still cold, plus yesterday outrage at our storage place

It was again very cold today, didn't get out of the 30s. The weather report had been calling for freezing rain and ice on the roads but luckily that did not materialize here. We did get rain off and on all day, so I still don't have to worry about watering my yard! Good news as it is way too cold to be out there dragging around my leaking no matter what I do hoses.

Yesterday we had the day off and did some running around. We tried AGAIN to take the lawn chairs over the storage and AGAIN the creepy old guy was sitting in his car by our space. I talked to the guy in the office who said the man was "harmless", "84 years old", "pretty amazing" and a "WW 2 veteran". So, it is okay for an 84 year old WW 2 veteran to loiter in his car all day beside closed up and locked storage spaces?? They jerk in the office also said that they guy had been renting almost as long as we have (12 years), though office jerk has only been there for 1 1/2 years. Funny that I've NEVER NEVER NEVER seen this guy at the storage place before this past month or so and now he seems to be there all day, every day... week days, weekends. And, funny that the only problems they've had at the storage place are a few break-ins... My guess is that the old guy is living out of his car and his storage space. I feel bad but there are places to go for help. And, I truly believe if it was a young latino or black male doing the same thing, they would be hauled off in the back of a patrol car.

That whole incident left me livid and my blood pressure surely through the roof. We drove over to another storage place who would give us the same rates and seem a lot better. I would have taken a day off to move this week, except that it would be a lot of work to move the storage space and would require renting a U-Haul and hiring someone to help me. That would cost a decent amount of money. I'm going to give it a week or so, then see if old dude is still at the storage place. If he still is, I might have to bite the bullet and move, as my storage space is currently unusable. Maybe I'll get my co-worker with the concealed carry permit to come with me next time I go there...

I stopped in a few furniture stores, still looking for an end table for the dining room. I didn't see anything I wanted but I did find a Haeger vase for $10 at a going out of business sale. It looks fantastic sitting on my mantle and is still made in the USA.

gardening indoors

I write a lot about my outside yard/garden but don't write much about my indoor garden. I'm not a houseplant person, so all my plants indoors are trying to survive the winter so they can go back outside in the spring. I made cuttings of my two favorite coleus that I had only found one plant of each.

The first is my pink trailing coleus that made such a wonderful hanging basket on the front of the house last summer. I am growing out several cuttings I made in the fall, as well as a larger cutting I made at some point last summer. I'm going to need to work on making a few new cuttings and really pinching them back for fullness before I am ready to plant up a hanging basket, but I won't put those out until around the end of April, so I have time.



The second was a purple almost ruffled coleus we found late in the year at Underwoods. It didn't look like much in its 4" pot, but they had planted it in a mixed container and it looked great. I brought it home, potted it up and it grew nicely. I brought the whole original pot indoors, along with two cuttings. This plant has really surprised me, as it was a dark purple outdoors, but indoors it has turned very green! I think all the new growth is coming in green, at least indoors. It will be interested to see what it does when I move it back outside in the spring.



I also have the spider plant Bobbie gave me, that is haning above the window, the Boston Fern from the front porch that doens't look so good and two kalinchoes which live on the dryer and are just starting to bloom. My mom brought a sick croton home from work for me to nurse back to health, it is putting out some new leaves, so hopefully it will make a comeback.



I have two days off from work, but they are not predicting temps over the high 30s either day, so any outside work is out of the question. I'm trying to think of more indoor projects to keep me busy and hoping for temps in the 50s soon.

gazebo crashed

This AM before work I thought I'd better go try to get the snow off the top of the gazebo before it crushed the gazebo. Well, as I was trying to get the snow off, the gazebo collapsed on me. The gazebo is now totally shot. We called the company that "made" them, but their manfacturer did not send them any replacement parts, just the whole gazebos. So, that is a total waste now. I am pretty upset for a number of reasons: 1) we never really used the gazebo that much so it was a waste of money in the first place, 2) we should have taken it down earlier this winter when the weather was nice, 3) I could have taken the top off the gazebo yesterday morning before work but didn't think of it, 4) I could have taken the top off last night even though it was cold and finally 5) trying to brush the snow off of it may have been what caused it to collapse (but based on the amount of snow it it, it was only a matter of time). I guess I would be MORE upset if we had used it a lot. Tomorrow we will take the yard furniture over to storage and I guess I'll try to haul the wreckage of the gazebo up to the curb.

