There's always something. And with a big ol' winter storm barrelling down, there are a few more somethings.
Dec 19, 2008
Washington state has had...well, not the roughest winter we've ever faced. Not even the roughest winter we've faced in recent memory. But it's been interesting; and all the signs point to things getting more interesting.
Fairly soon.
Tomorrow afternoon, as a matter of fact.
My area has only gotten about four inches of snow thus far. Other parts of the metro area have been much worse hit: 5 inches, 7 inches, 11 inches. (Downtown is sitting at 2 inches. The big airport records 3 inches. The area where I used to live? An inch and a half.) Roads are iced over, hills are impassable, lots of school, road, and mall closures. Drivers are going more slowly, but there are still problems. I'm very, very happy that I was not on this bus.
The worst of the storm is supposed to pass over us and hit a bit to the south. Still, it will be messy: gusting winds up to 70 mph, freezing rain...oh yeah. Fun times. Power outages are expected. I made yet another trip to the grocery store to get 2-gallon containers of drinking water, some additional batteries, and cat food. Not the good stuff...but some semi-junkfood stuff to mix with the good stuff until this storm blows over and I can get to a pet store that carries the pricier, harder-to-get, makes-Monkey-barf-less, makes-Ursa's-coat-shinier, not-made-with-ingredients-from-China pet food. I've been out on numerous "stocking up" runs for this storm system, but I've got enough stuff to bake or slow-cook something every single day for the next two weeks. That's a lot of heat generated and then spread about downstairs.
I've been making my retreats each evening around 5pm, getting my dinner and then heading upstairs with a pump-pot full of hot water, a few packets of cocoa and / or cider, a few crackers, and some books. It's been a good strategy thus far. This is, in fact, what the Seattle metro area is advising residents to do, especially if their power goes out. Have supplies close to hand. Confine your activities to one or two rooms to conserve heat. Close off rooms to compartmentalize airflow. It's like we're living in a space station, minus any potential glamor factor.
I'm planning a trip out into the muck tomorrow (over to the old post office which is sitting on a package of mine; over to a friend's house for a gingerbread party that would horrify La Stewart; and a quick check of my current post office box). After that, I think I'll spend this weekend writing my holiday card. I've got my laptop charged up, I've got my porta-lite, I'm charging my batteries for the MP3 stereo-thing, and I've got things to bake. Even if the power goes out, I'm not utterly without resources.
I'll just be bundled under every blanket I own, with the cats ensconced nearby in their own individual nests. If the power goes, their new favorite thing will also be out of commission: the space heater will not bestow any radiance upon us, and while I like the warmth, I've lately found Ursa and Fog sitting right by the thing. If that stops producing heat and humming sounds, they'll be quite bereft.
The Twelve Days of Moving In
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...full of stuff. Fortunately, it's all stuff that's headed out the door.
Dec 18, 2008
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).
The Twelve Days of Moving In
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In other news, the cyclamen are dead.
Dec 17, 2008
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.
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I have ADD, a new home, paint samples, and a color fan. Oh, the fun I shall have...
Dec 16, 2008
When moving into a new home, for most people, either painting or wallpapering is part of the equation. That's even when someone isn't buying a "fixer-upper" or anything with the words "sweat equity" in the MLS description.
I knew that I wanted to repaint all the walls. I also knew that, due to budgetary constraints, I'd only be able to repaint the living room and library right away. My mom, a frustrated designer if ever there was one, sent me all kinds of paint samples, color chips, and brochures from various paint companies. She even came up to help me paint the downstairs rooms, and left behind two fullsize color fans. I've now got the resources to look at all kinds of colors, combinations thereof, even make larger versions of said samples to stick up on my walls for a few days and see if I really like the colors.
My bedroom has a large watercolor painting. It's a desert scene, and was painted by one of my former landlords (an artist in central California). It's beautiful - very rich colors in the stormy sky. This particular painting was painted for a gallery showing, but the artist decided that it wasn't one of her best. Possibly because you can see some water drippage in the sky. I liked this one best, though, and so I bought it for myself. I want to try and pick colors that will work with this painting, but not necessarily colors that are *in* this painting. I do like the stormy blues and the midweight peach colors of some of the sandstone layers - maybe one of those? I don't know. All I know is, the walls need to be patch plastered (and probably primed) and then painted. I am willing to bet that the walls haven't been painted since the contractor added the texturing to the walls. Mom told me about this stuff called Gardz that, apparently, will bond that texturing to the drywall so that it won't scrape or flake off quite so easily. Looks like I'll need to get a few gallons of that (bedroom, master bath, office, kitchen, downstairs bath.)
The office needs to be painted, but it can wait. I may just paint it white with a bright stripe of color up near the top, though. The walls in here haven't seen nearly as much wear and tear as the ones in the bedroom. There are a few gouges and furrows - possibly caused by furniture. Nothing a little patch plaster won't set to rights.
