Batten Down the Hatches, Becky

Batten Down the Hatches, Becky

Saturday, I closed in on further winterizing the house. I added that leaf trapping mesh to the front gutters, which also allowed me to replace the storm windows. Once I knew the windows were in place, I sealed the huge gaps around the frame a la silicone. Repeated this sealing around the living room window and finally swapped out the bug screen for solid glass on the front storm door.

I guess it was appropriate too, that a couple of nights ago I turned on the furnace for the first time. It's such an act of psychological defeat to turn on the furnace. Only a week before we had +30 C temperatures on Thanksgiving! For reasons of familial schedules and a week of non-stop eating, we had a Thanksgiving brunch this year, so combining that with the weather, I feel I need a Thanksgiving Mulligan - a do-over if you will. Perhaps the dollar parity should suggest a holiday parity and maybe for a first I'll do a mini-American Thanksgiving this year to make up for the misplaced one. At any rate, now I'm digging out sweaters, turning off the water line to the back yard and bringing in the hose. It's like that point when you switch back to wearing socks from a summer of bare-footedness. Generally, I have come to prefer naked feet to besocked ones. Still, it's difficult to have it both ways. Autumn brings us stylin' scarves and po' boy caps, upturned collars and heavy footwear. I like Autumn if only for the variety. It could be warm, cool, sunny or overcast. You get it all. Including the wind off the lake that wants to seep through your storm windows and door seams.