I think most of us have a stream of consciousness that has thoughts skipping along to various places. Sometimes on a straight path and sometimes not. Here's a little of my stream of consciousness. Well not really a straight stream of consciousness, because that wouldn't be understandable to the outside world, but certainly some random thoughts that floating around in my head.
 |
A dust kitty I swept up
this morning in the cat's room. |
--While I was sweeping the cat room in the basement, I swept a lot of dust bunnies that were actually filled with cat hair. Which got me thinking, why are they called "dust bunnies" and not some other furry animal. I spent a while cruising around the internet looking for some answers with no conclusion. The term has been around for hundreds of years or was first used in the 1950's or 1960's. The most logical guess as to why they were called "dust bunnies" was that they were furry like a bunny and multiply like rabbits. Makes sense but they are called different names in other countries. In Hungry, apparently they are called "dust kittens". I think that's the term I'm going to use because my dust balls are made up of 80% cat hair.
--When did my legs get so short? Since we moved into our new house, we have not had a full length mirror, so it has been a struggle to see the bottom half of my body. Ward put one up for my birthday last week in our bedroom where I now see my entire reflection frequently. And every time the first thing that I think is that my legs are short. I've always known that I've had a long torso so I don't know why it would be a surprise to me that they are short compared to the rest of my body. Or maybe it's my imagination or maybe Ward put up a fun house mirror just for kicks.
 |
| That would be me in the middle. |
--And speaking of long torsos, I've decided it's time for me to get a swimsuit that fits. I'm not a big pool or beach person, but I really should have something to wear if the occasion to wear one comes up. I've been thinking this for several years. Well, my sister told me about a online sale for swimsuits the other day and I took the plunge (pun attended). However, I had no idea what size to get. And my measurements of bust, waist, hips, and torso didn't really help. I measured a 6, 8, 10. 12 with the torso being the largest. I did my best to average out the sizes and ordered something. It hasn't come yet. We'll see if it is anything close to fitting when it comes.
--Is there preference of a floating floor vs. a glued floor when they are being installed over concrete? We've had a lot of heavy rain recently. A whole lot. In fact, we're having heavy rain right now with a thunderstorm. With all of this rain, we got some water in the basement. Unfortunately, it was in the Theo's bedroom. We ended up cutting out part of the wet carpet from there and don't plan to put carpet back down. We think the water problem came from a faulty window well, but haven't been able to get any wet basement experts out to look at it. Guess what? They're swamped (pun attended again) with work and won't be able to work us in for a while even for just an estimate. Anyway, we think we can fix the floor in the meantime and are considering our options. Having one bedroom currently out of commission is complicating the sleeping arrangements with the visitors we're having next week.
And along these lines, need to go check to see if any water is seeping in. As best as we can figure out, seepage occurs when we have wind blowing in a certain direction which is happening now. Every bit of evidence we can amass will help understand the problem.
Things look busy for a while with company and then a trip, so
Until next time....
I love this post. I think my brain meanders in a very similar way to yours. I'm very intrigued by the torso length thing. I recently discovered that none of my expensive bike shorts actually are doing what they're supposed to because I'm built weird. For me, I think it's that my waist is higher than most people's so there's a long distance between my waist and crotch... or something like that. The net result is that the padding which is supposed to be under your sit bones ends up being half way up my rear end where it does no good - this leaves my poor little sit bones with no padding. So I switched to something called "bibs" which are basically bike shorts with no waistband - instead they have straps that go over your shoulders like overalls. They work much better, but bathroom breaks are much more of an adventure! Anyhow, I feel your pain, and I hope your new swimsuit fits. :-)
ReplyDeleteIn terms of floors, from what I've read a floating floor is the easiest to install. The thing with them is that you don't want to put anything fixed on top of the floor - like kitchen cabinets or something attached permanently to the wall - you put the floor around the cabinets instead of under them. Apparently floating floors need to be able to expand and contract with the heat and humidity.
