Muttering on a muggy day

It's been kind of a crappy day. Productive, after a fashion, but still...crappy. I think it's the weather. It's the leading edge of the Monsoon, and the atmosphere feels heavy somehow. Gloomy, foreboding. Muggy, for sure. Every day it clouds up and the wind blows, lightning flashes and thunder booms, but it never rains. I kinda wish it'd just go ahead and rain. I've been in a tired and grouchy mood all day. The boys know somethings up with Uncle Joel; they've been staying out of my way and obeying commands with lightning speed. They did get a nice Jeep ride this morning, though, because I had to go to D&L's for a while. And there was a brief walky when we went to water S&L's plants. But right now mostly all there is to do is sit and sweat.

Even with the heat, I got so down I decided that what I needed was some comfort food. So for lunch I made up a batch of pancakes with lots of vanilla. I'm using the last of the (wonderful!) maple syrup that some kind readers sent me last fall, which I've mostly been hoarding and doling out for my monthly guests. Seriously, I feel so out of sorts that I'd probably just get blasted if I had any booze, but I don't do that anymore very often and anyway – I suppose it's a side-benefit of austerity – that kind of foolishness isn't currently an option. So instead I'll eat. Flour, I've got.

I have been getting work done on the cabin. The electrical is finished (I've been saying right along that the electrical is finished, then finding other stuff that should be done before I fill the walls with insulation) but this time for real. Yesterday it occurred to me I hadn't put up any light over the kitchen counter, so I retrofitted that and really think that's the last. Now I've been getting more serious about wall insulation. The ceiling insulation is long done. But with it so muggy and oppressive, and since I've recently gotten a refresher in window installation, I think I'm going to put that aside, go ahead and install the windows. I left the windows covered over with OSB all this time because another part of the property has occasionally crawled with officialdom in the form of building inspectors for M's Dome. The official story on the Lair is that it's “just a utility building.” But now I really need the light and ventilation. I go there as early in the morning as I can arrange, because once it gets hot it's just too hard to deal inside that dark stuffy box.

Not tomorrow, though. I picked up a brief gig for tomorrow, splitting firewood for some neighbors. Won't pay much, but it'll effectively double what I've got in my pocket after yesterday's very expensive trip to town. A hundred-dollar down payment for the chainsaw, then sixty dollars for gasoline took a serious bite out of the $200 that was my entire life savings. I've got another project lined up, but that's more long-term and won't pay for quite a while. But that's okay: I've still got my regular shit-shoveling gig, and no matter what other projects do or don't come along that's enough for subsistence as long as I don't do anything wild and crazy like buy store-bought bread. Truth is I've gotten really spoiled in the last several months, and need to regain some of my more austere habits. I'm here to tell you it's easy to drop those habits, but rarely a good idea.

That reminds me: I need to get my axe and see to the edge, which could be better. I'm pleased with this axe, the head of which I found laying in the desert a year or so ago. There's no maker's mark on it, but it does seem worlds better than the junky one I bought at Home Depot several years ago and fortunately never needed badly. That thing just wouldn't take an edge. This one's got a narrower blade angle, and responds to a file and stone. And maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to play with the new chainsaw! (heh – ya takes yer pleasures where ya finds them, said the smelly old hermit.)