Life would probably be easier if it is just kicked off the site. Thank you. Some of the things the troll says would suggest it is in open country and breeds animals, if that helps in tracking it down. But this site is probably better off doing the exterminating before the trolls themselves reproduce.
Anon @ 6:35.
My dad used to make snow cream by taking some snow, mixing in some flavoring syrup (and something else I don’t remember) and we had snow cream’
We moved to Charleston in 1841 and that was over.
Later, after we had Chuck and lived in Texas, I tried that. but fortunately, some of it melted before I finished and I saw all sorts of stuff mixed into it. No more snow cream.
The driven snow isn’t pure any more.
The difference, Chas, is you were a child and your dad did the prep. As an adult, you notice those things. Snow begins forming like rain, around a dust or pollen particle. It has always been so. Now we have added more stuff to help it form. We eat the snow here, and rain, and icicles, we just don’t inspect. And it has to be white.
Re the shared workspace: I worked in something similar in Nashville for a temporary part-time job I did my last few summers, but we were working with the same crew over time and got to know the people at the other computers on supper breaks and so forth. To just come and go when you are working for different companies, and will have a different person next to you next time you come in, would not be anything close to a good use of space for most of us. (Extroverts would want to talk, and introverts would want to be gone.) I have seen those “shared” spaces before (only in photos), but they at least have cubicles or some type of separation between people. That setup would mean if the guy at the next computer is looking at porn (I know, they likely don’t allow that), you are looking at porn too. And if you are working on secret information, how on earth do you keep it secret?
That really doesn’t look like a good solution to anything.
We will have our own set-apart space so we would be sitting with ‘our own kind.’ 🙂
But we’re all being broken up with some going to the building to the north, others to the south.
One of the advertising sales gals told me we’re like foster kids being sent away to separate group homes and we just want a forever home with owners who want us. Funny-sad, but really some of us may not see each other much in the future.
I work in a shared space, but there is a partial wall between the office I share with the maintenance guy and two of the directors. I like it because apparently I can choose to be distracted by others or not. I feel like I’m a part of things even though I’m ‘only’ the administrator.
Wandering Views 
Good morning. Pretty cat. First?
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Well, I agree on 2 out of 3……
Pretty cat- yes.
First- yes you are! 🙂
Good morning- no, too much ice. 😦
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I’m going to have to send in some pics of my boys 🙂
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Morning! Oh Annie appears to have been scribbling on Mom’s notepad…she sat on it to hide the evidence!! Who me? 🐈 she does have a bit of mischief in her sweet smile…or is that a stare down?
No new snow and it appears we shall be snow free for the next week. Well there is that little snow flurry expected tomorrow afternoon but nothing to really talk about…..
Childhood friend who left Ohio on vacation to escape the snow found herself in Flagstaff AZ yesterday….snow is stalking her movements and she is stuck there for a bit! Is it normal for Flagstaff to have snow?
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Yep, Flagstaff gets snow.
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I am trying to not be anonymous today. There, I put my name in the box.
Son said he was leaving at five this morning because he wanted to ride his bike in to town so he could help with the FFA breakfast. I suggested it should not take him that long and he could probably leave by five thirty. He was concerned about getting through the snow but said he was planning to take the gravel road. It snowed another few inches last night and supposedly feels like six degrees. I hear him just getting up now at six. He is probably leaving. The bus should be by in about an hour but he does not want to wait for it.
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Yesterday, the principal gave him a ride home from school. He is supposed to stay after school and work on his homework for a couple hours with her most days. He doesn’t. She emailed me yesterday to tell me he needed to do so. I told her he has been in town until after eight every day for the past two months, since she said she was going to have him do that, except the last day, when he took the bus home. He had told her he could not stay after because he had to catch the bus. She is beginning to understand. She says she is now going to keep a written record of when he comes in to work. Good idea. Maybe she is starting to understand why, with all this extra help, he is still getting F’s. Because he is not availing himself of all the extra help and she did not notice. Oops.
I told her I was not interested in coming in to get him when he stays late. He has gotten himself home late for years, he can figure it out. She seemed a bit surprised that I would leave that to him rather than racing it to rescue him. I also suggested she might take away his device during school hours. She says they are not allowed to use them during school hours. I did not ask why his sibs keep getting instagram comments from him during school hours. In my opinion, he has been very clear that he does not spend his school time doing school work so I have no obligation to come get him when he stays late to do school work.
