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Menopause in the mirror
Who is this person in the mirror? I do not recognise her. Is she my my mother? One of my grandmothers? No. Their faces were familiar and I loved them. I don’t like the way this one looks at me. I don’t like the way I look at myself. I don’t like the way I…
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Color dependencies
Although there are no interior walls yet, it is time to start thinking about surface finishes. That means wallpaper, paint, & tile. If you have ever seen the scene in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, where Myrna Loy describes her preferred paint colors to the builder, this is what is playing in my head…
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Scentless
For the past couple of days, I have been sick with a fever and yesterday lost my sense of smell. I sort of expected a clinical, sterile scent or some kind of tingling to accompany the utter lack of this smell. But there’s just nothing. Neither positive nor negative. It’s odd but not nearly as…
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Lighting plot twist
Months ago, I started considering the lighting plans for the house. The lofted ceiling in the dining/kitchen space is a complicated shape, crossed with beams and posts, 4 meters tall, has a window, will have a ceiling fan, etc. It’s a real challenge to figure out how to create enough ambient light at night (a…
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The Heinz Birthday
Heinz, makers of pickles and ketchup, proclaim on their label that they have 57 Varieties. Now I have caught up with them in years. I enjoyed a birthday weekend in the city. While Tod attended Asia BSDCon for the first time in pre-pandemic, I met up with friends and walked a LOT – 40,000 steps…
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Shikoku Ranma
We have known Elizabeth and Atsunori Andoh for over 20 years; I have lost count. I took Elizabeth’s pickle workshop at A Taste of Culture in 2000, maybe? Shortly after that, Tod & I built her a website. And now we are all friends. Our wedding anniversaries are 20 years apart, and we celebrate the…
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Tobukuro
In Japan, storm shutters are a standard feature on homes. With typhoons an annual occurrence, it’s wise to protect the windows – especially the big expanses of glass in patio doors. Most people buy aluminum shutters along with their windows and doors. But in our case, that mass market option wasn’t even considered. From the…
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Designing built-ins
When we got the quotation for the house build, it didn’t include everything we’d need because I hadn’t decided yet on details like the bathroom sink or what I wanted for a kitchen island. Well, now’s the time to make those decisions. I opted to do it at 555 upstairs in the loft where I…
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Sleep anti-routine
Whoever manages good sleep hygiene probably lives alone in the city. Let me recount last night and see if there’s a clue about why I am usually tired in the daytime. 8:00 pm Beryl jumps off my lap and runs out of the living room. I look outside. There’s a raccoon peering towards the cat…
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What if everything’s a spectrum?
Neurodiversity, gender identity, sexual preference, politics, religion, mental illness, physical wellness. While we aim for some personal goal or societal endpoint, all of our lives seem to be lived on a spectrum. A sliding scale. A gradient. A tapestry. What if all points on any spectrum were acceptable? Grey areas, in. Black and white, out.…
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