The Great God of Chaos has been leaping around my house for two weeks!

OK.  Today’s blog posting should have appeared in the middle of the night (based on my time zone).  But it didn’t.  Here’s why:

I had a soft spot in the floor in my bedroom.  Ken came and looked at it and gave me a price, saying it was a one day job to rip up the carpet and put down a layer of plywood over the whole floor because although only a couple of places were soft, the whole floor was probably particle board.  When particle board is used for flooring, it isn’t just nailed into the joists, it is glued down.  So it is easier to leave it in place and cover it over with plywood.  Sounded good to me, so we arranged that he and Carl would come and start work two Fridays ago.  They did.

Yoga Room with No Room for Yoga!

To minimize their time on the job, I cleared all the stuff from the horizontal surfaces and moved all the small pieces of furniture to my yoga room.  I removed and stacked the dresser drawers in the yoga room as well, to make it easier to move the dressers.  I removed all the hanging clothes from the (14 foot long) closet and stacked them, still on their hangers, on the futon in the spare room.  I removed all the boxes of stuff from the closet as well.  I took down the curtains, too, as I planned to wash the windows and curtains before replacing them.

Spare Room with No Room to Spare!

Living Room with No Room to Live!

 When they came, Ken and Carl took the bedroom door off to make it easier to work.  They put that against the wall in the kitchen.  They moved the dressers and mattress into the living room.  They took the headboard off the bed frame and put it in the living room as well.  Then they put the bottom of the bed in front of the bedroom door in the kitchen, effectively blocking access to the pantry where all the dry, easy-to-eat foods like crackers and nutrition bars are stored.

As they ripped up the carpet – which was not wet – they noticed that the padding under the carpet appeared to be wet.  It turned out that the particle board under the padding was saturated from a leak in the pipe leading into the hot water heater.  The water heater had been replaced about 2 years ago.  At that time, the plumber pointed out that someone had put plywood under the hot water heater, so it had probably leaked before.  But in any case, that plywood looked good so he was not going to put plywood down.  What he didn’t say, and I didn’t notice, is that the plywood only went under half the hot water heater…

Wet Particle Board

So, when, at Ken’s suggestion, I started taking pictures of this mess for my insurance man, we noticed that the hot water heater was leaning.  The particle board under the hot water heater was also soft.  That meant that the hot water heater had to be removed so that they could fix the floor underneath it.  Fortunately, in a previous incarnation, Ken was a plumber, so while Carl continued to work on the floor, Ken started the process of emptying and moving the hot water heater.  We decided that the outside access to the hot water heater was a problem and that, since he was moving it anyway, it would be an improvement to take its enclosure wall down and replace it with a door in the bedroom.

Since the particle board was saturated, it had to be removed.  Which meant chiseling it off the joists in crumbly bits.  The underlying wet insulation also had to be removed.  You get the picture.  This is no longer a one-day job!  At the end of day 1 they put the bed frame back in the bedroom and rehung the bedroom door as the water heater vent was now open into the room.  They did offer to make temporary connections for the hot water heater, but that seemed like a lot of extra work as it would have to be emptied again to relocate it, etc.  So I spent the weekend without hot water and with the living room, yoga room, and spare room stuffed with bedroom stuff.

They came back Monday and took away the last bit of wet particle board that they had hoped would dry out over the weekend.  It didn’t.  Next they had to replace the wet insulation.  The particle board they removed had to be replaced with plywood to make an even flooring for the next layer of plywood.  The floor was also covered with a moisture barrier in preparation for the final layer of plywood and some of the plywood was laid.  The enclosure for the water heater was expanded into the closet which meant that the stuff on the closet shelf had to be removed so they could cut the shelf back by a foot or so.  An outside door was ordered for the water heater closet and the closet itself was fire-rocked with a vent cover to the outside since it is a gas hot water heater.

At the end of day 2, they returned the bed frame to the bedroom and rehung the bedroom door as the vent was still open to both the room and the outdoors.  This time, I realized that I needed to get munchies and nutrition bars out of the pantry before it got blocked.  Should have taken a couple of cans of soup out, too!

Unfortunately, since this was a “one-day” job, they had scheduled other work to “follow” and that work needed to be done.  So I had a few workmen-free days before they returned.  By this time, the floor is looking good and the sheet-rock around the water heater, too.  The new door was installed.  All of this meant the wallpaper (on which I had based the choice of new carpet color) looked really bad and had to go.  But it wasn’t going to be easy to paint over it, or to rip it down.  So they ended up sheet-rocking the whole room.  This is a good thing because the drafty window frames are now more securely wrapped.  (I know.  Caulking the window frames would have been cheaper…)

The new walls have been painted.  Trim has been put in place and painted.  The carpet guys are here now and the carpet looks great against the new paint.  Next step will be to replace the mirrored sliding closet doors.  The floor guys will do that.  Then I can start to reclaim the rest of my house by returning furniture to the bedroom!  But we’re starting week three of this project.  And it’s Thanksgiving week.  (At least I wasn’t planning to host Thanksgiving here, but am going to a friend’s house.)  What do you think?  Will the project ever be finished?  Will I regain the use of my living room?  Yoga room? etc.?

So that’s why today’s post is late!

Check this out! Free Energy Processes from Jo Dunning!

As many of you may know, I am a follower of Jo Dunning and have been trained in her energy process, the Quick Pulse.  I've just come back from a retreat she conducted in California which was absolutely wonderful.  Recently she conducted a webinar where she presented five energy processes.  The following describes a bit about them and offers a link to download them for your own use!  Use them;  have fun with them; and post comments either here or on her website describing the results you get.

