Yesterday was warm and sunny and quite beautiful. (These photos were taken yesterday afternoon.) But it’s very cold this morning. Very cold indeed. Our winter coats are in a bin in the shed. I’m not ready to haul them out of there yet. I just can’t do it.

Today a repairman comes to look at the washer. By the end of the day, we’ll know whether we should repair or replace. Crossing fingers for repair. Pretty please?

Tomorrow, another trip to the laundromat. Each load is $3.00. That’s more expensive than the washers I used at the hotel and apartments in Hartford. So when I did the laundry last week, I just brought everything home wet and spent the rest of the afternoon drying it in our dryer, which is working just fine. It does end up being a day all about laundry, but what can you do?

This morning I was visiting blogs and I saw a blog post by a young mom with a tutorial on how to make a cardboard house out of a box. In this case, she used a cereal box.

My immediate reaction was “Gee that isn’t new. I did that when I was a kid. I made houses out of shoeboxes and decorated them.” You know, the whole there’s nothing new under the sun thing.

But then I thought about it some more and my reaction turned to a resounding ‘Huzzah!’ Huzzah to moms and dads that are helping their kids develop their imaginations in this All-Tech-X Box Playing-Texting-Computerized World. Huzzah to parents and teachers who foster and nurture those Imagine It and Make It skills. Huzzah for re-using basic things we all have in our homes and transforming them to something fun and wonderful.

It’s natural to worry about kids today who play endless computer games and who use their phone as a permanent 11th appendage. But something like that little cardboard house gives me hope.

Since it’s not even my birthday yet, nor is it Thanksgiving, I’ve already had to begin ignoring the various Christmas decorating posts I am beginning to see everywhere. Just as I hate walking into a store in October and early November to see Christmas merchandise everywhere – I’m talking to you Lowe’s and Michael’s and Target- I feel the same way about early Christmas decorating posts. Don’t get me wrong, I like Christmas. I like decorating, albeit simply, for Christmas.

But, my birthday is still over a week away! So I’m not clicking on anything Christmas. Here’s how it goes in my world: birthday, slight break, Thanksgiving, slightly longer break, Christmas.

No fuzzy lines.

The winner of a copy of My Sister’s Grave is Jo. Jo, just sent you an email – I need your mailing address so I can forward it on to TLC Book Tours. Congratulations!

Happy Thursday.

My favorite time of the evening; not fully dark, on its way to being dark, with blacks and deep blues and the moon shining brightly.

Mysterious. Magical. Simply lovely.

I have much to do around here, but I don’t seem to be doing it.

I want to put shelves in the den, but I’ve decided I want Don’s input before I do it. So that has to wait until next week.

I want to start painting the kitchen, but I need Don’s help moving things and keeping Scout out of the kitchen. So that has to wait until next week.

I was going to re-caulk the bathtub because whatever I did the last time didn’t work very well. But hacking away at the old caulk, cleaning that all up, applying the new caulk, waiting for it to dry? Too many hours. And I find I’m not in the mood to tackle it at the moment.

I do have to go to the laundromat. Today. Sigh.

Oh, it’s not that I’m a stranger to laundromats. If I had some sort of running tally of how many times I’ve been to a laundromat, I’m sure I would be astounded. Many years of apartment living = many years of laundromats. I remember when I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of my last year of graduate school. There was a washer and dryer in the building. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

But then I moved to Boston for my first teaching job and it was back to the laundromat.

It does change the way you think of things. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the thought, “I’ll just throw that in the washer” since I’ve been back, only to remember that my washer doesn’t work. Again, a First World Problem. And in the end…annoying, but no biggie.

So today I gather everything up, drive to the neighboring town, take along my Kindle, and do some laundry. I can People Watch, too.

T-minus two days and counting until Don is home again. He’s still suffering from that cold, very like the one I had. The coughing stage hangs on for dear life. He needs to be with his girls. That’s the best medicine.

Another night photo:

There was a new post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page yesterday. I neglected to mention it here. And I’m adding a short post today with news about an interesting contest you might want to enter. The information on that contest came via an email from author Wendy Tyson, so thank you Wendy!

Happy Wednesday.