Renovation and Makeover

We knew there'd be problems before we moved in.  I didn't get that the discoloration on the floor meant water damage.  We called the insurance company who sent a crew out June 28 and stayed with us until July 6 and disappeared.

The insurance company had wired money to our bank in addition to paying Service Master.   okay, additional expenses like the plumber, electrician . . . but wait.  We still need more than just a sub floor. . . Installation 

We finally heard back from Service Master on August 11, I believe.  It was by phone on Friday and they said they'd be out on Monday.  They weren't.  Roland received a call after 6:00 pm on Tuesday.  A representative came to give an estimate, which Roland tore apart and ended up agreeing to dry wall only.  Oh, and let's not forget the furnace that has been in our kitchen the last 6 weeks.  And please return our daughter's possessions!

Dry wall put in.  Furnace installed but not connected.  Jenna's belongings didn't arrive until Friday.  To save ourselves some money, we decided to paint and install the floors ourselves. Some pictures I have posted already.  But here is a synopsis of our lives June 28 through today.

June 27 water damaged floor

floor ripped up and fans dry out

furnace lived in the kitchen along side our dining table

I did try to liven it up a little

didn't always work out though

this would be Jenna's room June 29

Roland on cat walk fixing breaker switch Jun 30

we had pulled out 5 drawers of clothes and 

stored them in the tub - it served as a temporary closet

washer and dryer lived outside

July 3,  Jenna's room

furnace hole, Jenna's room, washer and dryer space

July 6 subfoor

July 6  Jenna's room

furnace still not hooked up

this one appears to be out of order . . . . hmm. 

wall connecting to laundry wall  July 1 probably

washer disconnected Aug 16

Aug 16 wall in Jenna's room

sorting through clothes that Kylee gave her

Aug 16

cutting drywall in our carport

Aug 16 Roland spackling laundry/hall

Aug 16 spackling Jenna's wall

Aug 18 Jenna picked out a really loud paint

August 20, finally set up for moving back in

August 22 quite proud of her green wall

Aug 22, start the flooring project

our back porch during renovation

Aug 24

our kitchen seems to have taken a dive as well

Aug 25 All done.

To Be Independent or Part of the System

            I went to my first  Library Futures Task Force meeting - only it isn't called that anymore.  The meeting was referred to as Douglas County Library Rescue Coalition.  About 100 people (I thought it had been more) attended the meeting in Winston last Thursday (August 17).  I think most were volunteers, some onlookers and concerned citizens, some who would like the libraries to continue to operate just as  they had before, some there for support, some there to share newfound growth and remain independent ; cooperative but not restricted . . .

            Mary Kay - who represents the state - was there to raise awareness and provide options for those who needed or wanted the support.  The libraries who seem to be most successful would like to share materials but not guidance that feels mandatory.  Most representatives expressed that they are doing fine without the stipulations of those who  think that they are trying to make things better/easier.

            The smaller communities have seem to established successful growth.  It is the larger cities that struggle.  The smaller cities have city support.  The larger ones don't seem to - at least that is how it is in our case.  We are not among the largest of cities in the county, though larger than most.  Reedsport is the largest city to have their library underway.  Kudos for all those from Reedsport who attend.  They are located on the coast far away from the rest of the county.  I always thought it looked odd geographically.  I don't know if they ever felt included or excluded because of their location.

            Next to Reedsport, Myrtle Creek may actually be the largest library after Sutherlin - though I don't think "library" is the correct term as they are not checking out books, but offering as a reading room.  Perhaps I should have paid greater attention. 

            The smaller cities sign up many volunteers.  The larger cities don't general get as many who are willing to make the time to volunteer.  In our community we have a large number who are interested.  We also have just as many who are definitely not willing to support the cost of a library.  At least three of those members serve on the council at city hall.  And there are three who are in favor of keeping the library.  We are located in the original library building on a trial basis.  After a year, we may have to move again.  Downtown parking doesn't seem as convenient.  But there is a building available (in fact several) if needs be.  Right now we are using it to store  overflow book sale items.  Perhaps it will be opened to the public soon. 

            There are/WERE 11 cities with libraries.  Each was represented at the meeting.  Glendale might be are least populated city, though I don't imagine that Oakland and Drain are too far behind.  When the measure for the county didn't pass, Drain had their own election as  city and there were four more votes for saving the library than not;  currently they are the only city in the county with a paid librarian.  Glendale checks out with cards and pockets and may not ever be able to do it the check out the modern way as I understand there is no internet available in Glendale anymore.  That bites.  But I am so happy that they have reopened and have the support.  I think Glendale needs their library more than we do.

            Riddle and Reedsport have already chosen to remain independent - even before attending the meeting.  I think Mary Kay and Douglas County Library Rescue Coalition were disappointed with some of the reaction from the libraries who chose to run independently, but really the correspondence between library reps has been even greater than when we were a county library.  There is a lot of newsfeed and sharing and definite structure and not always waiting for the big head cheese. 

