Friday, January 20, 2023

7 Quick Takes about Vintage Music, Sad Snowmen, and a Lot of Stuff Getting Run Over

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


For the last week and a half, we've had people in the house doing some kind of work or other (installing minisplits, drywall hanging and mudding in the basement). The introverts in our house are breaking out in hives and developing tics.

But all the contractors are gone now. We have air and heat from the minisplits. Our basement is looking more and more like a real room every day. Life is good.

2


When the minisplit guys drove away, they accidentally left a tool in the driveway. I kid you not, but in the time it took for Phillip to notice it in the driveway, put his shoes on, and open the door to retrieve it, another car pulled into the driveway and ran it over.

"That lady from the 90s would say that was ironic," my 16-year-old said, referring to Alanis Morisette. "Because it's not ironic, just unfortunate."

But I don't know. Maybe it is ironic, because the person who ran it over was her driver's ed instructor coming to pick her up for a road lesson. That seems at least a little bit ironic.

3


While the drywallers were working in the basement, all day we were listening to the muted sounds of their music wafting up through the floors. And I must say, they had excellent taste. It was all music I knew and personally owned in the 90s, including the entire Counting Crows album August and Everything After.

At the end of the day, we mentioned to the guy that we liked his music and commented that we must be around the same age. He laughed and said, "No, I grew up drywalling with my dad, and this was the music he listened to." 

So here I was, thinking we were still young, hip, and relevant, when actually the guy was just rocking out to the oldies.

4


Not only is drywalling a long process, it's also an extremely messy one. In other parts of the country they just mud the seams, but here in New England they spread a thin layer of plaster over the entire wall, and it gets everywhere.

I know because I was cleaning it up for hours after they left. 

Had we known, I could've covered the doorway into our workshop/food storage area with plastic so that every single thing inside didn't get coated with a thin layer of plaster dust and the flooring got permanently stained with plaster blobs. Had. We. Known.

5


My kids have suffered from the saddest lack of snow so far this winter. We had a brown Christmas, an even browner New Years, and the kids were starting to get depressed the longer it was dragging on. 

We got a tiny accumulation of about an inch and a half earlier this week, and the kids promptly headed out to make a snowman. It was a tiny snowman, full of leaves and dirt because the snow was so shallow, but it was a snowman nonetheless.

By the next day, everything had melted away and this is what was left:

Pictured in foreground: his ex-nose.

Isn't that the saddest little Frosty the Dirtman you ever did see?

6


Luckily we got some actual appreciable snow last night, and the kids had a snow day from school today, which is why this 7 Quick Takes is about 12 hours later than usual. 

We got some good sledding in, shoveled a neighbor's driveway, and now our weekend project is going to be reconstructing our mailbox after a car slid on the ice and mowed it down.

7


Who still has little piles of stuff left over from Christmas littered around the house? We do. Actually, I consolidated it into one pile this week, which is at least an attempt at organization and that's progress.

The pile contains:
  • one sweatshirt that my 18-year-old forgot to take back to college with her
  • two glass ornaments my 16- and 18-year-olds made at a glassblowing class but I didn't pick up until after we put away the other Christmas stuff
  • one set of handheld Christmas chimes and music
The chimes are still out because I bought fabric to make a carrying case for them. I'm really busy and probably don't have time to do it, and even if I did I'd still put it off because I hate sewing, so this was naturally a great idea.


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2 comments:

AnneMarie said...

There's something so sad about dirty snow-but kudos to your kids for trying to make the most of it!

Unknown said...

I dont know about small Christmas piles but I did finally put away my whole bookcase of nativity sets this week. I decided that if you wait long enough to pack away Christmas things it just feels good to be done instead of sad that the holidays are over!