In other news, I FINALLY got a paper shredder and can do something about the year+ of junk mail, statements, bills, etc that I have been saving to shred. I started working on the stack of opened items and still have plenty more still in their envelopes. Guess I have a hobby for the next few days or weeks!

The weather report is now calling for snow again on Saturday. As long as it is not an ice storm, does not taken out my power and does not kill my plants, I don't care. I'll get over losing the gazebo, but for the time being I'm pretty upset.

still have power

Despite the ice overnight, we still have power this AM. It is still raining or something outside and my yard is covered in snow, but the road is slushy. I wish they would close work today, especially after all the trouble I had getting home last night, but I don't think so. I just hope the roads are clear.

I got almost no sleep last night as I was so worried about losing power.

turning to ice??

I am starting to hear sounds outside, that no longer sound like snow. I opened the side door and there is more wind and it no longer looks like snowflakes, though something is blowing in the wind. I think as predicted, the ice is hitting just after midnight. Still have power so far... as of 12:20 AM. I've set my cell phone as an alarm just in case. I'm VERY worried that if we do lose power we could be out for days as we are quite a ways off a main road. The heat is currently set at 72, but without power... I will leave it up high all night because I fear it may be all the heat we will have for days.

I just turned off my external hard drive and unplugged it so it won't be damaged. I can't sleep right now, but before I go to bed I will turn off and unplug my computer as well.

snowing

It has been snowing here since before 8 PM and is still coming down. The yard outside it totally white. The drive home from work tonight at 9 PM was kind of rough, especially as I got closer to home and in less travelled areas, snow totally covered the roads and I couldn't see any lane markings. We have the heat turned up and are leaving it up all night just in case something happens with the power. I just hope we don't get the freezing rain and ice they are predicting for later tonight.

Photos of the yard, taken from inside!

anything but ice...

The orginal forcast for Wednesday PM/Thursday AM was possible snow. Now they are calling for up to 1/2" of ice. If we get an ice storm, that almost always means everyone loses power. Before we lived on a main road, now we live off on a little 4 block long road back in a little neighborhood. We also have overhead power lines and tons of trees in the neighborhood. My neighbors chestnut tree hangs over the power lines to my yard light. I'm very worried that if we do get ice and lose power we will be without power for a LONG time. Without any insulation, our house will get VERY cold VERY fast. I am VERY worried...

stickers off the marble

Last night I was able to get the remaining stickers and residue off the marble topped table using eucalyptus oil. Not only did it work, it smelled nice as well! I'd still like to clean the entire top of the table. We placed it alongside the couch closest to the TV. We still have one of the old black floor lamps in the living room and I'd love to get another of the mica style lights from Target. Of course, that just adds to the list of things I want but cost money: another one of those lights for the dining room, a new ceiling light for both bedrooms, new hardware for the kitchen cabinets, etc etc, not to mention that I want to do more work in the yard.

Speaking of the yard... It is still cold, 27 as I write this, so I haven't gotten anything much done in the yard for a while. I'm off on Friday and I hope it will be warm enough finally get the leaves raked up in the front yard. I have some bulbs that I meant to plant, but between rain, cold and being sick, they still aren't in the ground. I may pot them up.

I also think I can make a seed starting set-up and put it in my room. I need to get serious about what I want to try to start from seed and order some seeds before it is too late. If I want to try to get plants out around the end of March like I did last year (as I grow in pots, I can bring them in if it gets too cold) I will need to start seeds around the end of this month.

new couch, new lights

I went out to breakfast yesterday AM with Bobbie while my mom stayed home and waited for Jeff Lynch and Salvation Army. Salvation Army showed up shortly after I left and took the couch without really looking at it. Then Jeff Lynch called, from outside our house, so say they were earlier than expected, so when I got home from breakfast and a few errands, the new couch was in its place.



It warmed up into the mid-50s yesterday and I was able to get a little weeding done in the foundation beds. I have a bunch of weird mushrooms growing in them. Don't know what that means, I'll have to look it up at work. I pulled up the mushrooms I did find. I need to get out there when it is warmer and spend some more time working. There is clover that needs to be dug up again and the whole area really needs some more mulch. I also have to figure out what I am going to do where the ajuga is/was. It is really doing poorly. My current thinking is to dump some planting soil in that area, so it is no longer lower than the surrounding area and then either replant ajuga or plant some more hellabores. Of course, ajuga would be A LOT cheaper, but I just don't know. It is too cold right now for me to want to be outside for a long time.

