tonight's accomplishments
Tonight lord_kjar finally completed a project that has been on the wish list since we moved into this house: installing the light over the stairway. We have no idea why the people who built the house didn't install a light over the stairs to the basement, but they didn't. Someone did, however, put in a light switch at the top of the stairs which turns on the light in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, which was better than no light on the stairs at all, but not as much light as we wanted.
Yesterday he and I went shopping to pick up a few supplies needed for the project, including a motion sensor, and today he did the work. Now we have a lamp over the stairs that turns on if you enter the stairway. We still have the light switch at the top of the stairs to turn on the light in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs (there is also another next to the garage door that turns on and off that light, so one doesn't need to go upstairs to turn it on if one is already downstairs), but having the motion sensor for the stairs itself is going to make life much easier, especially when carrying something.
While he did that I accomplished another long-needed project. I have a nice, warm, reasonably long down coat that I bought when I moved to Fairbanks in 1994. I left it in Alaska when I moved to California, knowing I wouldn't need it there, and I didn't bother to get it before moving to Australia, as it doesn't really get cold enough there to need it, either. The coat stayed in Alaska till my visit in 2010 while I was living in Italy. I knew then that I was going to do my level best to move somewhere with winter again, so I picked the coat up. It was still in pretty good shape, but the zipper had taken some damage, and didn't work very well. However, it also had snaps, which worked great, so I didn't worry about it.
For the most part I don't need to wear that one--it is warmer than one needs on normal Luleå winter days (really I don't want it for anything warmer than say -15 C, which is +14 F, if I am doing anything as active as walking). But occasionally, like this week, it actually gets cold enough to want it. Last winter I used it a few times for sledding, and and found the broken zipper annoying, because snow can come in the gap between the snaps. Therefore when C mentioned last summer that there was a store in Göteborg that sells good zippers I asked her to pick one up for me (we also got a replacement zipper for the soft Nyckelharpa case, and installed that promptly after it arrived).
But in the middle of the summer fixing the zipper of a cold-weather coat didn't seem very high on the priority list, so I put it off for later. This morning, when I walked to the office, when I first went outside with the coat snapped shut I was aware of the temperature difference between the part with the snaps and the part between the snaps, and I resolved to fix the zipper as soon as possible.
So tonight I did. I normally don't like sewing with a sewing machine, but for good zippers, which have very sturdy plasticy fabric to sew through, I am happy to make an exception--it was hard enough forcing the pins through that stuff to hold it all in place before sewing, I wouldn't have wanted to do the stitching by hand. It will be interesting to see how many more times this winter (if at all) it is cold enough to warrant using that coat...
And it is still nice and early. I think I will do yoga next, and then decide if I will accomplish something else, or just relax.
Yesterday he and I went shopping to pick up a few supplies needed for the project, including a motion sensor, and today he did the work. Now we have a lamp over the stairs that turns on if you enter the stairway. We still have the light switch at the top of the stairs to turn on the light in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs (there is also another next to the garage door that turns on and off that light, so one doesn't need to go upstairs to turn it on if one is already downstairs), but having the motion sensor for the stairs itself is going to make life much easier, especially when carrying something.
While he did that I accomplished another long-needed project. I have a nice, warm, reasonably long down coat that I bought when I moved to Fairbanks in 1994. I left it in Alaska when I moved to California, knowing I wouldn't need it there, and I didn't bother to get it before moving to Australia, as it doesn't really get cold enough there to need it, either. The coat stayed in Alaska till my visit in 2010 while I was living in Italy. I knew then that I was going to do my level best to move somewhere with winter again, so I picked the coat up. It was still in pretty good shape, but the zipper had taken some damage, and didn't work very well. However, it also had snaps, which worked great, so I didn't worry about it.
For the most part I don't need to wear that one--it is warmer than one needs on normal Luleå winter days (really I don't want it for anything warmer than say -15 C, which is +14 F, if I am doing anything as active as walking). But occasionally, like this week, it actually gets cold enough to want it. Last winter I used it a few times for sledding, and and found the broken zipper annoying, because snow can come in the gap between the snaps. Therefore when C mentioned last summer that there was a store in Göteborg that sells good zippers I asked her to pick one up for me (we also got a replacement zipper for the soft Nyckelharpa case, and installed that promptly after it arrived).
But in the middle of the summer fixing the zipper of a cold-weather coat didn't seem very high on the priority list, so I put it off for later. This morning, when I walked to the office, when I first went outside with the coat snapped shut I was aware of the temperature difference between the part with the snaps and the part between the snaps, and I resolved to fix the zipper as soon as possible.
So tonight I did. I normally don't like sewing with a sewing machine, but for good zippers, which have very sturdy plasticy fabric to sew through, I am happy to make an exception--it was hard enough forcing the pins through that stuff to hold it all in place before sewing, I wouldn't have wanted to do the stitching by hand. It will be interesting to see how many more times this winter (if at all) it is cold enough to warrant using that coat...
And it is still nice and early. I think I will do yoga next, and then decide if I will accomplish something else, or just relax.