Sealing the Cracks

So I use my cell phone to check the time. Call it an updated “pocket watch”. I’m sure a lot of you do, too. I like to keep my wrists free for hair ties and the occasional bracelet. But a lot of your peers are very passionate about watches, which they of course refer to as “timepieces”. Here’s a quote by writer Joe Wertz that speaks to this passion:

“A good watch should long outlive its wearer. The great ones are still handmade today by skilled craftsmen who tame metal into precision tools that rival the most complicated machinery in the world.”

I respect this need for something special, something painstakingly created. A watch, like any common commercial product, can range in price from a few dollars to a few million once you start adding gold and gems and famed designers to the mix (a side note: the annual “fantasy gifts” from Neiman Marcus are the “cheapest” in a decade, thanks to the recession). 

Here’s something for you to think about. Often hailed as “the most complicated watch ever made”, the Tour de l’Ile from Vacheron Constantin has 834 individual parts inside. The face lists two time zones, gives the sunset time, has a perpetual calendar, and an astronomical indicator of the night sky. It took over 10,000 hours with a team of engineers and watchmakers to just design the piece. Given the intricate nature and expense, plus the fact that there isn’t a huge demand for pricey watches, they stopped production at seven. 

Now, you’re a reasonable person, and thus you wouldn’t expect to find the Tour de l’Ile on sale for $99 this Black Friday. And while I too am a reasonable person, allow me to air that its price tag of $1.5 million doesn’t seem all that absurd given everything that went into the watch. Plus, it was a special project to commemorate the watchmaker’s 250th anniversary. That’s a long time perfecting a product. So it’s very expensive, yes, and not a purchase I’ll ever make, but not really absurd, especially when we consider this watch.

This is the 201-carat by Chopard. Besides the incredible impracticality of it (can you even squint enough to make-out the time?), it just looks ridiculous. Again, you can really just pile gems onto anything. This piece, with no real design skill needed, and certainly not years of design and production time, will cost you a cool $25 million. 

Personally, I find it ugly.

And so, I ask you. What do you think about watches? Are they a necessity? An accessory? Heirlooms, meant to be passed down? Or perhaps, like me, you don’t even wear one…

I recently learned that fair trade coffee isn’t so fair. There are quite a few articles about this topic splashed across on the Internets, so take your pick of reading material. It’s very troubling to me, a woman who makes a huge deal out of finding a blend that is superior to other blends, and loves finding “ethical” roasters who make her feel hopeful.

Here are the facts (and my commentary, since this is a blog and all). 

So, while fair trade coffee is more lucrative for farmers than hitting the open market, it’s still not enough to live humanely from. While it’s sad that Starbucks (whom, I must admit, makes the best pumpkin spice latte around) feels justified in their pricing scale, if Starbucks wasn’t in the fair trade circle, there wouldn’t be much of a circle as Starbucks is by far the largest purchaser of fair trade beans. It’s a “Darn you, but… at least you’re still helping” scenario. Supporting your local fair trade coffeehouse is always nice, but only locally - the farmers will still average 50c per pound at the end of the day regardless of your source.

Thoughts?

Since living under my rock of home improvements and neighborhood on-goings, I apparently missed the fact that local currency is making a resurgence. I know it was popular during the depression, but didn’t realize how widespread it is today, and that Wisconsin has some local currency in circulation, too. Small business owners dig local currency because it has to stay local (more sales for them), and shoppers dig local currency because they feel good knowing their “buck” is staying close to home.

The government rules for local currency are pretty simple: it has to be printed on paper (no coins), it can’t resemble federal money, and local currency income must be taxed. 

So now I must know: have you used local currency? Have you even seen local currency? Here’s a sample of local currency called “BerkShares” from Great Barrington, MA. 

… a monthly heat and electrical bill for $449.

Surely there was a mistake! But after comparing the numbers to our last bill, and a quick call to another Madison homeowner, we realized the sad truth of the situation. Our large house, coupled with a new rate increase from the utility company, has resulted in a frightening number, especially considering how low we keep the heat at night.

Like silent swans, gliding away from each other in their home pond (trying to jazz up the somberness here), we moved apart, closing vents, closing doors, and stacking the fireplace. We were so proud of our fall weatherstripping efforts, but the rate increase negated that nicely.

New Year’s Resolution #1: conserve, conserve, conserve.

