BTW, if you think the LR looks small, it is--but it's made even smaller by the inconvenient placement of doors and the original owners having installed a large wooden mantel in the middle of one end wall at the right height and width to crack you on the head if you stand up from sitting in a chair placed under it. If you put a chair in the corner to one side, you're blocking the closet door and will be behind the front door if it opens. On the other side of the mantel is the door to the hall. You can put a narrow chair there, but your feet will be tripped over by anyone going into the hall to get to the bathroom. The front door is angled across from the door into the kitchen in such a way that it's difficult to arrange furniture effectively.

Nice!

It's a painful & slow process doing something with a roof isn't it? I'm currently having mine fixed after a tree fell on it. Fortunately covered by insurance but *vastly* complicated by the fact that the current roof is asbestos. They're replacing the damaged section with ColorBond and repainting the whole roof so that (I'm told) the two sections will appear compatible.

Metal roofs are great: they saved my wife's life in '12 when a 25' of lightning-struck pine came visiting, directly over her head (75 lbs per foot). We firmly believe that a shingle roof, which was what it was a few months prior, wouldn't have retarded its speed enough and I'd be a widower now.

They are noisier under heavy rain or hail, but we accept that compromise.

It was quite amusing to go to the contractor and tell him "I have a hole in the roof" then show him the photo. :-)

Nice carpet and congrats on the new roof. Leaks are a fine thing to get rid of.

Looks terrific. I vote for refinishing the hardwoods.
The land looks terrific. What about the pesky diamond back rattlers? Did they get flooded? - KS

Rattlers handle floods just fine...they may be swept along, but they quickly climb into anything that sticks out of the water--trees, bushes, rocks, even boats (incident from my youth--I wasn't IN the boat, but heard about it from someone who was.) In fact, the most recent personal experience a family member had with one was after the water went down. It retreated, buzzing away. We like* that kind.

Refinishing hardwood floors is the kind of thing people always suggest for someone else to do. I've done it once. At this point it will happen only if we get a stretch of time w/o guests coming and no rain in the forecast and money enough to hire lots of big strong younger people to haul all the furniture (beds, chests, etc.) out of the rooms, do the work, clean up, and put it all back. Carrying a sofa out of a room with an outside door is a lot easier than carrying a full size mattress & box springs down a hall, around a corner in a U-turn to get out the door, plus the bedstead and the other furniture in the room...and then having all that in the yard (because there's no other room to put it in, for the meantime until the work is done and the top coat of finish dries) with a tarp over it to keep it dry from overnight dew.

Carpet installation is a lot faster and less messy, though it still requires someone other than us to clear the bedrooms. (Yeah, we used to do that kind of thing. But not for a decade or so, now.0

E.

*"Like" as in "Better more and louder buzzing and less striking than the other way around."

I was just thinking that I/we hadn't heard from you in awhile, so this illustrated up date is very welcome. Happy to read that you are doing well. What's the sock total for 2015 going to come out as?

My daughter in Oakland has jubilantly informed me that the rains have started there as well and there is much needed snow in the mountains. So, maybe - just maybe - the worst (for the western US) is ending.

Socks: If I count the two pairs I finished in January (started fall of 2014) I've done 15 pairs so far. If I don't count those two, it's 13--seven of the short socks and six of the regular ones.

On the needles right now are a pair of medium brown heather socks for a friend (at the toe decreases) and a pair of turquoise socks for myself (one just past the gusset decreases and the other on the gusset decreases.) If I get both those finished by Dec 1, then I might (!) get another pair done in December (the book will be turned in Dec 1, so finishing the socks by then it not the top priority!) At any rate, I expect to finish both those pairs by the end of the year and thus have a total of 8 "regular" pairs and 7 short pairs started and finished this past year. 15 total. I could easily count the two finished in January as equivalent to one pair...16. If I finish an additional pair...we're getting into what is for me stratospheric productivity, especially if I count the two pairs finished in January 2015 as two pairs. That would be 11 pairs of regular socks and 7 pairs of short ones in one year. But I won't know for sure until the end of the year. I decided to switch to a calendar year count this year, after counting from Jan 28 to Jan 27 (I started my first pair of socks ever on Jan 28, 2012.)

The next pair to cast on will either be Herdwick yarn (natural) or blue.

Socks for my friend should take less time than socks for me (her feet are substantially smaller than mine--about two inches shorter and not as big around) but she's almost 1700 miles away so there are pauses for consultation--I can't just grab her foot and check the fit every so often, as I do with my own feet & socks in progress.

WOW! 13 - 17 pair in the year (depending on how you count) AND a new book almost ready to turn in. You have been busy.

Which book is it you'll be turning in soon?

Thanks for the update!

The new Vatta book. Its formal official title hasn't been set yet, but my title for it is "Cold Welcome."

I'll definitely be looking forward to it. You'll post here when I'll be able to buy it from Larry Smith, yes? [23 years later, my spouse has almost forgiven the friend who introduced me to Larry's Dealer Table of Budget Doom. {weg}]

The release date will show up here and several other places. I don't know when Larry Smith will have it (I don't know if he can acquire things by the release date--guessing yes, but not certain.) So you'll have to pester him.

No need. He's at most of the cons I get to. I try to have at least a few things to buy from him each time I see him [kind of our way of doing business locally]. I build up a stack at his table: some years it's a Brighton Pavilion; other years it's at least a yurt.

;)

And lo--today I got a call from Agent, who reported that Editor told him everyone likes the title COLD WELCOME and now it's official. YAY!

Does it have an official publication date yet? Like the Little Prince's fox, I like to know when to prepare my heart to be happy.

It has a tentative date. But they've changed dates enough before that I won't trust it until six months out when the catalogs show up. I'd rather not say, yet.

The title itself is a gracious plenty of intriguing.

Congrats on the new roof and the rain.
Green is good.

Green is wonderful. Although I would like it not to rain today, so I can leave windows open for the outgassing of carpet adhesive to move on out of the house.

Let it soak in a bit more, that would be great.

It's so pretty, all the young, tender green. The bluebonnet cotyledons have opened to those the tiny little leaves. And the roof doesn't leak. I do want it to be finished. It looks like the crew to remove the dangerous tree, the crew to finish the roof, and the crew to deliver the new furniture may all arrive next Thursday.

(eek?)