A Maintenance Day...
I had to brave the cold (!!!) and go out to stick the oil (and be sure we weren't running low). Happily, we have:
170 gallons
I'm MAD at myself that I didn't say how many gallons we had when I stuck the oil back in November... (sigh) This is where I tend to keep track of it, after all...
ETA: Actually, I did put the info here -- but in a private entry (I've no clue why). And I just did the math and discovered that we've gone through 80 gallons in seven weeks. That's (obviously) just a little more than 10 gallons a week, which is pretty much where we've been all the time we've lived here -- both with the old furnace and the new one. (Oil makes a lot of sense for us $$$-wise.)
Anyway, we're good to go for maybe another month (or even more). We're lucky that we don't use all that much oil. We've got a very tight house, all things considered.
While I was outside I also checked on the tarps we put up to help keep from flooding again. The winds had knocked a corner loose, so we did have some puddles of water (which had turned partly to ice) on top of the bottom tarp I had spread on the ground. I took the large pieces of ice out and then got rid of the water under it -- and fixed the tarps back tightly in place. Marilyn and I just need to keep an eye out to be sure they don't pull free again when the wind is high...
I also got the hummingbird feeder in and put fresh nectar in it. The second I hung it back up (!!!), I had a hummingbird there to use it! I'd brought my camera out with the full feeder, so I was able to snap a photo of the little guy -- and of Henry sitting in the window to watch! Henry seems to be feeling a little better today. He spent ages upstairs -- in the kitchen, in the living room and in our office. He's been eating and drinking and using his cat box. He watched both me and birds outside AND while we were gone for a short ride, he had a rope-a-dope session (!!!), dragging his rope all the way upstairs and into the living room sofa! When we got back, we found the rope, with Henry lying quite contented beside it. (smile) He's a horny boy, even when he's not feeling that well...
The sky outside today was AMAZING! So blue and clear! So after my chores, we took a short ride down to Sauvie Island. Then we stopped at Safeway so Marilyn could buy gift certificates for everyone on Staff (belated Christmas) to take in tomorrow. And we got some take-out Chinese, too. (yummy)
Marilyn is working away on her latest fanfic, doing research. It's cool that she discovered the "3:10 to Yuma" script as a PDF -- and I was able to convert it and put it on my Kindle. (smile)
By the way, I'm not sure if I mentioned that we FINALLY watched "The A-Team" (the movie) recently -- and we loved it, of course. (We were always fans of the TV series, too...) They did a very good job with the movie.
Photo share!
The tarp outside our house.
The winter sky is lovely!
Henry sits in the window (I took this from outside).
A hummingbird comes just after the feeder is up!
Hummingbird close-up.
Ice 'art' (from puddle).
Henry rests after rope-a-doping...
Sister Sue is at bingo (!!!) tonight. I'm worried that she's trying to do too much after being so sick, but it's not up to me, after all. (But I care and I hope she's being careful...)
I'm planning to go to the office with Marilyn tomorrow -- I have so much I need to get done this week! I have to set up some computers and so on, now that the New Year is here.
And hopefully this week I'll start setting up our new computers here at home! I need to finally get on that...
This should be a busy and exciting week! I'm so glad 2011 is here!