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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 1:51 pm
Just take care of yourself, Lk, that's the important thing. As for depressing us...not an issue...that's why we're all here...support is as good as a tonic. (Glad you said that Purple's tree trunks count...I think I overstepped my bounds. )
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Citruscitygal
Member
08-07-2003
| Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 3:47 pm
Laurie~ I'm so glad to see you here. Please don't worry about depressing me. If you've read some of my other posts on the board, you know I've had personal experience with depression. Talking to others helped me a lot and it might help you too. If you prefer you can email me. Also, there is a thread on the board for depression/anxiety in the A Caring Place thread Caring Place/Community Corner http://tvclubhouse.bomis.com/cgi-bin/forum/board-auth.cgi?lm=1092145849&file=/1187977/1051157.html Sorry I don't know how to shorten that up. There are lots of us who deal with depression and you have the added issue of the fibro. Please let us help if we can. Either way, don't be a stranger. If someone doesn't want to deal with depression, they could read a another (different/next) post. I'm glad to know the clutter challenge will continue. Congratulations to all have done so much.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 11:48 am
Hello all you flutterers. I have been missing this little corner of the Clubhouse and so I am hoping that someone has something to share here besides me. Last weekend, I was involved in my niece's move from one Boston apartment to another. It was a nightmare in that we were there on the hottest weekend of the summer. Compound that with the fact that she had been living in complete squalor except for her little corner of the apartment. It pays to rent with people who are of a similar mind about cleaning and organization. The apartment was/is infested with rats and bedbugs...yes, I said bedbugs. Niece is nearly bitten to pieces. I was so appalled that I could have started screaming and never stopped. My sister, niece's mom, just started to cry and the tears remained just at the surface for the rest of the day. After I got myself a bit under control, I started to share a little bit about this thread and cleaning methods, etc., but it is going to take an exterminator for sure. I told my niece that she needs to be a scrupulous housekeeper because Boston isn't known for cleanliness. There were rats in the garbage and there was even a dead rat in the street in front of her new apartment. Basically we just started chucking as much as we could. We scrubbed down everything...furniture and clothing and bedding, etc. The problem is so severe that she may have to get rid of her computer and television because the bugs like the heat of the electronic equipment. Her roommates are all staying in the apartment...they don't see what the problem is. I have one thing to say about them and it rhymes with "bigs." It is really overwhelming for my niece...my sis and I have been nearly stressed to death since coming home ourselves. The thought of bedbugs...good lawd...who has bedbugs in this day and age? Well, apparently, there is a huge problem on the East Coast with bedbug infestations. Does anyone know anything about the darned things? We have read nearly everything to read on the internet and it is really scary. She may just need to toss out every last thing that she has and start over completely. Sorry to post such a downer! This whole thing has served to send me on a cleaning spree that has gone on for four days! Not to mention the fact that I have been scratching since Sunday. Hope the mere mention of it has not made you all start itching, too!
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Mak1
Member
08-12-2002
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 12:52 pm
Your last sentence made me laugh, because I caught myself scratching when I was reading it, LOL! Sorry, I don't have any information on bedbugs. I'm so sorry for what you went through. We had a DD who lived with non-cleaning roommates in Boston slum apartments, too. It bothered her, but not nearly as much as it did me. To the best of my knowledge, she escaped bug infestations. She could see rats playing on the ledge right outside her basement-level apartment window, though. It makes me angry every time I think of how those kids are getting ripped off, paying exorbitant rates for hideous space in unsafe buildings! I doubt the apartment owners ever clean the apartments between tenants, either. (but that's another story) I hope your niece has a much better, healthier experience in her new place.
