So.much.

WORN OUT.  SO TIRED.

This Saturday was the first in three weeks that I haven’t had to work.  Except that I scheduled myself to help my parents paint the basement at my grandparents’ house.  Not exactly a relaxing break, but since they are “old and decrepit” (according to my brother), they don’t put in 12 hour workdays either, so I did the painting and when I was done (about 3 hours later) we went home!  And I went to Home Depot and bought stuff to make a temporary potting bench for Oatmeal’s room.  I need somewhere to start all of my tomato seedlings.

I sort of went overboard with tomato seeds.  I found a company that specializes in different tomato varieties, and ended up with 7 new species to try.  And they recommend starting them inside.  And my best light comes in to the 2 bedrooms that have south-facing windows.  Which means I have added the bench to Oatmeal’s room (and if I need more space, I will have to add a second one to my room)!  The board the plants will sit on is just under the window and higher than Oats will attempt to jump, so they will be safe from bun-splorations.  He was intrigued by the new additions to his space and took a nap under the bench this afternoon.  I think he likes it.  One of my renovation thoughts is to add some shelving/cabinets under the window in that room, so this is like trying out that idea in a not-so-permanent way.  Plus, plants!

After carrying all the concrete blocks into the house I was even more exhausted (I’d already been to the gym prior to heading over to my folks’ place).  I fell asleep while reading, but when I got up to brush my teeth, I couldn’t stop thinking about this idea I had for a drawing, and that distracted me for another hour at least (where I should have just done it, or worked on it, but instead tried to sleep)…which put me in bed at 10:30.  That was fine since I had to get up early this morning to start my laundry before meeting a friend for a hike.

We did not find dog hat, though we did revisit part of the woods where I lost it.  It was a beautiful morning – steadily climbing into the 60s – and we hiked a little over 4 miles (some of it very muddy).  Almost fell asleep while we were waiting to get seated for brunch, but quickly rallied once I had a bite of my sandwich.  PK recommended an apple bread gouda ham sandwich.  The apple bread would have made an excellent French toast all on its own.  I somehow missed the “ham” part – not my favorite, but the combination was still good.  It came with sweet potato fries.  Lovely.

A few more errands after that, then home where I continued the laundry and collected a bunch of small projects that I dumped on the floor in the living room to finish Once and For All.  Once the floor is empty, the projects will be done and I can go to bed.  Because SLEEP.

I wish I had had more energy for this day, because I *could* have gone for a bike ride – it was warm enough out.  And I could have had a fire (lots of wood/sticks came down in my yard in the past 3 months).  And I could have cleaned the house.  But, instead, I am cataloging my seeds, planning my garden, folding my laundry, and baking cookies.

I still need to draw the thing.

Ill-advised

The last couple of nights I’ve felt like the outside noise was really loud, which I thought was weird, because I haven’t noticed anything up until now.  When I first moved in, I was actually struck by how very quiet it was – compared to my apartment, which was right next to a busy intersection that seemed to attract cavalcades of motorcycles.  UGH.  The noise I was hearing sounded – to me – like helicopters were flying directly over the house.  “Why am I suddenly in their flight path?” I wondered.  “Is there some kind of army training base nearby that’s running some kind of late night/early morning ops?”

Then I thought, well, maybe there’s just a lot of traffic all of a sudden – because the weather finally decided to get nice and people want to be OUT instead of hibernating inside their houses.  And what I’m hearing is probably road noise, which is louder right now because there’s no foliage on the trees to insulate us from the noise pollution.  Reasonable, right?

I got home from work today and heard the noise again – combined with the refrigerator running things were starting to sound a little cacophonous – and realized it was coming from the attic.  Oh.  It’s the ventilation fan.  So, that’s good, because I can go up there and figure out why it’s running.  Cue the dragging of the ladder from the garage into the house.  Not sure where my headlamp is at the moment (in a safe place, obvs), so I grabbed my flashlight and climbed into the hatch.  I hadn’t gotten a good look at the attic fan prior to this.  The inspector told me it was broken, my electrician went up there and said it was jammed – then unjammed it – and reset it so it would work, and I think it ran a few times before it got too cold and then I didn’t hear it all winter.  The warmest it’s been this week was 60 degrees, though.  I don’t *think* that that should heat my attic up past 120, which is what I thought the electrician said he’d set the temperature at.  It was, indeed, running, when I inspected it.  And after multiple repositionings of me across the rafters, I got a look at its electrical bits.  The cover for the box had a hole in it through which a knob was supposed to protrude.  It was askew, so I had to take it off.  The temp seemed to be set at 90 (still didn’t feel that warm to me up there), so I turned the knob up a bit.  The fan switched off, and it was immediately much less noisy in my house.  So, that’s good.  I’m still not sure the thermostat is sensing correctly, so I guess my next step is to get a thermometer up there, so I can tell how warm it *really* is and whether I need to adjust accordingly.

Next time I head up into the attic, I will remember to change out of anything fleecy, because holy crap, I have a ton of insulation stuck to my pants right now.  #feelingbothhandyandincrediblyattractive

You know what Red Green says, “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”  Probably I need to lay in a supply of duct tape to realize my dreams of becoming Just Like Him.