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Yes, Flagstaff gets snow. Skiers, too, I believe.
In fact, when I was ten, my parents drove the three youngest of us (none of whom had experienced snow, though once or twice each winter Mom or Dad would point to distant mountains to show us they had snow at the top) to Flagstaff for the express purpose of introducing us to snow. And they were disappointed there were only a couple of inches on the ground. (We weren’t disappointed; we had no point of comparison.) And then they realized they hadn’t brought anything for sledding, and they searched the trunk and found a cardboard box (probably one holding oil and such), and broke it down, and we went down the little hill a few times until it got too soggy. They told us we should have brought something specifically for that purpose, but they didn’t think of it. I have no idea where we were, just randomly at the side of the road, I think. And the funny thing is I have no memories at all of sliding down the hill on that box, so maybe it got wet before it got to me or maybe I wasn’t interested, or maybe it just wasn’t memorable. But we do have photos of all of us laughing, with red faces, and the dog there too. And my dad didn’t laugh very readily, so I think he found joy in being able to treat his Phoenix-bred offspring to something completely new. (The older boys had all grown up with snow, but the youngest of us were all born in Phoenix and all lived in Arizona until our early twenties.)
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NancyJill- Yes, lots of places in Arizona get snow- mountains and high elevation areas like Flagstaff (7,000 ft). People don’t realize that Arizona has more mountain peaks than any other state, they just are as high as places like Colorado. The highest is 12,000+.
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Amusingly, Cheryl, we have pictures where we pulled over to let the children experience rolling on sand hills, probably in Arizona.
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I thought,”beautiful cat,” and immediately tried to read the notes, wishing I had access to reporter notebooks.
I loved them.
My poor long suffering husband is still trying to figure out how to get our computer systems backed up now that Carbonite purchased Mozy. It won’t back up and I’m getting nervous with an enormous amount of research material currently stored on it.
We never had this problem with Mozy. My husband says it’s the video files hogging everything. Why do I so innocently cause all the problems in techno land?
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Arizona Highways did an issue thirty years ago–my older brother showed it to me and I thought about buying my own copy, and I’ve wished ever since that I had done so–in which each of the fifty states has its own page and its own photo. Only all the photos were taken in Arizona. Fields of sunflowers for Kansas, snowy mountains for Colorado, and so forth. It was a beautiful, creative issue, and probably eye-opening to some subscribers from afar who thought of Arizona as being mostly desert. Large swaths of it are, but the ski country in northern Arizona is completely different.
Just as southern Indiana (where I live now) is completely different from the flat land full of farm fields and barns that is probably most people’s view of Indiana (if they even think of Indiana at all). I’m now in an area that is almost an extension of the American South, with some people having Southern accents, with laidback people even by Indiana standards, with drivers hardly ever honking their horns, and with hilly landscapes full of trees. Even my husband, who has spent nearly all his life in the Midwest and a huge percentage of that in Indiana, says it is nothing like what people think of when they hear “Indiana” (I tell him most people don’t really think of Indiana at all). He has also lived in Michigan and Ohio, as well as brief periods in Florida and one year when he was a teenager in California–his dad was a school principal who got two Ph.D.s and tried to move into being a superintendent but never was able to get to that level, so they moved around a bit before he finally did the last decade or so of his career in northern Indiana, where he retired and spent the rest of his life, and his grown children ended up moving back to be near him because of needs in their own families.
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Yes, I have been through Flagstaff more than once when they have snow. Very pretty area.
I like my unscented dryer sheets. I hate getting shocks, so like the static help. I use tennis balls when washing new fabric. I usually wash different colors separately and the tennis balls help keep it from bunching up. I never use any softener on my towels, since they will stop being absorbent if you do so repeatedly. I wash my eye glass wipes and micro clothes in that load, since softener is bad for those.
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I think those of us whose furnaces run lots in the winter need dryer sheets more than folks further south. The air is really dry and then we dry it even more by heating it up. In summer I don’t use dryer sheets at all and like Kathaleena, definitely not on the towels.
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For those of you who have dealt with cataract surgery or have friends/loved ones who have done so, what eye drops did you use?
Did you know that most eye drops for cataracts have a potential side effect for anxiety or depression? I don’t need anyone’s details, but a friend is looking for something without those potential side effects. Suggestions beyond reading the labels?
