Always Searching . . .

I’m not fond of rules and regulations but they are there for a purpose. These three basic rules will help you write with confidence.

1. Be Honest.  Bare yourself on the paper.  No, don’t give me all the intimate dirty details of your past or present.  What I want is your feelings, your emotions,  presented as actions, in a way that makes me feel them, too.  Like Eliza Doolittle, in the musical “My Fair Lady,” I say, “show me.”  Let your characters experience pain and heartbreak, because I want to see how they deal with it.  Let them grow on the page so I can grow along with them.
2. Be a Duck.  Ducks sit in the stream or pond and groom or feed or sit no matter what the weather: storm or sun.  Whatever you write will offend someone, if it is well written.  You need to be able to sit in the stream of your work and let the shouts of acclimation and disdain roll off your back as you continue writing.  I recently read two book reviews written by two different authors with very different perspectives.  The book they reviewed was David Mamet’s new book based on his “conversion” from screenwriter and playwright with leftist politics, to one aligned with the political right.  The first review by Christopher Hitchens leaves the reader with no doubt that the book is worthless.  The second review by Andrew Klavan, is personal, thoughtful, and makes me want to read at least parts of the book.  You can expect both reactions from your writing and a duck-like attitude will take you far.      
3. Revise.  No one’s first written effort is good.  No matter how good it looks to you, it isn’t.  Check spelling, grammar, sentence structure, transitions.  If you pick a simile or metaphor that works, make sure the others you use are consistent with your character and his environment.  Are you deliberately using non-standard structure, non-standard grammar, non-standard spelling?  Why?  In a few cases, there is good reason to break the rules.  But, only if your readers can follow your line of thought.  For most purposes, use correct spelling and grammar, concise sentences, and logical transitions. When you have read it over 20 or 30 times, let someone else read and edit it.  I can guarantee you that they will find mistakes. 

Now that you know the three rules, what happens if you violate them?  Violate Rule 1 and no one will care about your writing.  Your characters will be cardboard cut-outs, two dimensional representations, shadows of reality.  If you violate Rule 2, you will soon stop writing because you can’t stand up to the hurtful comments or you will be so enamored with the positive reviews, that you will never grow as a writer.  Finally, if you violate Rule Number 3, no one will read your writing. If it requires too much effort to follow your inconsistent usage of grammar, sentence structure, spelling, it will not be worth the reader’s time.  So be honest, act like a duck, and revise, revise, revise and you will soon have writing that is worth reading.

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The second secret of renovation. Unplanned events will ruin your budget. It was around this time that what the inspector didn’t inspect or tell me about rose up to bite me. I arrived one day in that rainy spring, drove onto the driveway, opened the gate, and discovered sinkholes in the gravel drive above the creek. Large sink holes.  Big enough for a person to drop through into the black void below.  I examined them. If I was careful, maybe I could drive the car across and miss the holes. I put my foot next to one. It held. I looked down and my mind turned it into a black hole sucking in anything that touched its edge. But I could see the creek next to the drive and knew it was maybe 6 feet down. This was not a celestial vortex, merely a sink hole.

I contemplated backing my car and making a run for it. I’ve seen cop shows where, during the high speed chase, one car jumps over a large obstacle in the road. Surely with sufficient momentum I could jump the holes. Then I thought about what was even more likely to happen to me. Insufficient momentum would leave my car stuck in the holes 67 miles from home. I envisioned the wrecker pulling my car out with broken tie rod ends or some other major problem. And even if I did somehow make it across the creek, would that crossing enlarge the sinkholes and leave me trapped on the other side? And if they didn’t enlarge, would my car get stuck on the way out when I was tired with night approaching? And what would my husband say? I was afraid he would say that the whole thing had been a mistake. So I left my car at the end of the drive and, in multiple trips, carried my paint cans and lamps on foot up to the cabin for my day’s work.

