Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Quiet please!
Today I am surrounded by silence. Why? Because FedEx says they are delivering a parcel from Ikea today. Our house is very hard to find, at least for delivery people. Several deliveries were only made because I followed the truck down the street, to catch up when the confused driver stopped to try and figure out where the heck we are. So now I keep the house in silence when a delivery is expected, so that I can hear the truck come down the street, and step outside to flag it down before it passes the house. I have considered getting a blinking neon house number sign, to place temporarily at the end of the driveway when a delivery is expected.
We bought wonderful new beds when we moved into Mist Cottage, twins with lots of drawers underneath, perfect for a tiny 10×10 bedroom. Our former bedding is a hodge podge of really old blankets and sheets (over 30 years old, even older, some from Attila’s childhood), sheets and comforters purchased at sales, and bedding purchased from thrift stores, then sterilized for use. I have one set of really nice flannel sheets purchased to withstand the cold nights at The Country House. But now we have new beds and a thermostat! When I saw “cool” twin size duvets on sale at Ikea for $7.99 each, I was sold!
We had frost again last night, but Attila hadn’t covered the garden, so it remains to be seen what lived through the night, and what did not.
We are being audited, yet again. I don’t understand how we get targeted for so many tax audits. Every time we are audited it is discovered that everything is above board and as it should be. This time we need to provide all the documentation for our move, which a year later is a big job, finding all the receipts and related materials, getting written letters from employers, a real pain in the patootie. I spent my morning scanning receipts, and Attila has to find time to make another trip into the personnel office to remind them about that letter he needs for Canada Revenue. We knew this might happen, but were hoping to avoid all this work!
I have been working away at my genealogy book, when darned ancestry offered temporary free access to UK records. I couldn’t pass that offer up, so I’ve been sidetracked into researching the English side of my family history, which is not the side of the family that are the subject of my book. Ancestry is so very expensive!
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Yesterday the duvets arrived from Ikea. The driver said he had no problem finding us, because the extra instructions I had tried to type into the Address 2 field when I ordered the items online actually got printed on the shipping label, a first. I had also ordered two duvet cover sets, and two “warm” duvets. The first thing I did was to wash the cover sets, then hang them on the clothesline out on the back porch to dry in the sun. Attila helped me stuff the duvets into the covers when he got home from work, and then we made up our beds. The real test came overnight, we were comfortably warm during the night, at a nighttime temperature of 18C. Since we turn the thermostat down to 17C at night during the winter months, it seems the “cool” duvets will keep us warm at night all winter long. I am ver impressed with my $7.99 duvets! But who knows, we might want to use the “warm” duvets when winter sets in, we have that option.
For the last three weeks Attila has been on mouse patrol. He has set traps in the garage every night. So far he has caught over a dozen mice. We are not in the least sentimental about mice, they have destroyed too many of our belongings and contaminated too much of our food. They carry disease. If they venture into our living space they must go. A trap was also set in the new garden shed, but so far no mice have been caught there, so we are hoping our careful efforts to build a “mouseproof” shed have met with success. There have been no mice caught since last week, but we will not relax our vigilance, as this is the time of year when they are actively seeking sheltered places to winter.
Today I have a few errands to run, which will take me downtown. I plan on parking at one end of town, then walking the length of downtown and back. I haven’t been going out for my walks of late. The results of this negligence were obvious last night when Attila and went for a walk, and I was out of breath early on. I have been working on my book and doing more research at Ancestry these past few weeks, which has resulted in relative inactivity. I am up and down all day, puttering around the house, up and down the stairs, but it isn’t the same as sustained exercise.
The free Ancestry access is allowing me to find information from England about my Grandmother’s Great Grandparents, which is lots of fun. Records prior to the 1841 census are not easy to pry information out of, but sustained access allows me to follow up on leads that would otherwise be dead ends.
One of the things that I find very sad about this period in my English history, is that the children must work in factories from about the age of eleven. Both parents work as well, in my ancestral families. Most of the English population did not experience the media presented romantic version of life, females were not delicate flowers, and children were not well dressed in short pants with ringlets. Whole families worked just to provide themselves with shelter and food.
The weather was wonderful today! Warm and sunny with a nice breeze.