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BTW, I’ll be in Phoenix and Tucson next week . . .
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Dryer sheets put some sort of coating on clothing and towels. I’ve used white vinegar in the wash for 39 years.
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Have fun in my hometown, Michelle. Those mountains to the north, the Santa Catalina range, are one of my favorite places to be.
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No dryer sheets on towels for me, either. I read about that once.
Pic was taken after I’d come back from interviewing striking teachers on the picket line in the rain. The notebooks were very wet so I thought maybe Annie was trying to dry them off for me.
This weekend I’m hoping to work in the ‘den,’ I need to set up a proper work space/office for myself as I’m guessing I’ll be working from home more often after all our offices get moved around to smaller spaces here and there and everywhere. We’re having a staff meeting this morning about all that.
I have a late story to cover this evening (but am planning to pre-write it mostly today, it’s embargoed until after 6:30 p.m. though). I’m taking tomorrow off, I am in much need of a 3-day weekend.
It rained through most of the night, but off and on and more like showers than real rain. It’s all been glorious for those of us not in the mud-impacted zones. And the snow levels also have dropped again. The surrounding mountains look beautiful.
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The thing about working from home is you need a separate space to go to and to leave.
Working in your regular ‘living’ spaces is awkward as it feels like there’s no end to the day. You realize you’re off the clock and there you are, where you’d be (physically) anyway. You just throw everything back into the work bag and that’s that, but it doesn’t feel like there’s enough separation. I’m thinking with an office space to go into and out of, it’s a set-aside spot where work happens and you can up and leave it when you’re done.
(Not the relaxing ‘den’ Kim and I envisioned, but for now I think purposing it as a work area makes sense.) I’ll try to do a bit of a combo space in there down the line, but having a dedicated work area I think will help since I will probably be splitting my time more between work and what will be a (new and smaller) office space. Editors have told us “be mobile,” we are free to work anywhere we want, from home, a coffee house or the desk they’re leasing for us.
These new spaces are “shared” work spaces with people from other companies and industries, so it’ll feel quite different for us. The lively newsroom of the past is fading away. 😦
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Cheryl/Michelle, anyone else who freelances/writes or otherwise work from home — advice on how to separate the space and time? I like working from home especially when I have to run out and cover something that’s local and close by to where I live. (And it’s certainly easier to get little things done around the house like throwing laundry in on a brief break.) But it has its drawbacks.
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I have my own office in the house where I can close the door and focus. I wrote amidst the chaos of the family room for years (when we made sure all computer use was in an open space to “protect” kids).
I’m far more productive in my upstairs office, now, but I can’t smell food burning on the stove. It’s a good idea to have a designated spot, though I do break out the laptop or use the IPad while watching a movie. You’re right. The workday never ends and I never really “clock out,” even though I try to turn off the computer at 6 pm. 😦
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I never worked from home, but I have a special room, “My Room” where I do all my business, such as SS lessons, financial transactions, etc. I was once briefing Chuck on what to do about my affairs if I should die suddenly. I started out with, “Everything you need is in this room.”
That is: computer, safe deposit box, file cabinet, etc.
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Our new spaces will be minimalist — desks and chairs, basically, “bench” seating ( https://www.steelcase.com/products/benching/frameone/ ) where we sit next to the next guy with no partitions, plug in, work, then leave.
No storage to speak of, so a lot of things (except ongoing story files, but maybe even those) will be tossed from work in the next couple weeks. Some things will go to my garage, but not a lot. I’d already cleared out all my desk drawers during the last layoff scare and I never re-populated those knowing something else would be coming down the pike here, so my stuff is all on top of the desk and I’d say 3/4 of it can and will be tossed.
Only a two-year lease which speaks volumes as well.
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Chas, you sound very organized, a skill I’ve never honed I’m afraid. Time to give that another try, though.
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“The last time it snowed in Los Angeles was in January 1962, according to Los Angeles Public Library archives. During that storm, heavy snow fell in the mountains and high deserts and dusted parts of downtown and West Los Angeles. Most of the city snow, however, melted quickly.”
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Oh, Michelle, I am jealous of you getting to Phoenix. 😦 Last visit I had was for my mom’s funeral (15 1/2 years ago–yikes, how time flies!), and I’m homesick.
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I remember it snowing in Yucca Valley before the big earthquake broke my uncle’s living room, but that is high desert so it happens.