When I left that day, I stopped at Shelley’s Nursery, a local nursery and landscape business and asked if they could repair the culvert damage. They could and would but they couldn’t get to it until summer when the creek was down to a manageable level and it would cost more than any single item or job I had planned. There was nothing else to do. I put my contractor on hold, put large deliveries on hold, and I tore things apart and ripped out carpet and painted and installed a security system and took care of all of the small things I could. I carried lamps and tables up the hill and carried trash back down. At least I had one working toilet and one working sink (not in the same room as the toilet) and a refrigerator and microwave. It was late July before the culvert was repaired and September before my contractor could get in and finish. I did tell my husband about the culvert the first time he saw the place in November. “How much did it cost?” he asked. “You don’t want to know,” I said. And he said nothing in response so I knew he really did not want to know.

That was the standard for all our renovation conversations. I would tell him about some problem and he would ask, “how much did it cost?” I would say, “you don’t want to know.” And there it would end.

Again, in September I experienced  “first picked bad contractor” rule all over again. My personal warning is that when I start “helping” the contractor by telling them things they ought to already know, I have picked a bad one. I have one other indicator. When the contractor tells me he doesn’t like what he’s doing, I know there is a problem. If I had more sense, perhaps I would have fired the contractor right away for knowing less than I do and hating what he was doing. But somehow compassion (if that’s what it was) won out and I let the contractor continue even after I discovered that he couldn’t figure out how to attach a drain pipe, didn’t know that bathroom circuit breakers aren’t rated for enough amps to run  power tools, couldn’t correctly identify hot and cold water lines, didn’t know how to control drywall dust, failed to answer phone calls, told me he hates working inside, and then walks off with the keys never to be seen again or heard from again.

My second contractor was competent albeit a little forgetful. But’s that’s OK because he laid the laminate floor competently, fixed my electrical problems and told me he wouldn’t do something I asked because it was unsafe and would lead to long-term problems. He was clean, competent and told me more than I needed to know. This is a contactor I can trust. And because he lives in the neighborhood, he tells me things about the area that I would not have learned otherwise. I expect to be able to provide him with many projects over the years to come.

Did you think I was finished with renovations when the floors were in and everything worked? I don’t think renovations ever cease! The word renovation means renew. So from the basics to make the cabin habitable to those less basic things which make it comfortable, they all bring newness to it. I try to make it better than new. This year the floors, next year the roof, and who knows what might be in store for the future!

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The act of writing is not a one act play.  It is not a three-act play.  Rather, it is act upon act upon act.  In this article I am going to discuss my writing tools, method, and strategy.  While writers differ in how they work, some of the processes are the same.  Take from mine what will benefit you.  What I have written here applies to everything I write: poetry, short story, essay, novel, but I am writing from the viewpoint of the novelist. 

I use Microsoft Word as my primary writing tool.  Some writers start with an outline: I use another method.  On a clean page, I put in a couple of page breaks and start the work by writing a plot summary below the page breaks that will get me to a certain point in the novel where I still know where the plot is.  (For writings shorter than a novel, I skip the plot summary and go right to the first draft).  I am not a writer who knows the entire plot.  The plot comes to me as I write and think and imagine.  The summary might take me to the end or, more likely, only plot the next the next few moves my characters will take.  In my historical novel, I know the major scenes and the end.  My plot summary takes me to and through the next major scenes.  As I have ideas, I insert them where they would fall in the plot line.  Sometimes I recognize that a plot can go a different direction and I put in possibilities.  I use the term “paragraph” loosely.  Below is the current plot summary for my novel.  As you can see it contains disjointed sentences, misspellings, and is non-grammatical.

After king, Eli and Talib escape to Gilead. Talib leaves Eli at the stream to find work and food nearby. He contacts his family and his brothers do not like what he has become. His mother supports him and gives him food and finds him a farm job with her brother, Eli dreams about Amanda and worries as the stream becomes more and more shallow. He calls on Yahweh. Ravens—eli knows what they eat and his stomach and heart rebel. Yahweh reinforces that the Ravens are to feed him like the quail. This goes on for about 1.5 years. Talib brings him messages and news from Jonathan. Later they are forced to leave Gilead and go to Zareph where they stay with a widow with a son. Yahweh tells Eli to provide for the widow. “You have seen my provision. Now do it for another.” The widow gives him her dead husband’s clothes and makes him a new prophet’s cloak. He and Talib find jobs on a farm. Talib later marries the widow although she is older. The son follows Eli to his next place. Or the son gets mad at Eli and Talib.

