Macy's

I received a phone call yesterday from a person in the circulation department of our local newspaper, informing me that the Macy's advertising insert for Thanksgiving Day would be scented. She had already spoken with our paper carrier and they had tried to figure out a way to get a paper to us sans Macy's insert. However, there was some concern that they would either forget or the other papers would contaminate ours, so we decided to just cancel our paper delivery for that day.

Believe it or not, I used to shop at Macy's occasionally (holding my breath as I ran past the cosmetic counter). They have some great sales. However, I quit going in there and had my name removed from their mailing list some time ago, after receiving a scented ad in the mail. Now I can say that I am really done with Macy's, and I sent them an email to that effect. I also gave them a few statistics about the prevalence of chemical sensitivity in the general population (an estimated 1 in 16) and the danger to the asthmatic population that perfumes and other scented products present.

If anyone else has an interest in writing to Macy's, they can be reached at the following addresses (not found on their website):

email: customerservice@macys.com

phone: 1-800-289-6229

snail mail: Macy's Customer Service
PO Box 8215
Mason, OH 45040

Their corporate offices are located at:
685 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Enjoy the turkey, but skip the newspaper ads.

Signs (an update)

Some time ago I mentioned in a post that we had been given permission to put up permanent signs in our church buildings. Well, happy day! The signs are up!

On each entry (glass door) to every building (a total of twenty doors in five buildings) are posted the following words:

Welcome

Our goal is to provide a fragrance-free environment

for everyone. In love and respect for others, please

refrain from using scented products on days you

come to Church.

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it

unto one of the least of these...ye have done it unto

me." [Matthew 25:40]

These door signs are made of vinyl lettering attached directly to the glass.

In addition, the larger four buildings have interior signs at the doors to the back of the chapel areas. These signs read as follows:

To enable those who are chemically sensitive to attend church, the overflow area of the chapel has been designated as a fragrance-free zone. If you are wearing a scented product of any kind, please be sure to sit in another part of the chapel.

The outside door signs (vinyl lettering) were purchased locally from a vinyl sign business. The interior signs were ordered and sent to us from LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were made to match the other interior signs in specific buildings, and they look official. The goal is to have all of our buildings entirely fragrance-free, but we don't want to turn anyone away. Thus the wording of the interior signs.


I have been asked what we had to do to get these signs. The first step was to get the local church leaders (stake presidency and bishops, the lay clergy) on board. Then we needed the okay of the Facilities Management (FM) people (Church employees) , who were not initially in favor of permanent signs. It was only after I wrote a letter to the FM office in Salt Lake City, outlining the need for these signs and the support of local leaders, that we received permission to put them up. If you have local leaders who are willing to have signs in your buildings, I would recommend having these leaders contact your regional FM director or your regional DTA (Director of Temporal Affairs). Please feel free to site the Helena Montana Stake as an example of how this has been done. My husband (who is a member of our stake presidency) and I would be happy to give anyone more detailed information about the ongoing goal of the Helena Montana Stake to make all our buildings fragrance free. We can be reached by email at wheelpub (at) mt (dot) net.

Home Again

Well, it's done. My house has been torn apart and put back together again, and I can finally say that overall, it was a successful project. The main objective was to rid the house of the mold in the walls and the sub-flooring. This was accomplished, and my worst fear (that I wouldn't be able to live in the house once it was done) has NOT been realized.

That doesn't mean it's been an easy month and a half. Like all projects, it took a little longer than anticipated. I am fortunate to have a daughter and her husband (and two adorable grandsons) who tolerated me sleeping on their couch for several weeks. They kept me busy and distracted me when construction frustrations reached a breaking point, which was often. And thank goodness for a phone that made it possible for me to be in constant contact with the project manager and my husband Randl (who was trying to live and work in the house through it all).