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Hmm, I just told you about the snow in Yucca Valley that one New Year but it is not hear. Must have been talking to myself. So I will remain anonymous so you won’t know.
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hear? no here. But it does not matter because I am lost in space now.
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Bizarre.
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Who is that anonymous person who keeps posting over and over just to hear himself talk?
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I have not read all the comments. My eye is still slightly dilated.
A friend sent me a set of dryer hedgehogs to deal with dryer static. I prefer not to use them because they are rather loud when they bump around in the dryer. I stopped using dryer sheets many years ago. We only have static occasionally. A bit more might be a deterrent to Miss Bosley wanting to help with the laundry.
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The cataract eyedrops are a mystery substance made of three pharma products at a compounding facility that the eye clinic contracts with. The drops are known on the paperwork as PGB or at least that is what I think they are. The person who did the quote on cost wrote it up as dilating drops. But Tues. the doctor’s assistant said they are not dilating drops. Medicare is supposedly no longer covering the expense of drops. In researching, I found that some docs don’t use drops, especially in Europe. Seems that is the trend so maybe that is why Medicare is not covering the drops as of 2019. I have not noticed any depression or anxiety yet from the drops. Do you have a source for more info, Michelle?
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Lost in Space, Mumsee? How did you go back in time to appear on that old television show?
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A few of us have seen the room that Chas referred to in his comment when we had a delightful visit to see him and Elvera.
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We are probably going to set a record for snowfall in February soon. More is expected today and we are very close.
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Know what is hilarious DJ? My brother who lives in the LA area is out of the country this week–so he may well miss the chance of a lifetime. (He was born in 1960, so he was alive during the last LA snow, but barely–and he didn’t live there till about 1979 or ’80–that’s a lot of years to “wait” for snow and then miss it!!)
I grew up hearing my dad talk about the last snow in Phoenix, flurries only when he was driving a school bus, with mesmerized children who couldn’t wait to get off the bus. That bit of snow doesn’t appear in the record books. Here is what I found about snow in Phoenix:
A History of Snowfall in Phoenix
. . . The greatest amount of snow ever recorded at the official reporting station in Phoenix was 1.0 inch on January 20 1933, and on January 21 and 22 1937.
Other times measurable snow was recorded include:
0.5 inches on February 2 1939
0.4 inches on December 21 and 22 1990
0.2 inches on March 12 1917
0.1 inches on November 28 1919
0.1 inches on December 11 1985
. . . The most significant documented snowfall event in Phoenix occurred on January 21 and 22 in 1937. One inch was officially reported at the federal building at Central and Fillmore. However…up to 4 inches was reported in other parts of what is now the metro area. Snow was said to have remained in shady areas until the 24th of the month.
…and from a weather summary written by an unknown author in 1898…
In the vicinity of Phoenix…while snow melted almost as fast as it fell…it is estimated the measurement would have exceeded 6 inches…had the snow lain on the ground. As the meteorological records of this station extend over 3 years…and during that time there is no record of snow…we depend upon tradition when saying it was the heaviest snowfall within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. (http://southwestweather.com/wx/wxsnowhistory.php)
That 1985 snow was the one I experienced. Some areas got more than 1/10 of an inch, and I didn’t even realize the official total was that small. The front page of the paper had a photo of a couple who built a tiny little snow man (they were kneeling and I think bending over just to get in the same frame with it), and it looked like it had a lot of dirt in the snow but somehow they made a snowman. Who knows, maybe they cheated and got most of it from their freezer! That was the closest Phoenix kids got to seeing snow, most of the time. I also remember the 1990 snow, though I was in Chicago by then. I called my mom’s house for Christmas Eve, and she passed the phone around so I could talk briefly to everyone. (It was my dime, but the only time I talked to most of my siblings by phone, since they didn’t call me in my college days; I made the call every year but the one year I went to Phoenix for Christmas.) Anyway, my oldest brother asked if we had had any snow yet, and I said yes, it had snowed lightly the day before. He laughed and also expressed surprise–he told me that Phoenix had had its “first” snow of the year the day before we did!
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DJ, if you have a bit of money budgeted to set up a home office, you may be able to go to a used office furniture store and find a variety of helps in setting up a new feeling space that does not feel like your home space. You may be able to swap out something you don’t need for something you do need. Think of how much time you will need to spend there and what it is worth to you to have a pleasant and efficient setup.
