A man´s way of thinking...

There´s a German saying which compares the thoughts of women with the content of sausages: no one knows what´s in there, not even her husband, means that women are too complicated even for their husbands to understand. It is rude, I know, but yesterday I got the impression that men do not work that differently. While hubby was working with number two, to get new lumber onto son´s bedroom floor, the one he had flooded in collaboration with the plumber, I screwed up my courage and finally brought in my old wooden lantern, the one I had deliberately banned to the most remote corner of our balcony- for at least five years at that. A storm had broken the lantern´s door once, and over the years I have watched countless spiders and other nuisances wander in and out. I hate insects, and I am very afraid of spiders, so seeing the never ending procession of critters made me suppress the thought that I still was the owner of this abode for things I hate with a passion. This time I proceeded to action and picked up insect spray, a flyswatter and daughter for aid, and carried the lantern into the living room, hoping that all those bad things inside would not wake up before I was ready to eliminate them. After all the highest temperature during day was two degrees, and during night it had been freezing cold. It was not that bad. Two drawers full of spiderwebs plus the remnants of the spiders´ dinners, which I quickly sluiced out with hot water. Then I cleaned the wooden outside with my vacuum cleaner, this way it was a piece of cake to finally get rid of all the insect corpses. Even the nest wasps had built inside the lantern got disposed this way. I fervently hoped that hubby would stay off long enough for me to be able to patch the lantern´s door together, but no such luck. Hubby came, saw and practically dashed into the cellar to get his tools ready for action. Within minutes the table was littered with different bottles of wood glue (even though the one I intended to use was already on the table), huge clamps (which he still thought too small because he wanted to fasten them the wrong way round), lots of small nails (toys for the cats) and two different hammers plus sand paper. The moment the sand paper came into play I knew that I was in for long reparation work which not even express glue could remedy. Inscription says fixity after five minutes, full mechanical resilience after one hour. I got told to wait until next morning, which I did, but I left the bed early to get the lantern ready before hubby was up. I inserted the glass, screwed on the door, and only then I realized that that during night all those little critters that had taken refuge from the cold in the cracks of the wood were now walking the dining table. Well, I barely made it in time to clean the mess before husband mine came down to check the situation. He was very disappointed that I had no more relied on his experience in craftsmanship. Well, I would have had I infinite time for all the nonsense he brings up the moment he sees reparation work ahead. Self do, self have, and everything will be fine, that´s the name of the game.
I haven´t left the house for a full week now save for one tour to the drugstore, which is remarkable considering the fact that all the pensioners here are totally disrespecting curfew. There have to be trails between some of the houses done by those who wander in the evening, when they are supposed to stay at home and certainly not to visit their drinking buddies! But this way I had more time to do some Christmas decorating.





Cass´s Christmas town, put into a tiny Ikea greenhouse. Never buy this one, if you intend to stay sane. Daughter and I worked for half an hour to put this one together.
I will spam you with more pictures tomorrow, be afraid, be very afraid....