When I finish that section of the novel, I delete its plot summary.   And plot summaries are subject to change.  I’m several chapters into the first sentence of the plot summary above, but I am not sure how much of the rest will find a place in the novel.  A new character inserted herself a few chapters ago, and may change the direction.  I have a plot summary for my next novel which covers only the opening, because I simply don’t know where it is going yet.  But to bring us back to the first draft, with summary in front of me, I sit at the computer and start writing.  I write action, dialogue, anything that comes to mind.  I don’t worry too much about style or grammar, although I do write in mostly grammatically correct complete sentences and paragraphs and put a chapter where I think it needs one.  When I come to a point where I need to research something, I sometimes make a note in the document (NOTE) to remind me to research it later or, more frequently, I stop writing and start researching. 

My primary research tools are books and publications, and the internet.  Much of my research springs from the plot summary.  I research places, buildings, people’s names, geography, weather, culture, anything that the novel might need.  In the plot summary above, place names will be researched as will ravens, drought, and farming.  Some things are so minor that they are lightly researched only to give me the ability to describe them.  Others require much research as an integral part of the story.  Research for my current novel includes the Bible, a Bible commentary, a couple of books on archaeology, current guidebooks, timelines, and maps.  I copy some of the most pertinent information and save it in a file on my desktop that contains the novel I am working on; any printed matter goes into a file near my desk for future reference.  The internet provides me with maps and pictures of the places in my novel as well as current archeological photographs, and information such as the research I did on horses.  Since I am writing at a web-enabled computer, I use Google maps and pictures and Bing maps and archaeological society web sites and museum sites.   I research vacation areas and read personal blogs because they list some of the features of the land and describe it in a personal manner.  I keep links to all of these sites in a folder on my desktop with the manuscript.  I subscribe to archaeology blogs and save the emails in a mail folder with the most useful ones flagged.  I use OneNote to save all the other web information.  Does it sound like I am saving things in multiple places?  You are correct, but I can link them all with OneNote (except the paper copies and books).  I have a tab in OneNote for the book and pages with information on People, Places, Timeline, Geography, etc.   I have separate pages for geographic areas and cities that my characters inhabit or visit.  I do as much research as I need, so that I can close my eyes and hear and see the place where my characters live.

After I have written the first draft of part of the novel, whether it be a few chapters or much more, when I get stuck with the writing, I go back and fill in gaps.  I reread it from the beginning or from another point.  What information will readers need?  Find it and write it.  What have I written that only I will find interesting?  Out it goes.  I rework sentences and paragraphs to make them more readable.  I analyze dialogue to determine whether it fits the character.  This is the time when it goes from a first draft to a tenth draft.  (Not a literal 10 drafts—these drafts are as many as you need).  I check words with Word’s built-in thesaurus and dictionary and when that isn’t enough, go to the web to search out meaning and definition, and use the site Visual Thesaurus.  Every time I rewrite--and ten rewrites is not an overstatement--I cut, change language, fix grammar, add description.  And every time I do this, I add errors which I correct on subsequent rewrites.  This is the work of creating a writing.  A Victorian historian once said that the effortless written document comes at the pain of great effort.   And it is in the act of writing with great effort that we produce something that is of value to the reader.

Writing exposes my greatest weaknesses and it will expose yours, also.  When you feel emotional pain that touches your weak spot, that is the place in your writing where you need to push through.  Or maybe after the first couple of small pushes (drafts), you need to pull back, leave your writing, do something that restores you, then return and push through again.  It almost sounds like birthing a baby and that is exactly what it is.  By the tenth time, it does get easier.  Rewriting also exposes my lack of attention to detail. Every rewrite contains more words as I insert details to bring depth and color to my writing.  This is where I try to remember my five senses.  What does it feel like, sound like, look like, taste like, smell like?  This is where I can write creatively as my imagination searches for ways to describe something.  Creativity springs from describing sounds, tastes, smells, and what something feels like when your character touches it.  It’s easy to describe something you see; writing is, after all, a visual medium.  Take time to describe the other sensory stimuli.  I have found that the best way to hone this sense is to write a short story or to consider each chapter as a short story.  Does every word have meaning?  Is every word the correct word?  There are generally sufficient words in the English language to convey any meaning, but when those words fail, become inventive.  Coin a phrase or create a combination word, hyphenated or not, to convey a sensory experience to your reader.

