...full of stuff. Fortunately, it's all stuff that's headed out the door.
After all the hoopla over "no snow, no snow, where's the !&*$%^ snow!!!!111eleventy1!", we got snow last night. Light snowfall to begin with, lightly dusting the walks with fresh powder...and apparently it kept up for most of the night. It's currently snowing outside, and I'm glad I'm stocked up on food, have a batch of chili prepared, ingredients for stew and chicken alfredo and pizza and chicken bake (and brownies [and gingerbread]), and my thermal lightblocking drapes for the patio door. Sure, it means that the downstairs is now dark except for the light that comes in from the little window near the top of the front door, and the light that comes in the kitchen window. But, hey, the downstairs is warmer. I no longer feel that icy cold demarcation of warm air / cold air halfway down the stairs.
I left my blue holiday lights on all night last night - with the light snow falling, it seemed the thing to do. Today, I'm leaving them on. They've been off more nights than they've been on since I first hung them when I moved in, so I can afford a few days of blatant showing off. (And the folks in the house to the north have an actual lawn ornaments. Not too many, to be sure; and not overwhelmingly huge (and not blinking); but they have them on all night, every night. I'm not the lone weirdo down here. Though we do form our own little pocket of odd...no one else in this half of the complex has outdoor lights up quite yet.)
I've spent the previous three weeks getting things out of boxes. I spent yesterday putting things back INTO boxes. Some are going to either resale a la craigslist, some are going to homeless shelters in the area, some are going to local thrift and consignment shops, and some are going into storage. I've culled the kitchen stuff and figured out that I just don't use some pots, pans, and gizmos all that often (or have, naturally, lost-and-then-bought-duplicates). There's also an older crock pot that's a bit large for one person. I've cooked in it; but I usually get sick of whatever-food-it-is before that saved food is even half gone. The four-quart size works just as well and is easier to store. I did clean out my closet and got four boxes of clothing, socks, and older towels. Most of the clothing is lighter-weight, though, so I don't know if a homeless shelter would find much of it useful. The towels, the few heavier-weight items will go there. The lighter-weight stuff will go to consignment shops. (I did also find a box-worth of skirts whose waistband elastic had died, and needs replacing. I may have the money to have them professionally repaired in early February - which would mean that I'd have them in time for April and May, when the weather will be getting warmer.) I have three boxes full of shorts and short-sleeved shirts, which I won't be wearing for at least four months...so they're going into storage.
I've still got a few boxes left to unpack: two, actually. (One is in the kitchen, full of cookie cutters and a few other rarely-used but keepable items. The other is in the bedroom, holding my extra pairs of sweats and sweatshirts.) The box in the living room that's full of curtains is just going to go into storage as-is. I may not use those curtains, or I may in future days; but right now, I just want that box off my living room floor. The cats may go into mourning, though, as that box is their most favored seat for BTV (greenbelt channel).
