home Archives - cruciforme

Blog Archive

Buying a home sight-unseen is a sign of the times

Most buyers who make sight-unseen offers are familiar with the community or have family... — Most buyers who make sight-unseen offers are familiar with the community or have family members or friends who already live in the area.

Getty Images

My Aunt Deloris had a bold and adventurous nature. As a young woman, instead of taking a “normal” job in an office like most of her siblings, she accepted a job on a luxury ocean liner and spent the next 25 years traveling around the world, visiting hundreds of ports of call on every continent.

One day she was reading a newspaper that a passenger left behind. In it, she noticed a classified advertisement offering a house for sale in Monticello, a village in the Catskills mountains of upstate New York. The price was $10,000

Vacation

by
December 4, 2020

It breaks my heart, but I can’t justify going home this Christmas

There’s a particular type of sadness reserved for those who feel down at Christmas. For the past few years, my mental health has always been at its worst in December. As everyone else’s palette turns to red and green, illuminated by blinking string lights and candle glow, I can only see several shades of dull.

The one thing that pulls me out of this distinctly un-festive feeling is simply being at home. Eschewing any notions of it being the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas is a low-stakes affair at our house, and that suits me perfectly. There’s no pressure for it to be greetings-card perfect. Just getting through the day, which I usually spend entirely in my pyjamas, is enough. I can feel serenely at peace, if not exactly happy, given the aforementioned seasonal gloom.

But for the first time ever I’m not going to be at home

Travel

by
December 1, 2020

‘An exploration of home’: Trio kayaks the entire 444-mile Susquehanna River in 18 days | Local News

You could say Joel Witwer’s recent adventure was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, or maybe the right word is “necessitated.”

Witwer, who grew up in the Hershey area, recently kayaked the entire length of the Susquehanna River with two college friends, one of them Zach Miller, the professional ultrarunner from West Hempfield Township.

Over 18 days in September and October, the trio paddled 444 miles from the headwaters in Cooperstown, New York, to Havre De Grace, Maryland, where the East Coast’s longest river flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

Witwer, 31, was on a monthlong break from his job in Ethiopia, where he does communications for CURE International. The Christian nonprofit operates hospitals around the world, providing free care to children with disabilities.

Witwer tries to pair trips home with an adventure — hiking or exploring somewhere. But the COVID-19 pandemic limited his options.

So, he said, an idea that had

Adventure

by
December 1, 2020

49ers scrambling to find new home after being blindsided

title= — San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan walks the sidelines during the first half of the 49ers’ game against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Kelvin Kuo

AP

The San Francisco 49ers boarded their plane to Los Angeles on Saturday without any idea they were about to be hit with huge news that would impact their foreseeable futures.

Coach Kyle Shanahan’s team, without warning, he said, found out Santa Clara County barred all professional and college sports teams from having games or practices, which meant the 49ers would have to find a new practice field and home stadium for at least the next three weeks and possibly the final five weeks of the regular season.

“Are we going to be gone for the entire month of December? Are we going to be quarantined for 14 days when we come back? That’s all we could talk about for the last 18 hours,”

Hotel

by
November 30, 2020

How to set up a home gym space that works for you

When it comes to 2020, one of the big positives to emerge from this year’s many challenges is how it has focused our attention on prioritizing health and wellness — with a particular emphasis on physical fitness.

To meet our fitness needs while gyms were closed for prolonged periods, many of us started working out at home. Some got creative, using household items for our workouts, while others ordered home gym equipment online. Now, after getting a taste of at-home training, more people are considering making it a permanent practice.

If you’re currently weighing the benefits of creating a dedicated space for your own home gym and wondering how you can make it work for your lifestyle, read on.

Consider the benefits of working out at home

As a mind-body coach in professional sports who also has a garage gym, I can attest to numerous advantages of at-home training. Of

Travel

by
November 28, 2020

Americans travel home for Thanksgiving despite coronavirus surge

Millions of Americans took to the skies and the roads ahead of Thanksgiving at the risk of pouring petrol on the coronavirus fire, disregarding increasingly dire warnings that they stay home and limit their holiday gatherings to members of their own household.

