Of all the things I've taken pictures of at the beach, the above is one of my favourites. Tim and I spent some time at the beach on Christmas Eve and we saw this cutie there. I don't blame this doggo for wearing a sweatshirt. It was chilly out! I know that other parts of the country had much colder temperatures Lots of zeros and below zeros. Brrrrrr. Negative numbers should NEVER be a temperature! We had more high 20's and low 30's which, while much warmer than say, upstate New York or Colorado, was quite cold to us. We went out to Breakfast on Saturday morning and, as expected, saw a lot of people very bundled up. My favourite was the lady in a puffy coat and flipflops. Which says to me that she was compromising. You know, "I'm cold but on the other hand, I'm in Florida". Heh. Not every house in Florida has heat, by the way. Some of the older ones do not, though most of those have fire places. And honestly, it never dawned on me, before we moved here, that a Florida house would ever need heat or a fire place. Boy was I ever wrong. We don't get a lot of really cold weather each year, but they do happen. And when they do, it's brisk! When those days inevitably roll around, we turn on the heat. (Our house is older but we do have heat, thank goodness). At least for a little bit in the morning just to take the chill out of the air. And quite honestly, during the day it's not much of an issue. We are both busy all day long and if I wear long pants, socks and a sweatshirt, I'm good. It's at night when we are trying to sleep that it's an issue. Even Tim gets cold eventually. Which is why I am so glad that way back, six + years ago, when we were preparing to move here, even though we got rid of SO MUCH STUFF, we kept our down comforters. Most everyone thought we were crazy. "Dude, you are moving to Florida, not Alaska!" But we, stubbornly, held on to them. Not sure why we decided to do that, but no matter. We have two of them. One for our bedroom, the other for the guest room. 99% of the time they live in zippered containers in the utility room. But as soon as the weather guys start talking about iguanas falling out of trees, I haul them out. Or I ask Tim to do that part for me. Hey! It's a tall shelf! Unfortunately, because it's been sitting in the utility room for 11 months, it kind of smells, old and musty. Like a utility room. So this is where my work begins. First I need to strip the comforter cover off, which is like peeling a wiggly small child out of a wet snow suit. The cover goes right into the washing machine and of course then the dryer and that takes care of that. The comforter itself, however, is not so simple. First of all, it's down. Despite the fact that water fowl are frequently wet, for some reason, it is not recommended that a down comforter be washed. Sort of like how leather shrinks when it gets wet but cows do not, I suppose. Second of all, there is no way this monster comforter would even fit in my washer anyway so it's a moot point. I suppose I could have taken it to the dry cleaners for them to do their magic, but nope. We all know that I am way too cheap for that! So instead, I draped it over the kitchen table and chairs and sprayed it thoroughly with fabric refresher spray. Lavendar scented :) Eventually I dragged it off the table and struggled and heaved to turn it over and do the same thing on the other side as well. This is also in front of an open window so it's airing out nicely at the same time by the way. Gotta use every trick in the book to get that funky smell out or there is no sleeping no matter how toasty warm it might be. Once everything is smelling fresh and clean, the next step is to wrestle the comforter into the comforter cover. And it honestly is like a wrestling match! Holy Cats! And nearly every time, just when I think I'm done, I realize that I've put it on the wrong way. The shape of the comforter is almost but not quite square. It's so subtle that you wouldn't think that it matters. Trust me, it does. But again, hard to tell before shoving and hauling and pulling and dragging. And then, it becomes evident that I've not done it the right way 'round and ARGH! Now I have to strip the cover back off and either turn the comforter or approach from a different direction. No matter, at some point it's done. And I'm hot and sweaty and well exercised but everything is as it should be and the comforter is on the bed and I know that we will sleep well that night. With cold air around us while we are tucked up so cozy and warm. I love that! Usually the best sleeps of the entire year. There will only be a couple more nights of the need to sleep under the comforter this week but odds are good that there will be a few more weeks, here and there, before spring, with frosty temperatures and we will drag it back out again. In between those bizarro cold snaps, the weather is gorgeous in the 60's and 70's with low humidity, shorts, sandals and open windows. So a cold snap really is kind of a shock to the system, though, oddly, I don't mind it. I kind of like being reminded of what real true winter weather is like. Wouldn't want it all the time but once in awhile, it's a nice change. I hope all of you stayed safe and warm during this arctic blast! And that you had an absolutely delightful Christmas Holiday! Here are a few other photos of a cold day at the beach. You will notice an absence of people
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
February 2025
Categories |