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Mak1
Member
08-12-2002
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 1:06 pm
Bedbug Control Treatment and Control If bed bugs are suspected then a licensed pest controller should be consulted. A careful inspection must be undertaken and all possible hiding places within infested and adjoining rooms examined. Once all likely sources have been identified, then an approved insecticide, which has some residual activity, should be applied to all harbourages. The synthetic pyrethroids, notably permethrin, are the main chemicals of choice for control in Australia. Non-chemical approaches to control involve the use of hot air and/or wrapping up infested beds and furniture in black plastic and placing the articles in the sun, thereby killing the bed bugs with the heat generated. Generally, pesticides will need to be applied in conjunction with any non-chemical means of control. Good housekeeping practices and a reduction in possible harbourages such as cracks and crevices will discourage repeat infestations. As bed bugs are cryptic in their habits, complete control is often difficult to achieve with the first treatment. This is especially so with heavy infestations and thus a post control treatment evaluation is always advisable. You've probably read directions such as these. The part that caught my eye was the part I have italicized. One year, when head lice was at epidemic proportions in town, a nurse found one nit in one DD's hair. I went into a calm sort of overkill panic, lol. One thing we were instructed to do was to wrap the things that couldn't be washed in black plastic bags and close them for 2 weeks. It was a happy day when those stuffed animals, etc., were finally released from captivity. I don't know if a computer can stand that much heat, though. I wouldn't think so.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 2:17 pm
Thanks, Mak, for posting. I was going to stick my head in the sand and pretend that none of this was going on. Certainly, I had no intention of posting about it, but then if no one ever talks about anything, how will these things get resolved? Guess I am realizing my need for a support system after all. Just had an e-mail from Boston and the worst is confirmed...still bedbug bites. Now niece has gone into a frenzy of throwing everything away. Her new roommates are livid...can't blame them...and the exterminator has been called. Sis has just come home and, you guessed it, tears are flowing. I really appreciated what you said about the college kids getting ripped off...so true! It's infuriating! Personally, I'd rather that she just go back into the dorm. It was no prize, but it was better than this. Wish that the packing away was as easy as sealing things up for two weeks in the dark bags, but bedbugs have to be sealed up for a year! Can you imagine? K put one into alcohol and it was still alive 24 hours later. Blahhhaahhaahhaaaah! I may lose it yet...
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 2:33 pm
Gee, how accurate is that humorscope thread? Mine for today: "Today you will lose all self-control. You'll find it again tomorrow, though -- it just rolled under the couch." Hope it's true that it's just under the couch...
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Mak1
Member
08-12-2002
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 4:22 pm
I saw a magnified picture of a bedbug, and now I involuntarily shudder whenever I think of it. Yuck! Sealed up for a year? Wow! That certainly isn't practical, is it? Your poor niece and sister. I feel so badly for them. What a terribly frustrating situation. I hope you find everything you need under the couch tomorrow. 
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 7:45 pm
Vee: Good heavens....I was itching before I read your piece--now I am scraping ALL of the skin off from my body. As a suggestion, bedbugs look, sound, and act (from what i am reading) like headlice. What we did when we were infected thanks to my Sunday school kids, we steam cleaned everything that could be (mattresses, boxsprings, pillows, couches, chairs, car seats/headrests, etc.) and wrapped things in big black garbage bags. Bedbugs are making a comeback so it will behoove all of us to learn how to deal with them. HOWEVER to get the little suckers off from US, we combined White Thyme essential oil with our shampoos, conditioners, and lotions. Thyme is a natural insect repellant, so it helped keep them away from us while we were evicting them. Good luck.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 8:13 pm
Thanks, Laurie and Mak. I printed off that article by Michael Potter because I hadn't seen that one. I will suggest the white thyme essential oil to K. I know that bedbugs love blood and that they feed at night while the victim sleeps...ususally. They are attracted by the smell of carbon dioxide so they can always find a host (if not a human host, I'm sure the rats would serve just as nicely). K has tossed out most of her furniture and much of her clothing. Her mom bought her a new bed and a new mattress in June, but she may be tossing that, too, even though she has it encased in a heavy plastic matress cover. I had seen a piece on one of the 20/20 type shows about a family where the husband traveled a lot on business and stayed in motels...you get the picture. That's why I kept insisting that K might have bedbugs back in June when she first started getting bit. She was going to a dermatologist and everything, but no one even suggested bedbugs. She thought I was crazy. I got a nice big apology a few weeks ago when she found one having a little snack. Apparently, if the sensation of getting bitten is felt, one should look because these critters don't fly or hop. They just crawl. But since they are snacking at night, people don't usually find them. I guess it's a case of for every one you see... Appreciate your googling efforts. I'll pass the word along...and I'll try not to talk too much more about this "adventure." How's that for being euphemistic? Just pray that we all keep our sanity. By the way, Laurie, great to have you post again...just sorry it was a bedbug that got you posting...don't scratch too much now.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 8:19 pm
Vee: I just had doctor's appointment on the 30th, and my meds got altered, then I had to go for testing today, so, this whole week has been whacked. BUT, I did at least finish my altered book and get it sent out. We couldn't scan it since it was so delicate: seashells, sand, tissue paper, etc. So we had to photograph it. I also got rid of two boxes of donation stuff, and introduced someone to ABs, so I am putting together a care package for her, so that will clear out even more stuff.
