Staycation Planning

My employer shuts down its production line for two weeks every summer.  Ordinarily I continue to do my design work during this time, and I sell back my unused vacation time. The money I get from unused vacation helps pay semiannual bills such as home, auto and life insurance.  Besides I don't have air conditioning at home, so I prefer to work in the office during this hot and humid period. Finally, it's quiet at work during "shutdown," so I can concentrate on my most difficult work assignments without worrying about interruptions.

Unfortunately this year my boss insisted that I take my vacation during shutdown.  Taking a trip somewhere is out-of-the-question.  First, there's the cost.  Second, our daughter is signed up for a day camp during the shutdown.  Third, the animals will need pet sitters, which will cost additional money.  So I've decided on a Staycation.  I'm in the midst of thinking of activities that could bring in the lost income, or at least DIY projects that I can tackle to avoid paying someone else to do them.  The second class of activity would also include taking classes that could lead to better job opportunities.

So here's what I've come up with...

1. Get a job consulting.  This would be ideal, especially if I can charge at least as much as my gross full time salary, and perform the work in the cool comfort of the client's office.  But it's unlikely that I could find the right client(s) with a simple-enough assignment that could be completed in two weeks.
2. Home maintenance and repair.  Merely getting someone like a plumber to enter your home and tell you that you need a new washer for the faucet used to cost over $100 fifteen years ago.  By now I imagine it's much more, and the transaction might even require an attorney to act as a fiduciary.  So one can save a huge amount of money with "DIY" if one knows how.  Here are the projects I have in mind:
1. Interior painting, walls & ceilings, especially the bathroom ceiling.  (But if it's too hot and humid, it shouldn't be done.)
2. Roof repair.  I have some shingles that are starting to curl, and nails have popped up in a few spots.  I would hammer down the nails, staking them with RTV.  But how crazy do you have to be to go onto a black asphalt roof in Summer?  I think the soles of my sneakers would melt!
3. Repair / replace the car speaker.  One of the rear speakers in my car is buzzing quite loudly, and I think it's blown.  I'm hoping I can just patch it with special glue and cardboard.  If not, I might just disconnect it.  Right now, I have the fader adjusted so that only the front speakers play, and the system sounds weak.  Having just one rear speaker playing would be better than neither one playing.
4. Gardening / Landscaping.
1. We pay to have our lawn mowed each week.  If I were to buy and use a cheap push mower just for the smaller front yard, I might get the guys to  skip our place every other week, and I'd get some exercise.
2. Growing our own vegetables would save us from buying them.
3. Install a drip irrigation system for the vegetable garden.  One reason the vegetables haven't been planted yet is because I don't think I'll be able to water them.  So I don't want to spend time and effort to produce dead vegetables.  A drip irrigation system would make it easy to water the garden, so I'd be more willing to plant it.
4. The shrubs are blocking the entrance to our home, so they need pruning for good Feng Shui.
5. I'm guessing there might be a law against this: Grow and sell tobacco.  Tobacco is in high demand and would grow well here.  I don't smoke, but if I could sell it legally, it would be a most lucrative crop.  Selling stuff on which the state imposes a "sin tax" and prohibits minors from buying, probably is not legal.
6. Install rain barrels.  These are essentially 55 gallon drums that you position under the downspouts of the home's gutter system in order to collect the water for later use.  Right now we use our well water for watering the garden, and the cost is the electricity that's needed to run the well pump.
3. Buy groceries that are incorrectly priced specifically in order to take advantage of Connecticut's "Get One Free Law".  I always pay attention to the prices that appear when the cashier scans our items.  I've gotten a few things for free.  The latest was a 12oz bag of gourmet, ground Arabica coffee.  Of course I don't know beforehand whether the scanner will proffer the incorrect price, so this is more miss than hit.  Still, I once saw a one-pound package of butter that was obviously mis-marked.  The price was $3.98 but the unit price was only $1.98 per pound.  So I pounced on it like a seasoned flea market shopper on a genuine Tiffany lamp. When I was charged the $3.98, I complained that it should be only $1.98, according to the unit price, and I did get it for free.
4. Volunteer.  Well, this won't offset the loss of vacation income, but it might get me into an air conditioned environment.  And according to the Dalai Lama, the path to true happiness is through service to others, so it will bring me happiness.  A really cool idea would be a "VolunteerCation" in which you take a vacation (or sabbatical) in order to travel to some place where volunteers are needed.  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing travel expenses may be tax deductible under such an arrangement.  If you can get an organization to transport you somewhere, that would be even better.
5. Hang out at the local Maker Space.  Nothing's guaranteed with this idea.  But I imagine if I went to the Maker Space, I might meet some interesting artists, craftspersons or inventors and learn something by watching them.  I might even offer my own expertise to them or collaborate on something with them.  And I'm pretty sure the place is air conditioned. 
6. Hype my affiliates' products.  In particular, the Blood Type Diet products and the iHerb referral code bring in "coffee money."  But I don't advertise very much.
7. Hype my online storage accounts.  For example..
1. Join Dropbox for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 500MB of storage space.
2. Join Copy for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 5GB of storage space.
3. Join Box....  Well, you can join, but I don't use it, and I forgot my login credentials, so I can't promote it right now.
8. Cat Dentistry.  The plaque build-up on our first cat's teeth makes it seem as though barnacles live along his gums.  The vet quoted us a cost of over $300 to have his (the cat's) teeth cleaned.  The vet's procedure would involve putting the cat under anesthesia, a lot of stress, and possible exposure to an infectious organism.  Would I actually attempt to clean the cat's teeth myself?  Yes.  And it's not as far-fetched as it seems.  Of course, I wouldn't be fooling around with anesthesia.  But the cat sleeps so soundly that I can poke my fingers into and around his mouth without bothering him.  Nor do I plan to use any kind of abrasive or motorized tool.  I might not need to.  One day, I actually used my fingernail to pick a barnacle off his teeth.
9. Learn stuff.  How to write Android Apps, Working with Linux, Programming with Ruby are all great topics for career growth.
10. Get all my medical checkups done.  The eye doctor, dentist, primary care physician (PCP) and Naturopathic Doctor are all overdo for a visit.  Those visits would take place in an air conditioned environment, but at the expense of a few co-pays.
11. Cat Photo Exhibit.  This falls under the category of volunteering because the Cat Photo Exhibit would promote our favorite cat shelter.  If I were to sell any framed photos, I'd forward the proceeds to the shelter.  So I wouldn't made any profits, but I could recoup the expense of the frames I already bought.  The only additional expense would be to have the 8 x 10 prints made and perhaps business cards printed.
12. Write really clever blog posts, provide a PayPal Donate Button, and watch the money pour in!  (I can't belief I managed to write that with a straight face.)  No, but seriously folks, I don't want to subject you to a "Beg Button."

