What will this year bring?

1/1/07 Monday
Well it’s a new year. Last night, in typical fashion the fact that it was new years eve escaped my mind. We had bought a $5.00 bottle of champagne to celebrate in our mild way. Instead we both went to bed and to sleep. I woke up at 3:00 this morning and was unable to get back to sleep and Cherie joined me in that unwelcome event. I thought of getting up and going online but didn’t feel like braving the cold that pervades the house at night and opted instead to stay in our warm bedroom under the warm blankets and stare at a ceiling I couldn’t see in the dark. Fun Fun.

On top of that I am paying the price for all the work I did on the bus. Couldn’t lay on my side to sleep well and laying flat on my back was the least painful. Unfortunately, for some reason I don’t sleep well that way. This morning I am moving carefully to avoid that pain. It’ll get better after I get this body moving. At least I hope it will.

I am running a good 8 on the bob scale, just a hair above average. So what will we do today? Cherie had cleaned the walls in the hall in preparation to paint so that will be a quick job. There is still some paint left in the five gallon pail we bought. That is a good way to buy paint as you get more for the money.

I have been contemplating building a cabinet for the oven/microwave we got from the Habitat for Humanity store so we could put it in the kitchen. Of course I have to run some 220 volt wiring for it and that will be a problem. We need to get a new breaker box and actually rewire the house so there are grounded receptacles. Even not doing that I still don’t think I can hook up 220. There are only five or six breakers on the current box and I really don’t know much about electricity. There is a 220 plug in the back room that had been used for the freezer that no longer exists. Unfortunately that wire will be easy to move over to the hot water heater closet so I don’t want to use it for the oven.

While burning things yesterday I noticed that the couch used some good hardwood in it’s construction so I carefully tore it apart. It’ll take a while to pull all the staples and stuff that held the cloth and springs but it’s wood. Wood I can work with and cut out what I need. There is some old paneling we had pulled off the wall (it was glued on, not stapled) that I can use for the front and sides of the cabinets. It’s a temporary measure to provide some esthetics till I can do it right. There are tons of cabinet doors at the Habitat for Humanity store we can use when I really get into it. Can’t wait till I get a table saw and router. Of course I’ll need some good electricity in the garage. Right now I am plugging into the wire run for the garage door opener and the insulation has rotted off where it runs from the house to the garage.

There was someone in our Sunday school class who was remodeling their bathroom. If I’d thought of it I would have asked what they did with their old faucets and cabinets cause we could have used them here. I’ll have to ask Steve about that. Whoever it was sat near us but I can’t remember their face. That’s one of the weird things about this short term memory. I can remember the conversation but facial recognition is not there. This is not uncommon with traumatic brain injuries.

You can tell when I am doing well cause I rattle on as I write. When I’m slow you will see short sentences and paragraphs. Well it’s 9:00 now so I’ll get myself up and moving. Cherie fixed a nice breakfast with our version of egg McMuffins using pepper jack cheese and one of the grapefruits we got such a great deal on at the Mercado grocery store.