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Citruscitygal
Member
08-07-2003
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 8:52 pm
Laurie~ Really good to see you. Hope the doctor can do something to help you feel better. Vee~ Sending my sympathies for the situation your sister and your niece find themselves facing. I hope they find a way to conquer the critters. It's good of you to be helping.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 9:04 pm
CCG: Thanks....right now, we're working toward consistency. I just feel like I am walking through quicksand. Sometimes it is ankle-high, sometimes knee-high, sometimes waist-high, sometimes chest-high, and other times nck-high. If I could just get to ONE consistent height, I'd be ecstatic, but such is not how fibro works.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Friday, September 03, 2004 - 6:43 pm
Just some follow-up information on how things are going in the bb war. My niece K tells us that her roommates are ready to boot her butt to the curb. She feels like a colossal creep. She did find out that the exterminator will do the entire apartment complex for $650, which my sister doesn't think is too bad. Some of K's other friends have offered her a place to sleep, but K is afraid that if she doesn't offer herself as a sacrifice for the critters that they will go looking for another host...true enough. So she is staying put. Exterminator knew exactly what area of Boston she had come from. K says that now that the college kids are back that some streets are filled with discarded furnishings that warn of bedbug contamination. Still, some of her whacked friends, think that a bedstead on the street looks like a great item. That is, in fact, one of the warnings in this coming bedbug epidemic...don't buy second-hand furniture or pick up discarded furniture. Will keep you posted in this ongoing drama.
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Spinner
Member
10-27-2003
| Friday, September 03, 2004 - 9:23 pm
Oh my goodness, Vee! I lived one summer, between apartments, up on Beacon Hill. Nice area, filthy neighbors--which brought out the rats, mostly--but never heard of bed bugs. Mostly you hear of picking them up in even good hotels. Keep us up on what happens. I swear, whatever it cost, I think I'd toss everything I owned and start over fresh, once I was sure that the apartment I was going into was totally free of any vermin. (Actually, it could be that no roommates will have her until she does this.) I think I'd sleep in the new apartment, even if it was on the floor for a couple of nights, before I agreed to move in, figuring if there are bedbugs they'd find me in a couple of nights. Ain't gonna be cheap, no matter what she decides. But if she moves in and infects her roomies' stuff, eventually she's gonna have a lawsuit on her hands.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Friday, September 03, 2004 - 9:45 pm
Spinner: I so agree. I think she is going to have to trash everything based on what I've read about them. I'm feeling a lot less quicksandy, so I am hoping to get back to the household notebook this weekend--I'm now at the point where MY work on the notebook still need to be done, so I'll be doing it with the group. I am also clearing out the craft stuff A LOT--I hooked a friend on Altered Books (she saw the latest spread I posted), so I am clearing out stuff I don't use at all to a donation box, types of things I have used, but I have too much of, into boxes for her. Plus there is just stuff I am tossing. I'm making up magazine/catalog wishlists--I list the catalog, the item number, the description, and the price. I then list why I want it, where it would go, and what I am willing to give up in place of it. It is really cutting down my "wants"--with the exception of my decorative fairies--and I am discovering a lot of nice empty space.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 6:09 am
Good morning. Yes, I know, Spinner, until three years ago, most exterminators didn't even know what a bedbug looked like. They were prevalent prior to W.W.II, but with the advent of DDT they were pretty much wiped out on this continent. No one knows for sure what has happened...whether they've become resistant to pesticide or whether our new communities of African peoples has brought them. One doctor we know has said that the influx began about the same time that some of those groups were arriving in the U.S. Whatever the reason, an epidemic is expected to cross the country. It has already begun here on the East Coast. I agree with you...toss out everything. She is loathe to do that since she has many of her grandmother's antiques...dresser, rocker, etc. But she is waiting to see what the exterminator says about it. I don't know what the answers will be, but I hope there's one somewhere. Would love to be able to see your new altered book, Lk. Maybe you can post a picture? By the way, does anyone know if I can have a regular film developed and put on a disk so that I could save them to my computer files? Wrong place to post...sorry!
