More Pictures

The is how far I was 2 weeks ago on the sweater. I'm further now. I'll wait until there is something to actually show before I post more pictures of it:




This is the pila on the roof of my apartment building. It is how locals do laundry, more or less.




This is the side where the piece of laundry goes to be scrubbed.




This part in the middle is where the clean water is dipped from. The drain on the side scrubbing area does not empty back in to here.




This is the clothes line that my landlord put up for me. The only issue that the sun is so bright I hate to use it for very long at a time. The good thing is that it is hot enough here that clothes dry really fast.




This is the back of the apartment building showing the creek that runs next to the building.

Catching up with the pictures

Here are the pictures to go with the previous posts:

In my Traveling Light post I said that I pulled everything out and took pictures to show what I was traveling with in my carry on. Here it is:




Some more detailed shots:




The brown/black top has a matching skirt laying above it, along with the broomstick skirt. Most of the stuff in this picture I ordered from http://magicscarf.com/ . I ordered enough from them to be a wholesaler, and the vast majority of the stuff I have been really happy with. It is light weight, crushable, packable, and fits the climate down here. Your mileage may vary, and while I'm about to send in a second order I am not really interested in jumping the the necessary hoops to actually try to make any money. If you see something you really like, maybe I can give you more information. That's the extent of my 'sales' efforts.




The jeans and polo I wore down on Friday after work. Everything I had with me except the jeans would dry overnight after being washed and hung up in the shower. Jeans are problematical to travel with as they are so comfortable but take up room and don't dry. If I was going on a longer trip I would instead take a second pair of yoga pants to lounge in the room and/or work out in. It's also good to have a slip on in the dark OMG the fire alarm is going off I need to get out of here solution. Yoga pants and a sarong/shawl fit that for me. The sarong is in the baggie and is always with me, so much so I forgot to list it before. It is a towel/beach blanket/swimsuit coverup/extra carrying bag (folded) and just all around thing to have.




My ScotteVest with the 17 or 20 or whatever pockets inside. A bit hot down here, but worth it when I'm out and about in the city. Pretty much the only way I'll carry a camera on me while out down here.

Things I didn't mention that I would also take with me if on a longer trip are my flexible clothesline and my inflatable hangers. I use my inflatable hangers almost every day here as I do my laundry by hand (more or less...) and hang things to dry. Deflated they take no room, weigh nothing, and inflate to useable hangers. I got the idea for them from: http://www.onebag.com/ and I bought them here:
http://www.magellans.com/store/Clothing___Clothing_CareTL102

As for a towel, you can buy the pricy synthetic chamois stuff from Magellans or REI or whatever, but you can also go to the automotive department and get a nice large one for less than $5 (at least the last time I looked) that is not dyed (good for wringing out laundry). Just look for the one to dry off a car.

This post is long enough. I'll do more pictures later on the pila, the in house laundry solution down here.

ps: Forgot the picture of it all packed in the 3 gal ziplocks:

From December, 2006

I had just moved into the house I'm desperately trying to get out of now, in Nashville:

"About a year and a half ago I looked at the ladder of progress I was climbing and realized a few things. First of all, I was not really climbing anymore. I was at a standstill. A post on a message board I hang on talked about how you can't steer a stationery ship, so even a move in the wrong direction is an improvement. I also realized that one reason I was at a standstill was that the ladder was leaning on the wrong wall. It wasn't going anyplace I really wanted to go after all. So, it was time to make a change. I certainly didn't think it would take this long. It was a very deep and comfortable rut I had to blast myself out of. Now that the ship is moving, it is time to start steering it again."

So, over 5 years later I'm still looking for the right wall. But, at least I have some clearer notion of what wall I'm looking to climb. And the places I've steered my ship to and around have been an interesting trip so far.

This is what can happen while copying off an old blog to save.

Weekend

I'm having a nice day at home. I'm making bits and pieces of progress. I am continuing to back up the blogspot blog, back to December of 2006. Another 2 years to go. It's difficult for me to read the stuff from back then. I was so unhappy, and stuck. Always starting over, making plans, and not getting anywhere. How did I ever break out of that? Life now is really easy comparatively. I have laundry caught up for once, not starting the weekend with piles of dirty clothes to deal with. Continuing on with unpacking and wiping out kitchen cabinets. I have most of the body of the sweater done, another couple of inches and I start the armholes. I'll have to start actually looking at the pattern soon.

Who knows, I may even post some of the pictures I've been taking. I also cleaned out my daypack. I'll do a post of what I carry with me on a daily basis, since my Traveling Light post said I had that pack 'with what I normally have with me', which wasn't very enlightening. I also had way too much other stuff in there, it had gotten heavy!

