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Needs Fixing
Today I decided that I have not been happy enough lately. I spend too much time feeling exhausted and too much time feeling grumpy or angry.
So I decided that I need to fix three things. In no particular order:
My house. It's not as user-friendly as I'd like. I need to start by getting rid of a lot of stuff I'm not using. There really are an awful lot of things I have that I have not used in, say, the past year. Some of them it's because I couldn't get to them. But some of them I really could safely get rid of. I'm not good at getting rid of stuff.
I'm also going to have the air conditioner replaced and get the place weatherized again. I should look into getting the water heater replaced even though it's not broken yet. It was old (ten years old?) when I bought the house, and it's ten years older than that now.
I'm also going to look at side-by-side refrigerators. We use a lot of freezer space, and could probably use a whole extra freezer. A whole extra freezer is expensive to buy and to run and we have no space for it. So, I'm willing to compromise on a side-by-side which costs more to buy and run than new refrigerators like mine (18.5 square feet, freezer on top). It looks like they'll even cost just as much to run as my nine-year-old refrigerator. Is the side-by-side design so much less efficient than having warm air rise to the top of the fridge into the freezer? Maybe it's just because side-by-sides only come in sizes larger than 18.5 cubic feet and a higher percentage of them is made out of freezer, which costs more.
And I want to get my house inspected to see what a professional thinks needs fixing.
And I'm researching screened-in porches. I don't think I can add one of these cheaply.
My weight. My weight is a fine weight for my height and my age, but it's not really the right weight for me. I need to lose 15 - 25 pounds (depending how muscled I am underneath). Much of my extra weight is at my belly where it is unhealthy. I think the extra weight might lead to my back hurting more while on long shopping bonanzas, my feet hurting more while being on them, and other things I'm forgetting about. Oh, right, my watch feels too tight sometimes.
My problems are eating too much food and not getting enough aerobic exercise. My first priority will be on getting more aerobic exercise, now that the weather is getting livable again. Another priority is to do more cooking because I cook only halfway healthy things, so other things like those all-natural-but-empty-calorie cheese puffs in my office drawer won't be so tempting.
I think the food quantity is related to job frustrations. Which leads me to:
My job. I expect this to be the hardest to fix. I will continue to try to get documentation done so I don't feel guilty about leaving. I will continue to check job openings.
But I need a portfolio. I need to write something. I need to get something published. I should be writing articles, but what I'm in the mood to write is a book. That book on personal finance for teenagers which I mentioned before is sticking. I've written over 10,000 words already. So fine, I'm going to work on that. I'm thinking of using a nanowrimo type strategy.
And I need some contacts. I haven't done anything with my professional association memberships.
**
Out of all these goals, I have done no work on them today that I wouldn't have done without having decided these things. But today was a full day with work and ballroom dance classes, including Viennese waltz, which is aerobic. Actually, now that I'm finally catching on, it's just barely aerobic. I measured my pulse at 160 after we'd danced a full song. For me 150 is officially aerobic according to all the estimates but I get more benefits from exercising at 180.
So I decided that I need to fix three things. In no particular order:
My house. It's not as user-friendly as I'd like. I need to start by getting rid of a lot of stuff I'm not using. There really are an awful lot of things I have that I have not used in, say, the past year. Some of them it's because I couldn't get to them. But some of them I really could safely get rid of. I'm not good at getting rid of stuff.
I'm also going to have the air conditioner replaced and get the place weatherized again. I should look into getting the water heater replaced even though it's not broken yet. It was old (ten years old?) when I bought the house, and it's ten years older than that now.
I'm also going to look at side-by-side refrigerators. We use a lot of freezer space, and could probably use a whole extra freezer. A whole extra freezer is expensive to buy and to run and we have no space for it. So, I'm willing to compromise on a side-by-side which costs more to buy and run than new refrigerators like mine (18.5 square feet, freezer on top). It looks like they'll even cost just as much to run as my nine-year-old refrigerator. Is the side-by-side design so much less efficient than having warm air rise to the top of the fridge into the freezer? Maybe it's just because side-by-sides only come in sizes larger than 18.5 cubic feet and a higher percentage of them is made out of freezer, which costs more.
And I want to get my house inspected to see what a professional thinks needs fixing.
And I'm researching screened-in porches. I don't think I can add one of these cheaply.
My weight. My weight is a fine weight for my height and my age, but it's not really the right weight for me. I need to lose 15 - 25 pounds (depending how muscled I am underneath). Much of my extra weight is at my belly where it is unhealthy. I think the extra weight might lead to my back hurting more while on long shopping bonanzas, my feet hurting more while being on them, and other things I'm forgetting about. Oh, right, my watch feels too tight sometimes.
My problems are eating too much food and not getting enough aerobic exercise. My first priority will be on getting more aerobic exercise, now that the weather is getting livable again. Another priority is to do more cooking because I cook only halfway healthy things, so other things like those all-natural-but-empty-calorie cheese puffs in my office drawer won't be so tempting.
I think the food quantity is related to job frustrations. Which leads me to:
My job. I expect this to be the hardest to fix. I will continue to try to get documentation done so I don't feel guilty about leaving. I will continue to check job openings.
But I need a portfolio. I need to write something. I need to get something published. I should be writing articles, but what I'm in the mood to write is a book. That book on personal finance for teenagers which I mentioned before is sticking. I've written over 10,000 words already. So fine, I'm going to work on that. I'm thinking of using a nanowrimo type strategy.
And I need some contacts. I haven't done anything with my professional association memberships.
**
Out of all these goals, I have done no work on them today that I wouldn't have done without having decided these things. But today was a full day with work and ballroom dance classes, including Viennese waltz, which is aerobic. Actually, now that I'm finally catching on, it's just barely aerobic. I measured my pulse at 160 after we'd danced a full song. For me 150 is officially aerobic according to all the estimates but I get more benefits from exercising at 180.
Freezers
(Anonymous) 2006-09-08 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)I am a big fan of getting rid of crap you don't use. I recently got rid of about half of the books I owned - everything that I didn't specifically want to read over and over, unless the copy of the book itself had genuine sentimental value (e.g., the Beatrix Potter book my Kindergarten teacher gave me). I kept the kids' books I have that are in good condition. (Any of the books I used to own but now don't, if I want to read them, can be obtained from the library.)
It was wonderful. I've also gotten rid of tons of clothing from time to time - how many t-shirts do I really need? Will I ever wear these socks that are cute but are not the style of socks I ever wear? Out it goes.
One danger I find with objects is that the longer you keep them, the more filled with meaning they become. I think that meaning they develope is fake and just chokes up your life with crap. I mean, for instance, a job you don't even like can give you some little reward, like a small alarm clock with the company's logo, and you keep it for some reason, and then 10 years later you're like "aww, I remember Horribilus Inc." and you don't want to get rid of it even though it's a useless object and it never had any real meaning to start with.
Down with crap!
It also helps not to buy stuff to begin with. Mosch's technique for not buying stuff at a store is to remember the meaning of the word "store" - it's a place where they store things for you, so that if you ever need them, you can go buy them then. So you really don't have to buy a sewing machine, or a hacksaw, or a large beach towel until you have concrete plans to sew something, hacksaw something, or go to the beach. Leave it at the store!
Tam
Re: Freezers
That's an interesting observation about accumulating sentiment with time for things associated with things you didn't even like. I haven't noticed that particular problem in myself (yet). My problems lie more in the "I might use this some day" camp and the "but this is still perfectly good" camp.