Leaves of Destruction

[rorqual]

When it's alive, a tree is a wonderful, graceful thing, which leans and bends with the slightest breeze. When dead, however, it becomes a time-bomb of deadly needles, which will explode all over your house if you just look at it crosseyed. Or at least, that's my experience from taking out my xmas tree this afternoon. There are needles in every room downstairs, even ones I didn't take the tree into. There are needles stuck to cobwebs on the ceiling; there are needles under the kitchen sink. I think my house actually grew another room to put needles in. And best of all, I forgot (unitl I got there) that the porch door doesn't actually open all the way. It only opens part way, which is far less than a usual door's width. But, it opened enough for me to get out, and reach in and put hands on the tree. By the time I got it all the way out the door, it was a shadow of its former self, and my porch was the quiet forest floor. But I still count that as a victory.

Now, while the roomba cleans the living room, I write to you. In order to give maximum space to cleaning, I am in the hallway, not near the computer. I can bring the keyboard over here (thank you kyriotate!), but not the monitor (without pulling the laptop out of its hookups), so I can't at all see the screen. It's an interesting experience. I know there will be significant editing after the fact.

I woke this morning to find one of my pipes had frozen. To be precise, I found that the hot water in the kitchen didn't work, and deduced the rest, but it was in fact correct. So, like a good homeowner, I trekked off to the Home Despot, and bought insulation, and some tape for the predicted leaks, and then I came home and took a hair dryer to the pipes. It turned out to be frozen where it runs over the basement door (the door to the outside), which made perfect sense, since when I poked around, I found that there was only a nominal "seal" at the top of the door, and the wind was quite definitely sneaking in. Wrapping the pipe (once I defrosted it - no leaks, either - yay!) was not possible for me in the tight space, so instead I cannibalized the water heater insulation I bought last year (before I realized it was already insulated), and stuffed it above the door. Then I weatherstripped the heck out of it, and hopefully, that will solve all my problems. In any case, I have water for now.

Other than that, it's bloody cold, which I think everyone is aware of by now. My house is fine, but far from toasty. And I am sad there's no sign of snow. But, undecorating trees and then cleaning up after the destruction does serve to keep one warm. Tonight: dinner out (somewhere warm) and BSG. Tomorrow, nerdy friends. Sunday, football (Don't tell anyone Internets, but I'm not a full-time Ravens fan. Still, I hope they win - I love the way the city gets so excited, and all the lights turn purple). And then, best of all - *two* more days off! I haven't even planned that far in advance.

Comments

[pneumatik.livejournal.com]

Apparently current building code prohibits pipes running along outside walls, or something like that, specifically to prevent stuff like what happened to you.

What you need, though, is a new basement door.

[rorqual.livejournal.com]

True. Can I hire you and your spouse to come over and take care of this? :)

[pneumatik.livejournal.com]

We're neither licensed nor bonded. You /really/ don't want us working on your house, and we /really/ don't want to expose ourselves to that liability.