I married an electrical engineer.
All my stories should start out with that.
Before we were married, the engineer in my life had taken apart most electrical things he could safely get his hands on. He built his own amplifier and a set of speakers. His electrical talents were well established before he ever entered university to take engineering.
Our first apartment after we were married had two bedrooms. Part of the second bedroom was set up as his project room. It has some of the strangest electrical gadgets that scared the bejeepers out of me. I would go in from time to time, but not very often. This one particular evening I decided to go in and see what was up. He had pliers in hand and was into the back of something very electrical looking. I asked if he ever got an electrical shock. Just as he was about to say “no, never” his distracted hand hit something upon which sparks, Bill and expletives flowed across the room in front of me. He did not see what was so funny as i burst out laughing. Ignorance is bliss but being a nurse, I knew CPR! We made a pack after he recovered that I would stay out of his way when he played with his electrical things. And thus the reason that I have so little to do with all electrical things in our home.
It has worked out for us. But as a result,I have watched the electronics come and go into our homes without too much knowledge of just how cutting edge these things are.
Our first TV was a black and white which really was another piece of furniture to set my ornaments upon. There was no remote or more than a channel or two. You plugged it in and turned the knob on or off. You even had to get up to adjust the volume. I miss the good old days.
The tape cassette, the CD player, the VHS player, the DVD player marched into our lives. And with each evolution, Bill connected, wired and hooked up the collection of them together. He connected the whole set to the amplifier and speakers long before sound surround became the norm in homes. Of course every electrical evolution meant another family tutorial was needed so that we could listen to our music or watch the TV when he wasn't around.
Somewhere in the midst of this came our first home computer. It was the summer of 85 or 86. We purchased it in Alberta. Bill set that baby up between our two babies in the back seat to bring it home to Regina. I really did not understand the concept of home computers, but Bill sure was excited. It had 500 mega bites of memory. Less than a quarter of the memory of most of those key chain memory sticks. He set it up and played endlessly on the "dos" prompted screen. I may have used it once or twice to write a letter. I had no idea what this machine was all about and thought it was just another electronic toy for Bill. Since then we have never been without a computer or six.
I have watched Bill replace computers with bigger and better models. I have received Christmas gifts of CD burners for Christmas. What the heck was a CD burner? I have seen him take them apart and add to the more internal memory. I have seen him bring them back to life after they have died a virus infected life. I have seen him do the equivalent of a brain transplant on them. I have seen him build a complete computer from parts bought from electronic specialty stores.
I have watched our digital pictures appear from our camera to the computer with a simple plug in. AND just when I thought it couldn't get more complicated I watched him marry our electronics to our computers. Double oi vey!
Electrically we have seen and done it all thus far. So why is it, that each time I am at home alone and want to watch a show or play a CD, or listen to my music which is now buried deep within one of the computers, that I stand before the new 50 inch plasma flat screen TV longing for the antiquated on/off button? But no luck. Instead I have to play Russian roulette with several of the 7 remotes that line up in a row, just slightly askew to the right of my beloved engineer husband's chair.
I clear my brain and try to remember the tutorial. My shaking sweaty hands reach for several of the remotes. I have to put one back quickly as it is the wrong one, ahhh! After some g'fingerpoking, I manage to wake up the computer to turn on the TV to make the choice of what I want to do media wise. I think I shall listen to my relaxation Cd, just to soothe the electrically challenged mind.
WKH
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
The Life We Choose
I'm reading a Peter Walsh book called It's All To Much. I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is on my favorite topic decluttering. And we all know that decluttering goes hand in hand with downsizing. And downsizing is passion for us.
Since we downsized almost 3 years ago we have been expounding the joys of our new lifestyle to anyone who will listen. Well maybe we even told some people who don't want to hear about it. Bill and I know that they are just not ready for it yet. But the day will come sooner or later when they are ready for a freer life.
