Sunday Morning

It's so strange to know that most of you out there reading this are still sleeping soundly as I write these words at what is a really reasonable hour of the day where I am.  My body is finally adjusting to the time change, but I think my brain is having a little more trouble with it.  I've always felt as if I'm communicating in real time here, but now I feel more that I'm just sending words into air and there's nobody out there to read them.  Weird.

The snow is gone, for all practical purposes.  As predicted, it melted off quickly in the warm sun yesterday.  More is predicted for tomorrow, but I don't know how likely it is.  We'll see.

My day yesterday was devoted mostly to cleaning the bathroom, washing all the curtains I've removed from various windows, going to Home Depot (clear at the other end of town!) and trying to figure out what to do with the bathroom in the long and short run. In the meantime, I took the top layer of grime off the floor in there and it looks a lot better.  I'm thinking I need a good scrub brush to use around the edges, before I'll be happy with it.  I also mopped the front bedroom floor with Murphy's Oil Soap, so now at least one room is clean and ready for habitation.  I'm thinking I'll attack this back bedroom today -- woodwork and windows and floors.

I also bought some caulk yesterday in my trip to HD, so once the bath warms up enough I'm going to use that to seal all the leak spaces.  I took the masking tape off yesterday to give it a good chance to dry out.  The caulk can't be used at under 50 degrees.  I wonder if my bathroom ever gets that warm?  Probably, later in the day.  I have ceiling fans in the front rooms going strong, trying to get the warm air moving out of the living room into the rest of the house, and it works, if slowly.

I have signed up for two workshops at HD next Saturday:  one on tiling walls and floors, and the next having to do with small bathroom ideas.  I think that has more to do with small ways to improve bathrooms, rather than things to do with small bathrooms.  Either way, I'm covered.  After going all the way (in my head) yesterday in the room -- new walls, floor, tile, sink and cabinet -- and chafing at the potential cost, I've pretty much decided to only do the tile.  I'm guessing that the plastic surround has simply been put against wallboard, but won't know for sure until I take it down.  I'd like to gut the entire wall, frankly.  It would be nice to get some insulation behind the tile, after all, and I don't know how I'll know about wood damage otherwise.  But, that's in the future.  The near future, perhaps, but the future nonetheless.  I want to be ready to move once I start taking stuff apart -- I want to finish the classes and know what I'm doing, pick out the tile, have it all planned so that I can get it done as quickly as possible, thus not depriving myself of a shower for more days than necessary.

Maybe I'll hit the flea market today.  I opted out yesterday because while they advertise 'rain or shine', I wasn't sure about 'snow and ice' and I didn't want to drive 25 miles for nada.  I also have a bunch of stuff on the front porch that needs to go to Goodwill -- stuff the sellers left, mostly cheap glass florist vases. There's no Goodwill store anywhere around here, but there are places to drop off donations and while I don't know if the items will ever see Goodwill, maybe they'll go to someone who can use them.  At least they'll be off my porch, and that's all I really care.

So -- onward with the day.  Happy Valentine's day to all of you.