Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Flush With Progress

I'm getting used to winter, I think. When it's in the 20s, I can go outside to take out the trash or get something out of the car and only feel chilly. (Of course, I only stay out for a couple minutes.) And this week the highs are going to be in the 30s, so a couple layers and a regular coat will do me just fine.

New bathroom turning blue.
Old bathroom…ewww

The biggest thing to happen this last week was getting the toilet and sink installed in the guest bath. On Sunday, I went to Menard's and got the paint for the bath and arranged to have Mark from Eagle Eye pick up the fixtures on Monday, which he did. I painted the wall in the bathroom so it would be done before Mark showed up.

It took most of the day to get the fixtures in and the plumbing hooked up, but he did have time left to install a new kitchen faucet. The old one was from the '60s, sort of crusty and the volume of flow was very hard to control. The new one has a removable head that toggles from stream to spray. Getting the new one installed was no problem, Mark said, but getting the old one out was a struggle.

Sink before and after.
So, by the time he left, things were up and running. I now have 3 1/4 baths again (full bath upstairs, half bath on the main floor and 3/4 bath in the basement). I was almost giddy when, responding to a natural urge, I got to inaugurate the new toilet. It's one of those that has a small flush and a large flush. Slowly, the modern conveniences of the 21st century are being incorporated into the house.

After all the hesitation about colors for the house, I've made the first choice with the bathroom. The color seemed on the lighter side when I chose it, and I calculated that I could do the entire room with two quarts, but after painting the wall (maybe a quarter of the wall space), I had used up a full quart, and there were still touch ups needed. So, it's back to Menard's to pick up a gallon more.

Other fun things for the week: I got an answer to my e-mail from the community theater, with the tech director offering a stagehand position for the next show in the season. The tech is in early March with a two-week run. I answered back and accepted. Well aware of what a headache volunteer workers can be, starting with a backstage position is the way to do the least damage to a production if I turned out to be a disaster.

And this Thursday, we have the first meeting of the Center's communications committee this year. We have a couple of marketing interns from UW-L, so I'm excited about what innovations they can bring to the various platforms on which we work. Then Saturday is the annual breakfast for the Center, something for which I will have to get up early.

The first week of February will bring another dentist's appointment, and we'll talk about that later.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

How Cold Was It?

Last week's forecast; this week will be more of the same.
Things are relative. And so, cold is relative. The 8-day forecast at right was followed by
Monday: 0º high/-11º low;
Tuesday: 11º high/-10º low;
yesterday: 22º high/8º low;
today: 21º high/17º low.

The numbers get dizzying, but the result is a rollercoaster ride from chilly to bone chilling. I had to stop and think: -2º is actually 34º below freezing. The wind chill has dipped to -20 or so at night, but the snow indicated in the forecast above was no more than flurries, leaving less than an inch on the ground.

Ice on the balcony window
I find that when you ford out in single-digit cold, a day in the 20s is downright balmy. The result is that when the days are particularly cold, I just stay inside. When the highs and lows both fall into positive territory, it's time to go out and do shopping and errands.

On those days when I relegate myself to the house, I try to cypher out the best tactics for keeping the place warm. During the day, the thermostat is at 65º and I supplement it with the fireplace if need be. At night, I set the temperature at 45º and run a small space heater (a Christmas gift from Amanda) in the bedroom. Still, my last gas/electric bill was $335 for the month, which is about what I expected.

Patty has found her warm place in the laundry basket in the bedroom upstairs. I've lined it with an old shirt to keep her warm (and to keep the cat hair off the laundry). I've even taken to putting a small towel on her when she sleeps downstairs. At first she was quizzical, and a couple times just outright objected to it (you can tell by the small, irritated yowl she gives), but once she caught on that it kept her warm, she acquiesced to it.

Patty under her blanket
Last Friday I chanced the drive out to Ettrick, which was uneventful. Pizza Night was embellished with Pam's recounting of her trip to Thailand from which she had just returned. Steve had just downloaded the photos she'd taken, so they weren't organized at that point. I think perhaps this Friday we'll get to see those.

I found a really good deal on the toilet and sink for the downstairs bath, so I purchased them online. Next week I'm having Mark from Eagle Eye pick them up and install them. This means I get to paint the bathroom this weekend. It should take about 45 minutes, as it's not much larger than a double closet.

The Christmas decorations are still up. I've dragged the storage boxes up from the basement, but haven't gotten around to filling them. I think I'm avoiding stowing everything because when the tree comes down, there's going to be a big empty space in the living room that will need chairs and/or a love seat to fill between the two occasional tables already there.

There's another communications committee meeting at the Center the end of this month. We've scored a couple of part-time interns from UW-L, so hopefully we'll get up-to-date and informed ideas about how to get the message out on a cross-platform environment. I understand the concept, but I don't know enough about marketing to actually plan things out.

I also got a reply to my e-mails to the community theater, asking what things I wanted to get involved with. I wrote back (to both tech and artistic directors) on my experience, what I liked doing and what skills I had to offer. Haven't heard back from either, but January has seemed like a quiet, even dormant month, so it fits. Now, however, I feel free to contact them whenever I see something upcoming on the season calendar.