So here are some of the things we learned in the process (listed in no particular order):
--When you're the one paying the bills, you get to call the shots (regardless of what the "expert" builders think).
--A contractor is only as good as his sub-contractors.
--There are MANY chemically safe or safer building products available. You just have to go looking for them.
--Sub-contractors don't like to go looking for building materials or use materials with which they are unfamiliar.
--Don't assume someone understands your point of view. Explain, explain, explain!
--The best project manager in the U.S. (possibly in the world) is right here in Helena, Montana. His name is Mark.
--Painters march to the beat of their own drummers (and they're in a different parade than mine).
--Ceramic tile is relatively inexpensive but very practical, not to mention beautiful (especially when installed well).
--Glass tile is VERY expensive, but one little row of it can turn an otherwise blah room into a private spa (well, almost).
--A second shower in the house is a good thing.
--Covering the bathroom window with only a half-curtain lets the sunshine in and, combined with yellow walls, cheers the soul, even on a cold Montana morning.

There was still some odor from the building products when I came home, so we ran the air purifier and the three new fans around the clock for a week or so. But all I can smell today is the pumpkin from our garden cooking in the steamers on the stove. As soon as I get my new hall closet doors up, the whole project will really be finished. It's time to move on.

Keeping House

Today marks fourteen days and counting before we begin our bathroom/laundry room remodeling project. This is one of those projects which started with just replacing the shower faucet and snowballed into a major house renovation that could give nightmares to even the calmest soul (which I am not). Between researching safe building products, choosing paint colors and arranging financing, I have spent untold hours on this project already, and we haven't even begun to tear out walls. Ironically, the strain of trying to make the project as chemically-free and healthy as possible is starting to take a toll on my health and I find myself right on the edge, physically and emotionally. Perhaps my biggest obstacle right now is my own fear.

But then, this is nothing new. I have a long history of taking on projects that seem like a good idea initially but ultimately scare me half to death. Just such another project culminated three weeks ago when I received the final printed copies of the book about my pioneer grandmothers which I started researching more than ten years ago. It's title, Not Just Keeping House, refers to the old census records in which the occupation most often listed for women is "keeping house." Such a description conjures up women in long skirts and aprons sweeping and scrubbing and fixing meals. While my ancestral mothers certainly did these things, that's hardly a description of ALL that they did.

When I woke up this morning, after yet another night of fretful dreams about bathroom sinks and painters that couldn't seem to get the color right, I realized that "keeping house" is exactly what I'm trying to do, but maybe not in the same sense that my grandmothers did. I'm trying to keep my house safe and healthy for me and my family. At the same time, I'm trying to keep it attractive and comfortable (even a bathroom should make you feel welcome). Perhaps most importantly, I'm trying to keep it all together as a whole--a place to live and love and just be. Sounds simple, right? Not so much, unfortunately.

But, like most other projects I've started with trepidation, it will come together and I will get my house (and my life) back, such as it is. In the meantime, nothing will be normal, and some regular activities (like blogging) may get pushed aside. But, never fear, I'll be back, and I'll have a LOT to say.

[BTW, if anyone is interested in the new book, you can see it and other great works :^) at wheelwrightpublishing.com.]

Not-so-far-away friends

I've been feeling pretty down the past few days. It was nice to be at my sister's cabin for a few days last week, enjoying the fresh mountain air, but on the drive back all I could think about was the mountain of work I have to do to get ready to leave again in a few weeks when our remodel project starts. Then, I'd only been home a few days when I found mold on one of the bathroom walls we weren't planning to take out. Ughhh! I hate that stuff! Black, slimy, gooey, yucky. . .

So here I was tonight, sitting at my computer, trying to get some work done before our weekend company arrives, feeling sorry for myself and more than a little overwhelmed, when up pops an email from my friend Celia in Wisconsin. Now, I've never actually met Celia, only through email, but I feel like I've known her forever. Accompanying her email were pictures of a family wedding--happy smiling faces of people she loves. It was just what I needed to pull me out of my blue funk.

