I woke up at 5 and went to the bathroom, intended to then get my stuff, shower, and get to work. But our house is really cold. I won't go into details about our financial situation, but right now we really need new windows in the house -- the heat cannot keep up with them -- and so it is really cold in the house. It's annoying because it's a constant reminder of the devaluation of the house, the situation with our credit, and all kinds of things that my husband I'm sure doesn't want me posting on the blog. But every minute I feel the cold my mind goes down a long resentful road of some of the things that our children have done in the past (and a few choices we have made) that have had us arrive at this very cold moment in time.
Anyway, I was so cold I went back to bed. But I couldn't fall back to sleep so it was a very long battle with myself that finally resulted in me getting out of bed at six. I then saw an email from an old friend that ended up resulting in a very long response and here we are, it's 10 minutes from time to awaken the world.
John yesterday declared himself wanting to go to jail because he will never make it in the "real world." He was suggesting turning himself in even though he hasn't violated his probation, just because the stress of it is too hard. I didn't want to explain to him that with the economy the way it is and the fact that he hasn't paid his last bill for being in jail (did you know that some jails bill you a daily amount after you are discharges -- seems like a pretty discouraging thing to do if you want to rehabilitate -- but that's another story) and the fact that the jails are overcrowded that his P.O. probably wouldn't just put him there. And so instead I talked to him about registered sex offenders and what that would mean for the rest of his life and how choosing that would not be a good option.
So he laid in bed for most of the day and then by 4 was up, happy, doing his chore and talking about possibly trying to get a job in case he did flunk everything in school like he thinks he is. SIgh. I don't know why I bother to get emotionally involved in the whole thing.
On the docket today: Orthodontist with Wilson, lunch with my friend Jill, and then a conference call with one of my bosses about an exciting new program. Then church tonight -- with supper included -- so I dont' have to worry about cooking. Hopefully in between those things I will get a lot done -- yesterday was a pretty productive day.
The stealing has begun again and that really bothers me. I hate trying to track down who is taking what and I had a couple situations earlier where I was dead wrong so I hate to assume....
Ten minutes are more than up... ;-)
We live in a 100+ year old with original windows. We are broke. I staple heavy duty plastic to the inside (I'm not going out in this cold) of the windows. Looks like trash, but I have cut my heat bill in half and we are warmer.
ReplyDeleteThere are some inexpensive ways to help out with the windows--plastic and making window coverings out of quilts are two I've done. Our "new" house in Maine has no window coverings, so I slowly but surely am buying quilts at Goodwill to hang up. We have the most-used rooms covered up now. Some are lighter weight, some are thick. All are just on tension rods or curtain rods. Some were easily put up--I just tore out a few inches of the side seams. Others I made a pocket by folding down the top and stitching it all the way across. Some were long, and we don't use the window to look out so they are just folded in half! It may cost up to $200 including the curtain rods (we have about 20 windows, and the rods were about $6 ea. I didn't look for them at Goodwill. Silly me!). But far cheaper than replacing windows or turning up the heat. Oh, and one window just has a shower curtain in front of it. Mom said it was pretty effective when visiting over Xmas, to my surprise. I'd just put it up because the window faces the street and I change in that room. Hadn't gotten around to something heavier.
ReplyDeleteAnd that plastic film--it really does work. I've also recently seen something created with thicker plastic sheeting. You create a wood frame that fits perfectly inside the window, then staple the sheeting to it. The thing can be easily removed during the day to see out the window.
Oh, and a final tip--my parents did this back in SD when I was a kid: sheets of 1" foam insulation cut to fit each window. Each night we put them up behind the curtains and took them down in the morning. If you can find someone who just got new windows, this stuff comes with new windows. Probably shipping other large items, too. Not sure where else to get it or what it costs. (My parents got it free too, but I don't know how.)