A Few Days in Cumbria

I'd been to Cumbria before but it had been a long time. The Lake District is in Cumbria but can be quite crowded during a hot summer, so we didn't spend a great deal of time there.

We went off the beaten path and our hosts, Jack and Ann, made sure we saw a variety of scenery and village life. We also visited the Docks Museum and took an excursion on a narrow gauge railway.

View of the coast

Railway

Railway

One of our lunch time views

A view from the train

Railway

Outside the Docks Museum

Inside the Docks Museum

The coast

The coast

Local landmark

A walk in the countryside

Morris Dancing outside a pub in a small village

Hills and Lakes

Even though the United Kingdom is nowhere near the size of the United States, it still has regions that are distinguished by geographical features and terrain. The changes in topography and vegetation might not be as dramatic as what you experience in a cross country road trip in the US, but they are there.

These photos were taken in the north of England. Hollingworth Lake isn't far from Manchester and Lake Windermere is in what is known as the Lake District. In a few days, I will be featuring pictures from Cumbria (also in the north) and the southern shores of Essex and Kent.

The entrance to Hollingworth Lake

Hollingworth Lake

Hollingworth Lake

At Hollingworth Lake

Lake Windermere

Lake Windermere

Through the Window

At home nothing comes through the window except for bugs. But we weren't at home. We were in England and sitting in the upstairs of a pub with friends. It was unusually warm, so the windows were open. Ann and I saw our opportunity to sit by the window in the hopes of catching a breeze after some young ladies vacated the window seat. It was considerably cooler.

I got up to go to the ladies room and when I came back, I noticed something stuck in the window.

"Was that here when we sat down?"

Ann didn't think so. "That" was a bouquet of pink roses. I "unstuck" them and noticed that they'd been marked down - almost half their original price. Probably from the Tesco across the street.

But what were they doing up in the window? I assumed some lovelorn young man had tossed them up to the young ladies who'd occupied the seat before us.

The street below wasn't particularly crowded and it was relatively easy to spot a young man (rather dashing, I might add!) looking up and gesturing in a way that made me assume he had thrown the flowers. If he wasn't responsible, he intended to take the credit.

I can only assume that this young man was blind or crazed. I'm pretty sure I have shoes older than him. If he was talking, I couldn't hear him. He continued to gesture pointing to his eyes and then to mine. Then he turned and walked down the street. I have no idea what any of it meant.

It was unusual. And that's why I started freaking out. Who does that? Who buys roses, even reduced price roses, and throws them through an open window? Who throws flowers at random strangers?

Random killers! This was probably part of some weird gang initiation. See who takes the floral bait and then follow them home and kill them. I was tempted to leave the roses on the bus on the way home. But I didn't and I even managed to keep my wild imaginings to myself (at least until now).

We took them in, put them in a nice vase with some water and by morning they looked even better than they did the night before. And the best part?? No one died.

Bee in the City

Manchester first started using the bee as a symbol during the Industrial Revolution. It symbolized the hard work of every citizen that helped make the city a hive of industry. From an historical perspective, it became part of the city's official coat of arms in 1842. 

You'll see it all around the city - from trash bins to cans of Boddington's. And right now there is an art exhibition - Bee in the City. There are well over 100 bees installed in various locations around the city. Some inside and some outside - all of them painted differently.  

We managed to see 13 of them on our excursion into Manchester. We saw something similar done in Oklahoma City with buffalo statues several years ago. It's interesting and fun and brings people into the city. 

Here are the 13 we saw:

Not Fair

Mark came down with a cold about three days after we arrived in England. Not really surprising when you consider that his immune system is compromised by the CAD treatments. Also not surprising that three days after he got it, I got it, too.

Because of his compromised immune system, we did get medical attention for him (the day before I got it) and all they said was to take paracetamol - available over the counter everywhere for less than three quid (less than five US dollars).

So when I got it, I also took the paracetamol - along with some Strepcil lozenges to ease the scratchy throat that plagued me on the first day and then the coughing that persisted. All the classic cold symptoms - coughing, sneezing, runny nose, headache.

Let's consult the calendar. He got it on the 22nd of July. I got it on the 25th. His symptoms were long gone by August 1. Mark's always told me that a cold has a shelf life of about 9 days. According to his mum, you were three days coming down with it, three days with it, and three days of it leaving. Seems to have worked in his case.  But my symptoms didn't go but continued to be well controlled with the paracetamol and Strepcil lozenges. The fact that his cold lasted nine days and mine continues on is so not fair.

By the time we got home on the 10th I was out of paracetamol and Strepcil. And all my symptoms were somehow magnified. I thought I was going to cough up a lung, which made my head pound. I was going through a small packet of tissues on a daily basis because it seemed that the contents of my nose had to be emptied at least once an hour. My ears had been fine up until I got home and then they were plugged to where the only thing I could hear was my own voice. That's usually enough to make me stop talking.

