Deth

Today is a bright and sunny day with a mild temperature in the mid-70s. There’s a light breeze, but only just enough of one to feel good. We decided that it’s a good time to take the glass out of the front door and put the screen back in. It shouldn’t get cold enough that it would make that much of a difference in the house. At least tomorrow and Thursday, we could be pushing 80 ℉. It seems a bit late for that this year, but we have had a number of warmer than average days scattered in here and there. Just no records that I can think of this spring.

The one annoying thing when switching the screen and the glass is the fact that we bought the slightly cheaper version of that door when we put it in. Instead of a more permanent way to hold the screen in or the glass for that matter is using these cheap plastic strips that haven’t held up that well. One of them broke and is useless. The others are wearing out. Anderson, I think, wants thirty bucks to replace them, so we haven’t.

We do love the door though and the fact that the window is the entire height of the door. The porch roof blocks at a lot of the light but still, it’s nice having that big window to let in the available light and when the screen is in for the summer lots of air comes through. We actually installed it ourselves and are proud of it. I know that I, for one, am not super handy with tools. I wish I were, but I think it’s a vision thing for me. My dad and pop could always fix things, and I wanted to be like that. It probably took us longer than it should have, but we got it done. We didn’t break anything or fuck anything up, so that’s a win. I would almost go so far as to say it was rewarding to do it ourselves.

Unfortunately, I am certain that with it getting nicer outside, the dolts will be smoking their cancer sticks right outside our door. I can’t really bitch too much because at this point cigarettes are legal, they shouldn’t be, but that’s another story. They could, however, be more considerate with where the carcinogenic smoke is going. Maybe not standing right out the railing, facing our door would be a nice start.

At times the smoke goes through our entire house and out the back door if the wind is blowing right. We can’t even get rid of the cancer stick smoke out back on our patio, well away from where they’re smoking. Hell, there’s a building in between.

Can you tell I hate cigarette smoke? I’ve had exposure to secondhand smoke my entire life, even though I’ve never smoked. My families were like chimneys. The neighbors are like two chimneys, except they take turns going in and out, letting the door slam each time all day long when they’re home. If you take away the carcinogen factor of cigarettes, the smoke is still an eye burning nuisance. It stains everything. The butts far too often just end up being litter.

Now on to the positives of having the screen installed again. We’ll have relatively fresh air coming through the living room again when it’s not too cold to have the front door open. It’s interesting how the CO2 levels shown on my Ambient weather station crashed once that glass was out of the front door. It just goes to show how stale the air gets in a closed up house. We don’t even live in a well sealed modern house either. We live in a drafty old one.

It will be nice to hear the outside sounds better, or at least the pleasant ones. I could do without the trucks and shit tractors, but recently, I’ve been hearing that there have been numerous birds singing and that’s just relaxing. It won’t be too much longer until the crickets and tree frogs start out at night. Maybe there will be more katydids, as I was starting to hear them more last summer with the trees growing good across the street. Many of them are flowering now and the earlier one are starting to get green leaves.

As much as I can’t stand the summer heat, I do and have always liked having the windows open. Central air would be nice, but I just so prefer the outside air coming through the house, unless it would be ridiculously humid. Our old house doesn’t have central air, so that’s not even a valid option either way.