Our realization came to us in a most insidious manner. We started to vacation in Europe and were astounded at their smaller homes. The homes that I visited were wonderfully decorated and not cluttered. Their homes had multi functional pieces of furniture. Everything had a place and was just perfect for the space. They would wait patiently for just the perfect piece to fill the spot.
As Bill and I became empty nester's, we started to enjoy our time together in evening walks and coffee dates. Our life was unfolding before us and we loved the carefree life we were living. We loved traveling and being away from home.
Both of us were working and away from our huge 1900 square foot home with a walk out basement for most of the day. Neither of us enjoyed yard work or shoveling snow. Neither of us were interested in the perfect decorated home. Let's face it off white walls was as wild as we got in our decoration prowess.
It was at this same time that Bill's mom moved out of her home of 40 or so years to a smaller apartment. The task of downsizing was momentous and very overwhelming at times. When it was done, it felt wonderful for her and her children.
We were lucky to have his mom around to make the decisions on what was wanted and not. In the case of my parents, we had to clean it out after they died. It was not a happy time for those concerned.
Bill and I started to chat about dealing with all the “crap” in the basement. We had boxes still packed up from two moves ago.
One day while we were tidying up for the “maids coming” we realized that of the seven rooms and three bathrooms, that we had only used 3 rooms and two bathrooms. The rugs still had the vacuum marks from the cleanup two weeks before.
It did not make sense to me that we heated this huge house where we barely did more than sleep in and have dinner. It did not make sense that we stayed somewhere that demanded time from us that we did not want to give. It did not make sense to us that we had so much stuff. We had 5 desks for the two of us. We had two sets of living room furniture. We had 4 beds. We had 4 sets of dishes and well the mugs and glasses took up half our kitchen cupboard space.
It all did not make sense. We were drowning in stuff we did not need or use. We forced ourselves to re evaluate that future day that we may need our stuff.
We bucked the trend and looked for a smaller space in the name of a condo which was located downtown. Our friends and family thought we were absolutely nuts to leave our beautiful new home with hardwood floors and everything we had wanted when we had it built for us. However sometimes even the things we thought we wanted were not the things we actually want. Lifestyles change and in our case we knew we needed to make the change to set ourselves free from what was no longer our dream.
In a matter of a few months we found the ideal place in downtown Calgary and sold our house just half an hour on the market. We now had less than 3 months to get downsized.
I am not going to say it was an easy task. It was daunting. It was emotional. It was reliving every year that we had been married. It was fascinating to find things we had long since forgotten about. It was a task in patience while we figured out what we needed and what we thought we needed. There were tears and laughter. There were memories and you know what I still carry all those memories even though I do not have the “stuff” that I kept stored in the basement.
We love our simpler and in many ways easier life in our condo. It is really freeing to be rid of all the things that hang around in the basement haunting you. Our daughters thanked us for going through our things already. What a bonus for them not to have to go through our memorabilia after we are gone.
We started slowly and as we got the hang of it, we became pros at sorting through our junk. We decided instead of watching the same re-run sitcom every night that we would go into the basement and fill up a garbage or recycle bag. Thirty minutes every evening. It worked well for us. It is incredible the amount of garbage and recycle we kept in our basement. It just kept coming out. Our garbage went from its weekly one black bag to as many as we dared to put out on garbage day.
We still struggle with clutter and accumulation. We have adopted a motto; "Shirt in, Shirt out". Meaning if you buy anything for our condo, something of equal value or size must leave. It works. Further we find ourselves shopping differently. Costco rations rarely works in our limited space. And we look at most things and raise an eyebrow and look at each other and say “garage sale fodder”!
If I haven't said it enough, Bill and I have never looked back after our change in residences. It seems that daily we find another perk to living where and how we live.
It is all about being honest with yourself and knowing what you really want out of life. Work towards the things that make that happen and happiness will follow.
Wendy H.
Since we downsized almost 3 years ago we have been expounding the joys of our new lifestyle to anyone who will listen. Well maybe we even told some people who don't want to hear about it. Bill and I know that they are just not ready for it yet. But the day will come sooner or later when they are ready for a freer life.
