After an unusually warm winter in Maine, cold weather has finally arrived.
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The arctic blast that’s been moving across country finally found us and with the strong winds? Even my menopausal hot flashing self has to put on a coat to go outside.
There are places in Maine that are seeing 60 below zero wind chills today but Mount Washington, New Hampshire? They just dropped to the coldest wind chill temperature ever recorded in the U.S….. 108 below! Now that’s winter.
But a little brisk, even for me.
While I woke up to no cold water in the kitchen, which is normal when you’re an idiot who forgot to let the faucet drip last night, this was a new phenomenon at Casa River –
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The house was cracking and banging last night with the frigid temps and we thought we heard one giant contraction when we were watching tv in the living room.
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So this was our bedroom picture window when we woke up.
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Seal clearly broken and a circle of solid ice.
It also happened on a side window.
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Looks like we’ll be doing some replacing this year.
I’ve heard people call it the zoomies, but I can’t quite wrap my tongue around that.
Whatever the nomenclature, it’s when your pet goes spastic and starts tearing around the house like a whirling dervish. For Lord Dudley Mountcatten it happens every evening around 7:00. He starts to twitch, gets a wild look in his eye and he’s off. Sprinting across the living room, down the hall, bouncing off a wall to the second hall, up and over the bed, across the top of a chair, back down the halls, through the kitchen, ending under the dining room table with a toy.
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Last night it was the blue feathered whale and as you can see, he was having a grand old time.
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Wish I was that limber.
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I’m not sure why he has a fascination with furniture legs…
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But when he’s in rippin’ mode he always wraps around them to play.
Since we’ve established my husband doesn’t want me to lend a hand in the basement, alternative helpmates must be employed.
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Meet the Dead Man.. otherwise known as my husband’s personal assistant. Since my spouse can’t lift, position and hold a piece of plywood over his head while screwing it into the floor joists, he built himself a friend. One who doesn’t offer advice or disagree with him like I do.
And speaking of holding things in place….
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When the old insulation is ripped and starts to sag?
Grab a broom.
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And balance that broom on a box, which is balanced on a few old books, which are top of another box which is on a table not meant to support that much weight.
The husband and I stopped into an antique shop the other day and when he asked the cashier where the rest room was located? She neglected to mention the all seeing eye.
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From far away this piece of art does indeed look like an eye.
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Though when you see it from the side?
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You realize the artist probably has a cellar filled with junk like ours.
The husband and I recently celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary and to be honest, at this point it’s hard to remember a time when we weren’t married. Although looking back at the first ever picture of us together… you know, during those 6 long days of dating before we wed …
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It’s even harder to remember being that young.
Our 39th started out with the delivery of a giant basket of flowers and the exchange of cards.
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We planned to spend the day doing something fun and end with a nice meal. Unfortunately it was the beginning of the week and thanks to post Covid understaffing and the slow winter season in Maine, everywhere I wanted to go was closed. After wasting a few hours driving along the coast….
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We opted for lunch at the Dockside Grill.
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Planning on a larger meal for dinner, we chose light fare. Chicken Caesar salad for me, French onion soup for the spouse.
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One cocktail for me, one beer for the spouse… with tip? $86. For soup and salad! This is getting ridiculous.
By then it was early afternoon and we were still searching for something fun to do… so we sat with our phones Googling like mad. I opted for a museum, but the ones we haven’t already visited were hours away. I did find a quirky cabinet of curiosities worth seeing, but after reading there was no heat in the building? My desire to go quickly waned.
Fun be damned, we ended up antiquing instead. At least the husband was happy.
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I saw these clever mussel shell Christmas trees on sale and thought about getting one, but they were so delicate I didn’t see it traveling or storing well.
As usual, there were some unexplainable items for sale. Most notably, this…
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Made entirely of glass, I can’t imagine anyone wanting that gracing their coffee table.
After a few antique stores, we were back on Google checking our favorite special occasion dinner spots. Par for the course? Every single one of them was closed. By then I was thoroughly disgusted and ready to go home and make a sandwich but the husband wanted another piece of fabulous cheesecake so we ended the day at the same restaurant where I was served crab balls instead of cakes a while back.
I won’t bore you with food photos but the mussels were good and made more interesting by being served with polenta frittes.
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Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. Dipped in the white wine garlic sauce? A meal in itself.
I went downstairs to check the progress of the husband’s basement project yesterday and it was not going well.
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Nope. Not well at all.
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I stood unnoticed, chortling while I watched him attempt to wrangle trifold insulation into a corner by himself. It was quite amusing, but I took pity on the poor guy after a few minutes and lent a hand.
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You’ll notice he bought a new toy. After the first low velocity hammer tool wasn’t strong enough.. he upgraded.
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This thing is basically a small gun that fires explosive rounds to propel nails into hard surfaces. In this case, concrete.
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And while my husband is (we never say was) a Marine and familiar with weapons, his usage of this tool made me a little nervous.
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The video doesn’t do justice to the noise. But trust me, that thing is loud.
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And best observed from a safe distance.
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I have to laugh that our entire cellar is a junk filled mess except for this one little corner. But he’s determined to put a ceiling, insulation and shelves throughout so I’m not complaining.
I gave my husband a set of handy dandy pool cue cleaners for Xmas and upon further inspection, I believe English is not the manufacturer’s first language.
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Things are getting serious with the cellar project downstairs. How do I know this?
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Low velocity tools have been purchased and I have to admit…. I’m a little scared.
Upstairs in the office –
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A seemingly appropriate calendar has been placed on my desk.
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Yes…
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I think it’s damn near perfect.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 