The master bath needs to be repainted. The previous owner painted it the same as they painted the living room - something called "Toasted almond" that was a kind of slightly burnt green-yellow-beige. (It was not a delightsome color. I've seen worse...but it wasn't all that spectacular.) I picked up a gallon of white, eggshell finish, with mildecide in the paint. That ingredient is added specifically to certain paints intended for use in kitchens and bathrooms, to help retard growth of molds in, on, or just under the paint. The bathroom needs repainted - and perhaps it needs some sealant on the walls, as well. I'm willing to bet that the walls weren't treated by the builder for heavy moisture. (Probably used plain old drywall, too - maybe the drywall needs to be ripped out and redone? Gah. I don't even want to think about that bit right now.) I've got a week "off" between Dec 29 and Jan 2, so I'll paint the bathroom that week. It will mean no showering, to allow the paint maximum time to cure...but, hey, it's a week off. I won't be going anywhere, I've got nobody to impress. And worse comes to worse, I can wash my hair bent over the kitchen sink and take sponge baths.
The kitchen also needs to be repainted (or possibly just "painted".) I may need assistance for that, especially the bit where I'd need to move the washer/dryer and the refrigerator and the range. Right now I'm thinking plain white, eggshell finish, with mildecide. Sure it's plain...but I can add a stripe of color if I want to. And, like I said, those walls probably haven't been painted since the builder put the texturing on the drywall. I'd like to repaint the living room and entryway at some point - or maybe just add a superlight grey glaze to the current blue paint job. It's a blue that changes color just slightly, from light blue to slight mint green to something in between...but it's just a wee bit on the bright side. I think I'd like to tone it down just a little, little bit.
Meanwhile, does anyone know of a way to seal a smell behind a layer of paint? The library, downstairs, was apparently the "smoking room" for the previous owner. The man was a chain smoker. They repainted, had the now-removed aluminum blinds cleaned, and put down brand new carpet when they decided to sell. It wasn't noticeable on the walkthroughs; but now that I've kept that room shut for a while, I can smell the smoke whenever I walk in there to get a book. I've left blocks of cinnamon-permeated soap on the shelves with my towels and bedding. I don't know if it's possible to get rid of that smell without replacing all the drywall; but I'm considering that, if that's all it would take. (I have a family member who's hung drywall several times before, and will come and help if I feed them. I can be cavalier about this...to a degree.) I don't want to just mask the smell with air fresheners, though - the smoke smell would still end up permeating my books. I'm not so sensitive, and the smell's not so strong, that it makes me ill; and I have sat in there for several hours reading a book (before the really cold snap set in.) But if I can get rid of that smell...I'd like to do so.
I went out grocery shopping today. We're supposed to have snow tonight and tomorrow (90 per cent chance, the weatherpeople say) so I stocked up on the ingredients for homemade pizza, chili, and chicken bake - three warm dishes that will mean constant heat coming from the kitchen. I also got several brownie mixes, one box of gingerbread mix, some more bagels, cider mix, and - in a moment of weakness - four boxes of Hot Pockets sausage/egg/cheese breakfast thingamajigs. All hail grocery store club card specials!!! Today was pretty warm, which is probably Nature's way of getting people to lower their defences so she can really get them with the next cold snap tonight. There was still ice on the roads, so I had to modify my usual driving route a bit (no, don't want to try to drive down a short but steep hill and then attempt to stop right at the bottom, thanks ever so, I think I'll go the less exciting route...) People were driving a bit faster, particularly on the highway that runs through town; but they weren't up to "usual" speeds, just driving faster than 20 mph. The store had quite a few people in, though. Seems many folks had the same idea I did: get all your shopping done, and hunker down for the freeze. While coming back, I looked over my poor pitiful cyclamen again. They look like the last frost really bitchslapped them: they're drooped significantly. Mrs. West says that they're not done for, though - just catching their breath, so to speak. I'm hoping for a slumbering-lungfish-type revival in January...unless we continue to have lots and lots of snow, in which case my house is now easy to identify: it's the one with flowerboxes full of dead plants.
The Twelve Days of Moving In
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Hello. My name is Laughing Muse and I am a climate wuss.
Dec 15, 2008
First off: everyone east of the Rockies and north of, oh, say Texas: you all have a free pass not to read this entry. I am going to bemoan the cold weather, and specifically how cold my house is; and you all don't want to hear such patently sissified talk from someone who may experience freezing temperatures this weekend...but hasn't yet, and in fact has not experienced them in over 20 years. 40 degrees makes this person bring in the brass monkeys. So you can all head off and read things that won't make you roll your eyes so hard that they click against the back of your skull.
I got the thermal blinds installed, and the thermal curtains re-hung; but it's still stupidly cold downstairs at my place. This afternoon I finally broke out the electric space heater, set it at the top of my stairs, and cranked it up so that it would at least warm the upper story (where my office - where I spend most of my days - and my bedroom - where I spend my nights - are located.) After the first five minutes of burning off several years' accumulated dust, the space heater worked fantastically. I checked the back of the unit to make sure it wouldn't heat up the wall, then moved the space heater as far back on the landing as possible, facing down the stairs: it would warm the upper story air, but the heater wasn't placed so as to trip any hairless ape who may have momentarily forgotten that it was there. For a while, that worked.