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Thanks, Janice. I already have a desk, file cabinet and computer table in there (my printer also is located in that room. I’d originally set it up to be sort of a work/study area, but it needs a bit of reorganizing (the desk is cluttered for example). I also bought a nice, high-backed padded desk chair some years ago that’s in there so it will be much more comfortable than a wooden chair.
In other words, I think I have mostly if not all of what I need, it just needs some major tidying up,
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Why would you think it was me, Janice? I am clearly signing my name on my comments.
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I haven’t used that room in a while, so recently it’s been where I put my bills, tax documents I need to hang on to, other things that come in the mail that I don’t immediately discard. I did clear out the file cabinet and desk drawers during the house project, so I need to set up some new files of papers I’m keeping, some of which may be in the garage. I had a lot of BSF materials I got rid of, those took up much of the file cabinet space. I should have plenty of room in that cabinet going forward even after I put back the things I feel I need to keep. And the desk drawers mostly remain empty as well.
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I think I remember the 1962 “snow” (it didn’t appear at our house, but I remember asking if I could sleep on the sofa so I could keep watch out the window just in case); we were set to leave for Girl Scout snow/winter camp the following morning and I thought, well, if it’s going to snow here anyway, why not stay? But my mom explained it would only melt fast and we’d have more fun at camp on the sleds in the local mountains that would have lots and lots of snow.
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You are all set, DJ!
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I thought I vaguely remembered a few flakes in LA, we would have been there around Christmas/New Years. But it was probably just stories. I must have been about six. Just memory of a few flakes, nothing on the ground. Marina del Rey, Culver City, Inglewood Blvd, Santa Monica airport was the general stomping ground.
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But it is pretty cold these days. I should probably bring my plants in or cover them with plastic …
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Looks like we have about ninety percent to one hundred fifty percent of our normal snow this year throughout Idaho.
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DJ, I am not always good at separating home time / space from work time / space. I found it easier when I simply worked at home occasionally (but had to put in an eight-hour day when I did work at home). The structure was already in place, and it was just the location that changed. (And I also didn’t have a computer with internet access in Chicago–when I worked at home, I took paper home with me. To this day, I find it easy to sit and focus on the days I’m editing on paper.)
I would find it easier, I think, if the work was consistent. If I had 20-30 hours per week of editing work, then I could work from noon to seven p.m. three to four days a week, and work on other things the other days, and find a routine in it. As it stands, some weeks I work 60-70 hours and other weeks just two or three hours. Doing any kind of pattern doesn’t work. Now, I could set myself down in front of my computer five hours a day even on days with no editing work (doing writing work instead), but it’s too easy to be distracted by places like this one, or news reports, etc. When I’m editing or writing, I actually do need to get on the web frequently–to check a fact, to put in something I don’t quite remember–but I need to have more discipline and set aside large blocks of time. It’s easier to stay disciplined when I have lots of work (more work in line behind what I’m currently editing).
It became harder once I got married. Up north my husband and I had desks facing each other in our library. It was sociable, but my husband is a talker. So I’d be editing and he would say something, and I’d answer and start reading my paragraph again, and he’d say something else. Sometimes it would take me three or four attempts to get through a paragraph. H was good at being quiet if I told him “I’m working,” but sometimes I was working and sometimes I wasn’t, and he couldn’t tell the difference when he was sitting across from me. I found that sometimes it was easier to do my old Nashville work schedule, in which I might work as late as 2:00 a.m., just because it was quieter. Now I have my own office space, and while it isn’t strictly private (no closing door), when it is just the two of us here, I usually have my own time and space to work. And he has a door that shuts on his studio, so if he is watching something and not using headphones, I can shut the door. The room where we will eventually get TV reception is the other end of the house from me and also has a door that closes, so if he were to have guys over to watch a game, or if we were to have overnight company and they were in bed, I’d be able to work in peace. I also had us put my reading chair in our bedroom, so if I have hard copy to edit and we have overnight guests, I can shut myself in the bedroom and have access to my editing (and to a bathroom) without any chance of disturbing a guest.
So . . . a proper space, ability to keep out at least some distractions, and discipline all play into being able to work at home.
