My shoulders are quite sore, I suppose from doing a handstand on the rim of the bath tub and then lowering myself to the floor. She has a woman come in each Thursday that does her laundry and cleaning around the house. I was surprised when I went in the upstairs bathroom, though it would be dusty since the neighbor hasn't been up there in years. Guess the cleaning woman takes care of it. Home health care comes in and sees that she gets bathed and she recieves noon meals from the senior center. The same woman does her grocery shopping. I saw dozens of cans of soups lined up on the kitchen counter, obviously she would not be able to reach them if they were put away. Leone and I have decided we are going to give her a Christmas present, a new lock for her front door. I will install it and it can be as secure as she wants but, we are going to have a key and I will disable the push lock on the outer storm door so we can get to the front door if necessary. We aren't going to accept any arguement concerning this gift. It will be done. I already mow her lawn, keep her sidewalks and drive clean of snow and thats O.K., I don't mind doing it but crawling in upstairs windows has to stop. Haven't decided whether or not to call her son but believe I will at least write him. She is only 79 but has always hated the outdoors and I don't ever remember her being out except to go between house and car.

You can't do anything about the changes in volume levels as programming content changes. The station engineer has some control, but he would be fiddling with the controls all the time. It seems that the problem is with the advertizers. They do not adhere to modulation standards and like it when their recording studios pump up the volume on their clips - in other words - it was recorded that way! Here in the States, we sometimes have a little recourse by complaning to the station manager and sending a copy to the company whose ads are offenders. People have threatened to boycott stations ccarrying such obnoxious ads. It also helps to complain to the licensing authority. If you still get no attention, it may help to tip off an investigative newspaper reporter. Just make sure that the TV station and newspaper are not owned by the same company. In the inttrim, there is a work-around and that is to hit the mute button on your remote when an ad comes on, then hit mute again when you desire to resume watching. This saves wear on the volume control knob. [However, most volume controls on modern TV sets these days are digital and do not have a physical potentiometer to wear out.] Another solution is to record the show and play it back later. Use the fast forward to skip over the ads. You'll find that you wiil save a lot of time.

Monkey Puzzle, thanks for the Hakatai link. I have not looked there for a long time. They have some new things. Writersblock, I appreciate the vote for the laissez-faire path! I like how you think. :-) Earth Pal, I am thinking about finding a tile I love and then figuring out the counter color. Rococo suggested in the last big thread that maybe a darker counter color would work better. I want the tile choice to drive the counter choice, as it should have in the first place. There aren't a lot of colors to choose from so it will probably be White Pearl, Alpine White (too bright probably) or Ivory Cloud if I find a tile that is not too busy. If I find something busy, I will probably look at the "refined" colors with a finer grain, like Gelato, Latte or Snow Flurry. I have not yet seen samples of the refined colors. I would like to use White Pearl if I can because I love the crushed oyster shell in the Sage Pearl. I am assuming it will be the same as what I have now, sans the green bottle glass. That would be fine with me. Rococo, the tile will go in some time after the counters, but as I said above, I really want the tile to drive the counters. I learned through this process that tile makes my heart sing more than any counter surface ever will. I have to say, the asymmetry does not bug me on a day-to-day basis. It is kind of a theoretical problem, mostly apparent in photographs. My hunch is that no one visiting my house sees the problem. Sometimes I think that having a backsplash tile that makes me happy, like the last kitchen did, will be contentment enough. But, of course, if I can tweak the imbalance, I should! I want the wall color to change. Have been thinking all along about green. (Cooking Apple Green, Ball Green, Stone White even) The symmetry problem made me think that the wall should be all one color. IOW, not white/neutral tile below and green paint above. That's why I was struggling to find a green for the backsplash that I could live with on the walls. Greens that would satisfy my wall color needs (muted) did not work with the green fleck in the counters (bright). More recently, I have been pondering the possibility of "white" tile and walls. Not usually my thing, but I am trying to keep an open mind. The driving issue to me seems to be that the wall should be monochromatic. The trim color stays. I like it. The cabs stay the same for now and maybe forever. Someday, perhaps I will have painted cabs, but thinking about that now makes my head explode just a little. :-) Metallics are appealing, as is a bit of subdued iridescence (Oceanside Glasstile iridescence). But, I worry about cleaning stainless tiles. I hate keeping after what little SS I have now and would like to not sign up for more. But, I am all ears/eyes! Cleaning beautiful things is not so bad.

I have a collection in a galvanized trough too on my potting bench. I'm unable to pass them by either as long as the price is right (free or up to $1). I thought I'd put a few of them to a different use, especially that shovel that has no handle. It's perfect. I use old rake heads to hang my tools on.