Our realization came to us in a most insidious manner. We started to vacation in Europe and were astounded at their smaller homes. The homes that I visited were wonderfully decorated and not cluttered. Their homes had multi functional pieces of furniture. Everything had a place and was just perfect for the space. They would wait patiently for just the perfect piece to fill the spot.
As Bill and I became empty nester's, we started to enjoy our time together in evening walks and coffee dates. Our life was unfolding before us and we loved the carefree life we were living. We loved traveling and being away from home.
Both of us were working and away from our huge 1900 square foot home with a walk out basement for most of the day. Neither of us enjoyed yard work or shoveling snow. Neither of us were interested in the perfect decorated home. Let's face it off white walls was as wild as we got in our decoration prowess.
It was at this same time that Bill's mom moved out of her home of 40 or so years to a smaller apartment. The task of downsizing was momentous and very overwhelming at times. When it was done, it felt wonderful for her and her children.
We were lucky to have his mom around to make the decisions on what was wanted and not. In the case of my parents, we had to clean it out after they died. It was not a happy time for those concerned.
Bill and I started to chat about dealing with all the “crap” in the basement. We had boxes still packed up from two moves ago.
One day while we were tidying up for the “maids coming” we realized that of the seven rooms and three bathrooms, that we had only used 3 rooms and two bathrooms. The rugs still had the vacuum marks from the cleanup two weeks before.
It did not make sense to me that we heated this huge house where we barely did more than sleep in and have dinner. It did not make sense that we stayed somewhere that demanded time from us that we did not want to give. It did not make sense to us that we had so much stuff. We had 5 desks for the two of us. We had two sets of living room furniture. We had 4 beds. We had 4 sets of dishes and well the mugs and glasses took up half our kitchen cupboard space.
It all did not make sense. We were drowning in stuff we did not need or use. We forced ourselves to re evaluate that future day that we may need our stuff.
We bucked the trend and looked for a smaller space in the name of a condo which was located downtown. Our friends and family thought we were absolutely nuts to leave our beautiful new home with hardwood floors and everything we had wanted when we had it built for us. However sometimes even the things we thought we wanted were not the things we actually want. Lifestyles change and in our case we knew we needed to make the change to set ourselves free from what was no longer our dream.
In a matter of a few months we found the ideal place in downtown Calgary and sold our house just half an hour on the market. We now had less than 3 months to get downsized.
I am not going to say it was an easy task. It was daunting. It was emotional. It was reliving every year that we had been married. It was fascinating to find things we had long since forgotten about. It was a task in patience while we figured out what we needed and what we thought we needed. There were tears and laughter. There were memories and you know what I still carry all those memories even though I do not have the “stuff” that I kept stored in the basement.
We love our simpler and in many ways easier life in our condo. It is really freeing to be rid of all the things that hang around in the basement haunting you. Our daughters thanked us for going through our things already. What a bonus for them not to have to go through our memorabilia after we are gone.
We started slowly and as we got the hang of it, we became pros at sorting through our junk. We decided instead of watching the same re-run sitcom every night that we would go into the basement and fill up a garbage or recycle bag. Thirty minutes every evening. It worked well for us. It is incredible the amount of garbage and recycle we kept in our basement. It just kept coming out. Our garbage went from its weekly one black bag to as many as we dared to put out on garbage day.
We still struggle with clutter and accumulation. We have adopted a motto; "Shirt in, Shirt out". Meaning if you buy anything for our condo, something of equal value or size must leave. It works. Further we find ourselves shopping differently. Costco rations rarely works in our limited space. And we look at most things and raise an eyebrow and look at each other and say “garage sale fodder”!
If I haven't said it enough, Bill and I have never looked back after our change in residences. It seems that daily we find another perk to living where and how we live.
It is all about being honest with yourself and knowing what you really want out of life. Work towards the things that make that happen and happiness will follow.
Wendy H.
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