21.11.2022 Gridlock!

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 Monday 21st 32F/0C. Just light enough to see another 2cm/1" of sticky snow has fallen. Up at 6.15 after a late night watching TV. Plasterers make it look far too easy on YouTube!

 Wide angle view of next door's abandoned back garden. Taken through the new bedroom window at 8am. The background trees are well over 6m/20' high. The foreground hedge over 3m/10' high on the other side of the boundary fence.

 7.15am. 60F/15C upstairs. Comfortable to sleep in but feels a bit cold for comfort now. I have put on my down jacket while I wait for enough light for my walk. 57F/14C in the lounge. 54F/12C in the kitchen with the mini oil-filled radiator. A chilly 44F/7C in the unheated bathroom/entrance hall. 

 The last log on the stove went out last night. Due to a lack of air. I had turned the air lever down slightly too much. It had been well alight when I left it. Disappointing, but unlikely to have affected indoor temperatures noticeably. The stove manufacturers warn against try to burn overnight on low air settings.

 Sitting still is chilly. Moving about soon makes me too warm. So I had better start reorganising the lounge/dining area. I need to find space for storage boxes elsewhere. The house continues to behave like one of those grid locked toys. Where a single piece has to be moved before others can be shuffled around. Grooves and tongues on the edges of the bricks kept the pieces firmly locked into the tray.

 I tried searching for "gridlock puzzle" but nothing similar came up. Found it: "Sliding numbers puzzle." If only my puzzle could become 3D. Instead of being locked into 2D. I cannot stack boxes safely due to their heavy/fragile contents. Boxes are also anonymous once closed. Labelling would not help identification with such mixed contents. Paper wrapping makes things much worse.

 8.00 Misty and heavily overcast. Fine snow falling. Walkies!

 9.15. A walk to the lanes in steadily falling snow. The traffic was heavy but the roads well salted today. No doubt aided by tyre spray extending the salt out to the verges.  

 A huge, eight wheel, forestry tree harvester went past in the lane. The driver gave me a wave. The stove is now lit and morning coffee is over. Time to start tidying the lounge again.

 11.00 34F. It has stopped snowing. I am having a rest. The dining table has been cleared [again.] Then clearing the top of the oak chest of drawers under the northern window. It was so heavy I had to remove all the drawers before it would even budge. Then all the prints and frames had to be moved [again.] All the chairs moved to the other end of the room.

 I hate going through my late wife's furniture. So many different things kept for decades. Sometimes for literally half a century. Just in case they would prove useful. I presume it was a survival response to hard times. When we hadn't much money. Despite my working antisocial shifts and she was working several part time jobs. 

 17.00 The cottage dining table has been moved to the northern window. Horrible flash image. The northern wall needs a new layer of plasterboard over the top of the old. There is foam insulation behind the old plasterboard.

 I am sorely tempted to box the contents of the drawers. Then dump the chest at the recycling yard. It is not remotely an attractive piece. I could keep the sturdy drawers for storage. They are stacked at the other end of the room. Only taking up a fraction of the volume of the chest itself. 

 One more, unwanted piece of furniture taking up valuable space. Or, I could put one of the bookshelf box units on top in the corner. To revive the original storage unit theme. Decisions-decisions... No. It has to go! It will always look like a hybrid and the greater depth will take up far too much room. If I want furniture then it will be something I choose myself.

 I kept the drawers and managed to drag the heavy chest outside. Lifting it up to 45º allowed me to walk it out on the corners without too much effort. It had woodworm in the bottom planks.

19.00 Time to think about dinner. Boiled potatoes, a salmon pasty and frozen organic peas. Washed down with an organic, Danish beer.

 Finally I have a table at which I can sit and eat in comfort. Instead of a tray on my lap in front of the TV.   

 I need to move an overhead lamp a metre or so to the middle of the table. The window sill and window still needs to be cleared and cleaned. There is still the matter of all the boxes and drawers to tidy up. A chest of drawers and the bookshelf/storage box units will have to be rearranged. Nevertheless, it feels like I am making real progress towards a socially acceptable, spacious and comfortable lounge/dining area.

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