Today's my half birthday. I always envied people with birthdays well away from Christmas, so this is my answer. Also I may not have a lot more, so I may as well seize the day.
Two men visited to help me celebrate. The dryer vent cleaners, to be exact. I was so glad the weather has cooled to the 70s, because one of them has to go up on the roof.
while the other man lugs a giant vacuum cleaner thing upstairs. Between them, they remove the accumulated lint from the exhaust, then vacuum the money from my wallet.
Now I have the official certificate showing it's done. I can take it along to the manager when, if, he shows up Thursday at the clubhouse, and that completes my obligation to the HOA. Before it became a requirement I used to get it done anyway, lint being a fire hazard.
Such an exciting birthday party.
I'm thinking about making a sash for my kimono, just a narrow band one, not like an obi, and I'm picking colors. Please chime in.
I need two colors for a clasped weft design, to echo the swoops and jags of the kimono design.
I'm also revisiting Elizabeth Taylor, one of the best novelists of recent times. She keeps making penetrating observations and her eye is wonderful for description in few words. Today it's
This is a quietly savage, desperate novel written in gentlewoman's language, just an arresting read. You keep having to stop and take in what she just said. So many throwaway lines. You need to experience it for yourself though.
Happy day everyone, I'm off to sit outside today because I can. Three bean salad for lunch. Several lunches.
Did I mention that all my sunflower seedlings were picked by birds, likewise my cotton plants? Sic plantia mundi.
I shall have to look for that Elizabeth Taylor. I think she might be published by Persephone.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks nicely cooling.
I think Virago, but maybe reissued by Persephone? I believe Virago went extinct.
DeleteNow you can really vent.
ReplyDeleteHappy half birthday. Your dryers are significantly different to ours over here - we do have lint (obviously) but it gets cleaned from an easy to access trap on the machine regularly.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lint trap to clean every time you use the dryer. But because the moisture is vented via a vent running from the appliance up through the ceiling and out to exit through an aperture on the roof, the vent pathway can pick up stray lint which gets blown out every couple of years.
DeleteThere are condensation dryers, too, much more expensive, one of which I installed in my rental property, where the moisture is directed into the washer drain. Maybe that's what you have.
Well, it may have cost a fortune but at least you have your certificate now. What an odd business to be in- cleaning out dryer vents. "I'm a dryer lint vent guy."
ReplyDeleteHappy Half Birthday to you!
It does sound funny! They're niche construction people, build, replace, repair chimneys, dryer vents, heating ducts etc. I just needed them for a simple job.
DeleteHappy half 🎂 birthday to you Boud, and I didn't know that cleaning out dryer vents was the condo owner's responsibility, but then all places may have differing regulations. When I owned a townhouse, I was able to clean lint out of the exterior vent, but there was no requirement to do so You are correct in stating that it is a definite fire hazard, so now yours is all done.
ReplyDeleteI expect it's a township regulation. They're very strict on fire hazards. Here, the way the buildings are constructed, it requires one person operating the machine inside the house and another on the roof. They do pressure testing to establish that the system is working as designed. However the kitchen oven exhaust vent is the HOA job. no idea why.
DeleteHappy Birthday. Snazzy move inviting gentlemen callers to your birthday!
ReplyDeleteI thought so. It's my halfbirthday. The whole one is in December. Then maybe I'll invite four gcs!
DeleteHappy half 🎂 birthday to you, Boud!
ReplyDeleteIn my tropical corner of the world dryers are seldom used, so this whole vent‑cleaning business is new to me. We usually just sun our clothes out on the balcony--the heat does the job quickly enough.
The thing is that it's not permitted to dry clothes outside, in many housing developments here. I don't use the dryer much, air dry indoors, but regs require the official licensed cleaning unless I undertake never to use it.
DeleteHappy halfbirthday! Never heard of it, and I like the idea. I also like the idea of an excellent author. As well as the colors of yarn for your kimono sash which you have arranged.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have made it up. After 85 you want to squeeze in as many birthdays as possible.
DeleteI've rethought all the colors, stay tuned.
Didn't Alice in wonderland celebrate the unbirthday?
ReplyDeleteHappy half a birthday.
We need to clean our vents too.
Cathy
That's probably where I got it from!
DeleteI don't think that green would work well at all. Maybe the tan if it is the same shade as the dots pattern and then I might chose a pink closer to the kimono pink and maybe also use the cream colour. Or just the cream and tan. But choose what you like best, you are the one wearing it, not me.
ReplyDeleteI've been rethinking colors, and I think you're right about the green. I have a limited amount of yarn to choose from, anyway stay tuned! Thank you for the input.
DeleteHappy half-birthday. And as Lewis Carroll might have said, Happy un-birthday!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure he had the half birthday idea first. Anyway thank you!
DeleteHappy half birthday. I think the birds at my sunflowers as well. Ah, well. I hope they were delicious. Enjoy the good weather.
ReplyDeleteI guess they were cutting out the middleflower.
DeleteHappy half birthday!!
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky to have a dryer vent that is easy to clean by me. You've reminded me to check it soon! :)
One of my neighbors routinely did her own, using her chimney cleaning kit. But fire regs require a certification from a licensed professional to prove it's done.
DeleteUgh! That's a bummer about the seedlings! I was really looking forward to seeing that cotton.
ReplyDeleteNot Elizabeth Taylor the actress, I assume. :)
Happy half-birthday!
I was disappointed about the cotton, so successful until it wasn't. The actress Taylor should only have had a fraction of the writer Taylor's talent!
DeleteReading this on the 16th so belated half birthday greetings. Guess what? My half birthday is tomorrow, the 17th.
ReplyDeleteAha, happy halfers to a fellow Sag!
DeleteHappy half-birthday! My sister‘s birthday is just a few days after Christmas, and mine is one week later. Our mother, her own birthday being one week before Christmas, understood how that felt. She always made efforts to separate our birthdays from Christmas. She never wrapped our birthday present in Christmas paper, for example, though sometimes our grandparents did. In addition, we were offered the option of having our “friend party” on our half-birthdays in the summer. We sometimes chose that!
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice mom. She got it
DeleteI have never heard of that Elizabeth Taylor. I think I need to something about that.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely investigate the real Elizabeth Taylor. She's wonderful.
DeleteMy birthday is the third of January. So no one ever remembers it. They’re all too hung over from new years.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I’ll start having a half birthday too
Definitely. July 3 is henceforth Angela's Halfbirthday.
DeleteHappy (albeit now belated) half birthday! I'd sing, but there's many reasons why you wouldn't want me to.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the wishes and the restraint!
DeleteHappy Half-Birthday! I hope it is greatly enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice! Quiet and nice.
Delete