It was 20° F (almost minus 7° C) here this morning. The birdbath was a solid block of ice.
Winter is making an early appearance this year. The door from our kitchen to our patio is a bit drafty, which we never notice unless the air is cold. Last night I used hand towels to plug the door frame. It's easy peasy. All you have to do is fold three or four hand towels in half vertically, then take a table knife from the kitchen drawer and use it to poke them into the gaps from the top of the door to the bottom. It works like a charm. I also pushed something across the bottom of the door as a barricade against the winter air. The windows in this house are okay without help from me.
Something else we do every winter around here is put duct tape over every electrical outlet that is not being used.
I do not live in a hovel, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. It's much better than my childhood home out in Texas, where every time it rained we had to use every pot and pan and bowl in the house to catch the leaks from our corrugated tin roof.
I'm not kidding. It still amazes me after all these years that sometimes I don't know it is raining unless I look out the window because we can't hear the rain hitting the roof.
Things were very primitive in my old home, which consisted of four rooms and a path.
If you don't know what that means, get an old person who grew up in the country to tell you.
I must end this post or I will become depressed, but you get extra points if you spotted the quotation from William Faulkner.
I think back to, not quite tin roofs, but ice on the insides of windows pre-double glazing. I don't know how we didn't all die of bronchitis and pneumonia. Oh we did. People were starting to drop off in large numbers by 60.
ReplyDeleteTasker Dunham, I remember those icy insides of windows too, but my Dad, who could always one-up me, remembered upstairs bedroom windows left open in Iowa in the wintertime and finding six inches of snow on the foot of his bed. This story may be apocryphal.
DeleteThe thing about the past that I hate is the path. I hated having to walk it early in the morning on a freezing cold day.
ReplyDeleteEmma S., mega-dittoes on that.
DeleteThe past is not dead, it's not even past.
ReplyDeleteI have only had to walk the path when we are camping.
Kathy, you win the prize! "The past is dead. It's not even past." is from Faulkner's book Requiem For A Nun. I hid it right in plain sight, in the title of the post instead of in the body.
DeleteI don't know William Faulkner but the only prose that looks like a quote to me is "you gotta do what you gotta do".
ReplyDeleteWhy do you put duct tape over unused sockets? The electricity isn't going to leak out!
Graham, if you really "don't know" Faulkner, you can read about him here. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 for such books as The Sound and The Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light In August, and Absalom! Absalom!. A well-known short story of his is "A Rose For Emily". But if you meant you weren't familiar with any quotations from Faulkner, see my reply to Kathy above.
DeleteP.S. to Graham: We put duct tape over the unused electrical outlets because cold air seeps through those little holes too. There's a special filter that keeps the electricity in. I'm joking about the filter.
DeleteIt's in the title and taken from "Requiem for a Nun". I should read some more Faulkner some time. I read "As I Lay Dying" at university - but that was long ago. May I suggest wearing a thick overcoat, woolly hat and mittens indoors if you wish to keep warm this winter? It's what Donald and Melania will be doing in The White House - on the few occasions they are not down at their retirement home in Florida.
ReplyDeleteNeil, you are correctamundo, as Fonzie might have said on Happy Days, but you are also a couple of days late as Kathy correctly identified the quote on the 13th and I revealed its source in my reply to Graham on the 15th (yesterday). Still, by the rules of the game, I must award extra points to you as well. If you decide to read Requiem For A Nun read Sanctuary first. I must say that The Sound and the Fury is my favourite Faulkner work.
ReplyDeleteHere are two words that will identify you as a knowledgeable fan of Faulkner: Yoknapatawpha County.
I didnt identify the quote so I didnt get the bonus points but I'm wondering how to get non-bonus points?
ReplyDeleteCharm and wit? commenting? getting here within 24 hours of post publishing?
Oh, never mind, I'm going to go and figure out if hand towels under the door and duxt tape on electrical outlets works for summer heat
kylie, since the points are the bonus the term 'non-bonus points' does not compute in my widdle brain. But every comment is a bonus for me. I hope it is for you as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the hand towels under the door and duct tape on electrical outlets work for summer heat, but I could certainly be wrong. Please report back here with your findings. You will receive double bonus points, perhaps even triple, for that.