On the purely practical side, Microsoft Word has some features that make my work easier.  Word’s spell check, grammar checking, and word count, are the ones I use the most.  I make spelling and grammar errors; Everyone does.  Word does.  But Word’s spelling and grammar check makes me stop and think.  Is Word correct, or am I, or is the correct sentence somewhere else.  I may leave it as written, correct it as Word indicates, or completely rework the sentence.  But whatever I do, I do it with thought and consideration, and frequently end up rewriting sentences and paragraphs.

As I write I also use Word’s Find  to search for “chapter.”  I have a horrible time keeping chapter numbers in order and Word will list them for me.  I also use the search feature and my own reading to correct the overuse of words.  I recently read a novel where the author used the word “sludge” to describe the traffic in a large city.  That might have been fine once, but he used it over and over again. I think it popped out at me the first time, because it jarred me in an unpleasant way and I felt that he could have found a better word.  When your readers are distracted this way, the reading experience is interrupted and you lose some of the impact of your written work.  When you find yourself misusing or overusing a word or phrase, Find helps you identify it so you can rewrite and make your work stronger.  It also teaches you to avoid your pet words and to locate good substitutes. 

Word count is another useful tool, located on the lower left of a Word document, which allows me to highlight a section and know the word count and to keep running track of the word count as I work.  For short stories, the word count should be 5000 or fewer.  If you are submitting to a contest or magazine, they will tell you their expected word count which usually is 3000 words for a short story.  Novels are generally in the 60,00- to 100,000 word range, especially if it is your first novel.  Right now, I have about 90,000 words and I am at what I consider the half-way point.  That means that this novel will either be cut (and I have already thought of sections to cut), or I will do as some writers do and stretch it into a series.  For a first time author, you need to stay close to what an agent expects, so word count lets you know where you are and where you need to be. Here’s more information on word count. 

What it all comes down to is: write and write and write some more, and then revise, revise, revise, revise, until you are sick of it.  When you can’t stand to look at it any longer, put it aside and come back to it later.  When you are sure that you have it the way you want it, give it others to read,  and get ready to revise some more.  Word allows you to send a pdf file to your readers which they can read on their computers, their Kindle, or print and read.  Have your reviewers mark what they like, what they don’t like, and spelling and grammatical errors.  Ask for notes.  What interrupts the flow of the reading?  What description bothers them?  What do they need described more fully?  Did they enjoy something?  Hate something?  If possible, sit down with your readers and ask them questions.  Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.  You are writing your book for readers, so take their comments seriously.  Then put it aside.  Read it again.  Rewrite, if necessary, then send it off to your agent.  Now you can take a vacation, clear your mind and, then start your next novel. 

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If you’ve never known one, you could easily rearrange the words with sufficient meaning.  Web Spider Nursery and  Spider Web Nursery give you a hint.  Web Nursery Spider is almost meaningless.  What am I talking about?  Pictured below is a shot of the female Nursery Web Spider carrying her egg sac. 

The Nursery Web Spider carries the eggs using her mouth and two extra appendages (called “pedipalps”)until they are almost ready to hatch.  Then she weaves a web of silk, attaches it to leaves, and deposits the egg sac within.  She stands guard until the eggs hatch.  If you get close enough (I’m not sure I want to!) you may be able to identify the Nursery Web Spider by its eyes.  Like most other spiders it has eight eyes.  The Nursery Web Spider eyes are arranged in two rows of 4 and the eyes in the top row may be slightly farther apart than those in the bottom row.  Frankly, looking at spider eyes on the web makes me shudder, so I’ll leave closer identification to you!

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Some readers will accuse me of painting a caricature in this column.  I agree.  The opinions I have formed are based on my interactions with a small number of people.  However, all of my life interactions are usually with a small number of people, so this may not be merely a caricature.  You decide.

