Saturday, February 19, 2011
Extreme Home Makeover: The Non-TV Edition
Have you ever watched the show, "Hoarders" on TLC? It's fascinating to see the way hoarders live and to learn why they keep what they keep. And after the professionals leave, it's interesting to see how some hoarders can dramatically turn their lives around. But what if a hoarder dies before he/she can get the help they need?
That's exactly what happened here in Calgary. There was a story on the news about a family who needed help getting a fresh start after the father died suddenly in a car accident. The man had been a compulsive hoarder, bringing things into the house and backyard while his wife was at work. A neighbor decided to organize volunteers to help clean the house out and solicit donations from various stores so that the house could then be renovated and redecorated. I can't completely explain why, but I wrote down the contact info and signed up to be a volunteer.
I received back an e-mail from the woman in charge, telling me to wear sturdy boots and to be prepared to work at 9am, Saturday morning.
Driving through the neighborhood that morning, looking for the correct street, I was surprised to see that it was fairly nice and quite ordinary. I'm not sure what I was expecting- maybe a house in the middle of nowhere? I don't know. I found the street, the house number and a parking spot and asked myself one more time what the heck I was doing.
A very large dumpster filled the driveway. Cars lined the street in front of the house. As I approached, a woman stepped out from the front yard to greet me. I was invited inside to 'register.'
The house was small and not as cluttered as I expected it to be. But then I remembered the news story that said a large dumpster had already been filled and taken away. I signed in as more volunteers crowded into the tiny living room. Almost immediately, the men hauled all the furniture from that room out to the dumpster. I didn't realize EVERYTHING was going.
I heard someone say we could head out to the backyard, so I made my way through the kitchen (also full of people), passing this door:
Rita is the owner of the house and had been introduced to all of us at some point. She was standing nearby so I asked her what the sign meant. She told me the basement was off-limits to us. Everything she wanted to keep was down there. Apparently, all the rooms on the main and upper floors were being completely emptied. I noticed they were starting to pull up all of the carpet in the room I had just left.
I bundled up and continued out to the yard. Here was evidence that a hoarder once lived in this house:
Mostly old car parts. We were told we could move only the junk from a certain area to the dumpster. The rest would have to wait until Spring when all the snow and ice was gone.
I felt sad for the man who had died. No one seemed to be grieving for him. I heard no condolences being offered. No one said they were glad he was gone, don't get me wrong. But seeing what he left behind made me sad. He seemed so exposed.
Soon an announcement was made that it was time for a break. Coffee donated by Starbucks and pastries donated by Safeway had arrived. We'd been working for only an hour but the entire living and dining rooms were stripped down to the bare floors and the pile in the yard we were told to move was gone. We were making great progress.
While we stood against the walls of the now-empty living room, enjoying our snack, the woman who organized the event told us it was time for a drawing for door prizes. This was unexpected and completely unnecessary. "I got such a great response to my request for donations that we've got a prize for every one of you," she told us.
Restaurant vouchers, tickets to hockey games, baskets of candles, and many, many other prizes were given out. I won a Calgary Flames sweatshirt (Calgary's hockey team). It was fun! Then it was time to tackle the upstairs.
Somewhere in the midst of all the activity, a cameraman from the local TV station arrived. I pointed him towards the woman in charge but he told me he was just going to take some random shots. He set about to do just that while I headed in the opposite direction. ha.
Later, one of the news anchors showed up. He conducted interviews with the principal players while we all looked on and tried to stay quiet. At one point, after I sent a text to my husband, I looked up and saw that I was in the shot. No, I don't find that exciting! I'm mortified. Still, I'll be watching the news later to see if I make my TV debut.
(The Boston Pizza sign is up because they provided lunch!)
I was able to leave around noon. They didn't get the turnout they were hoping for (200 people). Still, the 30 of us all worked quickly and steadily- at one point passing items down the line, person to person, from the second floor all the way out to the dumpster- and met the goals for the day by the end of the morning.
The whole experience was a little surreal, tramping around a stranger's house and throwing away everything in it. But everyone was very nice and certainly appreciative. We even had a few laughs. During lunch, the woman in charge hurriedly passed out napkins, thrusting one into the hands of the bewildered man next to me. I told him, "she gave you that cuz you look messy." Thank goodness he laughed!
I'm hoping the media will do a follow up after the house has been made over so I can see how it turned out. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying my new sweatshirt!
That's exactly what happened here in Calgary. There was a story on the news about a family who needed help getting a fresh start after the father died suddenly in a car accident. The man had been a compulsive hoarder, bringing things into the house and backyard while his wife was at work. A neighbor decided to organize volunteers to help clean the house out and solicit donations from various stores so that the house could then be renovated and redecorated. I can't completely explain why, but I wrote down the contact info and signed up to be a volunteer.
I received back an e-mail from the woman in charge, telling me to wear sturdy boots and to be prepared to work at 9am, Saturday morning.