I have reached a bit of a milestone in my quest to use up consumables around here. I finally, after many years, used up all of my stashes of moisturizer. Face stuff, anyway, don't ask me about body lotion... I had a lot of 'free gift' samples and various attempts to get that youthful look, pretty much all of it Lancome as that is all I've used for about 15 years. I finally exhausted it all, and am on a newly bought bottle of the stuff. Now about makeup, which I don't wear, that is another problem. I have a lot of lipsticks and eyeshadow and such stuff. Mostly from those free gifts. I don't wear much at all at any time, and the vast majority of the time I don't wear any. However, pretty much all of it has been used at least once, so it isn't sterile or anything anymore to give away. Well, at least to strangers. I hate to toss it. sigh. The decluttering goes on.

Progress

I am at home this morning, at least for a little while longer. We are going to get my driver's license this morning. Since I live right next to the police station it seems prudent to get legal. 'Acting' dumb only works if they haven't seen me getting into and out of my car for the past few months every day. It's 'we' as our local corporate hand holder is going along to translate. From what I hear, I need a physical along with a picture taken someplace else in order to get the license.

Progress is slow but steady on the hammock, as I promise myself to do at least 2 rows a day on it. I figure around 40 rows left. I did 4 yesterday. I am knitting the sweater the same way, at least 2 rows every day, and yesterday I did 4. Same with washing laundry and ironing. 2 days' worth of laundry every night until I catch up, again. I did some ironing this morning already. I'm also wearing clothes that don't need ironing as much as possible.

So, small steps. I'm hoping at some point I'll get a window of time and energy to build on that progress and make a large leap on some front.

And...

"Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust"

Third credit card of 4 paid off today. A year and a month after the last one. Geeze, hope this last one doesn't take that long. Plan A is to have that card and the truck paid off by the end of the year.

Traveling Light

One of my goals is to be able to travel anywhere, for any length of time with a carry on and a daypack. These weekend trips are my testing ground. This weekend I finally have had all I needed, and a few items I didn't use because I didn't dress up last night. Sometimes I do, just for a change. I still have some tweeking to do, mostly just because I can. However, I would take off for a couple of weeks if necessary with what I have with me this weekend.

I wore jeans and a comfortable polo shirt down here from work with tennis shoes. I had some black yoga pants and a new pair of black nylon hiking pants and a light brown broomstick skirt, and a reversible brown/black long skirt for my bottom half. I have a reversible brown/black top, a very light leopard print, cap sleeve top, a blue/black/pink print cap sleeve top, a reversible red/black sleeveless top, and 2 t-shirts. Underclothes and toiletries, a couple of belts, a pair of water sandels and some nice black slip on shoes to wear with the skirts a pair of black tights and black light weight tank top and a swimsuit. Oh, and my knitting.

In my day pack I have what I usually carry (includes a small flashlight and travel size of most stuff I use as well as some plastic eating utensils) and my netbook with my USB wireless stick. I wear my ScotteVest travel vest with all it's inside pockets when I'm out and about so that any money/camera/ids/cell phone are on me but not hanging off me.

I pack the carry on stuff in a couple of 3 gal. ziplock bags, toiletries in a gallon bag. It all fits with room to spare. On other trips I had wished for a pair of black pants and a t-shirt, just for when I decide to dress comfortable rather than dressy. The two skirts are because I couldn't decide which one, and since I didn't wear either the jury is still out. Ah well, more trips for testing are necessary.

Yes, I laid it all out on the bed and took pictures. You know how I am with posting pictures.

Weekend

I'm down in the Capital again. Took a weekend off. Mostly I need to go shopping. I need a propane canister stove, two burner type. If I can't find what I want here I'll order one. I want something I can use back home when car-camping. I also need a few more curtains. And, I need a few other odds and ends. I will head out in a while and check out some of the stores around the outside of the mall that I haven't ventured out to yet. I'm feeling more comfortable around here, so I feel I can venture further out.

I'm looking for a replacement for Google on all fronts. I use dogpile.com as my search engine. I don't know that they mask my personal search history from Google, but they also search a few other engines at the same time. I have my email accounts set up on Mail.com and Zoho.com, just need to start moving my traffic over there.

Moving my blog is taking a bit more research. I've gandered at Wordpress and Typepad. I've also started looking at opensource software to load onto an old website that I only use for the email address currently. I pay $30/mo just to have my domain and website sitting there, I should get back to using it. I say I'm a geek. This shouldn't be rocket science. So, any geeks out there have any suggestions?