            Those that came out of concern for Winston and Roseburg - Roseburg especially - didn't seem very satisfied.  We have added items to those that belong to the county, but only the county ones come up in the system. Currently we are open more hours than any other library in the county.  We were open three or four days each week during the summer.  We are talking about changing our hours for the school year so that it can be used after school.  We will probably be open less hours.  I don't know for certain.

              As a whole the libraries do seem to be working well together.  We share information and have given one another great support.  Overall I think the feedback from each representative was very positive.  It appears that we are the only library to carry insurance on our volunteers.

           At the time of the meeting, we were checking items in and out by hand - using cards and pockets - which we still have to do for non-county things.  But as of Monday (Solar Eclipse Day) we have been able to scan county items and check items out the modern way.

August 21 Checklist

        Jenna had asked if her friend Kylee could spend the night.  They had planned for Monday night, but workday sleepovers did not work out well when she and Annette we better friends.  I told her it would be up to Roland.  He said yes and   Jenna created a list for the following day.

             Jenna's agenda for Monday, August 21:

 1) [Kylee]

 2) pool

3) eclipse

4) doughnuts

5) library

6) rays/goin’ postal

7) little shop 8 games . . .

9) something scary

10) bed. 

Allow me to explain:  First thing, we went to Kylee’s house to pick her up at 8:30 a.m..  Check off 1.  Next we went to the pool.  When we arrived, there was a note on the door:

A birthday bash is held at the pool each year on the Friday closest to the 21st.  We have missed all three years however. We were in Roseburg this year as I suspect other two as well.   I thought it was cool that the pool was getting an eclipse for its birthday (LOL) It was just Jenna, Kylee and me in the pool.  There were three lifeguards there.  What troopers, allowing us to be there.  They had even allowed the girls to go down the slide that had been turned on. Check off number 2. 

the large slide hadn't been turned on.  They went down this small one

I thought there would be more from the class as we had made reference to watching the solar eclipse from the pool.  Our instructor had a much better view as she was watching from a city closer to Madras.  We had accumulated several pairs of glasses since summer began and Miss J managed to give away all pairs except for one.  I had already given those to Roland figuring there were other pairs in the car.

hype

this was taken earlier this summer

Kylee had a pair - which she had torn in half so that both she and Jenna could watch at the same time.

 

  Kylee had wanted me to take her home for a half hour or so, but I thought we’d be watching the eclipse first.  I ended up driving to the park by myself as I didn’t know if I’d make it back in time to watch with Roland.  As I had mentioned before, neither Jenna nor I were all that impressed as we had been expecting to see the Corona.  I think a lot of people were as we made our way to Kylee's house and found many with paper glasses on their faces looking towards the sky.  They lost interest before the passing was complete.

courtesy of my brother-in-law (view from Utah)

 The skies seemed overcast.  Not as dark as we had anticipated.  The skies were really smoky that day and the next.  Worse than Medford was.  I had a killer headache – my breathing was almost as bad as it was in Utah.  Even Roland has been affected. Check off number 3.

Now Jenna was hoping I could take them to Happy Doughnuts – which is on the other end of town.  I was willing to drive them there, but did not want to make the drive just myself (I think driving up and down Old Pacific all day is what contributed to my leg becoming sore in the first place) and by the time I got to Ray’s (the local grocery store we call Rip-Off-Rays) there weren’t any maple bars (or many doughnuts of any variety for that matter)  Jaime specifically wanted maple bars because Monday was maple bar day at the Happy Doughnut; oh well . . .) so no check-off for number 4.

I had come home to change my pants and returned for Jenna and Kylee just before 11:00.  I hadn’t planned on adding laundry to the agenda, but realized that it needed to be done.  Kylee loaded my car full of cans and bottles to take to the recycling because each return of bar-coded bottle or can (has to be readable and not bent) add up at 10 cents a can, but I had to go to the library for summer reading before they could turn in the cans. 

It was our last day at the for the children’s reading program at the library and Jenna and I have been volunteering each Monday.  I don’t know how I became the story lady, but I have told stories at each event.  After story time we have had an activity except for the day of the solar eclipse.  Story time felt like an afterthought.  The children were more involved in the activities they had already started - which is okay.  Here are some samples of most of the activities that we did for the last two months:

 

we offered Lego activities two weeks in a row:
July 24 and 31

Sponge Bobs birthday was August 10

Solar Eclipse activity Aug 8

display case as of August 8

pin the eclipse over the sun

we created fairy gardens on Aug 14

house to go in the fairy garden

learning the planets on Aug 21

this was our last day of summer reading

tiles created on the last day

making slime Aug 21

cover photo for facebook page; rocks painted at the festival

Check off library.  So I took the girls to Rays, dropped them off with the five or six bags of cans, and went to the laundry mat.  I told them I’d meet them at Goin’ Postal – which is just next door to the strip mall (I guess you could call it that) where Ray’s is located.  It’s still a good walk. 