Caricature 1:  City life is fast paced and danger lurks around every corner. 

I first recognized this as a college student from Columbus when I travelled to New York City.  My New York host instructed me strongly, “don’t look anyone in the eye and don’t talk to anyone.”  I tried to comply, but as I stood on Fifth Avenue and watched people rush by, I wondered where they were all going and why they were in such a great hurry.  You can’t discern people’s reasons without looking into their eyes at some point.  Violating my host’s instructions bore no consequences.  I observed, people hurried by, and life went on.  That is, until my second violation. 

Later that day, I rested on a bench in one of the city’s many parks to observe my surroundings.  People raced down the sidewalk to their destination and a few took a shortcut through the park.  Other people, arrayed in colorful garments, habited the park benches.  They were lounging or sleeping as though the park was their living room, and it was afternoon nap time.  I had never seen anything like this and I pulled out my camera to take a picture.  That’s when the city reared its ugly head.  Some of the loungers yelled that I was a spy for the CIA.  I shook my head to deny it but there was no dissuading the shouters.  I recognized the irrationality of this accusation because the CIA was empowered only to act outside of the USA, but I did not believe these people would listen to a reasonable argument.  I envisioned being mobbed on my first day in New York.  My host would not be pleased.  I hugged my belongings, my bag and my camera, close to me and considered my options.  There were about seven loungers and newly awakened sleepers and only one of me and not one of the passers-by was paying any attention.  I imagined the vagrants rising from their benches to surround and attack me.  Moving cautiously, I rose and strode toward the stream of fast walkers on the nearby sidewalk.  Before I reached them, I glanced over my shoulder to see if the bench-sitters were following, but they must have been content to scare that naive college girl.   I entered the stream and moved on, wiser in the ways of the city.    

Caricature 2--Country life is slow and everyone wants to be your friend.   

In the last year I have discovered that country people like to stop and talk.  Relationship takes priority over business, or perhaps alongside business.  I hired someone to mow my tall grass.  When he had finished, he came to the door for payment.  Or so I thought.  I opened the door and held out the cash.  He ignored the money in my hand, walked into the house, plopped down into the comfortable chair next to the sofa where my husband was adjusting the television, and began to talk.  We spoke about life and work and politics and his business and whatever came to mind.  He did take the cash when he left, but relationship preceded business.  And it has been that way for most of the people I meet.  When I drop into a nearby retail garden center, the owners and workers stop to talk to me about subjects that interest them and ones that interest me.  I enjoy the conversation but feel guilty for interrupting their work; It doesn’t seem to bother them.  I assuage my guilt by purchasing things I may not need.

Early this spring, I stopped by the garden center to ask a question, and the owners took me on a tour of their new “green” greenhouse, the cistern for recycling water, and new benches from The Netherlands.  If I walked into a city nursery or greenhouse under construction I would be told to leave, not given a tour.  This is as much of a shock as I experienced in New York, but a pleasant shock. And more shocks keep coming.  Country business people don’t worry about contracts; It’s all done on a handshake.  That’s somewhat disquieting to me with my background in law and certainty.  And forget about quick service.  In the city, it’s all about speed and convenience.  “Same Day Service.”  “Open 24 Hours.”  In the country, I hear “maybe in two or three weeks” or “when the creek level drops.”  Most stores are closed Sundays.  There’s something refreshing about knowing that whoever you hire is not rushing to get the next dollar. 

What do you think?  Have I portrayed these caricatures rightly? Which life do you live? 

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I live for rainy days.  Other people think I’m crazy.  “Isn’t it a beautiful day!” They say on those bright sunny days that make me want to cover my eyes against the glare and retreat to some dark cave.  “What’s beautiful about it?” I want to say, but don’t.  No one else loves rainy days like I do and why should I cast my dark shadows on their pleasure?

Why do I like rainy days?  Have you ever smelled a wet dog?  Rainy days give me the perfect excuse not to walk my dog.  I use those hours I snatch on the rainy day to think, pray, concentrate, read, and write.  Time to be.  And so much better than wet dog odor.

