tires and flooring
November 02, 2015

tires and flooring I'm not feeling very organized, so my format is going to be kind of stream-of-consciousness on this entry.

Went to Costco and got new tires on the Buick; that turned into a minor ordeal. Great deal on Bridgestone Ecopias, but the last tire installer had torn the shit out of the lugnuts, and wrecked one of the studs. New lug nuts all around was only $15.00, so that was okay (REALLY cheap, actually!), but the bad stud required a mechanic.

I called F., and he queezed us in for a quick fix, cash on the barrelhead. He's a great mechanic, and I think he appreciates our business. Once that was done, we had to drive around for a few miles so we could go back and get the nuts re-torqued after they settled.

But now, between my top-notch wipers that Spouse got me through work, and my brand new tires, and the awesome snowbrush set (also from Costco), I am feeling more ready to face winter driving.

Spouse is sick: he cought my crud, and is miserable with it. I'd like to feel more sorry for him, but if he'd just leave me be when I'm sick instead of hovering over me the whole time, he might not catch my germs! I do pity the poor thing, though--it is miserable to be all gunked up and unable to breathe or sleep.

When we went to Meijer to do the grocery shopping on Saturday, they were having a "buy one, get a second for $1" sweater sale, so I found a couple of nice, tunic-style sweaters in nubbly cotton--one blue, one pink. Not too shabby for (basically) $13.50 apiece!

Bought the new kitchen floor on Sunday: Tarkett laminate with built-in underlayment, in "Brazilian Koa Wood" finish. A nice color compromise between having wanting a lighter finish, but still having the darker cabinets. On sale at Menard's, and enough to do the kitchen came to $136.00. Spouse ordered a flooring saw through work, and it was under $100 for a $160 saw. Planning on doing it over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Which means I have to get my heinie in gear and do my fruitcakes early.

Boy. I made one offhand remark--a question, actually, about laminate in the kitchen, and he JUMPED on that. This would not have been my choice of places to start, vis-a-vis home improvement, but I think he was looking for something he could do himself, that wasn't too big, and he came up with this.

We skipped trick or treat this year; turned off the porch light and just blew it off. The weather was foul, with rain and wind and cold. And we were both too snorky and hacky to go handing out candy, anyway.

More pressure cooker troubles: turns out, after I spent $25.00 on a replacement, that it wasn't the gasket that was bad. It was the valve seal--somehow it fell off and got lost. But Saturday night's Italian beef, despite no pressure, was divine. Took a little finagling and assistance from me, but we re-grouped and managed to salvage it brilliantly.

The breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast on Sunday morning, and the creamed chicken & biscuits casserole on Sunday night, were freaking awesome too. Hubs can cook, but I ended up helping more than he usually lets me. I made the breakfast bacon, pre-cooked and picked the chicken for the casserole, and pulled the beef back from the brink of disaster. Friday night, I bought dinner at Roma Lodge; we enjoyed the food so much the previous week that we went back again.

While the mechanic was fixing my back wheel on Saturday, I talked to Dad. Friday would have been my parents' 60th wedding anniversary, so I thought he might be a bit blue, but he didn't seem to be. He's settling in nicely: new furniture in living room, new vacuum cleaner, new gas grill, new car, busy landscaping, planning window treatments. Seems to be quite happy and occupied.

Going through a bit of a dry spell, myself, where nothing appeals to me. Probably from being sick. Everything is a monumental bore. I was flipping through my tumblr the other day, not even paying much attention to what I was looking at, and the thought hit me: "you're only doing this so it feels like you're doing something, because doing nothing feels too much like giving up."

And something else that's been nagging at me lately--it's a fine line between napping for exhaustion, and napping for escape. But my whole life feels like I'm just killing time till death. I can't seem to muster the will to make a change, so naps are a good way of burning through a few more hours of life without having to think.

That's when the nihilism kicks in, and I start wondering if that is all there is to anyone's life--just killing time in various ways, looking vainly for meaning and purpose, waiting to die.