Driving through the neighborhood that morning, looking for the correct street, I was surprised to see that it was fairly nice and quite ordinary. I'm not sure what I was expecting- maybe a house in the middle of nowhere? I don't know. I found the street, the house number and a parking spot and asked myself one more time what the heck I was doing.
A very large dumpster filled the driveway. Cars lined the street in front of the house. As I approached, a woman stepped out from the front yard to greet me. I was invited inside to 'register.'
The house was small and not as cluttered as I expected it to be. But then I remembered the news story that said a large dumpster had already been filled and taken away. I signed in as more volunteers crowded into the tiny living room. Almost immediately, the men hauled all the furniture from that room out to the dumpster. I didn't realize EVERYTHING was going.
I heard someone say we could head out to the backyard, so I made my way through the kitchen (also full of people), passing this door:
Rita is the owner of the house and had been introduced to all of us at some point. She was standing nearby so I asked her what the sign meant. She told me the basement was off-limits to us. Everything she wanted to keep was down there. Apparently, all the rooms on the main and upper floors were being completely emptied. I noticed they were starting to pull up all of the carpet in the room I had just left.
I bundled up and continued out to the yard. Here was evidence that a hoarder once lived in this house:
Mostly old car parts. We were told we could move only the junk from a certain area to the dumpster. The rest would have to wait until Spring when all the snow and ice was gone.
I felt sad for the man who had died. No one seemed to be grieving for him. I heard no condolences being offered. No one said they were glad he was gone, don't get me wrong. But seeing what he left behind made me sad. He seemed so exposed.
Soon an announcement was made that it was time for a break. Coffee donated by Starbucks and pastries donated by Safeway had arrived. We'd been working for only an hour but the entire living and dining rooms were stripped down to the bare floors and the pile in the yard we were told to move was gone. We were making great progress.
While we stood against the walls of the now-empty living room, enjoying our snack, the woman who organized the event told us it was time for a drawing for door prizes. This was unexpected and completely unnecessary. "I got such a great response to my request for donations that we've got a prize for every one of you," she told us.
Restaurant vouchers, tickets to hockey games, baskets of candles, and many, many other prizes were given out. I won a Calgary Flames sweatshirt (Calgary's hockey team). It was fun! Then it was time to tackle the upstairs.
Somewhere in the midst of all the activity, a cameraman from the local TV station arrived. I pointed him towards the woman in charge but he told me he was just going to take some random shots. He set about to do just that while I headed in the opposite direction. ha.
Later, one of the news anchors showed up. He conducted interviews with the principal players while we all looked on and tried to stay quiet. At one point, after I sent a text to my husband, I looked up and saw that I was in the shot. No, I don't find that exciting! I'm mortified. Still, I'll be watching the news later to see if I make my TV debut.
(The Boston Pizza sign is up because they provided lunch!)
I was able to leave around noon. They didn't get the turnout they were hoping for (200 people). Still, the 30 of us all worked quickly and steadily- at one point passing items down the line, person to person, from the second floor all the way out to the dumpster- and met the goals for the day by the end of the morning.
The whole experience was a little surreal, tramping around a stranger's house and throwing away everything in it. But everyone was very nice and certainly appreciative. We even had a few laughs. During lunch, the woman in charge hurriedly passed out napkins, thrusting one into the hands of the bewildered man next to me. I told him, "she gave you that cuz you look messy." Thank goodness he laughed!
I'm hoping the media will do a follow up after the house has been made over so I can see how it turned out. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying my new sweatshirt!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Calgary Tower
I'm afraid of heights. You hear me? Scared shirt-less.
I had a couple of bad experiences as a kid, being dragged around to Niagara Falls, the Empire State Building, ski lifts, the Statue of Liberty and one of these towers in San Antonio. An awful, panicky feeling would come over me as I looked down from these great heights, imagining what it would be like to fall.
And what gets me is that my fear is usually poo-pooed by my friends. They laugh at me, tell me to get therapy and make me feel like an odd ball. I think everyone should be afraid of heights, it should be a basic, primal fear. You're in a life-threatening situation. If you fall, you'll die.
Have you ever been to The Grand Canyon? When you watch people dancing along the edge of the canyon, climbing trees that hang over the canyon, walking down trails in high-heels into the canyon, it's obvious that most people have no fear of heights. That just doesn't make sense to me.
I knew one day when someone came for a visit I'd have to brave The Calgary Tower. And so when Mom arrived just after Christmas, I took a deep breath and asked her if she'd like to check it out. Of course, she did.
I got online to find their schedule and came across a few facts that didn't help assuage my fears:
"Officially opened June 30th 1968, the 'Tower' has become the City of Calgary's most famous and identifiable physical landmark. One of the first Towers of its kind."
What's that now? The tower is 43 years old? Sounds like it's about ready to come down! And then there was this:
"Dare to try something that will take your breath away? Visitors to the Observation Deck are able to virtually 'step out into' space on the glass floor experience. Imagine standing 525 feet above the ground in the heart of Calgary and being able to look straight down...you will be treated to the unusual experience of literally being suspended in mid-air."
