Where did Christmas go . . .?

It seems that ever since that first spash of water came through our ceiling two days before Christmas, the holidays took a backseat to visits from insurance agents and men crawling all over our roof and writing up estimates. Not to be left out, Sue and Sam an obviously loving and fertile couple of termites took up residence in our closet and they are facing termination of their homesteading rights this week. My best-laid plans for spreading Christmas cheer didn't go according to plan and now it is almost Valentine's Day! I imagine I have more than a few people who wonder at my 'absence' this past holiday season but it works both ways in that more than a few people didn't even notice we were 'not all there' this year! Hey, it is a good way to pare down the Christmas card list for next year. Always a silver lining is every situation!

Today, I spent the majority of it cleaning out the closet that needs the termite treatment. Brain storms struck and I decided that I should take the six boxes of correspondence from the last 28 years and sort them out according to author, need to keep, etc.

Oh, in working with the termite guy that the one major thing to never, never, NEVER do is use ant or bug spray on termites. As in NEVER, according to him because regular ant sprays don't bother them, they just move on to another part of your house and await eventual discovery there.

Also found out that roofing companies look at things differently even among the same profession. The first company gave us an estimate of almost $2,000. What put it up was repairing 70 tiles on the roof. They said just that repair would be $750. We decided to do some looking around although, in our innocence, we thought they were giving us a relatively fair price. We got another estimate and the man almost apologized because repairing many more than 70 tiles plus putting down double lining, repairing the gutters, cleaning them out, and taking down our old antenna would cost . . . $800 total. You have to wonder about the first company and how much they would have actually done as we don't often stroll about on the roof of an evening to check things out!

I have a new crocheting pattern that is interesting to work. In fact, it took me three tries to fully understand the instructions! Going to have dinner and have some lazy time this evening.