Sunday was both a Beautiful and a Challenging day.

Did I mention that on Carnivale morning, as I was going out the door, I saw I had a text message from the cottage tenant. I checked it to discover that once again the cottage heater would not light properly. So I called my plumber friend who was able to come down soon and look at it. I put a couple of oil based heaters outside, carrying one to her porch. Neither of them left me a message that day to tell me what had happened, but I assumed my plumber friend got the pilot lit, and she had heat.

I have many times over told her not to text me with problems, but to call my home phone. Her texting me about a plumbing problem cost me an extra $50 in a water bill because a pipe had broken and I didn’t see the text until I was far from the house. And my plumber friend also was at another job for  few more hours. That also meant water was running under the cottage in the winter. No telling what type of damage that could cause. That was months ago, and I had thought I had been really clear with her about how to communicate with me about issues she experienced that needed quick attention.

So Sunday morning, I slept in a little bit, but not too late. Was happy that my leg and knee were feeling close to normal after all the dancing and “hiking” I had done the last couple of days.

What gets me up is the incredible frosty scene outside. I take a few photos in my bathrobe, then go in and start my morning.

I ventured out into the street to get a picture of Red Mountain covered in Frost. Beautiful, but very chilly!

When I was dressed, the frosty scene drew me out to take more photos. I thought I would just go up to the Catholic Church, but went a bit farther. And once again my fingers were frozen by the time I got back to the house. But so much beauty, I just enjoyed this very unusual scene. If I hadn’t been so tired, I probably would have ventured further up the street and hills, but just couldn’t do it.

 A bit later, I look out to see if the frost is still on the trees, and I see a note on my mailbox. I discover my cottage tenant isn’t going to renew her lease. She left this month’s rent in a small piece of paper with a note on it saying she hadn’t seen a new lease, and needed to make some changes in her life. One of which was moving, not renewing her lease. I had put a new lease in her mailbox at least a week ago. Not sure how she didn’t see it.

The person who fixed her heater called and asked if I could pay him that day. Not a problem. Then he explained what he had done. Since he had just replaced the thermocouple not too long ago, he was mystified as to why there was still a problem, but could see some angle and air problem. So if the pilot went out again, I was looking at a $200+ part and about 2 hours labor. He had done all he could to fix the problem he saw, so we both hoped the pilot would stay lit the rest of the winter

I put up a listing on Craig’s List for the cottage, but somehow transposed the number for the rent with a much smaller amount. Then I copied and pasted that listing into a couple of emails. I had spent much time trying to find a picture of the cottage that I knew existed, but it wasn’t labeled in any way I could find, so just used a couple of exterior images of the driveway and shared grill and picnic area.

After doing my posts for the two blogs I went to bed, very tired.

When I laid down in bed, something was haunting me. And I got back up and saw what I had done. That meant redoing the emails, looking silly to lots of people, but what else could I do. First I fixed the post on Craig’s List. Then in the morning I .

The next morning, there were quite a few responses to the wrong amount posting – it was quite a deal for a cottage rental. I emailed them all with the new price and suggested they look at the updated listing. Then, wrote that if they were still interested to send me another email.

I had gone out first thing and taken a photo of the cottage to add to the Craig’s List post and wrote a bit more information about the location and revised some of what I wrote so it looked like a new and different cottage listing.

Some folks did respond that they were still interested. So I had to get my tenant to tell me what day I could start showing it. Which will be tomorrow after my hearing health appointment.

But the worst part of Sunday was what woke me up just after I had gotten up and then back to bed really late, say 1:30 in the morning. I did easily fall asleep, but just about 2am, I woke with my eyes watering and panicked. My first thought was I have close the window, and started to jump out of bed. But realized it was winter, and no window was open.

Then I tried to figure out how my bedroom could smell as if a skunk was walking through it. I mean the smell was that strong!

There is no where else in the house I can sleep. So I sprayed some lavender essential oil around the room and put many drops on a piece of cotton. Pulled the covers over my head and tried to get some sleep. By then I had a headache and took another Percogesic and slept fitfully until morning, when I gave up and got up. I brought a diffuser into the room and diffused Young Living’s Purification blend and that did help get the scent out of the bedroom.

And I have come to the conclusion that I can’t post every day. Just too much time to do that. And I need to write other things. So if I get a post every other day on both sites, that will be my new goal.

And in my next post, I will talk a  bit about the Commonwheel meeting on Monday and how this day went being at an unusual level of exhaustion, still got many things accomplished.