Lucky Day

We had our hour of rain last Thursday morning at one in the morning. It wasn’t a lot but it seemed enough to keep the weeds alive, which is something. Now it is sunny again, with rain forecast for next week. I hope that rain arrives. Although the landscape looks to have experienced some reprieve from the drought, the rain was not sufficient to provide a good soaking.

I am truly enjoying the few days I have off to putter and catch up with our personal life. When we both work six days a week cleaning is a superficial activity. There are items that do not receive frequent attention that become filthy over time. For instance, the light fixture in the kitchen was coated with a greasy dust that took some elbow grease to remove. Now it sparkles, as all light fixtures should.

I continue to stand as I work at the computer, which is doing me the world of good I think. I can stretch and move about while I work, which is something I would forget to do while sitting in front of the computer.

While working at that stressful full-time job I seldom moved for over eight consecutive hours, five days a week. I gained more weight than I had realized. The weight is beginning to disappear after five weeks of moving around every day. I am glad that I didn’t realize just how much weight I had gained at the time I was working at that job, it would have just been too much to handle emotionally. However, now that I am back to being myself, it is a relief to take stock of my health and have the means to make significant improvements to my lifestyle.

My genealogy project was chosen as the vehicle to reacquaint myself with my projects. I’ve managed to find some free resources online with which to continue my research. I have completed most of the research using Canadian records and now must access primary documents in the United States, as a significant number of my family line moved there in the 1800s. Ancestry wants an annual fee of $299, which is way beyond what I am willing or able to put forth.

Attila and I will begin, in the next year or so, to work on the interior of our little house in the city. We still need to paint the back exterior wall, and to landscape the front yard as it is all bare dirt after the excavation project. The preparation work for the painting project has been going on since early spring. The landscaping will have to wait until late fall, because we are not going to invest in plants that will die in a drought. We will not be at the little house often enough to keep up with watering a new garden.

I have created a digital floor plan of the house, which I will tweak with accurate measurements. Then we will begin the process of planning. We have Plan A, which has failed to date; which is that we would find work near the little house in the city, sell our country home, move to the city, spend modest funds renovating and eventually retire. No work has been found, so plan A has failed utterly. We aren’t giving up on it, applications for work go out regularly. Such is life. On to Plan B. Plan B involves remaining in the country home until Attila retires, then selling and moving to the little house in the city. This plan involves spending $0 or next to nothing on renovations, except for the crucial structural projects, like a new roof, gutting the basement, etc. It is Plan B that we are currently working under.

The basement cleanup continues. We are fighting mould and mildew down there. It is drying out and when we are confident about that we will begin to sterilize the ceiling, floor and walls. The corner of the kitchen has a whiff of mouse on occasion, so we will also need to rip out the wallboard, clean up the mess behind it, re-insulate and install new drywall. The bathroom is disgusting, but it is room we cannot live long without. We will have to plan that renovation carefully, slowly accumulate the materials we will needs and swoop in suddenly to rip it apart and put it back together again in a day. Should be very exciting!

I have been thinking about how busy we are. We work six days a week. That leaves four days off work each month. At least half of the days off we spend driving eight to ten hours to reach our little house in the city and return. That is an eight to ten hour day of driving. That puts us at “working” seven days a week on those weeks where we visit our little house in the city. That leaves two days a month that we have to relax at home. This does explain why I am so happy puttering around here for a few days, catching up with all sorts on the home front.

Visiting is something we love to do, but really, just how much visiting can a be done when there are only two days off work in a month? It isn’t a lot.

When Attila came home from work today he told me about a serious accident that might have seriously injured or killed him. It did not. He did not cause the accident, but was the only one endangered by it. Lucky day! He is totally unharmed, shaken but unharmed. Thank goodness life goes on.

Worldly Distractions

Weather

23 °C
Condition: Clear
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 22.9°C
Dewpoint: 10.0°C
Humidity: 44 %
Wind: W 8 km/h

Quote

“Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.”
Walt Whitman
1819 – 1892