MCS is such a lonely, isolating disease. It's easy to get depressed and believe that no one cares. But this magical mysterious thing called the internet connects us through cyberspace with people in all parts of the world. I may not have many friends right here in Helena, Montana, but I do have friends in far-away places like Wisconsin, Arizona, Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Hawaii, Canada and even India. They are as close as my desk or my laptop computer (which goes everywhere with me).

Thanks and (cyber)hugs to all of you, my not-so-far-away friends.

"Breathe"

I love bumper stickers. You know, those pithy comments we would never have the nerve to say to someone's face, which, when plastered to the rear bumper of a car, suddenly become socially acceptable. They tell the rest of the world (mostly complete strangers) which organizations we belong to, which candidates we voted for in the last election (or the last three, if we've had the car for awhile) and which social causes we subscribe to. Then there are the entertaining tidbits of dry humor and twisted irony.

I believe that the words on your bumper say a lot about who you really are. Sometimes, when I see a particularly interesting rear end statement, I'll speed up and pass the vehicle to see the driver, just so I can see what kind of person would say such a thing. I know, it's not fair to judge. Maybe the driver just borrowed the car from her brother-in-law, right? And she has no idea what propaganda she is spreading as she mosies on down the freeway.

Although I have enjoyed reading others' bumper stickers for as long as I have been driving, it's only been in the last five or six years that I've put them on my own car. It all started when someone backed into me in the church parking lot and put a nasty little dent in my rear bumper. Not a big enough dent to warrant a costly repair, but noticeable enough that I wanted to cover it up. And what better cover-up that a bumper sticker?

So, here's an inventory of what is on my rear bumper:

Great Old Broads for Wilderness [with the logo in the round]

Let children play! [purchased in protest of all-day kindergarten in our local schools]

There is no Planet B [a gift from my son-in-law, but a sentiment I share]

Protect Wild Utah [in support of the red rock wilderness I love]

Environmentalists do it for the next generations. [This is a very small sticker. My youngest daughter recently informed me it has a double meaning, but I claim ignorance of such.]

Sierra Club [This is actually a small window sticker.]

I'm running out of room on my bumper, but I've purposely saved a center space for the perfect MCS awareness sticker, something I have yet to find. I did see one the other day at the local health food store that said simply, "Breathe." If only I could, breathe that is. I think I want something a little more direct, but not too in-your-face, blunt, but in a kindly way.

So, what's on your bumper?

How safe is your car?

Anyone with MCS knows that cars (and all other forms of transportation) can be a problem. The air inside a car can be contaminated with exhaust fumes, formaldehyde, fire retardants and phthalates. Just this week I was driving down the road and the driver in front of me gunned his engine and let out a cloud of black exhaust that threatened to asphyxiate me and the four children I had with me. I set a new record for how fast I can hit the button to close the outside air intake.

The heat of the summer sun can compound the problem, causing upholstery and vinyl components in the car to volatilize and become even more toxic. Parked in the sun on a warm day, the interior of a car can get up to 190 degrees F. When heat is combined with humidity, mold can become a problem as well.

So what's a person to do? Many people use those car air fresheners, but, needless to say, they only add to the already toxic chemical soup.

An article in the Hawaiian newspaper, Big Island Weekly, had some good advice for keeping your car safe, especially in a hot climate. Author Diane Koerner offered the following steps to a cleaner, healthier travel experience.

1) Park in the shade or in a garage whenever possible.
2) Place a sun reflector on the dashboard to reduce interior temperature.
3) Before getting into your car on a hot day, open all the windows and let it ventilate for a few minutes.
4) Use only natural, non-chemical cleaners in your car, just as you would in your home.
5) Keep the mold down in your air conditioner by turning it off a few minutes before you reach your destination, letting the fan run to dry the condenser.
6) Drive with some windows open (unless there has been spraying in your area or you are on a busy highway with lots of other cars).
7) If you have severe MCS or asthma, consider buying a car air purifier designed to remove gas and airborne particles. (www.NEEDS.com is one source.)

I feel so isolated anyway with MCS. Having a safe car is a top priority for me, even if it's just take a ride in the country once in a while.

Happy Trails!