Mark went to the pharmacy to get me some more paracetamol. You'd think that after being here for 15 years, he'd know you can't buy paracetamol here. Apparently the closest thing is acetaminophen. (The clue is "ceta" - but I think the similarity ends there.) It may be close but it's not the same because I took the paracetamol for two weeks with no consequences except for symptom relief. The acetaminophen upset my stomach. It's hard to decide which is worse, the sneezing or the upset stomach. By this time, it's Saturday and I decided to run down to CVS myself and see what might help. I bought some cough syrup - which actually worked pretty well - and some ear drops, which didn't work at all.

It doesn't matter whether I blame it on the cold or jet lag. I went to bed at 8:30 on Saturday evening and slept until 10:00 the next morning. And I was ready to go to bed early again on Sunday evening.

It was no way to live. I went to see the doctor yesterday. He asked if I'd tried any over the counter medications. "Yes. All of them."

Now I have antibiotics and steroids, as well as super extra strength cough syrup. I'm starting to feel better already.
\
But I have to wonder why the paracetamol seemed to control the symptoms so well while the over the counter choices available to me here in the USA did not alleviate the symptoms (except for the cough syrup) and made me sick to my stomach. Is this part of a plot by BigPharma to make us buy their products?.(The drugs I bought yesterday were just under $50). I'd already spent $25 on OTC meds in the US compared to the $5 I spent in the UK to alleviate the same symptoms. 

It makes me wonder.

When the Lights Go Out

I had three fluorescent lights in my closet. You know what it's like when they start acting up. Two out of three weren't working and we'd replaced the kitchen light with an LED fixture. This could be the solution for the closet. I would have preferred a chandelier but with the 7 foot ceiling height, a chandelier was not an option. The LEDs come on instantly. And while it's not  flashy like a chandelier, it is nearly flush with the ceiling, which means you don't really notice it at all. And that works for me - if you're not going to look at it and say "Wow" just don't look at it at all. And that's what is perfect about the LED, it does it's job quietly and without fanfare. It provides illumination without calling attention to itself.

They are also smaller than the fluorescent lights we took out. Which means I have a few small holes in the ceiling where the other lights had been screwed in. Those holes will need to be filled and painted. Of course, if you're going to have to move everything out of the closet to paint the ceiling you might as well paint the walls, as well.

And if you're going to paint the walls, you might want to look at rearranging the closet to maximize efficiency. A classic case of scope creep. The entire closet will need to be redone.

Two ways to redo a closet - 1. Go to the Container Store and have one of the "experts" in closet design help you spend thousands of dollars or 2. Start looking online at sites like Pinterest. Pinterest served me well on the laundry room makeover so that's where I started. What I really wanted to do was change the way my handbags were stored. I had a series of hooks on one wall and that's where the handbags were. Some of the hooks were two or three handbags deep which meant that between the handbags on one side and the clothes on the other, it was difficult to make your way back to the shoe rack. Plus the shoe racks that were attached to the walls near the baseboards kept falling off and had gaps in them where shoes fell off. These were the issues I wanted to fix.

While looking at different pins on Pinterest, I came across an article that said you should have your clothes on the same type of hangers. Guaranteed to up your game seven times. Hmmm. I'd never paid for a hanger in my life. I have some padded hangers that I received as gifts but other than that, my clothes were on wire hangers from the dry cleaners, plastic hangers from stores, and tubular plastic hangers of unknown origin.

I went shopping for hangers. The Container Store, Bed Bath and Beyond and IKEA. The Container Store and BBB had the most options. Wooden hangers (light or dark), tubular plastic in a variety of colors, and plastic hangers, like the ones used to hang clothes in stores, and thin profile flocked hangers.

I opted for painted wooden hangers. The best price was in IKEA. I bought them in black and white. I couldn't find wooden skirt hangers anywhere, so I ordered them online in white.

I started on one end of a rack putting my clothes on the white wooden hangers and putting whatever hanger the item had been on into the recycle bin. (With the exception of the padded hangers. The padded hangers are now used to hang lightweight jackets, beach cover-ups and lingerie.) What I hadn't counted on was how much room those wooden hangers took up. I was going to have to take some of the tee shirts that had always been hanging up, fold them and put them in a drawer. Which meant that I had to do some drawer re-arranging. The things you find when you're cleaning out drawers! I had two small drawers filled with buttons - the little envelopes of spare buttons that often come with clothes. These dated back years. I don't even have most of those clothes anymore. But I now have a button box that would be the envy of my grandmother.

Anyway, after clearing some drawers and filling at least three of them with tee shirts, I was still finding the wooden hangers a tight fit. I wouldn't be able to fit another thing on that rack, which would be unfortunate because I know I have some clothes in the RV. I know of two tops and one pair of shorts. There's probably more than that, but I can't be certain. Besides, with no place to put anything, shopping would no longer be an option. Unacceptable! I was going to have to change to the thin profile flocked hangers.

The gold standard on those seems to be the Joy Mangano Huggable Hanger. I decided to go with that rather than the knockoff version at Bed Bath and Beyond or WalMart. (At this stage in life, I don't do knockoffs.) I ordered them from BBB so I could take advantage of the 20% off coupons. I got them in pink and white. What a difference!