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Spinner
Member
10-27-2003
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 6:16 am
A subscriber to the "Fly" thread over at the Atlantic just mentioned an interesting possibility for recycling--freecycle.org. It's a yahoo group, in lots of cities; just serves as a BB in each area for people to list what they want to give away or what they need and you're expected to pick up whatever you accept an offer on--no mailing involved. The forum welcome includes the very sensible suggestion that you arrange to meet at a well-traveled neutral location to exchange stuff; after all, you don't exactly know these folks. And that you don't go alone. I just unloaded 6 storage boxes of Liberty Falls items (little houses/village pieces) by joining that online group, posting that I wanted to give this stuff away. I did let the first lady who responded come to the house--the items were in the garage, not the house, my DH was home and after talking to her on the phone and realizing that she taught in the local school district and that we knew some people in common and saw online her work with cancer-striken kids, I figured it would be ok. In addition, in that group's forum, I could see posts from her to group leaders in their club all over the country, arranging to share the collectibles she got from me with their other club sections. She seemed well-known in their group and well-liked, judging from what how the others responded.
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Spinner
Member
10-27-2003
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 6:19 am
Yeah, Vee--lots of places here will develop film and store the prints on a disk. I'm sure you'll find that service in most places that develop film--even drugstore developers offer it here. Of course they're sending film dropped off at the drugstore to a photo lab, but probably they all can do it. Before we went so "digital" in our house I did the film to disk once and it worked out fine--there was software on the disk they sent back to me to enable me to open the photos and then transfer them into photoshop.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 6:33 am
Vee: the picture is posted in the Altered Arts file. Not that it would ever be noticed or found there by anyone. I was the only one who covered the Hobby Area in my write-ups. I love Freecycle. I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff that way.There are some things I would love to get--but, fortunately, I don't have a way to get there fast enough!!
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 7:16 am
In an attempt to beat this bedbug issue to death... http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/Living/bedbugs030519.html Following Laurie's example, I did a Google search using "Boston + bedbugs." Look what I found, wish that K had found it before she moved to the area mentioned in this article. Some of the suggestions for "saving" furniture are to place petroleum jelly on the legs so that the bugs can't climb up. Also the use of double stick tape. Still, once infested, call the exterminator. Interesting that you gals are talking about Freecycle...great for some areas of the country, but don't free cycle in Boston! 
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 7:41 am
"The National Pest Management Association, which tracks trends in bedbug infestations across the country, says that bedbugs re-emerged during the late 1990s at hotels in Orlando, New York, San Francisco and other international travel hubs. To date, bedbug infestations have been reported in all but seven states: Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota. Bedbugs are one of the great travelers of the world and are readily transported via luggage, clothing, and furniture. Pest management companies have also reported recent bedbug infestations on cruise ships and airplanes." I guess it is just a matter of time before they hit Maine...sis says that K is not coming home until this is under control, but from the looks of things, she'd have to come home wearing nothing but a smile and carrying no luggage to have it "under control." Thanks for the info, Spinner, I am going to have my most recent photos put on a disk. Would you believe that I did get one of Snowy reading Snowy ? 
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Spinner
Member
10-27-2003
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 8:55 am
Vee, I can't wait to see the Snow reading SNOWY photo! It'll go on Ruth's website for sure.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 4:21 pm
I have spent the day, literally, reading about you-know-what. Today I concentrated on people's personal stories with the critters. They are quite depressing and stressing. One interesting thing that came up was that people's getting rid of their furnishings and mattresses has led to the further spread of the problem. So, believe it or not, the recommendation is that people call the exterminator and treat their furnishings...even the mattresses instead of tossing them. There is an excellent four gauge vinyl matress cover from Bath and Beyond, which we will be getting to K pronto. I think she has a responsible landlord now, thankfully, who is willing to work with her on this problem.
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Sunday, September 05, 2004 - 10:51 am
I am a bit behind in the formal schedule according to FlyLady, but today was clean-out-the-refrigerator day for me. We have a freezer on bottom model, which we both like okay. The top is very easy to clean with its removable buckets and shelves, but it never stays organized. For one thing, it has a low-humidity drawer and a high-humidity drawer. The handbook mentioned a few fruits and vegetables, but not all that we use. This has always led to confusion about which drawer the produce should be kept in. Today, I realized that I could have the answer to my little problem immediately. Here it is for any of you who have ever wondered about such things: Proper humidity levels for produce. Further, I just wrote an index card for each drawer with the produce that can be stored there and popped them in the bottom of the respective drawer. Sis doesn't want any sticky residue from tape anywhere so that works pretty well. I'll let you know if the organized fridge stays that way. I may have taken the "kit" idea too far, but today I made three kits for the refrigerator. One is for spices that should be kept refrigerated, one is for jams and jellies that wind up everywhere and anywhere, and the last is for pickles. Apparently, we are pickle freaks around here. I'm almost to the place where I can begin tossing stuff that we have not used in the past three months...not quite, but getting closer! Hope you all have a great weekend and a wonderful Labor Day holiday!
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