But, given our record breaking December, I don’t think there’s much more we can do. Have you seen my quaint film? You might want to put on a sweater before watching:

New Year’s Resolution #2: Realize that things could always be worse. Because I’m sure we’ll re-break the record next year.

Have any resolutions to share?

Anyway, I’m packing up my things and heading to Milwaukee to celebrate the coming of 2009, which I hope is a little cheaper than 2008 but still loaded with great times. I’m pretty darn sure we can make that happen…

Sometimes too much CNN is a bad thing. I’m kind of a news junkie, who dutifully absorbs the Internet headlines each morning, flips on CNN midday, and watches both local and world news each evening. I like to stay in the know.

Reports of the travel headaches are currently dominating the news. I watched a bride-to-be in the Portland airport (an airport I know well) clutching her David’s bridal bag, weeping because she was supposed to get married that evening but was stuck a thousand miles away from her home church. Oh Lord, I had to put down my spoon for that one. (I also like to eat ice cream while watching the news.)

We traveled to our family’s homes earlier in the month. My husband was very excited to finally see Christmas Eve Service at our Madison church, but wouldn’t you know it, he’s now lying on the couch, feeling pretty sick. Anyway, I’m getting off track here. The roads were bad when we went up to Michigan to see his family (actually skid off the road a bit in Minocqua), and they were no picnic driving back from my family’s Christmas last weekend. I think the worst is all the fast skidding that happens when you hit a slippery spot. Even if you’re driving 35mph on the freeway (which I do in bad weather), your car is likely to do a fast little skid a few inches to the left or right (following the icy track of cars who went before you) before returning to the middle of the lane on its own. It’s scary.

But, we’re tucked away for now, eating a light supper to ensure empty stomachs for tomorrow’s homemade cinnamon rolls, and ham dinner with stuffing, cheesy potatoes, and fresh rolls. And let’s not forget the butter pecan pumpkin ice cream pie.

Once again, I’m straying…

So I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas and ask the following: how did your holiday traveling go?

“Every December throughout my childhood, my father would rise from the couch on a Sunday afternoon and tell us that it was time to chop down the Christmas tree. But the Walsh men are not outdoorsmen; firmly suburban, we’re at most screened-in-porch men. So by cutting down the yule tree, my dad meant climbing into the attic and bringing down the tinsel-covered bits of plastic and tubing, then assembling them into something resembling Tannenbaum form. Yes, though it shames me to say it now, we were a faux-fir family…”

You can read the rest of TIME’s O Christmas Tree article right here. The article asks a timely question: are real trees or artificial trees better?

Growing up, we went back and forth, which, according to the article, is probably the worst choice. This year, we went out and bought a real scotch pine. I don’t feel guilty about getting a tree off a Christmas tree farm/retailer who buys through a Christmas tree farm. Rather, I feel the tree is fulfilling its destiny, and I know the farm will keep planting more trees so long as the country keeps buying them. Our scotch is little, and the city will pick it up to turn into mulch come January. So far, the cats are content to lay under it, which is a nice bonus. Of course, being city cats, I’m not sure they understand what great fun they could be having by climbing the thing.

So I feel pretty good about the scotch, but wouldn’t you know it, the hubby and I broke out into little red bumps after setting up the tree. As far as I know, I’ve never been allergic to any type of synthetic material. Maybe a douglas fir is the answer.

Of course, I’ll now turn to you: what kind of tree, if any, did you put up this year?

At the apartment, neighbor envy was minimal, but still present. Some of our fellow apartment dwellers had gorgeous deck furniture - you know, like some sort of sweet bamboo/metal/chichi umbrella outfit you’d buy from Pier 1. One Sunday, I watched as our next-door neighbors put down a beautiful monogrammed Welcome Mat. I’d still like a personalized Welcome Mat. Perhaps one with our last name and a trendy anchor design. Then the other next-door neighbors went and got kittens! Man, that was a tough day.

Living in a house is much worse on the neighbor envy front. Neighbor envy is what drives me to keep gardening and trimming and hoping one day our yard will stand out from the crowd. This summer, four houses on our own street got new driveways, those little pails with rope strung between them taunting me as I stared at their drying driveways and our cracked driveway. The Christmas season is proving to be worse. There’s no official decorating contest in our neighborhood, but there might as well be. Most of the houses just shine with classy white lights, lots of greenery, and elegant stars abound. So far, we don’t even have a tree. We just have a little metal tree that sits on the table.

Do you suffer form neighbor envy, too?