Um...what?
(From the Calgary Tower website)
I wanted Mom to have this experience but I was hoping I wouldn't die in the process. I weighed my options and decided that showing my mother a nice time in the city was worth the possibility of having a heart attack. So off we went!
And as you all may have expected, it was no big deal. I didn't die. The glass floor of horrors was only a small section of the observation deck where little boys horsed around as if they were on terra firma. A baby waddled out there. Young lovers asked Mom to take a picture of them standing on it. Giggles and smiles- that's what the experience was like.
Did I walk out there? Hell no! A person could die doing that.
But Mom did:
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
I Love This City
Whenever I have some thinking to do, I like to get out and walk around the city. I feel safer going out for a stroll here than I ever did in the suburbs. That weird, eerie quiet in all the neighborhoods I lived in was unnerving. I was sure people were watching from behind their carefully chosen drapes.
But in the middle of the city I can be invisible. I can walk and get completely lost in my thoughts, knowing I'm just another stranger among strangers.
Hmm...that may have sounded paranoid and sad. Hold off on your intervention. When you're a woman walking around anywhere alone you have to be aware of your surroundings. It's been drilled into our heads. As a result, in certain situations, my safety consumes my thoughts. I've found that isn't the case here in Calgary. So when I have a decision to make or a problem to solve, I hit the path along the river and let my brain go to work.
Sunday I was in the mood for a new route while I tried to figure out why I'm having so much trouble writing lately. I headed over the river to the section of Calgary called Kensington. It's a very cool, youth-oriented area with consignment shops, tea parlors, restaurants and head shops. Lots of skinny jeans, eyeliner and jacked-up hair. And that's just the guys. It's an active, interesting, vibrant place to walk around where I always feel COMPLETELY out of place. ha.
I put the deep-thinking on the back burner, determined to explore Kensington Avenue without turning around after one block due to my glaring uncoolness. "That's right! I'm old, but you will NOT drive me away with your hipper-than-thou attitude!"
I looked in the windows of a cupcake shop, a furniture store and browsed around a resale clothing store. The prices were unlike what I'm used to seeing in the states. A pair of (gorgeous) used gloves were $20. Purses were forty and fifty dollars. Still, I enjoyed running my fingers over these gems and peering at the vintage jewelry in glass cases.
Back on the street, I spotted a Starbucks on the corner that made my heart leap a bit due to its familiarity- an oasis in a sea of strangeness. Alas (why am I suddenly writing like the author of a Harlequin romance?), the interior was dark, so I assumed it was closed. Someone pushed open its door just then and stepped out onto the sidewalk. Yay!
This had to be the coolest Starbucks I've ever been in. I expected someone to stand up and begin reciting poetry at any moment, followed by the finger-snapping approval of the audience. Nothing unusual happened, though. I ordered a latte, couldn't find an empty chair and left. I plan to go back when it's not so crowded.
I felt good. Sipping my Starbucks booty as I crossed back over the bridge, I stopped to admire the ice sculptures the river had created all by itself and wrote, in my head, the first few lines of a new story.
This city seems to be good for me. I love it.
And now, if you don't mind, I'm going to pack up my laptop and head over to my new favorite Starbucks. I'm in the mood to do a little writing.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Banff and Lake Louise
I'm tired. We spent the day in Banff and Lake Louise so now I'm too tired to be witty or clever or even accurate.
These photos are out of order. But here's what we did: we drove up to Banff, went to the natural Hot Springs, had Bison burgers in town, cruised a couple of shops and then drove to Lake Louise.
Lake Louise is about 45 minutes from Banff and though it was snowing lightly in Banff, we didn't think it would be a problem. Wrong! the snow was coming down so heavily in Lake Louise that there was about 4" on the roads in town. We were worried about making it up the hill to the lake.
We did the mature thing and turned around. Back in Banff, the snow was still only lightly coming down and back in Calgary, it wasn't snowing at all. Oh well. Mom will have to see Lake Louise next time.
But we did get to see a HUGE herd of elk when we were driving out of Banff. We pulled over to take pictures.
Here's your assignment: figure out which photo goes with which activity. Go!
(The next 2 photos show a low lying cloud)
These photos are out of order. But here's what we did: we drove up to Banff, went to the natural Hot Springs, had Bison burgers in town, cruised a couple of shops and then drove to Lake Louise.
Lake Louise is about 45 minutes from Banff and though it was snowing lightly in Banff, we didn't think it would be a problem. Wrong! the snow was coming down so heavily in Lake Louise that there was about 4" on the roads in town. We were worried about making it up the hill to the lake.
We did the mature thing and turned around. Back in Banff, the snow was still only lightly coming down and back in Calgary, it wasn't snowing at all. Oh well. Mom will have to see Lake Louise next time.
But we did get to see a HUGE herd of elk when we were driving out of Banff. We pulled over to take pictures.
Here's your assignment: figure out which photo goes with which activity. Go!
(The next 2 photos show a low lying cloud)
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