Fun Ideas for a Stormy Sunday

We got our first winter storm this weekend. Rats! I was hoping winter had forgotten about us, but did you know it comes EVERY year!? It was also the grand weekend of Insulation Installation Sunday. Damon had been waiting eagerly all week because he was home sick with the plague (i.e. the stomach flu) and had nothing to do except read and watch TV. How bored he was, and how excited to finally have something to do.



I had thought that I did all my learning the first time. Gloves? Check. Face mask? Check. But, no, there were new lessons yet to be discovered. It wasn't icy cold upstairs, but I don't heat it and there was a snowstorm outside. What better way to stay cozy AND covered on a lazy Sunday morning than insulating in your flannel pajamas...




Bad. Idea.

See, fiberglass doesn't itch because it irritates your skin as something like solvent does (don't ask, I just know, OK!). It itches because the fiberglass is exactly what its name says. Long, twisted fibers made of glass. When those break, almost too fine to be seen, they tend to embed themselves in whatever porous surface is handy---like skin. And as it turns out, there are few more efficient delivery systems than warm, fuzzy flannel for catching those fibers and whisking them down to your epidermis.

It didn't help that this attic is a lot, shall we say, cozier than the other. I was also using paper backed insulation that had to be stapled into place. Not to difficult up at the top, but to get the bottom I had to roll around and lay on my back, nose-to-nose with the roof.

But all good things must come to an end, and even this joy-a-minute was finally finished. On one side, that is. We are saving the other side of the attic for another day. No sense in splurging all our pleasure at one time. And there will be a lot of pleasure to go around because of the second lesson of the day:

Read the label.

It took 7 packages of the other size insulation to finish both sides of the smaller attic. The insulation for this project was wider, and I had a third again as much attic to do. Who could blame me for assuming that I would need a lot more rolls than before? Only this insulation is half again as thick, so it turns out each roll has 70 feet in it. I used just over 1 of my 6 rolls to do one side.

How nice that I unexpectedly have enough to do the walls, too. Plus extra. Anybody need some insulating done?

What was Damon doing all this time? He was manfully soldiering on, helping to hold the pieces and staple, in spite of the return of his nausea. Of course, if I'd hired some molasses to help me, it might have been faster at times, but I was still grateful. Really. But if I get sick, I am holding him personally responsible.

At one point he had to make a dash to the window for some fresh air. I was all sympathy.

"You'd better not get any on the shed roof if you throw up!"

Thankfully, he didn't start that kind of uncouth behavior until he was safe at home with the rest of his plague ridden family (I tell you, I am all for locking the sick ones out of doors until they can produce a clean bill of health!). He might have summoned some of that inner strength from my encouraging words...

"If you're throwing up, you have to walk back."

"Walk back?" Squeaked in horror.

"You betcha! All that fresh air will do you good. Clear the head and all."

Meanwhile, the storm raged around us. Or whimpered. The great winter storm kept getting downgraded on its way to Eastern Montana. Not that I'm complaining. Because it's still so "warm" the snow tends to melt and make the roads icy. I happen to know a little about icy roads, and personally, I always vote clear and dry. But that's just me.

I got to see a bit of the roads because SOMEONE dropped the check he was planning to deposit and then went all the way to Plentywood before he found out. I got to meet him part way and give it to him. Of course, I can't complain too much, because SOMEONE also brought me soda to help settle my sympathetically upset stomach.

Now the storm has passed, for everyone but my poor sister, locked in a house with 3 sickies and now sick herself. Poor Noni. I even brought her soda...and left it outside. But not down at the gas pumps like I threatened. See how loving I am!