This past week, the cover of TIME magazine warned: “7 Things That Could Go Wrong on Election Day.”

Woohoo!

Since everything is stable now, I thought I’d share what my polling location looks like and describe our local ballot to you. I’d love for you to do the same.

I vote at a K-5 elementary school three blocks from my house. The enrollment is 350, and 90% of the students walk to school. I’ll be walking there on Tuesday.

Madison residents get a single sheet paper ballot. We have to draw a line to connect an arrrow which then points to our candidates of choice. The same arrow design is used to vote “Yes” or “No” to referendum questions. This year, there are only two referendum questions - a school funding referendum to exceed the district budget, and a Wisconsin universal health care referendum.

What are things like in your neck of the woods?

Each fall, our nationwide Back to School march ends summer vacations (and heavier economic spending), and starts our neatly controlled routines anew: up at the same time, asleep at the same time, events marked by school-free holidays and changing seasons.

The last time I had such a routine was in the fall of 2005, upon entering my last year at the UW as a Masters student. But even though I’m not buying textbooks and putting myself to bed by 10pm anymore, I do try to incorporation one tradition of schooldom in my professional life: organization. Remember the binders, the notebooks, the folders, all so neatly filled and maintained throughout the academic year? Now that these colorful supplies have morphed into a beige filing cabinet, it’s less exciting to work with. And there are new organization challenges, ones that I had no preparation for as a grade or high school student, and still don’t have a hold on despite trying in college and beyond. I’m speaking of the following: digital pictures, monthly bills, and medical paperwork.

Let’s start with digital pictures. Currently, all of my photos live on my hard drive, with some (but not all) on an external hard drive. I understand the importance of redundant data (making copies of the same data and storing it in different places). I should make regular back-up CDs. I should do something with the Flckr account I signed up for and barely acknowledged. But thus far, I haven’t. Because I can usually find what I need in the old C:/ drive, and so far, I’ve had no reason to break my habit.

Let’s move on to monthly bills. Some companies send me a paper bill each month. I understand that I should keep the top half in a folder for 12 months, then shred it. And I do. But I also have some auto-pay bills. Some companies are fully paperless, sending me an emailed receipt each month. Do I print those out and waste paper, or let them clutter my email account? What about the tricky beasts who send both an emailed statement and a paper statement despite my requests for one or the other? What’s that about?

And finally, the medical paperwork. We have access to some of our medical charts online, but not all of the necessary information. And they certainly don’t scan in the bills, after appointment instructions, summaries, prescription documentation, etc., yada, etc. So really, the medical paperwork is the most spread-out between paper and digital, making it impossible to keep a tidy folder.

I miss the days where my blue folder was marked ‘Reading’, and my green folder was marked ‘Science’, and if you couldn’t find a tool in your pencil box, you probably didn’t need it anyway.

How do you handle digital and paper organization? Do you have a routine, or do you take a stab at it when things get out of hand?

My husband encouraged me to draw a picture of what I want the yard to look like, so that we’re both on the same page. I completed my drawing and proudly displayed it on the fridge. After a bit of tweaking, we came up with a multi-stage plan for my dream yard for the given space. He always says, “Your goals are my goals.” We’re a nice team.

Stage one involves clearing out all of the old flower beds, and creating new flower beds as appropriate. The husband is more than happy to rip up more of the yard, as it means less mowing. Here’s the disaster we had to get rid of first along the garage for my future daylily bed:

See that blasted tree/shrubby in the foreground that’s wrapping around the gutter? Turns out it had unbelievable roots that grew under a 60 pound boulder three feet deep. Sounds like sci-fi, but nope, it’s just our life over here in the Jurassic Park yard.

It was easy to clear out most of the area with a shovel and shears. See how good it looks, all ready for planting? But notice the husband still hard at work on the three/shrubby.

I wanted to help, but I recently injured my knee, and stabbing away at that mess is certainly not what the doctor ordered. So, I pulled up a lawn chair to keep him company and document. Here’s a close-up of the tree/shrubby crisis (by the way, you can click on pictures in this blog to enlarge them).

Horrible. Meanwhile, I decided to rope off an area for a new flower bed/bird bath combo with an extension cord (my husband’s idea, possibly because I was merely sitting in my director’s chair all afternoon).

After several hours of hard labor, my husband was finally victorious. “I am so proud of myself!” he said. I was, too.

Stage one is set to wrap in two weeks. Stay tuned!