We've had a number of really wonderful weather days recently, including last Saturday and Sunday.

I've often said that it seems that the best weather usually happens through the week when I have to be at work, but this time everything worked out perfectly.

For instance, the sun was sunny and the rain that did fall only fell for a little while on Sunday morning. The temperatures were in the 50s and 60s and it really was perfect for spending a little time outside.

I used the opportunity to get caught on some much-ignored home chores, like cleaning out my overflowing gutters. The gutters really just need to be replaced at the house, since they are damaged and dinged as well as leaky.

Did I mention that someone had attempted to paint them a different color? Nonetheless, having gutters full of pine needles is a fire hazard. It can also be a pretty nasty job in dipping the needles out of the murky water that lies within the sunken places where the gutter is no longer level. In one such spot I ended up making an impromptu downspout with my knife for fear that the water damming up and freezing there might pull down the entire gutter.

That isn't very attractive to see the gutter weeping out of a hole in an unusual place, but since it was already leaking slowly from a union not far from there, it really didn't make a difference. Mental note: Buy new gutters for the house after replacing the roof, the siding and several windows after winning lottery.

I also spent part of the day moving more firewood to the porch. It seems that the supply on the porch, about a half cord, ends up getting burned every two to three weeks. Thus far, the weather has been great for moving wood just about the time I've needed to gather more.

In this case, the kids and even a few neighborhood children decided to come over and help with the project. I'm not sure, but it may have been because they wanted to drive my lawnmower. I usually use either the mower or the truck to move the wood from the pile on the hill to the porch. The little mower cart will usually haul what I need to move in about four trips, while it takes about two with the truck.

Other than dropping a stick of wood on my ankle while holding it up with one hand acting foolish, I avoiding having any injuries of note. For me, that's quite an accomplishment.

Saturday also was the day when we moved all the Christmas decorations from the house back to the loft of the building to wait for another year to pass. When it comes to Christmas decorations, there is no shortage at my house. We have plastic storage boxes, cardboard boxes and even trashbags filled with stuffed toys, candle holders, lights, balls, ribbons, bows and roping that adorn the inside and outside of the house. We also have several other outdoor ornaments and things that also have to be put away each year.

I don't think I ever put anything away when I lived alone, mainly because I didn't have any decorations for the holidays. Putting up that sort of thing is fine if someone else does it, but I usually don't want to have much more to do with it than just looking at it as I walk around it. I don't intend to sound like a Grinch, but those things just don't appeal that much to me. However, it is nice when the family comes over if the house has a festive atmosphere.

My house is the usual location for the annual Christmas gathering, complete with a feast of roast beast, Who Hash and all the trimmings. It has happened this way every since I figured out my heart was three sizes two small and I forced my under-sized dog to pull a sled to the house with all the purloined Christmas decorations.

I know most people don't realize this, but after Christmas, all the Whos made the Grinch pack the Christmas stuff back up and store it in his cave until the next year. It really was a win-win situation, since the Grinch really didn't have much more that he needed to do besides pet his dog and look at the fantastic views from the top of Mount Crumpet.

So, like him, I loaded up my truck with the Christmas items and stored them away in the loft of the building, my own little man-made mountain on the hilltop above the house.

I took on another Grinch-like behavior on Saturday when I cleaned out the chimney. Instead of doing it by climbing down, I used my brush to clean out the pipe. I usually try to clean it twice a year, just to be safe.

The creosote builds up pretty quickly in the pipe and then starts to fall back down, stacking up in the elbow that turns into the back of my stove. If I don't clean it out, it eventually would clog the pipe and make the stove not draft properly. Not to mention the fire hazard, which is only compounded by the large assortment of sticks and pine needles in the gutter.

If I was so concerned about it, it makes you wonder why I waited until now to do it, doesn't it?

I don't have a good excuse and I'm not even going to try to come up with one.

I'm just glad that it's done now so that I had something to write about this week. Not that it ever seems to be a problem.

Anyway, I also had time to take the kids, along with two other children from the neighborhood, to have a little fun at the park on Saturday. Who would ever think that I would be writing about going to the park in January. With temperatures in the 50s, it felt more like spring than winter, that's for sure.

The children weren't complaining, though. After stuffing them with tacos, I then proceeded to put them on the tire swing thing and spin them around at high speeds.

After all, that's what big people do to little people. Luckily, everyone maintained stomach integrity, but my younger daughter did lose her chewing gum. Despite a disagreement on the matter, I discouraged her from picking up up and brushing it off. The five second rule doesn't apply to chewing gum in the dirt. January sunshine is priceless.
 

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