Those who are flying witnessed a distinctly 2020 landscape at the nation’s airports: plexiglass barriers in front of the ID stations, rapid virus testing sites inside terminals, masks in check-in areas and on board planes, and paperwork asking passengers to quarantine on arrival at their destination.

While the number of Americans travelling by air over the past several days was down dramatically from the same time last year, many pressed ahead with their holiday plans amid skyrocketing deaths, hospital admissions and confirmed infections across the US.

Some were tired of more than eight

Travel

by
November 26, 2020

Americans ignore coronavirus warnings as millions travel home for Thanksgiving

More than 88,000 people in the U.S. – an all-time high – were in the hospital with Covid-19 as of Tuesday, pushing the health care system in many places to the breaking point, and new cases of the virus have been setting records, soaring to an average of over 174,000 per day.

Deaths have surged to more than 1,600 per day, a mark last seen in May, when the crisis in the New York area was easing.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local authorities have begged people not to travel and urged them to keep their Thanksgiving celebrations small.

“That’ll make sure that your extended family are around to celebrate Christmas and to celebrate the holidays next year,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.

But even Denver Mayor Michael Hancock flew to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and youngest daughter despite sending messages on

Travel

by
November 26, 2020

Shop local and make yourself at home for the holidays

Online shopping is easy. And often generic. Make this year’s giving season more meaningful with unique gifts, food and activities by starting in Renton.

Renton’s strong community of local, independent businesses reflect the character and diversity of the city.

“No matter where you’re from, you can come to Renton and feel you fit in,” says Lange Woon, owner of Common Ground Coffee & Cupcakes.

Woon appreciates the regular customers at his downtown shop. Customers also have become friends at the Countryside Café in the Highlands, where you can make yourself at home among the eclectic coffee mugs and full plates of homestyle food.

When you shop locally, you get to experience Renton’s warmth and positive energy from business owners like Miny Tafesse of Abyssinia Hair & Beauty Clinic downtown.

Miny Tafesse, Abyssinia Hair & Beauty Clinic in Renton.

A dose of positive energy could help shake the cabin fever we’re

Hotel

by
November 24, 2020

City of Palms Park could be future home of amateur sports complex

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Last SlideNext Slide

Fort Myers officials want to study whether City of Palm Parks could be turned into an amateur multi-sports complex.

Lee County, which owns the the former spring training home of the Boston Red Sox, is set to demolish the 27-year-old park before turning over the land to the city.

The land is part of the city’s redevelopment efforts in Midtown, a 240-acre area bounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north, Edison Avenue to the south, Cleveland Avenue to the west and Evans Avenue to the east.

Buy Photo

A cyclist moves past the The City of Palms in downtown Fort Myers on Wednesday May, 22, 2019. It is in the heart of mid town. (Photo: Andrew West/The News-Press)

Fort Myers Ward 5 Councilman Fred Burson discussed the park at a city meeting last week, asking the city

Hotel

by
November 23, 2020

WSU, EWU, Gonzaga ask students to stay home after Thanksgiving

Universities in eastern Washington are telling students not to come back if they head home for the holidays.

SPOKANE, Wash. — As the COVID-19 pandemic raged throughout the year, university leaders across the Inland Northwest spent their late Spring and Summer months forming a plan to safely teach college students during the Fall 2020 semester.

Now, with holiday season on the horizon, the plans from Eastern Washington’s biggest colleges all include the same message: “If you go home for the holidays, stay home.”

That was a key factor in Washington State University’s earliest plan, says Phil Weiler, Vice President for Marketing and Communications for the university. Weiler said WSU built their semester over the summer to be as close to all-online as possible, with just a handful of classes requiring in-person learning for specialized technology or equipment.

But for the final few weeks, Weiler said, every class will make the

Travel

by
November 21, 2020

Blog Archive

Most buyers who make sight-unseen offers are familiar with the community or have family members or friends who already live in the area.

Consider the benefits of working out at home