Thursday, October 31
Nov. 1st, 2024 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderHappy Halloween, everyone!
Today I am grateful for:
Feeling happy with the day, and not the feeling of missing out or nostalgia for other times that I often feel on holidays. With Halloween, I used to feel a huge expectation that I "should" be going somewhere and dressing up and dancing or something, and having trick or treaters (which we don't get where we are, out in the country, and we don't know many people with little kids).
Since I put so much effort into my freestyle with River, I feel like I already fulfilled my Halloween expectations, and today was still Halloween, but maybe more all around us than us participating in it this year.
My husband stayed home from work today (he meant to only be home for the morning and work the afternoon, but everything took longer than they thought it would) so that he could be home to assist the people delivering the new wood stove.
I didn't get much sleep, since of COURSE it all had to happen first thing in the morning, and take ALL morning into the early part of the afternoon to install. I know, it's not a small thing to install a chimney properly.
It didn't help that the two big guys did have to come in and out of the house several times (not past the bedroom, but through the porch and into the basement, down the stairs) and they slammed every door they closed behind them so loudly that it shook the house and stomped as if their grip on the surface of the Earth was going to fail if they didn't drive their foot into the floor with every step. I was literally concerned that they were going to damage our door frames they were slamming everything so hard.
The chimney is a type of pipe within another larger pipe, with fire resistant insulation between the layers, and it needed to be mounted on our exterior with straps screwed to the house, and through part of our overhang, meaning a lot of drilling against the wall pretty much right where the head of our bed is. I tried sleeping in the living room but that didn't work either.
Anyhow, it got installed, it looks fantastic, and I hope it works well for us.
When I got up, my husband had resigned himself to just staying home for the day, since they didn't get done until after noon, and his work day ends at 3 pm.
He suggested we go to the city, but we JUST WENT on Saturday, and we had no pressing need. I guess he just thought it would be fun, but it seemed a bit frivolous.
Instead we had a good day at home.
I spent some time working with Wonder and Dandy again in the big pasture, and they were less connected with me today, partly because my husband was walking with us and interfering with the process of them connecting with me. He was "helping", and ultimately creating confusion over who was leading, thus they kept leaving.
Once I asked him if he would just NOT help, though I wanted him to walk with us, he kind of went off on his own, they followed me just fine.
He also insists on having Roxy in the pasture when I'm trying to work with the horses. Roxy A) shouldn't be running around with her legs compromised B) barks her head off and tries to herd the horses the whole time I'm trying to do Liberty with them.
So, I also had to go put Roxy in the barn, and gently said to my husband that it was too much distraction for the horses, and too hard on Roxy's legs.
Otherwise, it was still very nice to spend time with them and work with them.
I very briefly talked with Sister E, and once again she made very little effort to talk to me. They were driving home, talked until the car stopped (speaker phone), but also didn't do the "today isn't great, but how about tomorrow" or anything, just too busy in her own world to make room for mine.
Every now and then she will talk for a long time, almost too long, but I have to be the one to call her. If I let her be the one to initiate a call, three or four weeks can easily pass.
Again, I seem to be the one who does most of the work in maintaining any kind of tie to family.
My husband did some clearing of small brush under the fence in the horse pasture with the weed whacker. He's really getting serious about keeping that pasture cleared up right now. It's GOOD, but a bit surprising how intent he is right now on doing all of the mowing and whacking.
I have noticed that since he's been working in the area thus spending a lot more time at home this past year, that he's actually seeing things that need doing and caring more about how everything looks/functions since maybe he feels like HE LIVES HERE, and also gets to enjoy our property more himself.
Then, I really wanted to use the pottery wheel in the garage, and get started in there. It's more than just sitting down and throwing, it's figuring out a configuration for what you'll use as a table for the tools and everything beside the wheel, getting pails to take out water since there's no sink, finding another pail for the slop clay so you can recycle it and use it again later, and yet another space for putting pieces to dry, so all of that had to be figured out.
My Sweetie cleared off an area for me to store pieces on top of a heavy set of drawers, and he's got a great idea of using a salvaged piece of kitchen counter to put on it to make it a work space for kneading the clay and so on.
He ended up doing all kinds of sorting and putting away and even tossed an old fan that he "might fix" and so on while I threw, and he got the little wood burning stove we have in the garage going, and it was actually very companionable.
Me wanting to put this pottery area in the garage has ended up creating a real impetus to clean and put things away, which is great. Before, the garage was getting to the point where it wasn't USEABLE for anything, since it was just stuff lying everywhere instead of being organized, and tons of stuff that should have been tossed, and so on. Not a useable space, and I think he even forgot that it could be more than a storage area.
I think he likes the idea of it being USED again for an activity.
I did manage to throw a couple of things, though it wasn't super easy since my clay had a ton of air bubbles in it from me not kneading it properly. That's something I've always been bad at, and I need to improve.
Anyhow, a very fruitful session in the new pottery area, more for the sake of just DOING IT.
Then we came in and watched a couple of episodes of this new version of Scooby Doo, called "Mystery Incorporated" that is fun, and a little more aimed at the grown ups who would have been the original viewers, so there are jokes aimed at adults (not dirty, just jokes adults would get) and it's as ridiculous as the originals intentionally, poking fun at the whole idea. Lots of fun.
I don't think we have the seasons of "Justified: City Primeval" that I thought we had. We'll have to look for them.