I started copying my old LiveJournal blog into a LibreOffice document (opensource version of office suite software, which is free...), and am back to sometime in 2009 so far. I need to clean it up and actually copy the pictures into the document instead of the links to PhotoBucket that I use online. I stopped using LiveJournal because I had to pay $25/year to keep advertising off it. That is one thing I wouldn't have to worry about if I host it myself.

Sweater is coming along. I looked up and can get another skein of yarn to match the main color if I run too close. It's more expensive to order from Lion Brand directly than it was to buy it form (I think) Hobby Lobby, but I can get it at least. I'm finding all kinds of fun video tutorials on YouTube. I want to make socks and tailored sweaters with no seaming, and all that fun stuff. The hammock is another story. I am still needing to finish it. I guess my enthusiasm is just gone on that one. Then again, I'm still carting around a really pretty angora sweater that I started in high school (maybe jr. high?) that just needs the side seams sewn on it. 40 years. Yeah. The yarn I'm making up into afghans and baby stuff is also from at least that long ago. I'll get it all finished at some point.

Taking My Own Advice

I just left a long post giving advice to a new blogger. She is asking for input as she decides if she wants to live fulltime in an RV. Something I have enough knowlege to give advice on since I read several blogs each day about it - that makes me an expert, right? No. What I did advise her to do is inventory everything she owns currently. That should take at least a year. Heck, I've been working on my inventory since at least 2005. Then I advised her to start letting go of stuff. I'm down to 2 10'x20' storage units myself (one does have my 2008 Jeep in it) and the things in my apartment down here in Honduras. That represents a lot of letting go and getting rid of stuff, believe it or not. As far as advice about blogging... well... I can point her to some really good blogs. Mine is, as is reflected in my overall life, a work in progress. So, time to take stock of things myself. I am continuing to knit the sweater. No progress on the hammock as I've had a bad cold all week and it takes all I can do to get through the work day. I'm on late shift next week. We'll see if my desire to finally get finished with the hammock wins out over wanting to head home when the time comes. For those of you who have forgotten the hammock, I have to work on it here on post, so it's not like the sweater that I can just pick up for a few minutes here and there. The yarn stash is getting smaller, which is the primary end result desired from doing the knitting and crocheting. I'm getting the kitchen cleaned, and starting to actually unpack the boxed I moved from WA to here 18 months ago. I will be taking inventory and getting rid of some things, and repacking the things I want to send home (to the storage unit...). Those things will be sent back the week before I head back for vacation again in September so that they will arrive while I'm at my Mom's. Debt is slowly going down. I hope to announce in a month or so that I've paid off yet another credit card. A glitch in the plan is that my current tennents in the house don't think they need to pay rent. Yep, another set that thinks rent is optional. I am gathering money to have to pay a lawyer to get them out. sigh. Yes, I've tried to sell the place. Everyone really like the place. No one thinks they should give me money to live there. I put money into the place, it looks nice, then tenents move in and trash it again. Did I mention I HATE being a landlord? This is my catch up post. I've been sick for a week and haven't felt like posting. Most things are going ok. It's the slow trudge towards my next phase. If Iknew how to speed the process up I would. But, as it is I just keep doing the next right thing.

Semana Santa

Holy Week. I hope everyone has a nice Easter weekend. Here things have slowed down a bit as most Hondurans take most of the week before Easter off work and head to the beaches. No buses ran this morning or afternoon that I could tell, and that is a major change as at least half of the traffic here is buses. Not a lot of traffic at all. It is hot, and the rainy season has started. That is good in that it cools things off while it rains. We have had a heat index cat 5 already, the highest they report at work. The down side is that I did not have electricity after the 3:30 am storm this morning. No coffee till I got to work, and a short cool shower while getting ready.

I had decided that my next post had to be the pictures I took of the pila (I asked about the spelling) up on the roof. I haven't pulled of the pictures from the camera yet, and so I kept not posting about anything else. So, the pictures will get posted when they get posted. I do have my desktop computer set up now, and I prefer to work on it with it's larger monitor when I'm dealing with pictures and video. I guess I do better with short, random posts than trying to actually tell a story of life down here.

I have been working on knitting the sweater. I had decided to rip out to near the start, if not start over completely, because my knitting is so uneven since I'm learning a whole different way to hold the yarn. However, I again reconsidered, and am continuing on. Basically, my gauge is still uneven so I'll just use this sweater for wearing around the house and getting more comfortable with knitting Continental style. Once it is done I'll order some really nice yarn and make a nice version.