As usual, this was meant to be an errands-and-chores vacation, with a big side of "and this year, I'm going to write my entire Yuletide story before Thanksgiving!!" determination.
Also as usual, most of that didn't happen. I've been so social in the last couple of months that mostly I just sat quietly in my silent apartment, doing I don't even know what, trying to decompress. I think I played a lot of solitaire, maybe watched some mindless tv. And I actually wound up working through some of it, because of a delayed project on a tight deadline, bah. But I did get some cleaning done, and a few errands run.
One of my chores was going to be "put plastic up over all the windows"; I have to do this every year, and while in theory it's not a big job, I don't like doing it, and always put it off as long as possible (or longer). Partly it's because once it's up, that's it: my house is sealed up for the winter, with little hope of fresh air till spring. But also it always takes longer than it should, and I just don't have it in me to spend an entire day going from window to window taking care of this (I have 10 windows that need the plastic). You're also supposed to do it before it gets frigid out, because if your window frame is too cold, the tape won't adhere properly. I got the two kitchen windows done early in the week, but then never got around to the rest - until Saturday, when I discovered that Sunday the temps were going to plummet, and we'd be having wind chills in the single digits. (And holy crap, they weren't kidding. Current wind chill is 8 F / -13.3 C. brr.)
So I'm still not done -- the living room is very drafty and cold right now -- but I did the bathroom, bedroom, and library yesterday afternoon. I can cope with needing blankets to watch tv or read; I can cope less with freezing in the shower, or waking up to an icy bedroom. So woo, go me. \o/
Yeah. I woke up today to the sounds of tearing plastic. Of course. Darien didn't even let the bedroom plastic alone for 24 hours; by the time I looked over there, he'd torn through it enough to climb inside and sit on the windowsill, happy as a furry orange clam.
So I hauled him out and dumped him on the floor. He jumped up and started for the plastic; I dumped him. We repeated this about four times and then he crouched doubtfully on the floor looking up at me while I taped up all the tears he'd made, and eventually he wandered off. Then I went to brush my teeth, cranky but resigned. Most years I at least get a few weeks of clear plastic before a cat goes all "FREEDOMMMM" on me. I start putting out food for the other cat, when I hear the unmistakable sound of more plastic tearing.
I go into the bedroom, and there's Dari, happily sitting inside the plastic on the window sill on the other, used-to-be-untorn side of the window.
( My rotten cat Darien )So now his claws are trimmed way back -- which he
hates, and which usually I don't have to do because he's really good about not using his claws inappropriately -- and I am staring grimly at a shoppping cart full of thermal curtains, with drapery rods to hang them on. Argh.
I've avoided these for years, because a) pricey, omg, even the cheap ones, when you figure I need to put them up over 8 of these windows (the kitchen's just going to have to be cool, I'm not putting anything heavy in there), and b) room-darkening, which I hate, because it gets so damn gloomy in here when I have dark curtains up. I'm on a busy road, both car and foot traffic, with neighbors barely a driveway's width apart on both sides, so I leave my blinds shut almost all the time, just counting on the light coming through them to keep things bright enough. So I've just done light-colored mini blinds with light sheers over them, and plastic for insulation. But clearly that is no longer enough. Beyond the obvious unwillingness to allow plastic insulation this year, both cats have destroyed one of my street-facing blinds in their determination to always be able to see out (never mind that I leave them a few inches at the bottom of almost every window; they want to sit on the back of my chair, and see out from that level on that window). Every time I fix it, one of them comes over and breaks it in a new spot. (Which is actually kind of hysterical. Annoying, but hysterical. Clearly they think this is the "compromise" we've "agreed on" -- they get this one particular window for a higher view, no matter what.)
This is why we can't have nice things, cats!
*listens to the other cat happily trying to pull the strainer out of the sink, sighs*
Oh well. If nothing else, all of this convinced me that this should be a day for a proper pot of tea, so here I sit with a teapot in a cozy (okay really just wrapped up in a towel), one of my mom's wedding-china teacups, and a sugar bowl and creamer on a salver, as civilized as can be.
... omg tactical error. *slaps paper towel and hand over creamer to keep Hobbes out of it*
( My rotten cat Hobbes )My life, ladies and gentlemen.
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