Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Melancholy

I woke up feeling a little melancholy.  See, yesterday I had gotten a Christmas card from the vet's office, in memory of Jake -- Cody's dog who died last year.  That got me to thinking...in the next few years, I'm going to be in mourning a lot.

Rylea is going to be 9 in May, which isn't ancient, but it isn't young, either.  Squeaky will be 15 sometime in the early part of next year.   Jesse will be 7, which is old age for a dog.  Even the snakes will all be 11 or 12 years old.  Since snakes normally live 10-15 years in captivity, they're already on borrowed time.

I think what also contributed to my melancholy was that today was moving day -- again.   I've mentioned before that Beverly and James were going to give me some of their furniture when they move.  Well, today James and Cody hauled most of it over to the house.  They gave me two cabinets like this. 


I put one in the snake/computer/craft room, and the other in in the hall for now.  I thought, "Once these snakes start dying off, I'll have more room to put stuff in here."  I know it's a bit morbid, but it's also realistic.  That's where the melancholy came in.  It was just one more reminder that they're not much longer for this world.

But let's not think about that just yet.  Let me show you what else they gave me.  There is this entertainment center. 


That's not going to be how I arrange everything, but it'll do for now.  The DVD player is also a streaming device, so I think I'll move it to my bedroom.  I have another DVD player that I can put in here, and use my Fire Stick to stream.

They gave me this couch


and the matching chair. 


The blankets are there to try to protect it from Rylea's hair until I can get a regular slipcover for it.  I got rid of that old blue couch that I've had for 20 years (and bought used at that).  Yes, I called the waste management company and arranged for it to be picked up.  You'd be proud of me.  I still haven't called the chimney sweep, though, so you can only be a little proud. 

I had quite a bit of stuff still in their attic, so I went over and got it. 



Now, not all of those boxes were in their attic.  Four of them were in my shed, and have books in them.  I wanted to get them into the house before the mice and the damp ruined them.  Now that I have cabinets to put them into, I can do that.  The rest have my dad's things, and some of my grandma and great grandma's things.  After Christmas, I'm going to start sorting through them and put everything in plastic storage boxes. 

This was my rocking chair when I was little.  It needs a good cleaning and some restoration, and it'll be good as new.   


At first, I thought the children were a decal, but upon closer inspection, they appear to be painted on.  That will make it much easier to restore them.

Since I had to leave the house anyway -- to go pick up that stuff -- I went ahead and went to the store.  I got the things I forgot yesterday, but no cooking has taken place today.  Well, I boiled down my sweet potatoes, but that's about it.  That just means I'll have plenty to keep me busy tomorrow and Thursday. 

Don't want to make the cookies and candy too soon, or I'll eat them all up before Christmas. 

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