It will be fun to review my Staycation Activities in a subsequent post.  Stay tuned!  In the meantime, do you have any suggestions about what I should do on my staycation?

Blind Color Sensing with Feng Shui

My daughter was trying to decide what color we should paint her room. We embarked on a strange method based on our limited or faulty understanding of Feng Shui.

Somehow we determined that her element is Fire and that Red would give her energy. She also remarked that my element is Water and that Blue would give me energy. We also figured that Fire and Water are antagonists -- that which is good for Fire is bad for Water, and vice-versa. This isn't entirely correct, but it's what led to the experiment that I shall describe next.

We happened to have paint chips in a variety of blue and pink. So I reasoned that if Blue was good for me and Red was bad for me, I should be able to tell them apart with my eyes closed just by feeling them. I already had a pink chip, so I handed it back to my daughter and asked her to pick a blue chip, and then hand them both to me.

I closed my eyes and took the two chips. I could tell the pink chip from the blue right away. But I cheated. First, the pink chip featured four sections in different shades of pink, and the blue chip had six. I could feel the transitions between those sections, so I could tell which was the pink. As well, we had been handling the pink chip, so it developed a gentle bend, whereas the blue chip was perfectly flat. That was another way I could tell them apart. But I also noticed something very subtle -- something that occurs when I eat foods that are borderline "avoids" on my diet. I sensed a foggy-achiness in a part of my head when I handled the pink chip. And I felt some clarity when I handled the blue chip.