Sometimes I read young people (mostly males) talking about “old people” as if they don’t understand computers and technology. Comments such as “so easy my Grandmother could do it!” I find really offensive, and if I am honest, stupid and rude.
Case in point: My Mom, 85 years old, has an Apple iPhone. She had x-rays today at the hospital, just a routine thing, and after that her iPhone stopped sending text messages. We chatted, and since I don’t use one I have no clue. However, I found a helpful web page discussing the issue, sent her the link, and she fixed her phone. She is just as savvy with computers as any of of the young people around, and could probably teach them a thing or two about HOW to learn new things, because that is what she has been doing for 85 years, consistently and successfully. That’s my Mom!
Worldly Distractions
Weather
2°C
Date: 8:00 AM EDT Tuesday 11 October 2016
Condition: Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 103.1 kPa
Tendency: rising
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 2.0°C
Dewpoint: 0.8°C
Humidity: 92%
Wind: N 6 km/h
14°C
Date: 5:00 AM EDT Wednesday 12 October 2016
Condition: Not observed
Pressure: 102.4 kPa
Tendency: falling
Temperature: 14.4°C
Dewpoint: 8.5°C
Humidity: 67%
Wind: S 27 km/h
Quote
“The thing women have got to learn is that nobody gives you power. You just take it.”
Roseanne Barr
I had one of the best teacher’s ever, thanks Mom!
I’ve been thinking lately about duvets, Maggie. I’ve avoided them so far, though, because I really don’t understand them. Is it the filling inside that is either cool or warm and you keep the same exterior cover?
We have a thin quilted coverlet on our bed, currently, but I find it’s rather heavy on my toes and can really interfere with my sleep. I’d really like something puffy and lightweight that would keep us warm in the winter.
Teri, there are all kinds of duvets, traditionally they were filled with down, and you can still buy that type. More typically now they are filled with things like polyester fibres. The basic concept is like a pillow, you have the pillow and case. With a duvet, you have the “comforter” or duvet, and a “case” or duvet cover. You can change duvet covers by just slipping the duvet out of one cover and into another. The “cool’ ones that we are using are shockingly light, but warm enough for us when the house is 18C at night. Ikea probably has samples at their store, so you can feel how lightweight the different grades are. My sister bought a “extra warm” and loves it, but some find it too warm.
I would love to make a trip to Ikea so see what they currently have. My brother-in-law thinks all of their stuff is junk, but they are very affluent and can buy the very best of anything they want, so he is comparing Ikea furniture to solid oak furniture, not really a valid comparison in my view. I purchased Ikea wall units in the early 80s and they are still rock solid and not too bad looking, after 30 years of daily use, being deconstructed and reconstructed, and being carted around in moving trucks, that is pretty good considering what I paid for it.
I could not live without duvets. I finally got Paul using one too, he resisted for many years. Now he loves his. I have two, one lighter weight (very light Teri) for spring/summer and one heavier (but not too heavy) for wintertime. I’ve just changed to the winter one. Either one would do me fine all year round, too. Once you are under a duvet, there is no way you will be cold.
I agree Bex! Duvets are warm. The first year we lived at our County House we had no heat until almost mid-November, which in central Ontario is a very big deal. It was cold in our house, we wore parkas and toques and gloves and winter boots all of the time… and we slept under a duvet, and that duvet kept us warm as toast, even when we had to wear toques to bed at night to keep our heads warm enough to sleep.
I still have that Duvet, it was purchased in 1974 and works today as well as it did when it was purchased.
I have never ordered online from Ikea, mainly because I am hesitant to buy something I haven’t seen. I do purchase books from Amazon, since I know what I’m getting. But what happens if you don’t like the item? Do you have to take it to a center to return?
Diane, I don’t know how one would return items, but I figured bedding was pretty safe, we aren’t too fussy about colours being exact etc. and for the prices I was paying I wasn’t really expecting as high a quality of product as I received. I don’t think I would buy electronics in this way, although I do buy apple computers from the apple store online, but with that I have never ever had an issue.
Buying online is something I usually do when I am already familiar with the product, like my Big Berkey, and my All American pressure canner. Other types of purchases are a risk though, and Ikea was a risk to a certain degree. I also don’t order clothing or shoes online, things that need to fit. Once exception perhaps, my hat!