Weekend Musings: Last Day of January
Ocean City, Maryland | January 2015
Took a quick day trip to Ocean City on Friday to meet up with the contractors and the tile/floor guy. We are coming up on almost a year since the pipe burst (don't think that I ever blogged about it, but to make a long story short, sometime in February 2014 (near as I can figure) during the super cold snap, a pipe in the ceiling of the first floor bathroom burst. It was not discovered until March and at the time it looked like it was just a pipe going to the outdoor shower. It was not until May that I truly realized the scope of the damage ($60K and counting) and have been working with USAA to get it fixed since (they have been fantastic) Needless to say, things move much more slowly when you are 3 hours away. But I think that we are on the home stretch.
Turns out that white tile floors are no longer "in" and are very hard to come by. So rather than just replacing what I have, I get to choose new flooring for the entire first floor. I'm currently looking into "luxury vinyl planks" which will give a wood floor look but also have a lot of durability. So far most of what I have seen has been positive. I have to admit that I am getting a bit excited by it as it will change the look of the place a bit. I have picked the carpet, the new tile for the bathrooms (I am getting rid of that awful fiberglass!) and am pretty close to picking the new LVP (and halfway considering using it throughout the house instead of carpet...) It is a hard thing to balance...wanting to just get it done and not reinvent the wheel on things but at the same time realizing that I have a chance to fix a lot of things that I have wanted to. Can't wait until I can do more than make day trips down...
Here are a few things that caught my attention this week:
Pleasure as a Meditation - Happened to stumble upon this Sounds True podcast episode with Jenna La Flamme which has really rocked my world a bit. Her book (Pleasurable Weight Loss) is about weight loss, but it really is about way more than that. The basic gist is that the idea of using pleasure as a reward is backwards and causes our bodies to crave and seek pleasure in unhealthy ways. That if we start living our lives based on what we enjoy and figure out how to add more "unearned" pleasure into them, our lives become infinitely easier, not to mention more fun. A lot to think about and process and I am sure that it is not for everyone, but talk about the right book at the right time for me.
Editor Picks Religions For The First Norton Anthology of World Religions - Really enjoyed this Fresh Air segment with Jack Miles. Also furthers my belief that Jesuits (or ex-Jesuits) are pretty interesting people.
Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains - I've been on a Fresh Air kick this week and enjoyed this interview with neuroscientist Dr. Frances Jensen, So much of what can drive us crazy about our teens makes so much sense when you look at our brain development. Fascinating stuff.
I've also jumped back into playing around with task management apps in the hopes of finding something fun that works. Have been using the Clear app which I love for basic check lists (great user interface and fun to use), but not so much for "task management". So far I am enjoying playing around with ToDoist. A really nice, clean user interface and it is easy and fun to adjust things as you go. Only time will tell if it is anything more than a fun, new, shiny thing for me to play around with. Luckily it has a free version to get a feel for how it can work.