It was quite difficult for me, the summer our daughter was courting, when her fiance would come over and both daughters, my husband, and our future son-in-law were all gathered in the kitchen and I had a deadline. It happened several times. I’d go out to say hello, and then I would go and work, shutting the door behind me. It felt unsociable, and at times it made it hard to focus, but it was necessary. Freelance work doesn’t just stop for a month because someone in your family is dating, or moving out, or sick. At the same time, I do like the ability to set my own hours, and to be able to have lunch with a friend or take the phone call from someone who’s crying. As long as I have the ability to turn back to “work” and do it, and as long as enough work is coming in to pay the bills, the flexibility is a blessing.
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Oh, and it helps that overall I really love “what I do.” When I am working on a specific book I dislike, it is that much harder to stay motivated. But I like my job, in general, and enjoy most projects I edit.
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In the question of whether Flagstaff gets snow . . . they’ve had 14 inches in this storm, and Scottsdale (a well-to-do suburb of Phoenix) has snow, too.
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Graupel? Snow? Hail? We’re so confused.
https://laist.com/2019/02/21/yes_thats_snow_you_just_saw_in_los_angeles.php
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I may not get to sleep tonight for wondering who Anonymous is.
😉
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Hey person! Don’t eat the snow, you will contribute to global warming! And it is filled with acid rain! And stuff!
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anonymous, spanodicus, does it really matter? Does anybody really know my name? Does anybody care? As I was walking down the street one day….
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I rode through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to be out of the rain. In the desert you can remember your name….
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hey, who got fifty seven? That is so unfair.
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AJ, can this anonymous troll be banned? It (he or she) really seems to delight in wreaking havoc and no one having any idea who it is. Life would probably be easier if it is just kicked off the site. Thank you. Some of the things the troll says would suggest it is in open country and breeds animals, if that helps in tracking it down. But this site is probably better off doing the exterminating before the trolls themselves reproduce.
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Anon @ 6:35.
My dad used to make snow cream by taking some snow, mixing in some flavoring syrup (and something else I don’t remember) and we had snow cream’
We moved to Charleston in 1841 and that was over.
Later, after we had Chuck and lived in Texas, I tried that. but fortunately, some of it melted before I finished and I saw all sorts of stuff mixed into it. No more snow cream.
The driven snow isn’t pure any more.
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The difference, Chas, is you were a child and your dad did the prep. As an adult, you notice those things. Snow begins forming like rain, around a dust or pollen particle. It has always been so. Now we have added more stuff to help it form. We eat the snow here, and rain, and icicles, we just don’t inspect. And it has to be white.
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By the way, Chas, most of the anons today were me. Sleep well.
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I don’t think I’d want to eat even white snow in Chicago or Dallas or LA.
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We’ve decided our snow is all because of global warming … er, climate change. Whatever.
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Calling it a “snow-like substance”
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DJ – That shared work space you linked to looks awful!
I guess people could get used to it, but for some, it would be very hard to focus.
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Re the shared workspace: I worked in something similar in Nashville for a temporary part-time job I did my last few summers, but we were working with the same crew over time and got to know the people at the other computers on supper breaks and so forth. To just come and go when you are working for different companies, and will have a different person next to you next time you come in, would not be anything close to a good use of space for most of us. (Extroverts would want to talk, and introverts would want to be gone.) I have seen those “shared” spaces before (only in photos), but they at least have cubicles or some type of separation between people. That setup would mean if the guy at the next computer is looking at porn (I know, they likely don’t allow that), you are looking at porn too. And if you are working on secret information, how on earth do you keep it secret?
That really doesn’t look like a good solution to anything.
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We will have our own set-apart space so we would be sitting with ‘our own kind.’ 🙂
But we’re all being broken up with some going to the building to the north, others to the south.
One of the advertising sales gals told me we’re like foster kids being sent away to separate group homes and we just want a forever home with owners who want us. Funny-sad, but really some of us may not see each other much in the future.
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I work in a shared space, but there is a partial wall between the office I share with the maintenance guy and two of the directors. I like it because apparently I can choose to be distracted by others or not. I feel like I’m a part of things even though I’m ‘only’ the administrator.
Maintenance guy and I share an L-shaped desk.
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Done with the night meeting story. Long day.
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Snow in Scottsdale. And Flagstaff has over 30 inches now, a new record.
But here in the Middle Mississippi Valley it’s close to 40. And this was our sunset tonight:
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Simple Peter, you take a picture.
🙂
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