Greg was great at finding solutions for problems that I hadn't even recognized as problems - yet. He was always making unsolicited changes to my house. He couldn't see a solvable problem - and not solve it. Just couldn't. Here are a few...
* Our waste basket for trash is in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. It's always been a mess under there with food that missed the container and coffee grounds everywhere. On day Greg decided he'd looked at that long enough and he installed a "pull-out" trash can on sliding rails. No more missing the trash container. No more coffee grounds.
* While we're in the kitchen... my kitchen faucet was missing an aerator and as hard as we looked, we couldn't find one that fit. For years, whoever turned on the water, got sprayed. It's just the way it was - until Greg got sprayed once too often. Then I got a new and improved kitchen faucet. So nice!
* In the living room, he put a new switch in the wall that also works with the outlet on that same wall - to make it easy for me to turn on the light there. I wrote about the switch in an earlier post. You can find it here: https://despitethedarkness.blogspot.com/2017/08/high-five.html#more
* I pulled into the garage today and looked at the huge shelves that Greg built to hold our shipping envelopes and supplies. Before the shelves, retrieving shipping supplies was a challenge to say the least. Solvable problems eat at Greg until he has to do something about them. He decided to build the shelves. Hearing the sound of construction (which seemed to follow Greg everywhere), Michael went to check it out.
Michael: What are you up to, Greg?
Greg: You needed some shelves out here in the garage. This will only take me 10 minutes.
Michael laughed. "Thank you, Greg."
The shelves probably took two hours. They're fantastic - just what we needed (of course).
* There are Command hooks at strategic places all through the house.
Greg: What do you do with your oxygen cannula when you get dressed or undressed to take a shower or just change your clothes?
Me: I lay it on the floor.
No comment from Greg, but the next time I took a shower, there was a Command hook on the wall for me to hang my oxygen cannula.
Within days, there was a hook behind the wooden railing at the bottom of the stairs so that I could hang my cannula there when I changed to "downstairs" oxygen. There was also a hook on the wall in front of me, so that I could put the cannula from upstairs on the back of the railing and then pick up the cannula from downstairs that was on the wall hook - all without having to take a step. Typically thoughtful
* The floor on my side of the couch is a rat's nest of wires: cord to charge my phone, cord to charge my laptop, cord to charge the old laptop that has all of our business records in it (I'll get them moved soon - really), cord for my Kindle, and more. Cords everywhere. Any time I needed a cord, I had to sort through the nest of cords to find the one I wanted. Until Greg stuck cute little cord holders on the side of the end table on my end of the couch. Blue holder for the little laptop, white holder for the big laptop, red one for the phone, etc.
There are so many more things that he's done for me. I'll probably make another entry at some point. Greg was always looking for ways to make life easier for me (and every one he came in contact with) - and he succeeded just about every time.
I wish I could have done something to make his life easier.
* Our waste basket for trash is in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. It's always been a mess under there with food that missed the container and coffee grounds everywhere. On day Greg decided he'd looked at that long enough and he installed a "pull-out" trash can on sliding rails. No more missing the trash container. No more coffee grounds.
* While we're in the kitchen... my kitchen faucet was missing an aerator and as hard as we looked, we couldn't find one that fit. For years, whoever turned on the water, got sprayed. It's just the way it was - until Greg got sprayed once too often. Then I got a new and improved kitchen faucet. So nice!
* In the living room, he put a new switch in the wall that also works with the outlet on that same wall - to make it easy for me to turn on the light there. I wrote about the switch in an earlier post. You can find it here: https://despitethedarkness.blogspot.com/2017/08/high-five.html#more
* I pulled into the garage today and looked at the huge shelves that Greg built to hold our shipping envelopes and supplies. Before the shelves, retrieving shipping supplies was a challenge to say the least. Solvable problems eat at Greg until he has to do something about them. He decided to build the shelves. Hearing the sound of construction (which seemed to follow Greg everywhere), Michael went to check it out.
Michael: What are you up to, Greg?
Greg: You needed some shelves out here in the garage. This will only take me 10 minutes.
Michael laughed. "Thank you, Greg."
The shelves probably took two hours. They're fantastic - just what we needed (of course).
* There are Command hooks at strategic places all through the house.
Greg: What do you do with your oxygen cannula when you get dressed or undressed to take a shower or just change your clothes?
Me: I lay it on the floor.
No comment from Greg, but the next time I took a shower, there was a Command hook on the wall for me to hang my oxygen cannula.
Within days, there was a hook behind the wooden railing at the bottom of the stairs so that I could hang my cannula there when I changed to "downstairs" oxygen. There was also a hook on the wall in front of me, so that I could put the cannula from upstairs on the back of the railing and then pick up the cannula from downstairs that was on the wall hook - all without having to take a step. Typically thoughtful
* The floor on my side of the couch is a rat's nest of wires: cord to charge my phone, cord to charge my laptop, cord to charge the old laptop that has all of our business records in it (I'll get them moved soon - really), cord for my Kindle, and more. Cords everywhere. Any time I needed a cord, I had to sort through the nest of cords to find the one I wanted. Until Greg stuck cute little cord holders on the side of the end table on my end of the couch. Blue holder for the little laptop, white holder for the big laptop, red one for the phone, etc.
There are so many more things that he's done for me. I'll probably make another entry at some point. Greg was always looking for ways to make life easier for me (and every one he came in contact with) - and he succeeded just about every time.
I wish I could have done something to make his life easier.
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