My Tireless Retirement - Week 82

 

Hello!  Tomorrow is Halloween, but since I don’t ever get any trick-or-treaters it will be a pretty quiet night for me.  I’ll wear my jack-o-lantern shirt and snuggle with my black cat while I enjoy my cute Halloween decorations.  Sounds pretty good to me!  What will you be doing tomorrow?

 

Last week I treated myself to a gift, something I rarely do, and drove to the next town over and picked up a mini electric skillet.  Not something I need necessarily, just something I wanted to have.  I’ll go into more details about it in an upcoming post on Friday, but suffice it to say I’m so happy I went ahead and got it.  It is my “congratulations on your new job” gift.

 

One of the things on my quarterly housekeeping checklist to complete was to move the washer and dryer away from the wall and get it all cleaned up underneath as well as behind where they sit.  I was able to get the walls washed down, the appliances cleaned and the floor vacuumed and mopped.  It felt really good to finally get this particular job completed.  After moving the appliances back in place I went ahead and cleaned the rest of the room, purged and reorganized the shoe rack and even gave the coat rack a one over.  With everything nice and clean I celebrated my efforts by running a load of laundry.  Does this girl know how to party or what?!

 

Our weather had been so lovely, warm and sunny, however that all changed literally overnight on Wednesday when the temperatures dropped and we got rain.  With our lows at night dipping to the freezing mark I got outside ahead of the weather change and picked the rest of the tomatoes, a couple final zucchinis and harvested some rosemary to dry and add to my spice cabinet.  Then I pulled everything, but the rosemary as it is a perennial.  My garden is officially done for the year and now I just have to wait for all the green tomatoes to ripen indoors.

 

Along with the final harvest of my garden I also got the motorhome ready for winter.  I brought in everything that I didn’t want in there over the winter and got it all tidied up inside.  Then I added fuel stabilizer to the gas tank (I also put some in the gas can I keep in my garage) and gave her an overall inspection.  I got out the ladder and my leaf blower and blew off the roof so there were no leaves or debris on top before I got her all covered up.  Laverne is now wearing her winter coat so she will be better protected from snow and large amounts of rain.  Her insides were already winterized with RV anti freeze so she is officially good to go.

 

With the changing weather and much colder temperatures now I have started to use my fireplace a little bit to warm the house as well as the electric blanket on my bed to take the chill off when I go to bed.  I really do enjoy climbing into a warm bed during the wintertime.  This is the longest I have ever been able to go without turning the heat on and still be comfortable due to the nice warm fall weather we had been having.  Our overnight temperatures then dipped down into the 20s as the week progressed so I then had to turn on the main heat.

 

I try to keep my house around 68° and that seems to work very well for me since I like to dress in layers, wear socks or slippers on my feet and use a throw blanket when I am sitting for any length of time.  I like to feel warm and cozy.  Because I get quite a few hot flashes (medication side effects) throughout the day having it a little cooler in the house really helps me with that.  It also helps with the power bill which is a nice little bonus.

 

Are you ready for winter yet?  Ready or not, I’m afraid it has begun where I live.  Brrrrr!