The day ended better than it began.

I finally broke free, got out to Lowe's, and ordered my new windows. I had been worrying about "When will I get out there?" and worrying about making a Big Expensive Decision and I think that partly preyed on my mind. (I am much happier AFTER making decisions - when it's done, and I can't mentally debate it any more, and I tell myself I will be happy with the result - than I am in the PROCESS of making decisions)

I did find out - when I called - that the Millwork guy is there from something like 2 pm until after the store closes at 10. (OK, so other jobs have things that stink worse than some of the stuff I put up with in academia...). I was afraid he'd have short hours, like 10 to 2 or some lunacy and I'd never get out there when he was on duty.

But I did, and got the windows picked out.

They are not the very top of the line, but close to it, and by Pella. I tend to think a company that's been around for umpteen years, at the very least, will be willing to make stuff right if it isn't. They're double-glazed (I suspect all windows are now), and have the tilt-in frames to make them easy to clean (I don't have to crawl behind the holly bush to clean the outside of the dining room windows any more; I can tilt them in and clean them from inside the house). And they have low-e glass, which I'm hoping will keep it cooler in the summer without running heck out of my air conditioner.

And they are vinyl. Yes, I know. Heresy, in a 60-odd year old house. I probably "should" have gone with wood. But I don't have time to paint wood and worry about its upkeep and if it's warping and all that mess. Luckily, I don't live in anything designated as an "historic district" so the Aesthetics Police won't come after me. I did select ones as close in style as possible to what I have now.

And if whoever winds up with the house after I'm done with it - if there still is a world and still is a house in the future - if they don't like it, they can put in whatever the heck they want.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised on the cost. I had money saved up for this, I was anticipating something like $12K, as a friend had window replacements priced out a couple years ago and claimed, "It will cost more than my place is WORTH" - he was saying it ran like $22K, and his house is no bigger than mine, so I was prepared to boggle at the cost. (I have no idea why his were so expensive. Maybe he was looking at custom jobs. Or maybe he wanted wood, and wood is a lot more expensive...)

Turns out, my replacement (barring anything unforseen like dry rot in the sills - which I may actually foresee, I spotted a bit and pointed it out to the installer and he said, "yeah, we can replace that for a bit extra") was only about half of the anticipated $12K. So instead of mostly-depleting my savings, it's only partly-depleted them, which relieves me - I like having a cushion of money in case something really goes bad and needs to be dealt with right away. And with a year or so's frugal living, I can build the savings back up to where they were before.

And yeah, yeah, they made the offer of financing and all (even with 0% interest) but my philosophy is, if you have the money NOW, pay for it all NOW. Then you don't have it hanging over your head.

Other good news: if the special-order comes when it's supposed to, it will be in the correct time frame for the installers to put them in in my little break between exam week and my departure for Christmas break. (Extra good: if the vinyl "outgasses" at all, I will be gone for much of it and won't have to smell it)

***

Knitted more on the never ending scarf of neverendingness. It's getting close to done, actually. And I know there are a few places with errors in it - mainly row 11s where I forgot a yarn over, and just said "bag it" and fudged in the next eyelet row (the following row 5). I don't know. Intellectually I know the errors won't show, but I admit that emotionally they bug me. Not quite enough to rip literally months of work out and start over (swearing not to make a mistake - because that never works anyway), but it still bugs me.

I keep telling myself that it's like the Amish quilts or the Persian rugs where the maker left an intentional flaw because supposedly to make something too perfect offends God. (Sigh. I never have to make sure to leave an "intentional" flaw in things).

I'll probably feel better about it when (a) I am less tired, and less tired of it, (b) it has blocked and I can realize that the mistakes don't really show, and (c) if I wear it and someone comments that it's nice or pretty or something.

But making mistakes does bug me. And it's more than on an "oh, I screwed up" level, it's almost like "The earth has now tilted a couple extra degrees on its axis because you did this thing WRONG and gravity is all out of whack and things aren't RIGHT." It takes me a while of living with a mistake to learn to tolerate it.