We are happy to let you know we have just uploaded a higher quality recording of The Five Processes. It is now available through the same link you have been using. You are welcome to forward this email to others whom you think might enjoy having such an easy way to change any difficult situation in their life.   Link to Download the Recording:  http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventID=47654805  We appreciate the hundreds of emails we have already received thanking Jo for The Five Energy Processes and especially for the opportunity to send the link to others. Many have found very wonderful ways to give this link away as a gift. Some have thought of posting it on their Facebook wall, or sending it to their email list and many other creative ways to give a gift to someone. So many have felt happy to have this way to be a real emissary of change in their world. By simply registering for the workshop, they know they have been given a gift they can share and make a difference in the lives of others. People are already beginning to notice when they shared the link they felt some wonderful new energy and had great moments of happy coincidence. This is because each time the link is shared, everyone who helped to pass it on to others receives a very special increase of energy for their life. What a wonderful bonus Jo created that can add even more joy and prosperity for you and everyone else. Those who registered for the event will have so many lovely boosts of energy every day, since they were the first one to start the process of the workshop link being passed from one person to the next. It is so great you now have the amazing opportunity to assist others and improve your life at the same time. You have a way to receive so much more than you ever imagined. Generosity is one of those very special energies that continues to increase and bless everyone involved. Thank you for your generous heart and for being part of this wonderful event! Enjoy the flow of blessings you have created for your life and the many ways The Five Processes can help change your life for the better.

The Information Superhighway will not lead us to wisdom.

Historically, wisdom came from living a long life.  You learned as you experienced and since the environment did not change much or change rapidly, knowledge gained over time was useful to the community as a whole.  A wise woman knew the plants that had healing and soothing properties.  A wise man knew when to plant and harvest and when to hunt so as not to deplete the game available to his children and grandchildren.  This wisdom was useful to the community and was valued, so that the wise man and the wise woman were valued.

In historical and village cultures, the elders were the repository of both knowledge and wisdom.  However, as technology evolves ever faster, more and more “knowledge” is being deposited outside of brains.  A hundred years ago, if you wanted to know something, you found someone who had already studied that subject:  you found a teacher or a mentor.  If they did not know what you wanted to know, at least they knew if someone else had done some research on the topic or if you would have to invent it or figure it out yourself.  Fifty years ago, if you wanted to know something, you could go to a library and look it up.

Now, to acquire knowledge, you turn to the Internet.  Everything one might want to know – and many things you probably don’t want to know! – can be found on the Internet.  As a result, the wisdom of community elders may not be perceived as useful by upcoming technologists and the importance of the wise man and wise woman may be perceived as limited for future progress.

While it is true that many of the current generation of elders may not be fluent in technology, that does not mean we do not have wisdom to share.  In spite of all of our advances in communication – email, blogging, texting, instant messaging – day-to-day personal human interactions have not changed that much.  We still can benefit from relationship advice and from the observations of our fellow human beings that the wise have accumulated over their years.

In addition, those of us who have reached advanced years with our brains, faculties, and resources intact, also know how to discriminate.  We know that not all information on the Internet is factual and can apply our reasoning skills.  We don’t assume that because it can be read or viewed on the Internet, it must be true.  This is a skill worth sharing!

In a village culture, everyone knew everyone else.  So everyone knew who had sense and who didn’t.  Who could think and who couldn’t.  Who could be trusted and who couldn’t.  Who kept his word and who didn’t.  In short: who was wise and who wasn’t.  In our current culture, this information is not so readily available.

Upcoming generations will need to figure out how to determine who has the wisdom we need now.  Note that I am saying wisdom, not knowledge.  You can find all the “knowledge” you want in books and on the Internet.  You get knowledge by asking questions: if you don’t know what questions to ask you are stuck.  But wisdom comes from linking knowledge.  So even if you know some starter questions, will you find the information you really need?

You can tell by looking at the sky that it is not raining.  You may be able to tell by looking at the sky that it will rain in a few hours.  But the wise person can look, not just at the sky, but at the movement of animals, plants, and insects to know that a major storm is brewing and how soon it will arrive – linking information that the ignorant will not think to ask about or look at.  We will lose a great deal if we do not find an alternative way to tap into this information.

Get a bunch of boys close together with a stick and someone’s gonna get hurt!

I’ll bet you thought Abner Doubleday invented baseball.  Well, you were wrong.  Here’s how it really happened…

Abner’s Ma was looking out her kitchen window and saw Abner and some of his friends just messing around in the back yard.  She came storming out, drying her hands on her apron, and declaring “Get a bunch of boys close together with a stick and someone’s gonna get hurt!”

“You boys need to spread out or someone’s gonna get hurt with that stick!  You with the red shirt, you go stand in that corner of the yard!  And you with the freckles, you go stand in that corner.  And you with the curly hair, you go stand in that corner.  And you, you with the stick, you stay right here by the back steps where I can keep my eye on you!”

“Let’s see.  OK, that leaves you with the ball.”  She looked around the yard.  All the corners were taken.  “You with the ball, you go stand in the middle of the yard.  That way no one can get hurt with that stick!”

“Awww, Ma,” said Abner.  “How can we play when we’re this spread out?”

“I’ll tell you what.  You with the ball.  You throw the ball at the kid with the stick.  You with the stick, you try to hit the ball.  And if by some miracle of God he does actually hit the ball with the stick, all the rest of you run and try to catch the ball!  And whatever you do, leave that stick here by the steps.  I don’t want any of you getting close together with that stick!”

So, Ma Doubleday went back to her dishes and the boys started playing, making up rules as they went along.  And since it was Abner’s house, when the rules started getting complicated, he went in for paper and pencil to write them down.  That’s how Abner Doubleday got credit for inventing baseball, but it really was invented because a wise woman once said “Get a bunch of boys together with a stick and someone’s gonna get hurt!”