So we were home and up to number 7.  Both enjoy scary movies, though I don’t know why.  Little Shop of Horrors is not all that scary, but because  the plant arrives on the day of the full solar eclipse, Jenna decided they needed to watch it in honor of that day’s eclipse. But they had wanted to wait until it got darker.

 They started working on number 8.  Asking questions from board games mostly.  Kylee did have an opportunity of playing Balderdash with the rest of us as we introduced her to Family Home Evening.  Kylee fell asleep as they watched Little Shop and started from the beginning the next morning (after she had gone to the pool with us again of course - the smokiest day - not a good workout because we did not breathe the air) The girls were well behaved and at a lower volume than Jenna had been with Annette.

We returned Kylee to her house just after three.  I'd forgotten that I had agreed to work a shift at the library, and so had Jenna go with me as I did not have time to take her home.

The smoke had lifted by Wednesday morning.  Back to a better pool workout.

Where is the Sun?

         I had not noticed what the temperature was when I left the house this morning, but it was cold. I grabbed a jacket and slipped on some long pants before I went. It's felt so hot for so long the drop in temperature makes it seem cold.  I didn't want our swim instructor to be there by herself.  Two other students showed.  The water was colder than the air was.  After fifteen minutes of movement, I still wasn't warm.  I got out of the pool just after 9:30.  It was warmer outside than in the pool.  It is still overcast, but no rain yet.

        There was a misty fog hanging over the hills this morning.  I love that sight, but think I enjoyed it more this morning believing it has helped clear some of the smoke - though yesterday was not as bad as Tuesday.  Skies were hazy with smoke since the solar eclipse had passed.  That isn't healthy to breathe.

         Jenna did not go with me this morning. Tomorrow will be the last day of class as our instructor got roped into substituting and training a teaching position.  I miss the class already.  I told her I'd take her to Happy Doughnuts on Monday morning.

          I do have more thoughts to post.  A meeting from last week, renovation update, and the agenda for the day of the eclipse (which I will probably post tomorrow)  but may not get to all of my thoughts until after Jenna returns to school as I would like to spend the last few days of her summer with her.

Where's the Passion

                Serena asked if I would write a news article about the library. She sent over some ideas of what was wanted and asked if I could do it in 100sh words.  That's not a lot of words.  I could easily do more than 1000.  I did over 400 and just barely scratched the service.  I have not heard back from her.

                I enjoyed the first economy class that I took several times more than the current class I'm taking.  To give my readers an idea of how foreign this subject is to me, let me share with you the discussion and assignment topics:    Explain why you think the Federal Reserve Bank tracks M1 and M2.  OR  List and explain each of the three traditional tools the central bank has for controlling the money supply. Which is the most popular? Why?; Now with these things in mind, Please choose ONE of the following. Your response should be 600 words long:

1) Explain what will happen to the Money Multiplier process if there is an increase in the Reserve Requirement.

2) Why does expansionary monetary policy cause interest rates to drop?

3) There is a well-known economic model called the Phillips Curve. Using a discussion on expansion and contradiction policy, explain why one of these variables usually falls when the other rises.

600 words?  They might as well ask me to write it in klingon.  What the heck?  So not only do I have to come up with 600 words (when I'm not even able to come up with 6) but I have to do some research to explore what the heck any of this even means.

                I chose Phillip's curve.  I thought there would be more information about it.  None of my references are 600 words long.  There have been one or two paragraphs before details of two other scientists whose theories go into more detail.  Okay, okay.  Let's look up Phillips -find out who he is, explain some of his background.  Still less than 300 words.  Now what?  Also this is supposed to be my opinion and yet I am supposed to write my opinion in third person?  Why not just tell me to type it all out without using my fingers?

                One of my references was actually written in first person.  It made it personal.  The reference was made in 2008 before the economy started referring to our slump as a recession.  The Great Recession as a matter of fact.  Great?  What was so great about it?  So half my assignment is on defining Phillips and the other half is about the recession.

                Conclusion: Though it is said that the unemployment rate has had no bearing on the inflation as an economy, those who are unemployed or who are employed but struggling, deal with personal inflation on a daily basis.  My assignment will not be graded until Sunday.

                Thus far I'm receiving a good grade in the class.  I am so grateful I have only the one class right now as it seems to be eating up a lot of my time and I have allowed myself to become somewhat hostile about my current situation.  Jenna returns to school on Tuesday.  I would rather spend my time with her than digging thorough a subject that isn't near and dear to my heart and feeling helpless about the unemployment status and the economy.