Busy Day -- Christmas is Down (Mostly...)
Marilyn wasn't feeling well today, so she stayed home from work. I think she's fighting a little bug -- but at least she's not miserable. Anyway, I hope she doesn't get worse. This is often her 'bad' time of year when it comes to illness...
The nice thing? I decided to sleep in, too! The house was pretty frigid, as we had it turned down to 62° overnight.
I got pretty worried in the middle of the night, knowing we're having a cold snap. I realized I'd never done any preparation for winter weather to the house outside, meaning I hadn't covered the spigots -- or faucets, if you prefer (!!!). Portland had pretty cold weather while we were away in Seaside -- but I think the fact that we left the furnace ON and turned down saved us. (Our habit used to be to turn OFF the furnace overnight. We totally forgot about that and had no furnace on during Thanksgiving week when we were gone -- so that's why we changed our habit...)
Today after getting up -- and while the house was still heating up -- I started taking Christmas down. Perfect timing, as I can work myself into quite a sweat while taking the decorations down and then packing them up and putting them away. I had everything stacked and set aside before I took my first break -- both in the living room (upstairs) and family room (downstairs). Later I got out the many boxes and carefully packed things away. I have a pretty detailed method for that, by the way. Most of the boxes are cardboard, and I write a list of what goes inside on the inside of each lid. If an item gets moved to another box, or I get rid of it, I just cross it out. This may seem silly, but it really does make things easier in the long run.
Today was also garbage and recycling day -- well, I may call it that, but this week there's no actual garbage (which only happens every other week). I call it REAL garbage week when we actually get to take out the can with garbage. (sigh) Happily, last week I left the can outside the garage and our neighbor, Jim, put it down on the curb for us. Good thing! I'd have been in trouble trying to go for four weeks before getting that can emptied! Anyway, I cleaned the cat boxes (I put the bag of dirty litter outside the garage until it's REAL garbage week -- to keep the smell out of the garage and house) and gathered the garbage. And I put out all the recycling. I forgot the empty cans, but a neighbor came by and asked, so I gave them to him.
I also went out and put the cover on the front spigot (!!!), so I wouldn't need to worry. Wow, was it COLD outside while I was doing all this! I also checked the back yard. It was DARK back there -- and we've got a tarp at one point to help avoid water issues. Guess where the back spigot is? Yep, under that tarp! Crawling under it with a flashlight was interesting! Hahahahaha. At one point I carried a huge slab of ice in the house for Marilyn to see. There were slabs all around that area! (brr)
The cool thing? The cover was STILL ON from last winter! I can't believe we never took it off all spring and summer, but we spent no time out back in 2012 at all -- a first since living here, believe me. We were so tied up with the beach house that we just let the backyard go...
I also brought in the wreath on the front door (outside) -- and took out the wreath on the inside of the front door (and put it in the composting). And I took down our Christmas sign that we hang out front, too.
The only thing I didn't get down was our living room Christmas tree. Happily, we never did decorate it. I still think it looked nice when we plugged it in (it's covered in white lights), even without ornaments. I'll need to take it down tomorrow. I'm frustrated that I couldn't have done it -- it would have been amazing to get it all put away in one day. I'm pretty certain I've never done that before! What I managed today was something special, anyway, because it often takes me two or more days to do.
Under the stairs is where we keep all our seasonal decorations. I'm happy to report this is the BEST they've ever been organized! I spent some time carefully rearranging and organizing that space -- and I'm glad i did.
Many of the boxes were heavy, so I'm worn out tonight, I have to say. It might not sound like it, but it's a lot of work. Still, I love having the decorations out -- and it's important to me. So I'm happy to take them down after the holidays are over.
The house looks normal and nice to me -- even though I need to do some cleaning. We brought some stuff home from the beach house that I need to go through and organize (and either give to others or donate). Those boxes are in the living room, but I'll take care of that over the weekend.
I'm planning to go to work with Marilyn tomorrow, unless she stays home sick again, of course. If she does stay home, I'll get the tree down and do some other stuff...
I spent time reading "Fifty Shade of Grey" today. Personally I've found it really boring so far. Sorry if any of you are fans! Honestly, I think the writing is pretty bad -- it reminds me of bad fanfic. I know it started out as fanfic, actually. I heard the author on TV recently, and I really liked her -- and I'm happy for her success.
It's interesting. Some of the best writing I've read in my life is fanfic! And some of the worse, as well. Of course, I tend to think slash is written a lot better than male/female erotic fanfic (some of you will have heard me on that subject over the years, no doubt).
I was also thinking about the novel Marilyn and I are planning to write. We need to get started writing it soon! This is the year we hope to do more writing. Anyway, more on that in the future.
I guess that's it for today! I'm pleased with how much I got done...