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snoozefestaudioIf nothing else can be said about the month of January... in the northern hemisphere, it truly is... the clean slate.
The trees are asleep. The solstice is past. The holidays are over. And a new year begins... with clean white snow, and glassy ice.
Wherever you find yourself in January, is the result of all that happened in the past year. But now... you have a head start on shaping the one to come.
If you overcome the urge to hibernate... and use this month to draw the plans, and lay the groundwork... you'll be somewhere... come spring!
------------{=0=}------------
Other than the routines of tending to Dad and his dog, I also vacuumed downstairs, and made a run to Walgreens for a few things.
I wanted to buy garbage stickers there, but they no longer sell them, for some reason. So I had to pop over to the little Mexican super-mercado across the street... where I bought ten of them.
The way it works in Aurora, is, if you've got extra bags or other items that don't fit in the bins provided by the trash contractor, each item needs a sticker on it, to be collected.
I'm gonna be throwing out all kinds of shit in the coming weeks, and ten stickers will barely get me started, but I need to make room for Tim in the back room before Saturday.
--<>--
Downstairs there are three bedrooms; Dad's room, the back room, and a third we call, the music room, because that's where Mom's organ's been sitting since the early 2000s.
Mom never really played the organ, but she wanted to learn, and bought a big, heavy-ass one for herself in 2002... which still sits today in the music room, collecting dust.
Ever since she died, it's been a white elephant, taking up space, but impossible to sell, because of the sentimental value it has to Dad.
That's why it's called the music room, but when Dad got Yvette... the shelter dog who was paper trained, but not fully house trained... he immediately papered the music room floor with actual newspapers, and taught her to shit and pee in there!
Yay!
The music room had already become a depository for junk, and huge hoarder piles, before it also became the dog's bathroom and so... it's been absolutely off limits as a guest room since 2016.
--<>--
The back room is also full of junk, but it doesn't have a white elephant organ in it, and it's not an animal bathroom, so... it's the only possible room to clear out for Tim.
However, the back room currently hosts Dad's train table... which takes up a ton of space, but CAN be relocated into the music room... IF, an old twin bed, and a bunch of other shit in the music room, is thrown out!
So...
Tons of shit has to be thrown out of both the music room, and the back room, in order for the train table to move into the music room... so that the back room can be a bedroom for Tim!
--<>--
Now, the other thing about the back room is... it's really a BACK room!.. it's just three walls and a roof slapped on to the back of the house!
It's exposed on all sides, and has no ductwork from the furnace going out there to heat it!
This is why, way back in the 1950s, a gas wall heater was installed back there... which has worked quite well! And it was replaced with a more modern one in 2001, so... great!
BUT... I've been noticing this winter, since the deep freeze a couple weeks ago, that it just wasn't putting out much heat!
So today's big project was to get to the bottom of that.
I started outside, by checking the exhaust flume, thinking there might be a bird nest inside it, but it was clear.
Inside, I removed the housing around the heater and, after inspecting with a flashlight, discovered an abandoned mouse nest!
Mice had cleverly pulled down all the pink insulation from inside the wall above the heater... down into the cavity of the heater itself... because mice love to make nests out of fluffy stuff, and this was the coziest spot in the whole wall!
The pink mass of insulation crammed behind the heater was filled with, not only mouse poops, but... Good 'n Fun kabob sticks!
Yay!
Good 'n Fun dog kabobs are not just insanely expensive, but when Yvette chews off the flavory nuggets, she LOVES to leave the chewy sticks laying around all over the house, on the floors!
And Good 'n Fun kabob sticks are light weight, and SUPER EASY FOR MICE TO STOCKPILE!
--<>--
So... it was kind of a nightmare getting the disgusting mess of soiled insulation and kabob sticks out from behind the heater... and the mouse nest was big enough to fill a whole garbage bag!
But, after a ton of vacuuming, I did get the problem taken care of, and now the gas heater has the passive airflow it needs, to heat the room properly.
------------{=0=}------------
Also managed to get the new Ace of Clubs together today, in my off moments upstairs here...
It's basically DONE!
I could add a little more detailing here and there, but... I'm kind of amazed with how good this card looks after spending only a day on it!