OK... I think I'll go sweep up some "dust Godzillas" now. :-)
Good luck in getting clothes that are proportioned properly for you body. I used to have a lot more problems when I was a lot thinner. Gaining weight sometimes has it's advantages.
DeleteWe've been studying basement floors and have learned a lot. There should be some kind of under flooring that keeps the floor off the concrete and has space for the naturally occurring water vapor from the slab to not accumulate. This makes the floor warmer and deters mold. However, there are many opinions what's the best product and way to do this. More study is needed. Unfortunately, some of the more specialized products are not in stores like Home Depot or Lowes so we can go look at them. We were going to go to one of the specialty stores today, but it is closed on the weekends.
It will still be a couple of weeks before we can get anyone out to give their opinion on why the water occurred and an estimate to fix it. And most of the people said their work is booked for the next three months or so. The water seepage is not a regular occurrence, so we can wait. We don't have much choice.
I enjoyed reading this post! Sorry to hear about the basement flooding. The houses here don't have basements; some of us have crawl spaces under the house, which are about 2 ft. high (just enough for a person to crawl under the house, on their backs or stomachs, to attend to plumbing, etc.) but it's bare ground; the house sits on pilings that have been sunk into the ground and is fastened to the pilings for earthquake proofing. Other houses are built on concrete slabs, without a crawl space.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have "dust kitties"! And I used to have a swimsuit, but I don't have one, any more (I don't swim). I hope your swimsuit fits you well. I have short legs, too, and a short torso! I am just short!
Hope you enjoy your visitors' company and the sleeping arrangements work out well.
When we lived in New Orleans and Houston, we didn't have a basement either. We didn't have earthquakes to consider, the water table was just too high for them.
DeleteI'm sure that Dancer supplies you with plenty of dust kitties. :)
For whatever it's worth, I have better luck with tankinis than with a traditional bathing suit. You can choose the bottom style that suits you best (I prefer the skirt, but you can also get shorts or a brief style) and find the top that works best. Torso length shouldn't be an issue with a tankini. My problem is that I am busty and the manufacturers seem to be bad about accommodating that (unless I pay big bucks). Tankinis are easier for bathroom needs, as well. Good luck with your new suit!
ReplyDeleteI was considering a tankini, but chose a one piece because it works better while exercising and swimming in the water. I may start doing this soon. However, I may end up with a tankini in the end.
DeleteYes, tankinis are a drawback if you want to be fairly active in the water! Doing a cannonball jump into a pool is ... interesting ... in a tankini. Don't ask how I know this. Good point!
DeleteI like dust kittens better. I tried to order a swimsuit online, but using their size measure chart and my measurements, the suit I got was far too big. It went back. I don't know what to say. I do bad flooring but have to so myself and do float not glued floors. I took out all carpeting and have vinyl, mostly remnants covering the floor. I've had to replace flooring just once in 11 years, from wear, but it was easy to remove then. Glue is much harder. I know most people just cover a vinyl floor, don't remove the old, with more vinyl, but my OCD nature does not allow for that.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting on the suit to show up. I don't have a lot of hope that it will fit, but supposedly, they have a generous return policy.
DeleteStill a lot of study that needs to be done on the flooring, but I'm pretty sure it will be some kind of floating floor. Right now, we've got a piece of plastic taped to the floor, waiting to see how much moisture is coming up from the ground through the concrete. My son wants us to the leave the concrete bare after we seal it some how if we need to. After that, he said he would use a rug for his feet. He has to get up early to go to work every day and I don't think he likes the chaos that his sleeping arrangements are in.
Ah crap, sorry about your leak/flooding! I hope you can get an expert to look at the window soon.
ReplyDeleteI hear you about dust kittens, it's like having more pets around here. The second I pick one up, another one forms. I couldn't think of the French expression for them so I had to look it up on... Wikipedia (because Google Translate literally translated dust bunny and I knew that was wrong!) and the article about dust bunnies reminded me that we call them "sheep" in French :)
Sheep sounds like a good name, but I think you and I should stick with dust kitties.
Delete