onward, I guess

 Unless there's a cancellation, I get my shower back after Tuesday.

I washed my hair in the kitchen sink this morning. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great, either. (Last night, while cleaning out the closet in preparation for the plumber, at one point I thought "ugh, I'm getting really sweaty, after this I need to take a shower" and then a beat passed and I remembered WHY I was cleaning the closet and was like GOL FRICKING DANGIT. I wound up washing up in the kitchen sink - left the light off so no one could see in the window (not that anyone likely would, given the direction the room faces) and just stripped down and took a pioneer-style bath using the sink there.)

I can still use the bathroom sink but it's small. Gonna have to think what to do when it comes time to shave my legs in a day or so.

But it is pretty clearly a leak. So it's gonna be somewhat of a disruption; I'm hoping they can replace the part of pipe without having to cut out the wall (just using the access panel) but I'm prepared for it to be a big teardown job. I'm just hoping the plumber can put the piece of wall BACK and I don't have to call YET ANOTHER guy.

The one upside, I guess, to emptying my closet - I realized there are some dresses I never wear (wrong size, fits badly, turned out to be a style that doesn't work) but that are still good and are barely worn, so I think when I go to put them back I'll sort through and take a load to the Goodwill or whatever thrift shop seems to be accepting clothing. (other option: take them somewhere out of town so I don't maybe wind up seeing someone wearing what was pretty obviously once "my" dress in public....)

I also found a dress I bought as much as 10 years ago, and rarely wore, and that got shoved to the back of the closet - a nice bluish-purple Lane Bryant dress. I tried it on last night and it still fit, so I'm wearing it today.

I also found another one - one I made - in rather bright pink and green (*almost* "80s colors") that I might try back on and decide about. I think I pushed it aside as "too bright" at one point but maybe I worry about that less now?

Anyway. I'm finding stuff I could give away to lighten the load a little bit. I need to do that with books, too, probably, though from what I've heard anecdotally books are harder to dispose of now, lots of places do not want them because "everyone reads electronic books now" so I don't know. I don't know if Books for Africa is still a thing, and if they'd want any of the books (mostly novels) I'd be getting rid of. (My understanding was they mainly wanted recent academic books, for underfunded universities)

Maybe some of the "nicer" ones or the more-niche ones I photograph and offer up on here, for the cost of postage or even just for free (if you're willing to wait on "media mail" which is cheaper). 

I'm still holding out hope there will be a cancellation and I'll get someone before Tuesday, would be really nice to have the shower and the tub back sooner. (I think the leak might also involve the tub faucet so I'm not going to use it until he can look at it. If he says "well, the tub's sound, the shower isn't, but I can't fix the shower just yet" at least I can take baths....)

I just hope it's fixed soon so I can think of other things.

One of my low-level plans this weekend (staying home Saturday because sometimes this plumber will do Saturday hours for no extra charge, and if he called and said "yeah I can come look at it today" I would not want to be on my way to Sherman) is to clean house again - put away the Hallowe'en decorations (especially now since it's past All Souls' Day) and prepare for putting up the Christmas stuff. Yes, I do it early most years; will probably do it next weekend (if the shower thing is fixed). I will be going to my mom's this year for Thanksgiving (thank God for that, last year was sad) and will be going again at Christmas, so I like having "enough" time with the tree up. 

I do have one little thing coming in the mail: I found a shop selling Princess Celestia tree ornaments, so now my set of Gen 4 My Little Ponies is probably as complete as it will get (I have the Main Six and I have Luna, was missing Celestia). I feel maybe a tiny bit of excitement for Christmas again? I hope? Last year I was mostly "meh" about it, doing it at home here - Oh, I recognize there will be a day (hopefully still a goodly number of years in the future) when I will have no reason to travel for Christmas (my brother and his family are much too far away, and also, their lives are....different enough....from mine) but also in those years, at least I will (hopefully) feel comfortable going out and doing things, and the parties, and feeling comfortable taking trips out to shop....all of that. 

But for this year, it will be good to be up with my mom. Even if she's not comfortable doing all the things we might have done in the before-times. (I think I can make a case for a trip out to a craft store - I think she is doing that - and maybe even to a clothing store to look for possible new dresses (one of the things I asked for a dress from a particular catalog, is sold out. Yes, shortages, and possibly going shopping in times after people have heard "supply chain disruption" on the news for several months will be an exercise in frustration, but maybe not? Or at least it's getting out somewhere different?)

but yeah, here's hoping the plumbing thing is a small blip that will soon be fixed and I can get back to trying to focus on things I *enjoy*