Today we wanted to take some stuff back over to storage. We both spent the morning hanging up some more artwork. In the afternoon, we went over to storage and took over some boxes, plus the Christmas wreaths. I also found the blue wood chest of drawers I wanted to bring over and emptied it. We also realized that there is finally room in the house for the marble-topped table, so we brought that over as well. I still need to clean off the stickers I stuck on the marble as a child (ARGGGGGHHHH!!!).



On the way home we stopped at Home Depot to look at a few things. While looking at something else, we remembered that we wanted to see about under-cabinet lighting. The cheapest lights would not link together and were also 18", which we thought might be too long. We ended up getting some slim-line lights that came in 7 1/2" and 13" (we got one of each). I had a little bit of trouble installing them initially because I always manage to forget to use a starter nail or drill when I'm trying to screw stuff into wood. Once I had holes made by the starter nail, the installation whent pretty smoothly. I used some of the old cable tacks I had to tack the cords up on the underside of the cabinets. It REALLY adds a lot more light to the area where we do most of our cooking. The kitchen is really coming along!

fluffing the old couch

I heard my cell phone go off at work today and when I checked it this afternoon, it was a message from Jeff Lynch, they are going to deliver my new couch tomorrow. Wow, I figured it would be in some time this month, but it wasn't exactly expected yet. I'll be home tomorrow so that is not the problem, but they old couch is. I called Miracle Hill but they can't pick up couches until next week. Salvation Army could send a truck out tomorrow, but the truck driver would have to decide if it is good enough for them to take. The one corner of the couch is broken down but other than that I think it is okay, so I had to try to make sure my couch would not be rejected by Salvation Army. I cleaned off the arms, then sprayed the whole thing down with fabric freshener (I need to buy some more now). Tomorrow AM I will vacumn it out again, which I just did about a month ago. Hopefully they will accept it or I guess I'll just have to drag it out into my front yard for someone to take. Don't have any idea when the couch will be delivered or when Salvation Army will come. Need to call Jeff Lynch tomorrow to find out the scheduled delivery time. Last time they were super early.


old couch- take me please!

I am finally feeling pretty healthy again, so the plan for the weekend is to pack up the rest of the Christmas stuff, take some boxes over to storage and work on re-organizing my mom's room. Earlier this week I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a new 22 X 28 frame, which I used to reframe the print in over the mantle in the living room. Its old frame went into my room to frame up "Azali's Domain" which I've wanted to frame since I bought it, oh say 7 years ago. I still need to get a mat cut for it, so I will have to head back over to Hobby Lobby in the next week or so. I do want to buy some more frames there for the other two big posters for the dining room and for some more prints in the living room, but I think that will have to wait a few more paychecks.



As for the kitchen and the bathroom... it is looking like those two projects are going to have to wait until next month more than likely. Oh well, things are workable, if not exactly wonderful looking now, and we can certainly live with them as they are for the time being.

I'm also hoping it will be nice this weekend so I can work in the yard some. The chickweed really wants to take over, especially as I have not done much in the yard in almost a month. I did fertilize all my pansies when I watered the yard last weekend. Now that the dogs have eaten both my ornamental cabbages, I finally have somewhere to plant my pink pansies. I need to do that this weekend and water all the plants on the porch well. My coleus indoors continue to look decent and my fern continues to look sad. If the weather is above 30 at night I may but the fern back outside. I would also really like to finally get the Bradford Pear leaves raked up in my front yard.

Happy New Year

Amazingly enough, today marks the third different calander year we have spent in our house, since we moved in in October 2006.

There is a small chance of snow flurries tomorrow morning and the low for tonight will be in the mid-20s. I brought my fern inside the other day. Of course, I didn't manage to get any pictures of the one nice bloom on my Debutante camellia today. Both of the blooms that have opened on Diakagura have been browned out by the frost. There are still a bunch of unopened buds, so I'm hoping I can catch a couple later in the year.

I finally got one project done around the house: I hung the mirror on the inside of my one closet door. I also replaced the shelf in that closet, but I am waiting to put shoes up until I can get some shoe boxes at Big Lots. I tried to go after work yesterday but they closed early due to the holiday. Maybe if I a really motivated, I will go get some tomorrow morning before work.