Settling into the Simpler Way of Life

After spending a month on the side of a mountain, I was fairly confident that my house too, would be swarming with flying creatures—moths, mosquito’s, crickets—all banging at my windows in the evening. The first night I saw a few. Last night, the temperature went down to 68 overnight, so I decided to open the windows for some fresh mountain air while I slept. Only one window is missing a screen—soon to be none—so off went the central air. I opened all the windows, even going outside to find a few thick branches to hold open the ones that have broken springs—on brand new windows, hmm. The last one, I noticed the screen didn’t fit tight. I tried to fiddle with it, but it was after dark and I feared the creatures would shout the directions to open windows and lights, so I shut it. When I went back to close the other windows, I noticed only one screen really fit. Ah, so repair #1. This, even before installing screen doors, because I can live without open doors, but not without open windows. Thankfully, it’s been warm (read: HOT) enough to keep everything closed.

When shopping for the absolute necessities until I have my 'stuff', I looked for the eco-friendly bug spray, but they were out. I’m not crazy about even the eco-friendly spray however, I’ve not had the chance to plant the lavender that bugs hate, or the marigolds. I have plenty of coffee grounds to spread, but that’s for ants—and I have no ants. Since I’d not noticed too many, I’d hoped my citronella candles would work, so on the deck I was to check in with a writing group I’d neglected for a few days, do a few small stone blog posts, and work on last weeks Wordle. The citronella candle did not work.

So, I schlepped everything back inside and decided to take my first bubble bath. Poured in the peaches and cream bubbles, made a hot cup of chai, and grabbed “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”. Now, I’m a fairly large girl and the tub is deep, but narrow. There’s solutions for that: lose weight, which is part of the plan moving to the country—gardening, yard work, etc.—however, I doubt that I’m gonna narrow down that much that fast; another solution is to get a claw foot tub. I’ve seen a few give-aways, and it wouldn’t be much work, really. The tub is one of those plastic surround things, so just need to turn off the water and rip it out. Will probably have to redo the floor beneath and the wall, but, hey. Bathtubs are important. I can leave the shower as is and just get a circular curtain rod. That’s all in the future though. At the moment, the bubbles were rising and the tea was steaming.

Having been large for awhile, I’m well versed in how to keep a hot tub of water. Once it starts to drain out of the overflow, I run more hot water, and shazam, full tub. This one never seemed to get to the overflow. Besides the fact that the water faucet handle is in the middle of the wall, meaning I had to stand up to turn it off and stand up to turn it back on. The water just seeped and seeped. Solution: one of the flat, rubber plugs. Is that Repair #2 or #3? Ah well, stand up, turn the water on and be done with it—for now. Research #1: find out the size of the water heater, because one tub full and that was it. Washed (with lovely cucumber and mint soap from a far away friend), shaved my legs, and rinsed in a tablespoon of water.

Settling into the simpler way of life.