I’ve been quiet because I’ve been doing stuff. On occasion my mind becomes exceedingly unpleasant. Critical and negative, to an almost crippling degree. This has been one of those periods. To counter that, I do things. Lots of things. I’ve finally started ordering my dressing room. By colour. Like all the other normal happy people do.
But I had to stop because I don’t have enough wooden hangers, and so I’m waiting for more to arrive. So I moved on to sanding the windows in the landing. The wood looks like walnut.
Then I got distracted, so I took down a door that also needs sanding and painting.
And here’s a glimpse at the apartment we’re working on now:
In the end we decided we’re putting in new floors and a new kitchen, but leaving the floor plan as it is.
I’ve been limiting myself to a glass of wine p/ day since right before Mike’s hip surgery. I do not feel better in any way. The same way I don’t feel any better for not smoking since March of last year. Some days I give myself my glass of wine with dinner, other days I have it in the afternoon outside. The weather has been excellent. Like summer. Today it’s 27º C in Mazamet. Another Indian Summer in the Tarn.
I was taught that Indian summer was a warm spell in the Spring … maybe it is different in Europe … where you have different Indians (from India?).
I love your dressing room. I wish I had that kind of space. I once did and I hung steel pipes from chains at various levels for short and long items. It wasn’t ideal because out in the open, dust is hard to control, but I loved being able to see all my clothes, rather than having them stuffed into small closets or wardrobes.
Other than suit hangers, I don’t use wood hangers for shirts and pants, etc. Even fashion maven Tim Gunn (and others) don’t do that as they have their clothes laundered so they come back already on hangers and taking them off of those to be put on others is tedious. I do my own laundry (If you want it done right, …) so I invested in some very heavy wire hangers. They do not bend and so they do not tangle anywhere as easily as cheap, thin wire hangers. For pants, there is a cardboard insert available.
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Here’s the Indian Summer (his)story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_summer Traditionally the phenomena was referred to in France as a St. Denis or St. Martin’s summer. But now Indian is more used.
Except for leather I also do all laundry at home. Did you know now you can get home dry cleaning machines? The other day I read an article that said you can get one called Swash for $500.
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Spring? Indian_summer was always 2-3 weeks at the end of October which brought August like temps back. Harvest, and Oktoberfest and the like were always more pleasant because of it (if it arrived). This was East Coast US and Utah/Colorado. West coast doesn’t seem to experience it much. And the Northwest hardly at all.
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Is your problem possibly an excess of clothes rather than a hanger deficiency?
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There’s no such thing as an *excess of clothes*. That’s a myth, like Jesus or big boned people.
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I hope Mike’s convalescence is proceeding well, and that your own mood lightens, as I’m sure it will. Be kind to yourself, my friend, and be sure to take the Mickey out of those negative thoughts, eh? You heard the news about KJ from Gib, I take it?
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He’s like a spring chicken. An annoying spring chicken…
And no, have heard no news about KJ?
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Sorry to say, she passed away in August. Like you, I had my run-ins with her, but still . . .
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How surprising. She was only in her 50’s, vegetarian, non-smoker, no stress of having a job…
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Do you know how, Harriod?
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Heart failure, it seems, there’s a link to a page on her blog: https://kcbooksandmusic.wordpress.com/2017/08/18/sad-news/
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Where’s the link?
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https://kcbooksandmusic.wordpress.com/2017/08/18/sad-news/
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Yeah, I saw that, but it doesn’t mention the cause of death. Am I mising something?
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oops, sorry, here it is: https://kcbooksandmusic.wordpress.com/the-editors-column/
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Sorry, no, just that Adrian (hubby) offered no further information on the circumstances when corresponding to someone in the States on K’s behalf. Tried searching KJ Gib but nothing came up. A committed dog lover and rescuer. From her Facebook: “If I can give an unwanted dog a home, my time on this earth hasn’t been wasted.”
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I am sorry to hear of her death…I had been wondering why she was quiet, but thought it was down to problems with the internet.
