Living in a new house is a matter of adjustment. You don't know how cold you will be in winter, or how hot in the summer. You are not sure if the air circulation will be enough when you open windows on the one day in October that seems nice enough to open windows.
Digression: The window battle is often fought in our household. Jackie has allergies. I don't. Jackie gets bothered with the windows open at night. I don't. Jackie does not always like them open during the day. I do.
If you are married, you can see why I sleep in the spare bedroom on cool autumn nights and warm spring evenings..... I open the windows and close the door. We both seem happy, until it is time to do the sheets and I have to fold two sets instead of one.
Last night was, how to put it, gusty.
At times I thought the roof was going to blow off. The house shook. The siding rattled. The windows creaked.
How windy was it?
On the port o' pot index, pretty damn windy!
Digression two: There is a house going up across the street from us. They have the port o pot in the front driveway. When it gets really windy the things flops over. Today it was flopped and pushed and maybe even rolled.
Now I know a job is a job. But who is going to clean up that mess?
And by the way, those huge port o potties are not fireproof. About two years ago a couple of youngins wanted to see if they burned. So they threw some newspapers down and then tossed a lit paper in and.... surprise, they do not burn, BUT THEY MELT!!
And are they Irish? I mean, is it port a pottie or port o' pottie? I know it's Patty O Furniture out in the yard, obviously an Irish invention.
But back to adjustments.
We have generally been warm this winter. Some nights we use the fireplace for heat in the main room. I know, finding wood, cutting it, splitting wood, keeping a stack near the house. Trudging out in mid January to bring up more wood. All of this for a guy who is almost 65. I miss that. Now all I do is flip a switch and the gas log ignites with a swoosh. I don't get the burning wood smell, the dust from the ashes. No clean up required. And while it's nice, I live in dread of losing power on a cold night and not having a wood burning stove as a back up.
The extra insulation seems to have sealed the drafts. Despite all the rain, there is no water in the basement or the sump but we do have an itty bitty spot near an egress window. I think by the time we get a lawn and grading done, that will be a one time occurrence.
The retention pond behind our house was pretty full yesterday and has gone down today. Kids were using that as a sledding hill when we had our 1 inch of snow.
Traffic is more than I realized. I think a lot of people are using Flagg Road to go from Dixon to DeKalb and Rochelle. Unlike the tollroad, you won't pay almost $6 in tolls. And unlike 38, there are only two stop signs and no towns, so traffic flows a little faster.
And traffic noticeably picks up on our street at around 8 and 3....we must have a lot of high schoolers and/or parents who pick up their kids from school.
We are working on organizing the laundry room....hopefully my next trip to IKEA will mean a wrap up of that project!
I can almost feel the earth outside calling me....... must be getting near spring. Or maybe it's just the wind.
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