My daughter was impressed that I identified the chips correctly. I didn't tell her about my cheating right way. But after she tried the test herself and identified incorrectly, she had a laughing-crying spell, so I told her then. And besides, I had a 1 in 2 chance of guessing correctly.

Actually, she refused to try to guess, initially. I pressured her to try, and she eventually gave in. I think she might've released some pent up emotion by tapping into some inner part of her unexplored self.

She wanted me to guess again. This time she selected two new chips that I hadn't seen or handled before, both with the same number of color sections. I got rid of the pink place mat that was in front of me and I took off my burgundy sweatshirt. (But then I was left with blue T-shirt and pants.) Then I closed my eyes and took them from her. I handled one. I didn't sense anything from it. I put it down and took the other. I didn't sense anything from that one either. I put it back down and picked up the first. I shifted it to my left hand, and then I got that foggy-achiness sensation again. I held it up and said, "This is the pink chip." And I was right. Cool. Still, picking 1 of 2 choices correctly twice in a row can be done 25% of the time just by guessing randomly.

I wanted to check the Feng Shui table of elements and favorable directions, so we went online. I verified mine. But when checking my daughter's element, we got Earth from a table on one site, and Wood from another site! And then we realized that Metal supports Water while Wood destroys it. So we figured that Black (for Water) and Gray (for Metal) are favorable colors for me. And the Black cat is my favorite and likes me best. We also figured that my daughter is Earth based on her cat choices. She is attracted to the orange cat (Red/Fire creates ash that feeds Earth), and the gray tabby is attracted to her (the Gray Metal comes from Earth).

It turns out that Pink is the color for Earth anyway, so that's what we decided to paint her room. It just so happens that her room is already pink, but it wasn't painted well. The painter put two coats on the wall, but he didn't let it dry between coats, so the yellow that was there before seems to bleed through a little. So it needs to be repainted, and I can probably do just one coat this time.

Anyway, I wonder, did I really sense the difference between a favorable color and an antagonistic color? Let me know if you try this for yourself and what result you get.

SDP: Try Out Sweet Home 3D

Sweet Home 3D is an interior design Java application for quickly choosing and placing furniture on a house 2D plan drawn by the end-user, with a 3D preview.

And it's free. The screenshots look impressive. It looks like a handy application for layouts of home furnishings. Right now, I use my employer-supplied AutoCAD just to get a bird's eye view of the floor plan.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sweethome3d/

Potted Plant of Pens

Check out this functional yet decorative idea for storing pens on Carrie's Unique Journalist blog. I love it!

All I Really Want For Christmas

All I really want for Christmas is to finish the Home Office Project, which involves:

• Decluttering.
• Moving out the bookcases.
• Painting the ceiling.
• Painting the walls.
• Rearranging the furniture for auspicious Feng Shui.
• Getting a special Credenza / Hutch piece to help maintain organization.
  

The hardest part is the first item, and that's true of every one of my stalled projects. In this case, I had four copy paper boxes full of college notes, many of which had my Social Security number on them. I cleared that out finally, and the boxes and space that they occupied are now used for our daughter's school work and seven years' worth of income tax records.

We went shopping for this special Credenza / Hutch Piece that I have in mind. I haven't seen anything online, or in a showroom, or in a catalog of a showroom that looks promising. So I might have to find an apprentice carpenter to make one for me. Or I might get by with a set of kitchen cabinets and counter plus a homemade bookshelf hutch. I'm not gonna let that slow me down, though.

Feng Shui in my Childhood?

The annoying thing about parents is this: when you become one, they turn out to be just like you.

All our parents' familiar admonishments that we used to roll our eyes at -- we're using them, too! "No snacks before dinner." (Awww mom!) "Zipper your jacket!" (But I'm not cold!) "You're not allowed to watch that show until after you've done your homework." (WHAT?!? I never get to do anything anymore! Stomp stomp stomp BAM) I've pretty much come to accept all this.