Why do I like rainy days?  The roar of city traffic is muted by rain.   Spring, summer, and fall rains make me feel like I am no longer in the city, but in the woods where I prefer to be.  The patter of raindrops hitting the green leaves,  and the drip, drip, drip, from the gutters are more pleasurable sounds than automobile engines.  Even the sound of a splash as I walk through a puddle is lovely sound. E.e. cummings had it right when he called it “puddle-wonderful.”

Along with the sounds, the view changes in rain.  I leaned long ago in a photography class that light has color temperatures (measured in degrees Kelvin for the person who discovered this phenomenon).  These temperatures are a measure of the amount of heat applied to the perfect black radiator which absorbs all color.  As the temperature is raised or lowered that black object radiates back different colors of light.  Changes in color temperature make some colors “pop”.  For example, the color temperature of sunlight is around 5500 degrees Kelvin.  At that color temperature, to our eyes, everything looks normal.  But lower that temperature to about 3200 degrees (incandescent light) and objects and people appear yellow, not necessarily to our eyes which tend to adjust for changes in light and color, but a camera will will convey the warmer tint unless you white balance or use a flash to simulate sunlight.  During rain, the daylight color temperature rises from the 5500 degree sunlit temperature to 6000-10,000 degrees where colors have a cooler, bluish tint.  “Cooler” is the operative word for me.  I love cool colors and overcast skies and rain give those to me.  That’s why greens appear greener on those overcast rainy days.

Why do I live for rainy days?  Free time to accomplish great things, quieter sounds and cooler colors that suit me, and  most of all, to have a change from the bright hot loooong days of summer when so much is expected of me.  So take some time to listen to the drips and drops, relax in the greens and blues, and take time to reflect.  Maybe someday one of you will join me in relishing the rainy day and together we can say aloud to the sun-lovers “What’s beautiful about your sunny day?”

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Do you live safe or do you take risks?  Do you try to keep others in your care safe or do you allow them to take risks?  Life is all about risk.  No, not the kind of risk where you jump out of an airplane without checking your parachute or the kind of risk that has you climbing Mt. Everest or bungee jumping off the Verrazano Bridge.  I’m speaking about everyday risks, risks that only you can determine.  Do you give money to the beggar at the corner?  Do you risk it being misspent?  Do you order the largest burger?  Do you risk your health?  What about your job?  Do take a risk by suggesting actions to those above you?  What about your money?  What type of risks do you take with it?

I define risk as not maintaining a status quo.  The status quo despises risk-taking.  Indeed, it despises any change, something like the sloth which can hang from the same tree for years, moving so slowly that it needs little food. Risk is the food of life. Risk is doing what is right, not disregarding the consequences, but fully aware of the consequences and doing it anyway.  Martina McBride’s song “Anyway” resonates with me.  Do it anyway. 

When the recession hit, I had to cut expenses.  Typically businesses cut employees and advertising. I increased my spending.  What did I cut?  A yearly payment to Microsoft that’s about equal to one month of advertising expenses.  I also cut my usual new technology splurges.  Most businesses hold their money tightly in the face of decreasing income; I borrowed money to invest in foreclosed real estate.  Am I a fool?  To some people.  To others, I am a risk taker, taking a risk to invest some funds in a depressed community where the real estate is located and from which I may never see a profit.  Do it anyway. 

There are a few pieces of wisdom I hold onto.  First, when there’s something I don’t want to do, I remember what a wise counselor told me, “Would it hurt you to do that?”  Then I ask myself, how much would it hurt me?  Maybe it won’t hurt at all.  Especially if it’s just a small risk of time or money.  Do it anyway.  Second, I ask myself if it is sin.  If God has said “no” it’s not a risk; it’s a stupid, foolish action.  Finally, I hold onto the fact that I can’t often know the outcome of my risk-taking decisions.  Am I helping someone who didn’t deserve to be helped?  I can’t make that determination.  Only God can.  Am I wasting my money?  Only God knows.  Not knowing all potential outcomes frees me to make risky decisions.  I do it anyway.