Around 5:30, after the sun had been down for a while, I went down to go make dinner. It was COLD, dammit. The outside temperature was 23 degrees Farenheit (-2 Celcius) I did not relish the thought of standing there, kneading cold ground beef into hamburger patties, cooking a few of said hamburger patties, putting together enough "other" stuff to make something resembling a balanced meal, and then running back upstairs into the warmth. So I devised a plan:
I boiled two pots of water, poured the water into my portable air pump pot, collected some food (cheetos, cookies, packets of cocoa powder, a large bowl of salad as a concession to the need for nutrition), got a thermal mug from the cupboard, and took those items upstairs. Then I went back down, got the cats' "pig feeder" and food bucket, snagged several candles and a lighter, and headed back up the stairs. The idea was to get enough food- and drinkstuff collected so that neither I nor the cats would have to come downstairs again that evening, unless we were really fond of the idea of shivering while inside a manmade structure.
Then I thought: I haven't changed the bedsheets since I moved in. It's been two weeks. They need to be washed. And I'm actually warm enough that I can surely stand one quick foray downstairs to get clean sheets to change the bed. So I fixed myself a mug of cocoa, rinsed the spoon, and headed back down - AGAIN - into the Icy Lair. I got my clean bedsheets, headed upstairs, changed the bed, and found that - hey, I'm warm enough for one more trip downstairs to put the laundry into the washer. (I was not, however, warmed enough to unload the dishwasher. That task shall wait until morning.)
So now I'm back upstairs. The washer is cycling through. I've eaten the salad and drunk the first mug of cocoa, lit the candles in my room (I found the longer hanging section that lets the candelabra hang down low enough that I won't end up with a sooty ceiling), and have the music playing full blast. I've also taken two gelcaps for my back pain (remnant of my slips on the black ice in the various parking lots when I ran errands yesterday) and fired up the heating pad. I -=almost=- feel good enough to do a few loads of regular laundry tonight...
...except for the fact that I airdry most of my things, and anything I hung up to airdry - even inside the house - would have iced over by morning. And this isn't even the coldest it will get!! We're technically below the freezing, but that's the daily high. We're supposed to get snow on Wednesday, and nighttime temperatures are predicted to drop down to 16 degrees Farenheit.
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The home upgrade / winterizing project continues
Dec 15, 2008
Yesterday's snow and ice is still with us. No new additions, but the roads will be uglier today than they were yesterday. So I'm staying at home, working, doing laundry, hanging the two blinds in the library, and replacing light bulbs.
The lightbulbs that were in place when I moved in weren't necessarily bad - they were just standard, run-of-the-mill incandescents. I replaced the incandescents at my old apartment with energy-efficient bulbs when I moved in, and brought them all with me when I moved out (thriftily putting the old incandescent bulbs back in place.) I've replaced a few of the lightbulbs around here, but not all of them...so since my gas bill will be so high (especially with winter coming on), I want to do everything possible to keep my other bills lowered. (Plus - changing out the bulbs will empty one more box, freeing up space for more of my stuff.)
There's a trick to getting the light covers off: you turn them, and they're supposed to screw out and let you at the bulbs. Unfortunately, when I've tried this, the whole thing moves, not just the cover - and it won't come down. I'm afraid to try too hard for fear that I'll rip a wire and cause a fire hazard or something.
The cold front that moved in yesterday is not only with us, but this week could be the coldest six days since December 1990. (Oh, doesn't that make me feel just delighted. Glad the blinds got here when they did...!) I'm glad I got my driving done yesterday. I won't be going to check my post office box for...oh, probably the next week...unless there's a bus that runs down the highway, which I think there is. It'll be slower than normal because of the snow chains, but that's an option. Come to think of it, that's also an option to get out and grocery shop if the nearby food mart doesn't have everything I'm looking for.
Last night I made nachos for dinner. It involved chicken. Fog was doing her Magical Dance of Food-getting, which involves standing on her hind legs like a dancing bear and bleating. Yes, you read that right. Bleating. The only other sound I can liken it to is one of those older, cheaper talking dolls. It's supposed to be saying "Mama", but the consonants are pretty much lost and the tone is kind of strangled. Well, that's the sound Fog makes when she is begging for chicken. I've only ever heard it when she's begging for chicken or tuna. She'll beg, halfheartedly, for other things, but nothing gets quite the display of either chicken or tuna. (For those, she pulls out all the stops.) If I don't reward her efforts in a timely fashion, the bleating gets a little more strident and pointed. It shifts from "Mama, mama" to the feline equivalent of "Hey! I'm acting all cute and adorable down here. Now fulfill your part of the bargain and give me some of that stuff, or I hook my claws into your thigh!"
I think I'll set some chili to cooking in the crock pot. It'll be warm, it will give me a few meals, and Fog won't be tempted to put on her full begging display.
I hope.
The Twelve Days of Moving In
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