Burned Up With Beauty

"It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while." ~ Don Marquis ~

I took another impromptu trip .... this time to Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw) in Michigan. The island forbid motor vehicles in 1898, so getting around requires good walking shoes, bikes, renting a horse or taking a carriage ride. Ah! Good old fashioned fresh air free of car exhaust and fragrant with horse manure. ;) Not that I mind because I love horses and leaving a bit of modern life behind. They do an excellent job of cleaning up and I found the pace of life there remarkably tranquil.



It's a nice bike ride around the island. The path is 8.8 miles long (also walkable if you want to make a day of it). Better yet, hire a saddle horse and make the ride around. Horse drawn carriages are also fun to view the flora and fauna from. Arch Rock, the butterfly museum, the Grand Hotel, the Fort, tons of restaurants. shops and hotels to dally in.... yes, you can actually experience what it's like to dally (an antiquated concept in our fast-paced world).



It makes me wonder about our recent ancestors before this explosion of technology. Driving horse-drawn buggies, socializing on the veranda, playing games together, just walking and talking and allowing the moment to grow. Very nice!

Rite of Passage

"Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional." ~ Roger Crawford ~

I guess you could call it a rite of passage to have worn out your first pair of leather work gloves. To tell the truth, I never really appreciated their value until this project came along. But, they've been invaluable and have saved me alot of misery as I've found that when I'm without them I end up with blisters, slivers or metal shards causing discomfort. Just carrying a bucket of dirt (and I never knew how heavy dirt is either) is more comfortable with them on. My brother is the one to point out this questionable achievement and since I am still painting the woodwork on my windows I'll indulge my thoughts on my relationship with him...

"The measure of a man is not, 'How did he die?' but 'How did he live?' not 'What did he gain?' but 'What did he give?'" ~ Unknown ~

I'm ten and a half years older than he so I've always taken him under my wing and tried to spend time with him. His nickname as a kid was "Pinwheel" as he was always moving and would just as soon climb up your arm and over you than to go around you (not exactly an endearing feature, but he was a great kid nonetheless :) So, even when I went to college I would try to make it home at least once a month for a weekend with him and who wouldn't for the excitement and obvious affection I appreciated from him. I'd take him bowling or to a movie or a drive, or just spend time with him on his go-cart and later on, his motorcycle. I'm happy to say I was the first to let him drive on the freeway. I took him places with me like to St. Louis and Wisconsin Dells although we never made it to Alaska to fly over the North Pole as we'd been planning. Instead of trading in my old car (very old car), I gave it to him when he was sixteen. That was a no-brainer as the amount my loan would be reduced was next to nothing and he was overjoyed just to have "wheels". So, we've had alot of great memories together. None of which were made with the intention of payback but just because he's such a great guy and fun to be around.

"A great man is he who does not lose his child's heart." ~ Menicus ~

As we are working on the house, we relax and joke around just as if we were kids again. So, we smile and tease each other and do "stupid" things that only siblings have an instinct for. I don't care how old and sophisticated you are... if you let your hair down with family it's as if time stood still. You still can go "back there". And, there's no better remedy for those aches in your soul than a good laugh with a good friend. Create the situations where they can happen and you'll be alot better off for it.

Good Enough For Me!

While I've been waiting for the plumber and the electrician to complete their portion of the job so that city inspection can take place, I've been painting the woodwork on my windows. No easy task to accomplish as I've found that three coats are required, therefore I've had plenty of thinking time. So, here's where my mind's been drifting....

"The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." ~ William Wordsworth ~

I think alot about friends and relatives who have taught me lessons or been examples of virtues or personality traits I admire. One of which is my Aunt Marge. The following is a rough sketch I drew as a preliminary for her portrait (which, of course, I gave to her).



I'll tell you what I learned from Aunt Marge ... She had so much love, emotion, and sentimentality contained within her for people that you felt her hug long before she actually accomplished the feat. I still can smile remembering an Auntie Marge hug. So, no limp handshakes from me, no blase' hugs or insincere words .... Aunt Marge taught me to put out that warmth of emotion to enrich the lives of those she loved.