Today I am grateful for:
Feeling happy with the day, and not the feeling of missing out or nostalgia for other times that I often feel on holidays. With Halloween, I used to feel a huge expectation that I "should" be going somewhere and dressing up and dancing or something, and having trick or treaters (which we don't get where we are, out in the country, and we don't know many people with little kids).
Since I put so much effort into my freestyle with River, I feel like I already fulfilled my Halloween expectations, and today was still Halloween, but maybe more all around us than us participating in it this year.
My husband stayed home from work today (he meant to only be home for the morning and work the afternoon, but everything took longer than they thought it would) so that he could be home to assist the people delivering the new wood stove.
I didn't get much sleep, since of COURSE it all had to happen first thing in the morning, and take ALL morning into the early part of the afternoon to install. I know, it's not a small thing to install a chimney properly.
It didn't help that the two big guys did have to come in and out of the house several times (not past the bedroom, but through the porch and into the basement, down the stairs) and they slammed every door they closed behind them so loudly that it shook the house and stomped as if their grip on the surface of the Earth was going to fail if they didn't drive their foot into the floor with every step. I was literally concerned that they were going to damage our door frames they were slamming everything so hard.
The chimney is a type of pipe within another larger pipe, with fire resistant insulation between the layers, and it needed to be mounted on our exterior with straps screwed to the house, and through part of our overhang, meaning a lot of drilling against the wall pretty much right where the head of our bed is. I tried sleeping in the living room but that didn't work either.
Anyhow, it got installed, it looks fantastic, and I hope it works well for us.
When I got up, my husband had resigned himself to just staying home for the day, since they didn't get done until after noon, and his work day ends at 3 pm.
He suggested we go to the city, but we JUST WENT on Saturday, and we had no pressing need. I guess he just thought it would be fun, but it seemed a bit frivolous.
Instead we had a good day at home.
I spent some time working with Wonder and Dandy again in the big pasture, and they were less connected with me today, partly because my husband was walking with us and interfering with the process of them connecting with me. He was "helping", and ultimately creating confusion over who was leading, thus they kept leaving.
Once I asked him if he would just NOT help, though I wanted him to walk with us, he kind of went off on his own, they followed me just fine.
He also insists on having Roxy in the pasture when I'm trying to work with the horses. Roxy A) shouldn't be running around with her legs compromised B) barks her head off and tries to herd the horses the whole time I'm trying to do Liberty with them.
So, I also had to go put Roxy in the barn, and gently said to my husband that it was too much distraction for the horses, and too hard on Roxy's legs.
Otherwise, it was still very nice to spend time with them and work with them.
I very briefly talked with Sister E, and once again she made very little effort to talk to me. They were driving home, talked until the car stopped (speaker phone), but also didn't do the "today isn't great, but how about tomorrow" or anything, just too busy in her own world to make room for mine.
Every now and then she will talk for a long time, almost too long, but I have to be the one to call her. If I let her be the one to initiate a call, three or four weeks can easily pass.
Again, I seem to be the one who does most of the work in maintaining any kind of tie to family.
My husband did some clearing of small brush under the fence in the horse pasture with the weed whacker. He's really getting serious about keeping that pasture cleared up right now. It's GOOD, but a bit surprising how intent he is right now on doing all of the mowing and whacking.
I have noticed that since he's been working in the area thus spending a lot more time at home this past year, that he's actually seeing things that need doing and caring more about how everything looks/functions since maybe he feels like HE LIVES HERE, and also gets to enjoy our property more himself.
Then, I really wanted to use the pottery wheel in the garage, and get started in there. It's more than just sitting down and throwing, it's figuring out a configuration for what you'll use as a table for the tools and everything beside the wheel, getting pails to take out water since there's no sink, finding another pail for the slop clay so you can recycle it and use it again later, and yet another space for putting pieces to dry, so all of that had to be figured out.
My Sweetie cleared off an area for me to store pieces on top of a heavy set of drawers, and he's got a great idea of using a salvaged piece of kitchen counter to put on it to make it a work space for kneading the clay and so on.
He ended up doing all kinds of sorting and putting away and even tossed an old fan that he "might fix" and so on while I threw, and he got the little wood burning stove we have in the garage going, and it was actually very companionable.
Me wanting to put this pottery area in the garage has ended up creating a real impetus to clean and put things away, which is great. Before, the garage was getting to the point where it wasn't USEABLE for anything, since it was just stuff lying everywhere instead of being organized, and tons of stuff that should have been tossed, and so on. Not a useable space, and I think he even forgot that it could be more than a storage area.
I think he likes the idea of it being USED again for an activity.
I did manage to throw a couple of things, though it wasn't super easy since my clay had a ton of air bubbles in it from me not kneading it properly. That's something I've always been bad at, and I need to improve.
Anyhow, a very fruitful session in the new pottery area, more for the sake of just DOING IT.
Then we came in and watched a couple of episodes of this new version of Scooby Doo, called "Mystery Incorporated" that is fun, and a little more aimed at the grown ups who would have been the original viewers, so there are jokes aimed at adults (not dirty, just jokes adults would get) and it's as ridiculous as the originals intentionally, poking fun at the whole idea. Lots of fun.
I don't think we have the seasons of "Justified: City Primeval" that I thought we had. We'll have to look for them.
no subject
Date: 2024-11-04 12:23 am (UTC)It was warm out, and it should have occurred to me to sit on the porch with the candy, as several other neighbours did.
There are over a hundred miniature KitKats, Coffee Crisps, Aeros and Smarties here for me, so I can go wild!
no subject
Date: 2024-11-04 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-04 08:12 pm (UTC)