Posts Tagged ‘indoor pursuits’
Indoor Projects
Staying indoors, away from the smoke, was our priority yesterday, and it led to some interesting projects around the house. I’m trying to find items I may have stored in various locations over the last ten years. There’s a lot of guesswork involved. One interesting result from my searching has been finding other things I didn’t know still existed, like 40-year-old photos and an odd document or two.
I pulled out an old hard drive in a search for videos and found that an internal connector had broken loose from the circuit board where the USB cable connects. That’s one I probably won’t be able to fix myself, but I did find out how to get the plastic cover off by searching the internet.
It didn’t get as oppressively hot yesterday, but Cyndie still provided the horses with some extra cooling methods. Since they are stuck breathing the smoky air, we can at least help take the edge off the heat. Mia is still the one most likely to take advantage of the shade sail protection. You can see in the photo above that Mix is in the vicinity, but on the other side of the fence.
We’ve had some big storm clouds billow up nearby, but they’ve been just to our east and moving away from us. A rainstorm would be a welcome way to scrub the air and bring down temperatures a little bit. Unfortunately, the ten-day forecast doesn’t currently have any hints of rain at all. What it does have is some days with high temperatures not even reaching the 80s (F). Seventy-degree summer days are not something you will hear me complain about.
By the end of the day yesterday, it seemed like our air was getting a little better. There is a glimmer of hope for improvement moseying its way in. I’m hoping to get back outside today to do some trail trimming through the woods. It’s getting to be so jungle-like that a few of the pathways have become hard to detect.
That’s not very different than the hunting I’ve been doing in search of things I stashed somewhere in the house ten years ago.
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Indoor Pursuits
One day after a big melt, everything froze solid again and the wind chill is biting. Putting on the equivalent of a spacesuit to walk the dog makes sense because when we step outside the cold feels like we are in outer space.
The horses didn’t seem to pay the Arctic cold much attention, except maybe to more fervently devour hay for fuel to generate desired body warmth. We didn’t waste much time after the morning “cheers” (Ian’s and my more descriptive variant of “chores”) of seeing they got properly fed, knocking away ice that formed on their waterer, and doing the requisite housekeeping under and around the barn overhang.
We headed straight back to the house to thaw out.
The rest of the day was given to indoor pursuits, beginning with scouring the local newspaper over a warm breakfast. Cyndie and I then each independently processed the day’s Wordle challenge. After that, I lost myself in a jigsaw puzzle while Cyndie was occupied at the other end of the old family table toiling on a craft project.
We also took turns scouring our closets and dressers for clothes we can live without in a burst of decluttering. Getting rid of shirts that I haven’t worn in years is an exercise I really enjoy. I need to be in the right mood for it to go smoothly and when I am, it becomes easier as I go to dig ever deeper and jettison excess versions of button-downs or short and long sleeve tees with minimal hesitation.
At this point, there are many shirts I was only wearing to the day-job that now deserve to be retired, since I’m no longer employed outside the home.
My uniform for working at home tends to be rather limited and one combination of base and outer layer pullover shirts can last me for days before needing to be tossed to the laundry.
It all gets covered with the spacesuit when we go outside anyway, so if I can avoid working up a sweat, nothing gets too dirty except the treasured outer covering of my lined Carhartt overalls. Those now have so many accumulated layers of having been soiled that they almost stand up on their own. Makes it increasingly easier to climb into them over time.
Anything to make the project of dressing for outer space a little less onerous between the hours of indoor pursuits where we are warm and cozy.
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Multitasking Indoors
It was a mostly cloudy, very windy, and generally cooler day yesterday, so the bulk of activity was indoors. Leisurely reading was the early pursuit, followed by a combination of watching memorials for Walk Off the Earth keyboardist, Mike ‘Beard Guy’ Taylor on YouTube, while the NFL playoffs were on in the background.
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Relative Something 