In other news, the cyclamen are dead.
Today was supposed to be snow, snow, snow.
It is overcast. We have 100% cloud coverage. But…there ain’t no snow. There was no snow overnight. And it’s warm…at least compared to the past three days. (On the plus side, it’s warm enough and the snow has melted enough that I should be able to walk to the nearby store and get some ground beef. It wouldn’t be a trip to the store without me forgetting something.)
I’ve managed to get around most of the warmth issues by leaving the kitchen heater on - not the living room heater, which is a) on an exterior wall; and b) which is three feet away from both the front door and the stairwell. The kitchen only opens into the dining room / living room, so any excess heat goes out of that door and warms up the common downstairs area. I’ve even noticed that the library is a bit warmer, as well - the door between the library and kitchen is closed off, but at least the door is warmed, so maybe the library is just less cold for having two shared walls that are not now quite so freezing.
Or maybe that’s all just a giant load of bupkus. Whatever. I’m not freezing cold downstairs, I’m not boiling alive each night upstairs, and I have enough food to slowcook or bake something every day this week through the weekend. That will distribute more heat, and provide something that vaguely resembles nutrition. (Well…maybe just “generate heat”, in the case of the multiple boxes of brownies and gingerbread. Can’t really claim that those have a high nutritional value.)
There’s an enforced week off of work from my fulltime gig not next week, but the week after next. I’ll use that week to paint the bathroom. I may have to use the space heater in that room while it’s drying off - I don’t think that paint likes extremely cold temperatures. (Or I could just go buy another space heater, then donate it to a homeless shelter and take the tax writeoff. Or save said extra space heater and put it in storage. Yeah. That’s possible.) If I have the paint and the time, I may do a few of the walls in the kitchen, as well.
I think it may also be time to clean out the closet. I’ve got a few items that I haven’t worn in years, and a handful of others that shrunk…but I kept them around anyway, for some silly reason. (I think I had the half-formed hope of washing them again, then hanging them dripping wet and hoping that they’d stretch out to their former length.) They aren’t necessarily warm weather items, so they won’t thrill anyone at homeless shelters - but then again, layers is layers.
Tomorrow’s high temperature is supposed to drop back below freezing - though, after today’s shenanigans, I’m not thoroughly trusting the weather forecasters.
In other news, the cyclamen are dead. Long live the cyclamen. (I think I overwatered them - or watered them too soon before a freeze. Whatever. This is what happens when you give flowers to someone who has two black thumbs.) The flowers are totally drooped over and leaving red stains on the porch railing, and while none of the leaves are discolored - yet - I imagine that will happen tonight. I’m tired of going out and covering the flower-corpses with a towel each night (held up by straws, so the plants don’t actually touch the fabric). At this point, it will be less of a hassle to buy new ones next fall.
