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Sunday, April 1, 2012

I'm Pretty Sure This Is What Love Feels Like

And I'm not saying that I'm in love with the wine or the chocolate, that would smack a  bit too much of alcoholism or other such dependency. But with Bob for bringing me this wonderful chocolate back from DC with him. It was the perfect way to finish my busy spring weekend.

And it is spring. Whether we like it or not here in Wyoming. Not that we wouldn't mind a break from the winter wind (it's still windy), or the snow (we're fore-casted for more tonight). But the stress! The worrying if the warm stretch is going to last? Are we actually in spring, or is this just a little warm snap to tease us? Can we start pulling the mulch off the beds. I know, I'm just pretending that the winter wind let me keep mulch on the beds. Let me have my fantasy, I'm not bursting your bubble am I?

As you can see, regardless of my worries and stress level, the flowers have decided that it is indeed spring in Casper.
And even the Lilacs seem to be getting in on on the action. Please Lord let them bloom quickly and only once this summer, my sinus's can't take a long bloom. Yes, I'm aware that this is another fantasy. You don't need to point it out. Oh, and yes, that is as big as our yard is. It takes a lot of work for a single yard with four dogs of any size much less one of Sullivan's weight and dimensions to have ANY grass. Another exercise in futility.

Friday night I also dove into the task of cleaning and organizing the man cave... Pictures will come of the organized and now stashed yarn stash. I know, oooh exciting. But, as I came up from the cool and wonderful basement I realized how dang hot the upstairs had become. We were preparing for a hot sweaty night (not in a fun way) of sleepless misery.

So, despite the warning's of the weather men and the promise of snow and rain showers by nine, I broke out the bedroom airconditioner.

May I just point out that it is now nine-thirty and it's still fifty degrees and as we can attest to just doing the last dog walk of the day, it's clear enough to still see Venus, Jupiter and Orion. This means I think I've worked through the nerves from placing the air conditioner.

Which leaves us where I really wanted to be. I wanted to talk about my ingenuity. Granted, it was last falls ingenuity but you know how I am, just going to bring back to all about me. It is my blog after all. But, let's get on with it.

See this? That's right, it's a hole in the wall. Which when we had the windows put in, seemed like a great. Come fall, and the colder winds of a Wyoming winter, it didn't seem like such a good idea. The first winter we tried wrapping the unit with one of those "winterizing" get-ups that are supposed to keep the cold air out and the warm air in. Yeah, it works about as well as it sounds like it will.

So last fall, I decided to work out this little problem, and I came up with this.

I know, I didn't get a good picture of it before I pulled it out, but what you see is a diagonal of the side that sits inside the house. It's two pieces of plywood that sandwich a layer of fiberglass insulation and a slab of foam (it's gray because I wrapped the cut edges that like to fall apart with duct tape) insulation that are held in place by compression from the carriage bolts. I unfortunately accidentally placed the bolts with the nuts to the outside the first time I put it in place. I had a good chuckle as I gently cussed myself out under my breath in a manner I'm sure the neighbors heard and flipped the bolts back around.

Let me tell you, it worked much better that the air conditioner wrap thingy. The only bad thing is that the weather stripping I placed between the plywood and the framing of the hole (Bonus Topic! All holes should be framed nicely, discuss!) kinda stuck to the framing. And no, I did not put the adhesive side to the frame. But I can deal with that little issue since it worked so darn well.

Okay, enough talking about me. I know, you were just waiting for me to shut up. Red wine does that to me. How was your weekend? Good I hope, and hopefully more fun than mine, despite how much I got to play with yarn. That's just a regular activity in my life.

1 comment:

  1. Mother Nature and Old Man Winter played a nasty April Fool joke on us by leaving an inch of slushy snow and 32 degree weather this morning. However, I think we shall survive. I really like the solution you came up with for the air conditioner location...very ingenious. And I am experiencing Great Big Chocolate Envy right now; but still hope you are enjoying every morsel of it. How kind of Bob to bring it back for you. Take care - Joe

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