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Try BNP supporters, or Thatcherites – or something like that in the search 😛
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Don’t you dare! That is going much too far. Take up pottery instead. :p
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I wonder if, in general, mental health was better back when people had to work much harder at life. I know when I’m idle, (and my son is in a listless miasma right now 24, no job…) the funk we descend into can be difficult to breakout of. But getting busy seems to cure so much. Being productive, in whatever, appears to correct or at least curb, mental meanderings into the melancholy.
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I think the whole structure of life in the past kept most people from mental meanderings. Everything was a lot of work. Even getting dressed was work. Undergarments, winter garments, and ties and corsets and boots with endless laces. And homes where people didn’t heat “the space”, rather they heated themselves by sitting by the fire. An endless struggle.
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Wooden hangers tend to dictate my life, too.
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I now have dressing room envy. The thing is you can SEE your clothes. Also I understand that clothes moths, like vampires, aren’t too keen on daylight. I think there’s something in the atmosphere, lowering one’s mood – so commiserate.
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In the last house we had closets everywhere. Little, dark, impossible to find anything in closets. A nightmare. So this time around I decided to put an end to the hassle!
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No wonder you have been off form if you are limiting yourself to one glass of wine a day…
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It’s not forever, just for now. I’ve been overdoing it for about a decade, so I need to pull back a little. Just a little 😀
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Sounds like rather a lot to me….
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I’ll miss your drunk comments. But one must make trade-offs in life.
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No one will miss my drunk comments more than me!!!
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So you are aware that it takes quite awhile for the body to detox after being a longtime smoker, no? Same/same the drinking. Liver and lungs are like sponges. Takes awhile to squeeze them out. Acupucture and herbs can speed the detox, if you’re curious. Little else can, that I’m aware of. As Hariod says, be kind to yourself. The mood thing definitely correlates to the detox in TCM terms.
Love that you simply get busy and do stuff – I’m the same when my head isn’t right. First, I go for a long bike ride (but I do this regularly anyway). Then I strip and sand and paint and such. Take care.
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Love your new gravatar! The light through the trees is amazing.
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Thanks sweetie 🙂
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Sand, strip, paint, wax. All substitutes for alcohol, nicotine, and less legal substances. Sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn’t….
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“Works” is probably the wrong word. It mostly just distracts, which is better than nothing 🙂
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who does one thing, gets distracted, does another, etc. I have a project of stripping my kitchen door of paint and see if I can get the old transom to work. Don’t know if that’ll happen before or after the kitchen remodel that we finally pulled the trigger on.
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Ugh, sorry messed up with a duplicate comment. Kind of shocked. That’s Roughseas, right? 😦
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Yes, it is…
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So hard to believe. We’re supposed to be immortal, aren’t we?
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I certainly am 😀
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LMAO! I’ll have some of what he’s having. 😉
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Good! Another remodeling project, My favorite part of your blog. Why are you ripping out the floors? They didn’t look that bad in the pic.
I wonder what ideas you have for the wall space above the clothes racks.
I was a heavy smoker, I’ve been chewing nicorette gum for 15 years, works well for me, I can get a little high strung sometimes & the nicorette gum takes the edge off.
Good on cutting back on the booze, you know what you have to do.
Do you ever listen to the blues, blues music? One of my favs is BB King Live at Cook County Jail. I don’t know why listening to blues music makes you feel better, actually lifts you up, it’s counter intuitive.
How is Mike’s recovery going? Right at the 4 week mark it seems you make really rapid progress towards full recovery.
I would make a lousy therapist, I’m completely lacking in insight.
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The floors look okay in the pictures, but in real life they’re lino pretending to be wood!!! The wood pattern is just printed on it. I know some people are okay with lino, but I just can’t stand it.
Mike’s recovery is just amazing. He couldn’t be happier. He still has therapy twice a week, but the limp and pain are completely gone 🙂
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It is a good floor plan, but if I were living there, I’d want to knock down the wall between the kitchen and living room. I don’t like kitchens that feel confined. That would also eliminate the problem of entering the apartment and being confronted with a wall instead of space.
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Yes, that’s exactly what we were thinking; but in the end I’m really not in the mood for heavier work right now. I just really want to focus on the house so it’s really done/done/done by spring
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