It's been a while since I posted. Something always seemed to happen just when I might have had blogging time. I've been in a mini-whirlwind of mostly non-creative, energy-sucking "stuff." Some of the stuff:
Just 10 days after having our 22-year-old water heater spring a leak and need replacement on a really cold and snowy day, we had to replace our 20-something year old furnace. Of course, it turned out that we could save more than $800 if we added air-conditioning at the same time. (A friend commented that it's about time we brought our house into the 21st Century.) We have been wanting AC so we swallowed hard and wrote the check from our "contingency" fund to have it done. The furnace and the AC housing are completely installed but the final installation of the AC component outdoors cannot be installed until the weather is warmer as they can't charge the freon in current temperatures. The installers suggested that now is an opportune time to get our ducts cleaned so that the new 92% efficiency furnace can function optimally. We have an appointment next Saturday to have a duct-cleaning company bring its super-powerful truck-mounted suction machine to extract the undesirable particles from our 65-year-old ducts.
Stuff, round 2: Since all the junk we've been storing in the furnace room for 20 years is now piled in the family room until this project is complete, my husband decided that the timing is perfect for repairing some efflorescence on the exterior walls of the furnace room and repainting it to look like a "real" room. We have opened the "Pandora's box" of projects that are prerequisites to other projects.
Stuff, round 3: The house is not the only item having deferred maintenance. We have also deferred dental cleaning and yearly physicals for both of us. Now is catch-up time. The good news is that we are ahead of schedule on our taxes.
While all this is going on we are trying to spend time with our Argentine house guest who is delightful and wants to see as much of Denver and Colorado as he can while he is here. He encourages both of us to speak Spanish whenever we are driving somewhere or just hanging around the house. He really doesn't need to practice English as he has been speaking it since he was a small child.
I am not taking a watercolor class this coming session but have signed up for a drawing class at the DMNS (Denver Museum of Nature and Science) called "Drawing Skulls." The class is limited to 20 and we get draw animal skulls from the zoology collection: bear, moose, elk, mountain lion etc. It is also a chance to return to basics on drawing, values and gray scale. I need a break from watercolor. I love it but is sometimes SO frustrating.
We having a standing 3-hour play-date on Mondays with granddaughter Clio. We pick her up at her day school on the days her Mom must attend City Council until 9:30 at night and enjoy her until her dad gets off work. We are also happily anticipating our two new grandchildren, due May 26 and May 27.
I hope to post more regularly but then baseball season begins April 2 and that's another impediment to regular blogging--though it does provide a lot of interesting stories and photos.
Posted by: PJ | March 17, 2006 at 07:24 PM