Today, it snows. The sky is pouring down huge, fluffy flakes at a rapidly accumulating rate (again). Everything is white and peaceful. This means I get to spend this Tuesday wallowing in my pansyness and stay home all day hunkered down in the comfortable warmth of my sweats because the mere thought of driving in this crap still sends waves of panic through my body. This also means I get to dream about all the cute sundresses I want to buy when the miracle of summer (read: leaving the house with less than 13 and 1/2 layers on) finally rolls around. I’m thinking of the day I’ll get to leave our windows open to welcome in the summer breeze during the day, and all the knee-grazing and bare-armed, adorably-patterned or plainly simple frocks I’d like to slip on to run around town in. I’m dreaming of adventurous weekend getaways to cities or towns we’ve never explored before with their mild weather, glowing sunsets, and gushing warm winds that smell of wildflowers. I’m imagining lounging outside on our Adirondack chairs on the side porch, listening to the radio and sipping a beer (or a cool mojito with fresh mint from our herb garden) before cooking dinner over the open flame of our firepit and heading to the drive-in theatre to catch a flick down the road in Amelia. I’m thinking of long walks around the neighborhood at dusk, playing lawn games in our backyard, and bike riding through the Bass Island trail stopping only for a dish of ice cream along the way.
Yes, this is my favorite part of the morning. The part where I snuggle up on the sofa with an English muffin, yogurt and clementine, catch up on the blogs I read, and dream of whatever I dream of that day – finding the perfect job, fun places to vacation to, the things on my daily to-do list, or summer. It is peaceful and quiet and the time is my own for a brief half hour before I stand up to stretch the lazies out and get started on my tasks which keep me surprisingly more busy than I imagined.
We have a lot to keep us occupied over the next few weeks. Now that Ted’s new saw has arrived we want to build sawhorses, build and install additional shelves for the kitchen cabinets, and build the wall-hanging shelving unit for the basement. After that we’ll need to organize the basement and garage accordingly, and finally get our kitchen (and all the bakeware, cookware, and utensils still laying homeless on the floor) arranged with the new kitchen furniture. Now that we’ve lived here a few months and are more settled in terms of knowing what to expect, we need to figure out a budget based on our anticipated monthly expenses. We’re still waiting on the dishwasher to be repaired or replaced, that monstrous leak & stain in the hallway to be fixed, and once we order it, the protective glass top for the kitchen island to arrive. Obviously we have a lot to do, but we have nights and weekends and at our own leisurely pace, we’ll get it done when we can get it done. I’m still looking for jobs and Ted is still busy with his job (he’s in a lull right now, but will be working mostly every weekend on shows come February) and of course we love just relaxing and spending time together, and those things are top priority.
Today, in addition to organizing my desk and more of the same old same old, I am also doing what two carpet cleaning companies could not do – scrubbing the stains out of the carpet. I’ve mentioned before that the family of mini-beasts who lived here before us did a real work of art on the carpets. I seriously have no idea what they thought they were accomplishing by pouring tar, koolaide, bleach and whatnot on their carpets, but they look awful. Luckily only half the house is carpeted, though from what I understand some of the hardwood floors had to be refinished after they moved out as well. Anyhow, in hindsight we should have made the landlord replace the carpeting before we moved in, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. He did send out two different carpet cleaners to try to get the stains out, but the stains just reappeared again after they left. At least we know the carpets are clean even if they are still stained. I happen to have this miracle-in-a-bottle carpet cleaning stuff called Mystical. I don’t know, nor do I care, what the ingredients are (probably stardust, fairy powder and arsenic), but whatever it is, this stuff works. With a few squirts of this stuff and a little arm work, I’ve managed remove, or at least significantly diminish a fair share of the stains on the downstairs carpet. I’m attacking the upstairs office and guest room next. So, why did these carpet cleaners get paid if I’m able to do a better job than the professionals? And furthermore, why don’t they use this stuff? Hmmm. Something else to think about on this snowy Tuesday. I’ll ponder that when I’m on break from pondering about summer.
