New Windows! Yay!

Our new windows were installed last week. What a job! We were really pleased at how fast the old windows were taken out (100 year old windows) and the new ones installed. The guys from Richmond Window Corp (plug plug) were terrific, fast, efficient, neat, and nice, and they're right in my neighborhood. What a great combination. It was painless for us. They set up shop on the sidewalk in front of the house, did the trim to order. We got black trim and love the way it looks. What's really nice is that we can see out of the windows. My studio is all back in order, well, not exactly, because I haven't put away the supplies that I brought back from the Mail Art workshop I did yesterday. I just plopped everything on the table and floor. BUT the new windows, ah, what a sight. C saved 3 of the windows to use the old glass in his art work. Antique glass will definitely have some interesting quality when fired. Our house is 100 years old this year. We're thinking it needs a birthday party before the year is over. What do you think?

Heading north....

Yesterday, I rode the Amtrak train north to New Jersey. I’d forgotten how nice it is to ride on a train, the silent start, moving forward slowly, watching the landscape change. Moving from freight train views to landscapes, to, my favorite, industrial views...we were making good time until just before the MetroPark station, where my family was waiting for me. We stopped, we started moving VERY slowly, we stopped, we rolled on, we stopped. It turned out there was an accident involving a person on the tracks, no details, but we did see some firefighters on the tracks as we rolled through the New Brunswick station. We were one of many trains backed up (same rails used by New Jersey commuter trains, I think) We ended up being an hour late, while standing only 15 miles from my stop, but no one was cranky, just curious.

Now, I’m in suburban New Jersey, to be with my cousin, who is doing very well after her surgery.

It was a cold and windy day....

Sunday, it was very cold and very windy here in Richmond, VA. I was having one of my barometric headaches, or is it a sinus headache? In any case, I was lying about all day waiting for it to go away. About 430 in the afternoon, I heard a loud, dull crash, thud, which shook the house. I thought maybe Chuck dropped a bunch of artwork in his studio. He came into the little room I was in, thinking I'd fallen off the couch. (Wait a minute, I wouldn't have made such a thud or shake!!) We couldn't find anything wrong. I said that the wind probably blew our chimney down, ha ha ha. About an hour and a half later, the house felt really cold, like no heat. I got under the covers. Chuck went down to make something, came up to tell me that he smelled gas and the stove wouldn't light. I said "Call the gas company." He did. He came back and said "We have to leave the house." Out into the cold we went with the dog. Police came, a firetruck came, all very loud, sirens blaring. Five firefighters with an axe went into the house. In the end, it turned out the the wind had blown an old pipe off the side of the house and it crashed into the gas meter, knocking the gas pipe off. So we had no gas coming into the house. We were without heat until 11 a.m. Monday on the coldest night we've had in a long time. 18 degrees F. Could have been worse. The house could have blown up! See the big, old, heavy pipe, see the new gas meter. Today, we have a new pipe, it's plastic.