I was wondering why turning on the heat seemed like giving up. Yarn Harlot seems to know the answer – it’s my Canadian heritage shivering, I mean, shining through. We live on the third floor of a beautiful old 3-family house that has not a stitch of insulation. Nope, naked as a jaybird our home is. Figures we has to find the only triple-decker nudist on the block. All four of our cats have been huddling on our bed at night for warmth. One of them dragged a metal barrel up and started making a fire, but I put a stop to it when I smelled the catnip burning. This morning, my husband (who is referred to as “hot water bottle” or “bag of warm blood” during the winter months) and I slept in for half an hour because it was too cold to get out of the cat-encrusted bed.
I think it’s time to take the air conditioners out and close the storm windows.
I always drag my heels in doing this because I never want to admit that Old Man Winter is coming back to try and kill us again. The only ray of sunshine in all of this is that soon it will be time to put the insulating plastic in the windows. Once it’s up, we sit back and watch the cats bounce off it when they try to jump onto the windowsills. Amazingly, this never gets old. The 100th time I see it is as delightful as my very first. Sometimes life tosses you a bone.
In other news, I discovered that Webs has a “garage sale” section on their site. When I heard this, I knew it was going to be a problem. Luckily, there isn’t a huge selection and I got away with spending $20 plus shipping on two sweaters worth of wool. Pretty fan-freaking-tastic, if you ask me. I just got the yarn today and it’s really quite nice. I got the Inca Wool in Yellow Green and Dull Orange. Whoever thought of these names hates yarn and wants to spread all kinds of nasty rumors about it. Looking at it on my desk, I see Olive Oil and Pumpkin. Doesn’t that sound much nicer (and more delicious)? It’s softer than I thought it would be and the two colors go kind of funkily together. As usual, I don’t have a specific pattern in mind, so I’m imagining how they’d look striped together in a scarf set or a blanket. Or perhaps I’ll just get two single-colored sweaters out of it. That’s the joy of impulsive stash yarn. It has so much potential. Why, this yarn could be president one day! (seriously, I really think this yarn has a shot considering the competition)
turning on the heat in early october is like giving up. i’m not canadian and yet i won’t turn on the heat yet either. in fact, after years of living in an overheated apartment, i relish the chance of wearing a sweater and slippers in the house as opposed to shorts and tank top. it’s better for the skin anyway.
on the topic of skin, pale peach should never be a yarn color.
maryse/http://morici.typepad.com/bag_n_trash
Hi! Just wanted to let you know that I recently discovered your delightful blog, and have gotten tons of enjoyment out of it. The first time I read it through I literally had tears (laughter, mind you) running down my face. You are a very talented writer with a sense of humor that is tweaked in just the right way to tickle my funny bone. I hope you are a frequent poster, because I’m going to be checking back quite often for my next dose of laughter. (ps…I’m going to sit down on my couch right now with a ball of BRIGHT turquoise acrylic and cast on “Hallowig”. I must make one. Or two, or three (other colors will be lime green, and hot pink)OH, and I devoted a post in my blog today to tooting your horn.
Ah, the memories – we just moved from a drafty ol’ 2 story “nudist” last year. Man, am I ever glad! After 17 years, I was tired of always feeling a draft blowing through the place no matter what room you were in. I literally wore out a pair of fuzzy feet slippers one winter I wore them so much! They did keep my feet warm though! Love hearing about your kitties!
Lea
We also live on the 3rd Floor…of an old Victorian. Strangely enough, our radiators work exceptionally well and our bedroom gets Ridiculously Hot. Sickly Hot. Mississippi Hot. This is not good for my human hot water bottle hubby and makes our down comforter and electric blanket kind of useless. We turn on the ceiling fan and an industrial strength fan on the floor in front of our door and open the windows (even in mid-winter) and it’s STILL too hot. Even for me, who’s always cold. Waddayagonnado?
I’d vote for it.
Just read Dot’s blog. What has Aslan been up to? 😉
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with using cats as insulation. I figure if they’re going to sleep on the humans’ bed anyway, they might as well function as extra bedding.
Alexandra
http://artisokka.com
Heh, I think Texans do the same thing except in the opposite direction.
“We waited until the start of May to turn on the air conditioning!”
“Well, we waited until the first day of a triple-digit heat index to turn on the air conditioning!”
“Oh yeah? Well we didn’t turn on the AC until the first day of summer!!”
I’m in Dorchester now, and I turned my heat on last week. I have no shame. I grew up in Northern California. I thought my first East Coast winter here was great until January 2nd. Then I was like “Okay, time for spring, right? Right?” Yeah, not so much.
Will there be pictures of the Inca Wool soon? Please?
Have a great weekend.