"You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a fine spirit of hope of achievement. You are here to enrich the world and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." ~ Woodrow Wilson ~

And what would Aunt Marge be without her Otto? Uncle Otto was the strong, silent type of man with a twinkle in his eye and an adoration for the woman he loved that could never be questioned and only admired (of course, it was returned full measure to him). He taught us ~ Not to open our mouths more than we had to ~ To adore your spouse is the best gift you can give your children ( friends, relatives and yourself) ~ To know that people sometimes make mistakes and to seek to understand without passing judgment.

"Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come." ~ Og Mandino ~

Every other year we would go visit them as they lived in New York State and we in Minnesota, so it was a few days drive. They would visit us the alternate years. But, I can remember the family get-togethers we would have playing horseshoes or tag or having water balloon wars with my cousins in their yard. We'd just run wild and holler and laugh and let off steam. We'd love it if we could get an adult to join in and most of the time if we threw a water balloon near enough (almost, but not quite....) one of the adults would up and chase us and then the squealing would really begin. Uncle Pete was a good one for that. It was great fun, those family barbecues at their house. Uncle Otto's been gone probably eighteen years now and Aunt Marge passed more than ten years ago of Alzheimers, the same disease that afflicts my mother.

My brother, his wife and I care for our mother. I am quite aware that we are lucky she's not angry and combative. As Alzheimers progresses, it peels away memories and layers of personality. She is losing her ability to speak as her vocabulary is slowly disintegrating. We are left with her core spirit which is peaceful and happy and can literally be one of the few who are genuinely living in the "now". She knows not our names or who we are to her, but she does know that this face she loves. And, that's good enough for me!

Hired Help

Here we are nearing mid-July and I am still doing demolition and working on the "guts" (the unseen mechanicals) of the house! I've finally hired a carpenter, electrician and plumber and all are on board to get their portion complete and inspected within the next week. I've chosen a good crew and am happy with the pointers and recommendations they are willing to offer a "novice".

"In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy." ~ Karl Reiland ~

For example, all winter the basement never had a smell. This June, an odd smell started emanating from somewhere down there and for the life of me, I could not pinpoint the source. The plumber advised me to pour water down the P-traps of the drains as it had evaporated allowing sewer gas to seep back up the line. It took one minute to do, and by the next day the smell was eliminated completely.



Above you are looking at the wall from the three season porch that I had to remove so that the carpenter could bump out a master bedroom closet and master bath shower. I had already removed the drywall on the inside of the wall. I unexpectedly ran into plywood underneath the drywall which made the demo three times as hard. That gave me alot more thinking time and I've been toying with the idea of addressing some of those thoughts here. For example, my admiration for the plethora of tools man has devised for whatever problem he encounters... crowbars, prybars, grippers, sawsalls, multimasters .... I used to tease my brother that his candy aisle at the store was the power tool aisle. Mine, of course, is the art supply aisle. I mean, you can actually catch a glint in the eye of a person truly fascinated in scoping out what genuinely interests him/her.



The third photo shows the demolition task complete and the fourth photo shows the new framing for the closet the carpenter built from the inside of the master bedroom (he makes it look so easy...). You've got to admire a person who does a job well. It's such a thing of beauty!

"There is a kind of victory in good work, no matter how humble." ~ Jack Kemp ~

Go Beyond the Norm

"If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning." ~ Mahatma Gandhi ~



I told a friend of mine that I was going to teach myself how to build a closet by reading a book and figuring it out on my own. Well, I did it! And, the carpenter I hired to build a closet through a structural wall in the master bedroom approved of my efforts. If you look at the floor plan in the June 19th entry, the photos above show the changes on either side of the front door. The first photo shows the framing for the 1st floor half bath (formerly the coat closet) and the 2nd photo shows the closet I built (myself) to the left of the front door. I'll be installing a new front door changing the swing of the door to open to the right so the electrical switches also must be changed to the left side of the door (always there's a domino effect)!

Every cause produces more than one effect. ~ Herbert Spencer ~

It would be nice to be able to show you everything all pretty and nice and completely finished, however, that's not how the city inspectors will let me work. First all the framing has to be inspected along with the electrical and plumbing. Then I have to insulate and have the insulation inspected. I can then move on to drywall, taping and mud, sanding, priming, painting, trim and then finally I can install the flooring. Wow! And I haven't even talked about cabinets. So, it will be a while before I'm entirely finished. I didn't take this on without my eyes open. I knew it would be a lengthy process and challenging at that!

"Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch - what make you go beyond the norm." ~ Cicely Tyson ~

If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me!

I told you that I have alot to recap so I'm about to get on with it... The first photo is of the ceiling fan in the three season porch (my favorite room :). Actually one of the bulbs is broken so the base is screwed in with no bulb to turn it out with. I just learned that I can cut a potato and force that onto the broken base and turn it out that way (otherwise I'll work it out with a pliers). I'll let you know which works.

"The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm." ~ Swedish Proverb ~

The second photo is of the type of ceiling fixture I put in two of the bedrooms and the hallway. These were already wired, so it was merely a matter of replacing the fixture. I had never done that before so I learned about ground wires, live wires, capping things off in the right combination, tugging on my wires ensuring a permanent connection and of course, I triple-checked to make sure I did things right.

The third picture is of the flexible track lights my brother helped me install in the kitchen above the sink. The former track lights are in the fourth picture (the large lights in a straight line). So that takes care of the lights I replaced. The fourth photo also shows the holes cut for the pendant lights to be installed over the new bar. Now we get to the thirteen can lights I cut holes in the living and dining room ceilings and fished the wiring between the holes. Photo five shows the circles I drew on the ceiling using the template included in the can light and the holes I cut (hopefully avoiding beams - luckily I hit only one). The electrician I hired had to do the actual installation and final wiring hooking it up to the electric, etc. I wouldn't try to do this myself on the sly because it can cause alot of problems down the line. Let's say there was an electrical fire and the insurance company double checked the permits that were pulled on the house and found that no permits were pulled for those lights that caused the fire. Then they wouldn't pay for the damages. So, you're better off doing it legally and cover your bases.

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." ~ John Wooden ~

I'd say the worst part in installing the can lights is the blow-in cellulose insulation in the rafter area. You can't move without it falling all over you and everything else. VERY MESSY! Also, because the living and dining room ceilings are slightly vaulted running the fish-tape from hole to hole to pull the wire through was nearly impossible because the rafters were scissoring across each other. Honestly, by the end of successfully pulling all the wire, I felt a miracle had occurred. Now I know why electricians charge so much for that part of the job!

"Patience is a bitter plant that produces sweet fruit." ~ Charles Swindoll ~

The sixth picture is of the hole we cut in the ceiling to install the chandelier. Since chandeliers are heavier, we needed to support it extremely well. So, we installed a two by four fit between the rafters so that you could swing from it if you wanted. No need to fear on the support for that light. Of course, we have a bit of drywalling and plastering to do, but well worth the extra effort.

"Right action is the key to good living." ~ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions ~

I don't expect that I'll be doing that any time again soon. But it's nice to have that in my repertoire of experience. I think I'll always be nervous about working around electric. If you've ever grabbed a live wire (I did as a kid when Dad was wiring an outlet - it's a cold grinding feeling) you'll never want to repeat it.

Look For The Gift!

"Every new day begins with possibilities. It's up to us to fill it with the things that move us toward progress and peace." ~ Ronald Reagan ~

This is the view of the backyard from the deck in the morning. The house sits on a double-wide lot so it's quite large and open. It's the best backyard I've ever had as it is completely fenced in for the dog and my dog and I love it. I have never known him to stay outside for hours. He investigates all perimeters each day, then sits under the shade tree waiting for people (with dogs) to pass by on the walking path in the park behind the house. There is plenty of wildlife to check on every morning with birds and bunnies living in the wild back there. You can hear the birds scolding him when he gets too close to their nest. Yes, it's idyllic and I can just imagine sitting on the steps having my morning coffee, absorbing the beauty of nature.

"Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly." ~ James Russell Lowell ~


"The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises." ~ Leo Buscaglia ~

Here is some gardening I did out in the front. The tree surround was already there but some of the stones were out of line because the roots of the tree grew too large beneath certain areas. It required removing sections of stone and trimming the root (sculpting it, so to speak) to permit the stones to lie flat. This season, that is about all I intend on accomplishing in the yard.

"True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by." ~ E. S. Bouton ~

So, don't forget to look for the gift in each day! Because there is always.... and I mean ALWAYS a gift ... if you remember to look for it.