Today it's raining, again. We've been in the process of getting a metal roof put on our house since June 8 and there have been so few days without rain that we're still not finished. One more section to go: the sunroom that Stan insists on calling a porch. I've put some photos here; you be the judge.
(I actually had to go take these photos just now; I didn't have any on my computer! I could hardly believe that. But I think maybe we added it on before I had a good digital camera--2002, maybe? Hmmm. I know we remodeled the kitchen in 2001 so I think 2002 is right. ... Maybe.)Anyway, it's a terrific addition to the house and will probably be what sells it, if ever we/I/Stan do that. Given the rising cost of fuel oil that may actually come to pass. That and the rising taxes. I just found out in a newspaper article that NY's property taxes, on average, are 79% higher than the average for the entire country. No wonder people are leaving in droves. I have to get stronger signals from Stan before I actually start looking into that possibility.
If we do go, it very likely will be to Florida. And not because one of my daughters lives there. It would be for affordability and climate combined.
So back to the porch, or sunroom, ... whatever. I spend a lot of time in it in the morning, reading the paper and drinking my tea. I can start to use it in about March--Stan's daughter gave us a very nice heater to use and it usually is about 20 degrees above the outside temp so it's not quite like sitting outside! (That would be part of my rationale for wanting to call it the sunroom; porches ARE like sitting outside.) And I can keep using it pretty much until it gets seriously cold, as in December. It's great for rainy days like this one, too. I sat and read out there for much of the rainy day yesterday.
We don't have a TV out there and sometimes I agitate to get one moved there (involves getting the cable out there somehow; I should have thought of that before Stan did that wonderful rock wall!) But then I realize that not having TV is what a "porch" is all about. I had the same tardiness with thoughts of getting heat into the room. When we re-did the kitchen we put a floor vent just to the left of the sliding door. And if I'd had half a brain I would have asked for an extension into the porch. But again I didn't think of that until the rock (and cement) wall was all finished. That may not sound so dumb but Stan didn't do t
hat wall for two years! ANYway, that room, whatever it's called, may be my favorite in the house. Although I like the bedroom pretty much too; it was the first one we renovated and it still looks good to me! So today, since what I'd planned to do has been rained out (and I didn't really want to do it anyway--it involves EasyOff Oven Cleaner), I'll probably spend some of the afternoon reading my historical novel again. And only feeling a little guilty. And I know I've been running even more than usual with this post but it's because I wanted the pictures to space out in a vertical column and I had to keep adding text to do that. I know I could've just run them in a textless column below but I wanted to have them embedded. I think that looks okay now; how about you?
The only other thing I wanted to add today is that for unknown reasons my thoughts are running to obituaries. Mine. Stan's. I check them all the time in the local paper; good grief, I've been here long enough now that I actually have known some of the people listed! But I was thinking about how my mom had let us know what she wanted included in hers and how much easier that made it. (Again, I have absolutely no idea why I'm thinking in this vein but I woke up selecting wording!) So I have this nice spiral book that lets you put in one spot all that sort of thing and I've made that my job for this afternoon. It means I'll have to push Stan a bit; he'd rather have it just happen. Especially since he believes he'll go first. (Chances are good; he's 14 years older than I am.) But I'll do my info first and then maybe he won't object too much to answering questions.
Ooooooh! That just reminded me. On Monday I'm going to interview Stan for Story Corps, the national project to record regular peoples' stories about their lives or special incidents in their lives. I asked Stan to talk about the "Monk's Club," the house he and a buddy rented in Cocoa Beach, FL, at the birth of the space program. It's a fascinating story--they rented out rooms to a bunch of guys also working at "the Cape"--and he does a great job telling it. I just hope I can ask the right questions to get it to sound as terrific as it usually does. The recordings are stored at the Library of Congress but I just learned that they're not accessible online. Boo. We will get our own CD, however, so if you're interested in hearing it once we have it, I'll work on getting it to you.
And of course, I cannot NOT post a current garden picture. So here it is on a rainy day. You can't see all the flowers that are already open, but believe me, they're there.