But now I'm starting to wonder if my parents were so cool that they themselves were into Feng Shui, just like me!

Exhibit A -- the full length mirror on the outside of the bathroom door. This is a well-known method to prevent helpful chi from flowing into the bathroom and down the drains and toilet. But they didn't keep the bathroom door closed when it wasn't in use, so maybe they weren't following it too closely. On the other hand, they kept the toilet lid down.

Exhibit B -- orientation of beds to achieve a Purpose. My bed and the beds of my sister and brother all pointed North, which I believe helps ensure in children a calm sleep, submissiveness and a desire to mow the lawn. Just kidding about that last one.

Exhibit C -- actually there's no Exhibit C. But they say that good writers should list things in groups of threes. And I need all the help I can get.

If my parents actually did follow Feng Shui, they certainly broke the Number One Rule -- eliminate clutter. My mom especially went for second helpings when the Pack Rat Gene was being ladled out.

So were my parents really following Feng Shui, or did they just copy something they saw in a movie?

Feng Shui Notes MBR

Our Feng Shui friend didn't have too many negative things to say about our master bedroom. But she did offer recommendations:

• Fill the gaps in the headboard.
• Take out all the mirrors. They invite a third person into a marriage. Some think that even pictures with glass frames are just as bad.
  
• Don't store stuff under the bed. It weighs you down.
  
• The bread winner (that's me, apparently) should sleep so that the headboard faces Southwest. That's the wealth corner. (Conversely, my wife is supposed to sleep in the opposite direction.) But in our case, the position is impractical. This advice might be specialized for our Chinese zodiac "signs" which are Water and Rabbit for me, and Fire and Horse for my wife.
  
• Hang a picture of mountains above the headboard.
• Pink would be a better color for the walls. We have a soothing blue-green as shown in the older picture.
• Get rid of the plants. (I didn't hear / understand the reason for that, so I can't elaborate.)
• The long hallway causes Chi to concentrate and accelerate into the bedroom. A crystal hung in front of the door would help.
• The lamp in the bedroom that can be seen from the other end of our long hallway should be moved. She actually recommended to move it into the living room, but we need it in the bedroom.
• Make sure closet doors are closed when sleeping. When open, the doors aim negative Chi at the bed with their sharp edges.

This picture was taken after we had the room painted and got new bedding. The headboard hadn't arrived yet.

Hi-Def in the Bathroom

From reading the post title, you might think we installed an HDTV in our indoor outhouse.

But if you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that I like to lead you astray. You're right.

What we installed yesterday was a new bathroom mirror. And the way this relates to HDTV is that our old mirror was so non-reflective that the change we see in ourselves is like switching from analog TV to HDTV.

I can see myself so clearly that I kind of long for the old mirror, which, incidentally, was manufactured in the same year I was born. Every pore, wrinkle and chicken pox scar now shouts out "Look at me!"

So we're almost done Feng Shui-ing in the loo. All that's left is to put up that waterfall picture where the fish picture was, and hang the mirror on the outside of the door.

But we have lots to do all over the house. Stay tuned for more exciting (albeit non-loo-related) Feng Shui news!

Feng Shui Notes 1

We were very lucky to have a friend of a friend offer to do a free feng shui consultation over the weekend.

The issues we face:

1. My wife's vexing health issues.
2. Our inability to build up any savings.

It may be that our bathroom could be contributing to both issues. We had a picture of a fish in the bathroom. She said that this is money going down the toilet. Also, since the bathroom is centrally-located in the house, our health was also going down the toilet. Here's the remedy:

1. Place a mirror on the outside of the door.
2. Replace the mirror that overlooks the sink.
3. Keep the toilet lid down.
4. Keep the door closed.
5. Replace the "fish" picture with a waterfall picture.
6. Keep the drains "stopped."
7. Tie a 9" length of red string around each drain pipe.

So far we did 3 - 7 with one exception -- 5. We did remove the fish picture, and I have a photograph of a waterfall that I could have developed into a 8x10 as a replacement.

She spent about two and a half hours with us. I'll write down more notes in later posts.