So I was on a roll. Mark's closet got redone, as well. His pants are now on the black wooden IKEA hangers. His shorts are all on wooden hangers and I bought new heavy duty wooden coat/suit hangers for his sport coats and suits. (Thank goodness we didn't need dozens of those since they are $10 each - $8 with a 20% off coupon.) And I got more of the Huggable Hangers in black for his shirts - 20% off at the Container Store this week.

Incredible difference in both closets. And here's how I solved the handbag problem. The open shelving makes it easy to see what I have and there are no hooks to damage the straps. (I didn't even realize this was a problem until I started taking the bags off of those hooks.) The bins are good for thick wool scarves that would take up too much room elsewhere. The bins are also good for bathing suits and other odds and ends.

And the shoe problem. (There used to be some hooks that held bathrobes, and some hats where the shoe rack is now. Things were hung over top of each other and I could never find anything.)

The hooks that once held the handbags now hold scarves, hats and belts which don't prevent me from getting to that back rack of shoes the way the handbags did. And with that other shoe rack, I can once again buy new shoes.

And someday, I might actually get around to painting the ceiling and walls.

Home Delivery

When I first moved to Celina back in the 80s, I was encouraged to get a box at the post office rather than opt for home delivery. I was told that if I had a mailbox in front of my house that I would be given a rural route box number. (I saw the number - it was a series of numbers and letters that appeared to have been selected at random.) I was also told that if anyone else moved into the area and wanted to be on the rural route that my box number might change. It didn't seem sensible to me at the time and it seems less sensible now but arguing with a government employee is typically not a productive undertaking. (And at that time, that guy was the only postal employee in town - no chance of coming back later and getting a different answer.) But having to do the change of address thing is bad enough when you move - I certainly didn't want to do it if someone else moved. I was assured that the PO Box number would never change.

Which was good, because no sooner had I bought the house and moved in than the street number was changed. That was fine. I'd never had a chance to get used to the old number. Thankfully, that hasn't happened again.

When I moved here the population was something like 1500 people. Today it exceeds 69,000. Even though they've expanded the post office, they just don't have enough boxes for thousands of people. So home delivery is a better option than it was before. At least in theory.

We thought we'd try it because it would eliminate the cost of the post office box, it's more than doubled over the last 35 years - but then what hasn't? We thought we'd keep the PO Box until we were sure that all the mail was being delivered to the street address and no mail (other than junk) was going to the PO Box.

That experiment lasted a few months. During that time some of my bills didn't get delivered. When you have a history of paying your balance in full and on time every month, a plea of "I didn't get the bill" will get the interest charges and late fees reversed for you. But you can't do it very often. You can't do it as often as I wasn't getting the bills. I ended up creating a spreadsheet listing all the bills and when they were typically due making it very easy for me to see when I didn't get one so I could call and request a duplicate or download a copy of it online.

But the problems with home delivery didn't end there. There was the party invitation. I'd been told about the party- not the specifics, (like date and time) but I knew there was to be a party. Fortunately, when I hadn't called in my rsvp, a friend called to ask. I never got the invitation. Had it not been for my friend calling me, the acquaintance having the party might have thought me rude and anti-social for not responding. (We did go and it was lovely.)

But wait, there's more! This one is actually the topper. I'd ordered a DVD from Amazon. When it didn't show up at the appointed time, I checked with Amazon and was told it had been delivered the previous week. They asked me to check with the post office. The counter clerk at the post office told me she'd check with the carrier. His response? "I delivered it somewhere."

Amazon replaced the DVD and about a month later, someone knocked on my door to hand me a DVD that had been delivered to him in error. He apologized that it had taken him so long to get it to me, but he'd been busy and just hadn't opened his mail. Clearly, the carrier had delivered it "somewhere".

And if all that wasn't enough, our mailbox has been hit more than once. The first time it happened, we were out of town and my neighbor picked the mail up out of my yard and reset the box. The second time it happened I replaced the box with a heavy gauge steel model. It's happened a couple more times since then. (The evidence is usually a small dent in the box and a wing mirror in my front yard.) The last time the person who hit it managed to hit it hard enough to bend the frame so we couldn't get the door open. (Only one person has ever stopped to take responsibility for the damage.)

That sent Mark flying to the post office with an order to redirect all mail sent to the street address to the PO Box. We would no longer have home delivery.

Now I have a new problem. When I order something online and enter a PO Box, I am often told that the order cannot be delivered to a PO Box so I am forced to use my street address. And for years that was fine because UPS and FedEx brought things to my house. Well now both UPS and FedEx sometimes, (but not always) take things to the post office. So I'm now faced with the situation that UPS and FedEx will not deliver to my PO Box and the post office will not deliver to my street address. Last week I ordered three items from Amazon. One box was delivered to my street address by UPS. The other two were delivered to the post office by UPS. It was all ordered at the same time - same order number. I am just not in a position to try to guess how (or where) Amazon will choose to ship something. The only choices you have are how much you want to pay for the shipping (I like free!) - you never get to choose the carrier.

I think the way to solve the problem going forward is to fix the door so it opens and then remove the forward order so that home delivery can resume.