My name is not Blanche and I am not a character in a Tennessee Williams’ play. I’ll reserve comment on the author’s chosen name later. However, I am a person in need of help from time to time, because I struggle, as many of us do, to: <\/p>\n
1. Pay the bills.<\/p>\n
2. Do the right “thing” environmentally, ethically and any other …..ally there is out there.<\/p>\n
3. Figure out how to navigate the demands of life and still remain sane.<\/p>\n
Enter the lists.<\/p>\n
This is not a medieval “thing,” however, I feel as though, I’ve been making lists for a millennium.<\/p>\n
I’m putting the house in order, so I make lists. My living room list includes a number of items:<\/p>\n
1. Repainting the furniture. OK I have 30 year-old Ikea furniture – yes the older ones last this long! However, they need some refreshing. I have actually found someone who will repaint them for a fair price. This is a good start and my first contact with a “stranger” this week. I’ll report later on the results. However they did offer to pick up the furniture and produced a quote from a picture. First act of kindness, so far.<\/p>\n
2. Installing a chair rail…or something that will stop the chair I use most often from cramming itself against the wall, after an evening of needlework….it’s a surprisingly vigorous activity!<\/p>\n
There were plexiglass “stoppers” on Amazon for $30 – $50 US. You put them behind the legs of the chair and they stop the chair from pushing against the wall. Well I was tempted, but then I hate paying a billionaire more money. I pressed on. FB groups said to just put some wood behind the chair legs. I though “aha” Home Depot to the rescue. They have a “discard bin” of wood left over from pieces cut for customers. I found a small piece that would work, but I would have to cut it in three places. I asked the “sawer” for help. I said that I would pay for the cuts. He said the wood was free and, since he was free, he cut two perfect 3″ x 3″ squares that fit the chair legs exactly. I know I have my share of problems with big business, but on a small scale, this amazing stranger was a huge help for me today!!<\/p>\n
Not on the living room list, but still on the “this must be done before I die list,” is the furnace. I am eternally grateful for two people I contacted today. One is an architect and the other a mechanical engineer. Both said, “Do not remove your rads” and “Heat pump systems break down; their replacement parts are hard to find; you need a back up system.” <\/p>\n
So city of Toronto, as much as you want to be carbon neutral by 2035, you have to do better than a $5,000.00 grant against a $15,000.00 outlay for an “iffy” system.<\/p>\n
I am very grateful to these strangers who were more than willing to help and didn’t charge me a cent.<\/p>\n
I’m glad I bought a box of Thank you cards last year. I’ll be sending out a few.<\/p>\n
Have an amazing day!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is not Blanche and I am not a character in a Tennessee Williams’ play. I’ll reserve comment on the author’s chosen name later. However, I am a person in need of help from time to time, because I struggle, as many of us do, to: 1. Pay the bills. 2. Do the right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reality","category-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9901,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9900\/revisions\/9901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}