Saturday December 8, 2007
I’d hoped our plans for the future would be in the public domain sometime this past week. Well, they’re not. I’m being good, biting my lip, keeping my controller circuits turned down to minimum, and waiting for the release form.
If I can be patient about it, I reckon the rest of the world can wait a while longer.
Yesterday we started carrying storage units down from bedroom three, on the top floor, to the new dining room, on the ground floor. Well, I say “we” but really it was Graham did the carrying, with me steadying and guiding to top to avoid damage. We’ll like as not complete that task today, taking long intervals between times so’s I can recover.
I’m not as fit as I ought to be, and I’m a lot more fat than I want to be. I’m hoping to begin a change of regime to correct both conditions quite soon. The scrag-end of the year is not the best time to start a diet but I’ve made a very small start already and intend to continue it, increasing in intensity until I can take on my daily walk again. Then the endor-fo-whatsits will kick in and the process will, hopefully, take on its own momentum. I really don’t mind admitting that, for all these years as a thin man, there’s been a fat man trying to get out. I’m darned if I intend to let him have it all his own way.
Mind you, today would not be a good day to go out walking anyway. There’s a half-gale battering the house, bringing in sheets of cold rain to refrigerate the air. I’m sitting by my top-floor study window, open just a crack, and enjoying the blast of air that whistles through. Cold, but moist.
I’ve been complaining about the dry air in the house for some while now as we shut down for the winter and are obliged to cut down ventilation to a bare minimum.
“What we need is a humidifier for the bedroom and living room,” I said.
“Hum,” said Graham, which is his way of acknowledging that there’s some truth in what I say, he doesn’t agree with me.
Then, late last night: “What we need is house plants,” he said.
“Brilliant,” said I. “Can we go out tomorrow and get some?”
“Too busy tomorrow. Don’t press your luck.”
The author, webmaster, and minder of the cat
12 responses so far ↓
marty // December 8, 2007 at 11:42 am
First!
We can wait to hear your plans. but I sure hope a ranch style home in being considered.
Sorry about the storm. We had one predicted but it is waiting.
GordoTheGeek // December 8, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I keep forgetting that you folks still aren’t big on central heating, are you? My parents have a humidifier attached to their furnace to moisten the heated air as it’s sent about the house.
Plans are like cakes, John: no peeking until they’re ready.
Mary Lee // December 8, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I seem to remember having those accordion-like things all through our house that ‘heated’, more or less, depending on your proximity. We always had trays of water sitting atop to help with the moisture. Didn’t help much because I can remember scuffing my shoes across the carpet just for the thrill of the spark and the shock. I now think I was a weird child. :-0
Maureen // December 8, 2007 at 2:39 pm
We have winds at about 60 miles an hour here at the moment.Couldn’t handle hot air heating or even air conditioning as I am asthmatic and they circulate dust which is a killer for me.I hate this time of year as all the shops have this type of heating.It makes the asthma bad and as I have an aversion to dying(especially before I get my christmas presents ),I stay home and shop on-line.I love the internet!
Edward McCain // December 8, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Plants are a brilliant idea, John. A few medium sized diffenbachia can put more than a quart of water vapor in the air per day, need only medium window light, and are almost impossible to kill.
Jim // December 8, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I’ve always been partial to hot water heat — either via old-fashioned hot water radiators (as I grew up with and as Nancy and I had in our apartment before we bought our first house) or via a hot water baseboard system (as we currently have). I hate forced hot air heading (which is what we had in our last house.
Our humidity level is not bad in winter, probably because of all the plants we have (plus four people taking showers) but when we had the house with the forced hot air heat we used to have to run humidifiers most of the winter. (Now we have a dehumidifier in the basement.)
bonnie // December 8, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Once again our forced hot air heat is off and windows opened bringing in lots more dust and now cedar. Just back from my walk, where I did get a whiff of Fall.
annie // December 8, 2007 at 6:18 pm
We finally have some cold wet weather here is california. It feeels good, a nice change.
Tim Reed // December 8, 2007 at 9:21 pm
I remember the radiator style heat in our Chicago apartment when I was a little boy. I used to play like the hissing and spitting was coming from my train engine. We have a heat pump for our Virginia house that does both the heating and airconditioning - the same for our brand new house in Florida. Both have humidifiers attached and run through hepa-filters to get rid of allergens. They work pretty well. I am also asthmatic and can’t stand the air pollutants. Fortunately, our cars are also filtered. Now if only my office had that system.
Good luck with the early parts of your moving process John. We are getting curious.
mageb // December 8, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Boy am I late today. No central heating here either. No humidifiers needed on the beach most of the time either. And OK, I’m chomping at the bit here and trying to keep my mouth shut.
CBG Dee // December 9, 2007 at 12:45 am
I grew up with wood heat from a stove. We always had a teakettle sitting on top of the stove with a few marbles in it. When the marbles started rattling around, we knew it was time to add more water.
Kate & Jim // December 9, 2007 at 1:20 am
We’ve got the hotwater baseboard heat here. Oil is costing us a fortune, this year.
But as to Dee - I wish I’d known about the marbles…when we had a wood stove here, we had a kettle on it and I was always checking to make sure it hadn’t run dry. (sold the wood stove a couple of years back, got tired of tracking in wood and cleaning the ash).
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