Saturday, July 21, 2012
If we really believed in recycling, we'd sign our Christmas cards in pencil.
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The heat wave finally broke with a terrific thunderstorm mid-week. Today it's in the 70s, so I'm taking advantage of the coolth (yeah, I made that up, like warmth, but cool) to rig up the pulley system through the upstairs attic hatch so I can get stuff to the attic without having to carry heavy awkward boxes and containers up the little drop-down ladder. I don't like ladders.
First I had to sweep the attic. The floor up there is covered with the builder's debris. Even though it's in the mid-70s outside, the attic is in full sun, and it has to be in the 90s up there. I was a little worried that the heat would get to me and I'd collapse and wouldn't be found until I was desiccated (dessicated? I looked it up and still don't know which to use), but amazingly I was fine. I sweated a lot, but that was all. No dizziness or anything. In fact, I sorta liked it.
Soon as I get some more money built up, I want to get an attic fan installed. They really do help. Until then I guess I have to be careful what I put in the attic. If it's that hot up there today, what was it like when it was really hot?
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The day of the thunderstorm (Wednesday? Thursday? I forget) we lost power for a few hours. Losing power at the country house is a big deal, because without power there's no cooking (electric stove), and no water (electric well pump). That means not only no water at the tap, but no toilets! So it was a pleasure to still have water here, and to be able to still use the stove by lighting the burner with a match.
With no computer, radio, sewing machine, or TV I decided to read, but because of the dark clouds, pouring rain, and wind, it was dark in the house. There are at least seven pairs of candlesticks, four oil lamps, and two Coleman lanterns and a camp stove at the country house (when the power goes out there, it's out for days, so that stuff is important), but I haven't brought any of them down here yet. I do have some tall candles, so I stuck one to a saucer in a pool of melted wax and put it on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. When I decided to go to the bathroom I was worried about it maybe falling on the counter, so I set the saucer on the ceramic tile floor where if the candle fell it would do no damage.
Oops.
Jasper knows that a dish on the floor means a special snack for him. He was somewhere else in the house, but I guess the sound of a plate touching the floor is like a can opener to other cats. As I was rounding the corner leaving the kitchen, I saw him run over and sniff the saucer. I yelled and dove for him just as he raised his head and sniffed the flame.
He seems to be ok. Lost some whiskers, but I don't think he got burned.
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The hair. It was a 6-12 shampoo tint, in "pale ash blond". After the sixth shampoo, it has gone from brass doorknob to brilliant yellow goldenrod. Daughter says if I wear a caftan with gold embroidery and chunky gold jewelry "It doesn't look so bad". Especially if I walk with a flamboyant swish.
Oh dear.
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There's a Civil War cemetery in Hudson, NY. A group had put flags on the graves. The flags disappeared, a few one night, more the next night. By the end of the week, 75 flags were missing. Big mystery. The police set up three cameras to catch the culprit.
It was a woodchuck (or groundhog, or marmot, depending on where you're from).
The police put a camera-on-a-snake down a woodchuck hole and found remnants of the flags.
Love it!
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