And I still love the crunch of the snow under my feet and the prickle of cold air on my face. I forgot how much I've missed winter in my life. Now I just have to go out and get a winter trousseau, as I'm relying on layering and a rather raggedy coat that Steve loaned me last month to keep me warm.


Saturday, January 9, 2016

New Year's Evolutions

The storm did come, dropping about six inches of snow overnight and during the next day. There was nothing blizzardy about it, although at times it came down heavily enough that the high school across the street was barely visible through the flurries.

As I suspected, the snow plows were out on West Avenue during the storm, meaning the street was open, even when the storm subsided and side streets were still piled with snow. I decided that I would wait a couple days before heading out in the car.

Mark (handyman guy) showed up about 9:30 on Tuesday morning, with snowblower and snow shovel and salt. It took about and hour and a half for him to really clear out the snow, but when he left sidewalks and driveway were clear of snow and ice. He did such a good job that the few snow flurries we've gotten since (never more than an inch) simply melted away.

New Year's Eve was quiet and I spent it at home, which is not so out of the ordinary for me. Times Square in New York in on the East Coast feed, so there's no delay involved, like on the West Coast, so the ball dropped at 11 p.m. There was also the Chicago Star, which is raised at midnight Central Time. Once that happened, I went up to the balcony and watched the fireworks set off at Grandad Bluff to the east. It was a full show. I would have liked to go out on the balcony but the snow had piled into a drift against the door, about a foot. I did get the door open, so at least I got a clear look.

My Alma Mater's 2016 parade entry
On New Year's Day, I got up and checked out the channels carrying the Rose Parade (in L.A. I had always watched it on Channel 5 because there were no commercials). HGTV ended up being the only station without commercials, and they had a 30-minute delay, so it didn't start until 10:30 a.m.

I always watch for the Cal Poly float. I worked on one once. I remember putting gray bark on a very large elephant. Usually, the Cal Poly campuses in SLO and Pomona make the front and back halves, joining them about a week before the parade and finishing them off in Pasadena.

A curly-haired Jesus waves from the Lutheran float
Their entry, animated gummy bears, was very nice. And, not too far behind it, was the Lutheran float. They had Jesus on the float. Jesus was standing in front of a lighthouse (he's the light of the world; get it?). Jesus was waving to the crowd. His wig is cheap and obviously synthetic hair. He was very, very white. No semitic lines on that Scandinavian shayna punim. He seemed like a nice guy, though a little intimidated by the crowds.

In the early afternoon, I gave Steve a call. Even though it was New Year's Day, it was also Friday, and Friday is Pizza Night in Ettrick. Also, Pam had gone on a trip to Thailand with friends, so Steve was alone, if you don't count Glen and Avis. So I asked if we were doing Pizza Night and he said sure, and asked me to pick up a pizza on my way out. So I stopped at Papa Murphy's and picked up a take 'n' bake cowboy pizza and headed out to Ettrick for Pizza Night with brother Steve.

Fireplace before and after
I was just checking back in the posts and realize I never posted any before-and-after pictures of the floors, only a couple of in-the-process photos. So I dug back in my photo archive and put together these shots of what the floors looked like, well, before and after.

Before and after stairs
At the beginning of December, I realized trying to get stuff done on the house was problematic, since Mark was swamped with work, and I really wanted to focus on holidays with the Solberg side of the family. And although I am not officially related to them, I was drawn into the fold and shared their low-keyed celebrations (see the two previous posts).

This first week of the new year was on the warm side (34º and 36º highs), so things started melting. I was sitting in the living room when I heard distant dripping sounds. A quick check showed things melting everywhere. The piles of snow along the streets were melting, as well, and driving in town became a slushy wet mess but passable with reasonable driving.

Tamara (and new haircut) are in the mirror
Yesterday, I went to the barber (her name's Tamara and her specialty is beards and buzz cuts. I had let the beard grow out to the point of being Santalike. I was hoping to get those looks from little kids that a rotund, gray-bearded older man gets during the holidays. Didn't really happen for me, at least not last year. I left looking really sharp.

This morning I woke up. I knew the weekend was going to be a cold snap. When I checked the weather app on my phone, it read: "Wind Chill Advisory. From the National Weather Service. Wind chill advisory remains in effect from midnight tonight to 10 a.m. CST Sunday. Expect Wind chill values to range from 20 to 25 below zero between midnight and 10 a.m. Sunday. These cold wind chill values will cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes to exposed skin. Be sure to wear your hat and gloves." Awww, Mom…

Today, we've already hit our high of 24º. Presently, it's 16º, dropping to -1º tonight. Sunday's high is forecast at 9º, with a low of -5º. I think winter is really here. And now I've got to go out and do some shopping to stock up for at least the next week, as it's well below freezing for the next week (and the foreseeable future), and I want to hold up inside if things get too icky outside.

Snowflakes are falling lightly outside. Got to sign off and get to the store now.

I like winter, inconvenient though it is.