Risk involves trust.  After making a considered decision, you must trust that the decision is correct.  And no, even as a person who follows Jesus and stays closely connected to God through his Spirit, it seems like half the time I have no clue whether I am doing is the right thing or if I have totally messed up.  But I do it anyway.  And that’s what makes me a risk taker.  Have you thought about being a risk taker?  What would it take to move you in that direction?  As you finish reading this, consider what sort of risk you might normally avoid.  Then do it anyway!

And if you’d like to read a book that helped me consider my risk taking, read The Crime of Living Cautiously by Luci Shaw.

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I purchased a FNMA foreclosure which needed some work, but I had a plan. Everyone tells you to leave an extra 10-20% for contingencies, but I decided I would just over-estimate my expenses and that would cover contingencies. I’ll let you in on the first of three secrets.

You already know I research everything.  Even with all my research, the first contractor I choose is invariably the least competent one. It doesn’t matter how many or how good the references are, or how long they have been in business, or how great their website is.  For me, the first is the worst.  Suffice it to say that I started out by hiring a probably wonderful builder, but a bad building inspector. I knew it when he showed up with no ladder or tools and was not dressed to crawl into the crawl space. He told me a least one thing I didn’t know, so I counted it as a successful experience at the time. I wasn’t worried because I was already in contract, so no matter what the inspector found, I would move forward.

My husband was worried about my security and  friends of ours near Laurelville had been visited by burglars until they installed a gate, so my first step was to install a farm gate at the road. I found the gate at a local store and they gave me the name of someone who could install it, but that person never returned my calls (contractor #1). I found another contractor and he successfully installed it. 

A gate needs a lock and my search for the toughest lock led me to one with a strange sounding name.  New York Fahgettaboudit.  This is a lock used to secure motorcycles and bicycles in New York City, so it would be fine for my country gate.  It uses a type of lock technology that makes it virtually impossible to pick or fabricate a duplicate key.  These locks are known as rotating disk locks and when the key is inserted and turned, disks, like tumblers in a safe lock, rotate to the desired position.

With the gate in place and locked, it was time to start working on the inside.  Everything had been painted horrible colors (pink, bright blue) and all other surfaces were pink wallboard patterned with tiny flowers.  The kitchen countertop was white and stained.  I primered everything and painted the walls in forest shades and painted the counter in wheat. (Note: this was a paint and leave immediately situation—counter paint smells horrid).  I don’t purchase paint like others do.  I purchase mis-tints at greatly reduced prices ($5 to $10), then mix them to get my desired shade, not always with the best results.  I painted the two largest rooms twice, just to get the correct color—one that was pleasant to look at.  And when I ran out of my special mix in the middle of painting a room, I discovered how hard it is to match my mixes.  When I mix paints, I mix glosses and flats and semi-glosses and different paint brands.  When you have paint matched at the store, they ask you what brand it is.  Different brands must have different characteristics.  I created a challenge for the paint department with my custom mixes.  It took them several tries and they never did get the exact color, but it was close enough.  I am not a good painter and it took about a year to finish the last bit of wall.   

After I’d paint a room I would start ripping out the carpet.  This is smart because you can use the carpet as a drop cloth.  Unfortunately for the floors, ripping out carpet was quicker than painting on the first two rooms, so I decided to rip first and paint later.  Unfortunate because when we painted, we spilled and entire tray of primer on the bare subfloor in the main room which I had wanted to stain.  (I say we, because I had acquired a younger, stronger, helper.  Oh, well, Plan B. 

Who installs carpet and then builds walls over it? In one room, that is how the carpet was secured.  Staples, tack strips, and fastened beneath the wall.   The carpets were cheap and ugly and I had no intention of using carpet anywhere.  I used a linoleum cutter to rip carpet and pad to manageable size.  We used brute force to pull it from beneath the walls.  You can still see the shoe prints where we braced against the wall to pull it out.  Then I used a pry bar to pull nails and tacking strips and a scissors to trim what remained under the wall. I did this in the three largest rooms and it took a long time and much effort.  I had to cut the carpet pieces small enough to fit in my compact car, so I could haul them home and dispose of them.  For a number of months, I worked with rolled up carpet in a queue, waiting to be driven home and trashed.

