Yesterday was a teacher inservice day at school, but there were no inservices, so it was basically a day off. I was glad. I could finally go to the bank while it was open. I am getting a home equity loan to pay for my new roof. The estimate is $10,200. Yikes!
I had gone to the bank before Christmas. I had instructions that I should bring a list of papers with me. I had them all except my 2006 tax return. It’s imprisoned on an old hard drive. The loan officer had trouble verifying my income because of the whole self-employed thing. After a lot of paper shuffling and many explanations, I finally got the “go” sign.
So I’ll be scheduling the roof to be repaired in four to six weeks. That’s how long the loan will take. They need to appraise my house, and apparently the appraiser takes a while.
I did actually do some things on my day off yesterday. I would have liked to have gotten more done, but I’ll take what I can get.
I cleaned off one part of the counter top in my kitchen. It’s the place where the stools go. I never actually use it as a table because I’d rather go to the living room to watch TV than look out the window. Over time, stuff had piled up until it was clogged with junk. I stored, threw away, or will give away all the stuff that was there, and now it’s clean.
I also went through my refrigerator and dumped out all expired sauces and dressings. Whew! It was a lot. I poured them all down the drain so I could recycle the bottles. They smelled nice. I should use sauces more often.
Yesterday I watched The Poseidon Adventure on TV. The original one, not the recent remake.
I’ve always remembered seeing this in the theater. The story goes that my parents wanted to see this movie and, not having a babysitter, took me along thinking that I’d fall asleep during the movie. I didn’t sleep the whole time though and got some peeks at the show. It seems like I remember bits and pieces of the movie. It seems like I remember having my blanket with me, so that I could cover my head with it and sleep. Is this a real memory, or have I heard my mom tell the story so many times I only think I remember it?
The movie was released December 1972. I would be three in February 1973. Do I have a memory from when I was three years old? Inconceivable!
When my parents were here for Thanksgiving I got a futon mattress out of the basement and used it in my computer room. It’s quite comfortable. I slept well. After my parents left, I put the mattress in the hallway by the bathroom door, thinking that if I saw it each day I’d be reminded to put it away.
Yesterday I finally put it away.
I also finally took down my Christmas decorations and finally saw Twilight. I don’t think there’s much left to do now. I can die with no regrets.
It’s really cold (for Baltimore) right now. The last couple of nights, we’ve gotten below 10 degrees. I like it because it makes having heat and wrapping in a blanket feel really good. I don’t like it because it’s really cold.
I’m particularly worried about my frost-tender perennials. I’ve had a palm tree growing in my back yard for four winters. I would be very sad if it died. In fact, I have four palms right now. I covered them to help protect them a little. Hopefully they’ll be okay.
What is cool about the cold is that my pond is freezing. I’ve kept the waterfall running because the pond supply place guy said the pump could handle it and because it helps keep the water from stagnating. Icicles have formed in the waterfall.
