09:11 – Happy New Year!
I wasn’t really expecting to be relocated by the first of this year, but we made it. Sparta, NC is now home and getting to be more so every day. Winston-Salem is now just where we used to live. We’ll still be making day trips down there frequently to finish moving stuff and get the old house ready to go on the market, but now those trips are merely visits to the old home place. We’re settled in here.
Over the weekend, Barbara plans to take down and rebox Christmas decorations and do a thorough house cleaning. As of today, I’m back to regular work. I’ll be spending a lot more time in my office and workroom, although I’ll still be helping Barbara with move-related stuff.
We’re to have a week or ten days of chilly weather, but then things are supposed to warm up again. When that happens, I need to get the new woodstove burned in. It’s usable now, should the power fail, but for the first load or two of wood it’ll be emitting chemical fumes as the heat burns off residual chemicals in the paint.
None of us can know what 2016 will bring. Like everyone, I’m hoping for peace, prosperity, and a generally good year, but I’m afraid that the best we can expect is more of the same. In any event, I’m a lot happier watching things unfold from here than I would have been in the big city.
14:43 – I just helped Barbara replace all the boxed-up Christmas stuff in the closet where it’ll live until next Christmas. She’s doing the White Tornado thing upstairs as I write. We stuck Colin in the garage until she finishes vacuuming because he ferociously attacks the vacuum cleaner while Barbara is trying to use it.
I just flushed 3.4 ounces of Rid-X down each of our three toilets. I’m not sure how much good it does, but I suppose it can’t hurt and if it helps delay having the septic tank dug up and cleaned out it’ll be worth the small monthly cost.