My gate installation contractor was ready to start on the bathrooms.  He would be replacing subfloor, installing a shower, and replacing two vanities.  I  had hoped to use a prefabricated shower from Lowes, but the salesman pointed out to me that it would not fit through the doorway.  So I bought shower walls and base and fixtures, a refrigerator, and  bathroom vanities and sinks, all of which Lowes delivered for my contractor’s use. 

Stay tuned for the next installment where I discuss my second secret and how I worked around the disaster that lay ahead.

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Backup.  Backup.  Backup.  If you have important data on your computer (and who doesn’t?) you must backup.  There are several ways to backup your data.  The easiest is online using Carbonite or Acronis, or Norton 360.  Both of these programs will automatically backup your data to an off-site server location.  It’s easy and once setup you need do nothing.  The downside is that if you need to restore the data due to a hard drive crash or for some other reason, it is extremely slow.  A normal amount of data may take 12 hours or more to restore.  In addition, off-site does not mean always accessible as a small error by an Amazon employee proved recently.  An employee error during a normal process brought businesses to a halt as their data became inaccessible. 

A slightly less simple alternative is to backup to an external hard drive. External hard drives are available at office supply and electronics stores and generally run in the $70 range and up.  Although many of them come with backup software, the software is only accessible from the external hard drive and if that software becomes corrupt there may be no way to fix it and no way to retrieve your backup.  So, again I recommend Acronis or Norton 360 to perform the backup, because you can set them to backup to the external drive automatically.  Once set,they will perform incremental backups. And because they are installed on your computer, as long as you have a computer available you can reinstall and retrieve your backup.  Another note:  You should remove your hard drive to an offsite location on a regular basis or whenever your office or home will be unattended.

Some people have only a few files they want to back up and they want high portability for those files.  For them a flash drive is the best option.  Small and durable it can fit in a pocket, on a key ring, or anywhere else you might put it.  Cheaper flash drives require you to copy the files manually to the drive which is more difficult than using an automatic system.  The U3 operating system which is sold on some higher-priced flash drives allows you to run backup programs from the flash drive.  One manufacturer, SanDisk, sells drives with backup software, and they are the brand I use and recommend.  This type of backup is most suitable for documents because documents take up far less space than pictures, videos, or music, and fit well on these miniature drives.

What do I use?  I use Norton 360 and Acronis to backup to an external hard drive with redundant disks.  I keep important information on a flash drive.  And I have another computer on which I load data that is essential to my life.  Few need the amount of backup I use, but you do need something.  If you are not currently backing up your data, please consider doing so immediately.  

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Just like any appliance, a computer can become finicky with age.  At some point, you will ask yourself “Do I need a new one or should I have the present one repaired?”  One way to avoid this question is a monthly, quarterly or yearly checkup.  A monthly checkup is recommended if you are dependent on proper computer function in a high-paced workplace.  A quarterly checkup is recommended if your workplace computer needs are slower paced.  And finally, a yearly checkup is recommended if you are a home user.

What does a checkup include?  During a normal one-hour checkup (longer if problems are found), we examine your computer to ensure that all software applications are up to date.  These include Windows, office programs, Java, Adobe, your internet security, your web browser, and other miscellaneous programs.  Out of date programs can slow your computer and create security problems.  We also check your computer’s memory to ensure that you have sufficient to see you through the foreseeable future and we check hard drive space for the same reason.  Finally, if we suspect hard drive problems, we examine the drive itself using software tools. 

After our checkup we will present you with our findings and make recommendations based on your situation.  When we ask you questions, it is because we try to determine if you are a person who leans toward the next new thing or whether you prefer to make things last as long as possible, or whether you fall somewhere between those two extremes.  We have entered situations where the person was ready to purchase a new computer no matter what we found, other situations where the person wanted the computer fixed despite the fact that a new computer might have been less expensive.  Whatever options we present, we cannot foresee the future and no one can tell you how long any part of your computer may last.

So, whether it’s monthly, quarterly, or yearly, make your computer decisions wisely, based on sound information.  And if you’re behind on your checkup, give us a call now at 614-329-6671.

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