flemmings | (no subject)

However many things make an entry.

1. Someone I came across recently has 3000 manga. How many do I have? Fast count of my bedroom shelves (more manga than anywhere else in the house) stops at a mere 500. Maybe a hundred or so more in the rest of the house. But then there are the boxes. *Maybe* another 400 there, not that I'll ever read them. So not more than 1200, which seems low for sixteen years of reading, conservative estimate. My anal soul really wants to do a count now.

2. One reason Kohri is a fast read is the amount of summing up of info we already have. I think we've counted those wandering arms (yes, arms; 'detachable and insertable in other bodies' arms) three times now. I am almost bogging down with this series, which is fine because I'm on my second last volume. Still a good run; I've bogged much faster on both Komahoshi and Yume no Kodomo, but demons will keep me reading where high school students put me to sleep.

3. Have been hanging around the babies this week, which I should not do. Already I feel ominous twinges in the shoulders and neck. But I'm being reminded why I used to hang around the babies, and cuteness is not the reason. Exhaustion is. Three hours flat-out wipes me. It's like taking drugs. Nothing else exists while I'm working; babies require your full attention, which the other age groups do not. And when I'm finished there's that lovely empty-minded blankness, like being drunk. Instant Zen no-mind.

4. Have also been reading my '02 blog. That week I spent in New York in the summer? Was four days, one of which was lost to a stolen wallet. I find this very hard to believe.

5. My greatest pleasure now is sleeping in my cold bedroom, dressed in several layers of flannel, wrapped about in duvets and terrycloth, and bolstered by hwbs and heated beanbags and various pillows. I shall be sorry when it gets cold enough that I have to up the thermostat, because the warmth of central heating really is less conducive to luxurious sleep than the snug bug-in-a-rug of my current arrangement. Also, when it gets that cold the winds blow in the cracks of the windows and, well, it's *cold*.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Everyone is saying that this will be a very brutal winter.

I think it varies by where you are. They said last year would be heavier snow than average and we had Seattle weather for three months, to my great disgust. They said summer '09 would be hotter than average and we had San Francisco temperatures for three months, which delighted me. Nights now are consistently warmer than normal, so I'm not worrying about freeze. And if it tops the Hideous Winter of '07-08 I shall be very surprised because seriously, nothing *could*.

I love that snug bug-in-a-rug arrangement, too!

You should try that plastic film that covers windows with two sided sticky table and is made smooth with a hair dryer. That is, if you don't mind not being able to open the window for the winter. Those things really work. I've used them to seal up patio doors, too. Terribly inconvenient, but saved a ton on heating bills.

True, bug in a rug requires going to bed dressed as if for the outdoors in late spring, but I can live with it.

I shrink-wrap the bedroom window with the AC, of pure necessity, but it still gets cold over there. They built the outside wall without insulation, the twits. But generally the bedroom's fine. I need heat on to make the study bearable, because it's east facing with two outside walls and gets both the storm effect and the wind off the lake; and that makes the rest of the upstairs too hot. The downstairs naturally never warms up at all.

Ah. Your house stratifies! That's in some ways, a harder problem. We have these blasted floor fans all over the house, all blowing straight up at the ceiling to keep the house from stratifying. The spouse ran about and figured out where all the fans should go to do the most work without being in the way when we first moved here.

babies require your full attention - *agrees* ... even if a little part of me misses the times when I didn't have to chase about after them.

Re: the clingfilm idea, I used to do that too in the UK, student digs are not big on heating and have terribly drafty windows.

*hugs* for the oncoming chill.

It took me some getting used to, that older kids are capable of amusing themselves and don't need to be watched like hawks to make sure they don't climb where it's not safe to climb or open something they shouldn't open. One can even read a newspaper while they play! Amazing!

I know ... it is still a little bit sad now that girl takes herself to and from school and really I should be joyous about the fact that she is so independent and loves being so but but ... *sighs* I miss the mornings when we walked hand-in-hand to school, listening to unending babble (although I complained a little at the time about it) about various new things learnt at 'Big School' which was all new and shiny and fun and scary at the same time ... Yes I do have that bit more time for me, still cannot help missing it though.

Still I'm glad she seems to still love 'mummy&me' time when the opportunity rises.