Ace of Hearts still isn't finalized, but it's close, and so it looks like I'll be taking a stab at revamping the Ace of Diamonds, starting tomorrow!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
The trees are asleep. The solstice is past. The holidays are over. And a new year begins... with clean white snow, and glassy ice.
Wherever you find yourself in January, is the result of all that happened in the past year. But now... you have a head start on shaping the one to come.
If you overcome the urge to hibernate... and use this month to draw the plans, and lay the groundwork... you'll be somewhere... come spring!
Other than the routines of tending to Dad and his dog, I also vacuumed downstairs, and made a run to Walgreens for a few things.
I wanted to buy garbage stickers there, but they no longer sell them, for some reason. So I had to pop over to the little Mexican super-mercado across the street... where I bought ten of them.
The way it works in Aurora, is, if you've got extra bags or other items that don't fit in the bins provided by the trash contractor, each item needs a sticker on it, to be collected.
I'm gonna be throwing out all kinds of shit in the coming weeks, and ten stickers will barely get me started, but I need to make room for Tim in the back room before Saturday.
Downstairs there are three bedrooms; Dad's room, the back room, and a third we call, the music room, because that's where Mom's organ's been sitting since the early 2000s.
Mom never really played the organ, but she wanted to learn, and bought a big, heavy-ass one for herself in 2002... which still sits today in the music room, collecting dust.
Ever since she died, it's been a white elephant, taking up space, but impossible to sell, because of the sentimental value it has to Dad.
That's why it's called the music room, but when Dad got Yvette... the shelter dog who was paper trained, but not fully house trained... he immediately papered the music room floor with actual newspapers, and taught her to shit and pee in there!
Yay!
The music room had already become a depository for junk, and huge hoarder piles, before it also became the dog's bathroom and so... it's been absolutely off limits as a guest room since 2016.
The back room is also full of junk, but it doesn't have a white elephant organ in it, and it's not an animal bathroom, so... it's the only possible room to clear out for Tim.
However, the back room currently hosts Dad's train table... which takes up a ton of space, but CAN be relocated into the music room... IF, an old twin bed, and a bunch of other shit in the music room, is thrown out!
So...
Tons of shit has to be thrown out of both the music room, and the back room, in order for the train table to move into the music room... so that the back room can be a bedroom for Tim!
Now, the other thing about the back room is... it's really a BACK room!.. it's just three walls and a roof slapped on to the back of the house!
It's exposed on all sides, and has no ductwork from the furnace going out there to heat it!
This is why, way back in the 1950s, a gas wall heater was installed back there... which has worked quite well! And it was replaced with a more modern one in 2001, so... great!
BUT... I've been noticing this winter, since the deep freeze a couple weeks ago, that it just wasn't putting out much heat!
So today's big project was to get to the bottom of that.
I started outside, by checking the exhaust flume, thinking there might be a bird nest inside it, but it was clear.
Inside, I removed the housing around the heater and, after inspecting with a flashlight, discovered an abandoned mouse nest!
Mice had cleverly pulled down all the pink insulation from inside the wall above the heater... down into the cavity of the heater itself... because mice love to make nests out of fluffy stuff, and this was the coziest spot in the whole wall!
The pink mass of insulation crammed behind the heater was filled with, not only mouse poops, but... Good 'n Fun kabob sticks!
Yay!
Good 'n Fun dog kabobs are not just insanely expensive, but when Yvette chews off the flavory nuggets, she LOVES to leave the chewy sticks laying around all over the house, on the floors!
And Good 'n Fun kabob sticks are light weight, and SUPER EASY FOR MICE TO STOCKPILE!
So... it was kind of a nightmare getting the disgusting mess of soiled insulation and kabob sticks out from behind the heater... and the mouse nest was big enough to fill a whole garbage bag!
But, after a ton of vacuuming, I did get the problem taken care of, and now the gas heater has the passive airflow it needs, to heat the room properly.
Also managed to get the new Ace of Clubs together today, in my off moments upstairs here...
It's basically DONE!
I could add a little more detailing here and there, but... I'm kind of amazed with how good this card looks after spending only a day on it!
Ace of Hearts still isn't finalized, but it's close, and so it looks like I'll be taking a stab at revamping the Ace of Diamonds, starting tomorrow!
°¦}
