Achievement unlocked: napping

I finally got a nap today.  I'm not sure how long it's been since I've had a nap.  Weeks if not months.  I fell asleep on the sofa with my shoes on.  Andy the cat was pinning me to the sofa by way of my lap.  DeLee and I were supposed to go out today, but she got some horrible bug bites while we were hiking on Saturday so she was taking it easy and trying not to scratch them.

After I established that we were not, in fact, going anywhere, I wandered into the living room.  I wasn't really thinking nap.  I wasn't thinking much of anything.  I sat on the sofa and invited various cats up to get petted.  However, being cats, they snubbed me as soon as they realized I wanted to pay attention to them.  So I was just reclining there, not thinking about very much, when zzzZZZZZ.

At some point Andy curled up on me.  And then later I felt chilly and took off my shoes and dragged a blanket over me.  Of course Andy left while I was in the shoe-taking-off process.  Only Dori has the fortitude to stick around for that.  But as soon as I was reclined again, I felt the weight and needle pricks of a cat navigating his way around a prone body.

I fell asleep again only to wake up sweaty.  There is no middle ground.  Some day I will probably discover clothing which will keep me comfortable, neither too chilly nor too warm.  Guaranteed the clothing will be too expensive to afford, fragile, ugly, or all three.

So, basically, I got nothing done today.  I haven't left the building.

Although, I *did* swap out the air filter up in the attic.  I think it's the first time this year, which is ridiculous.  What's more ridiculous is the athletic routine required to swap out the filter.  A) I'm not tall enough to reach the rope to pull down the attic door.  B)  Once you get up there, you have to duck walk under a roof support.  C) Once you've gotten under the support, you have to edge across a couple of wobbly boards spanning the chasm over the front hall.  And then of course after you've swapped out the filter you have to reverse the process in the opposite direction.

I wanted to take a look at our gable fan, which has gotten insanely loud, so I didn't reverse the process right away.  First I clambered over the ductwork (which thank goodness can hold my weight, because there is no way to just step over it), then held onto the rafters as I stepped from beam to beam.  The gable fan, is, of course, at the far end of the attic.

I determined that the gable fan is all rusty, but that's not why it's loud.  One support was screwed into one of the 140 year old vent louvers, which has finally come loose after a couple of decades of stress from the fan vibration.  Now whenever the fan comes on it rattles that louver, and the vibration transmits itself throughout the structure of the house.  Even JD's closet door vibrates, at the other end of the house and one story down.  It's delightful.

Still I figure it's time to replace the fan, and we'll attach it to something more solid.  I spent some time shopping online for a replacement fan.  They all look pretty much the same, but the price ranges from $45 to $400+. It's crazy!  How am I supposed to figure out which one to get?  My googling hasn't led me to any independent reviews which might help me decide.  There are actually a bunch of attic gable fan websites, believe it or not.  They aren't helpful.  They say things like "attic gable fans reduce your electrical bill by reducing the heat load in your attic!" as if this were news.  But actually comparing different fan manufacturers?  Not so much.

The most expensive fans have 10 year warranties, and the cheapos have 1 year warranties.  I really would like something that would last 20-30 years as this one appears to have, but I guess people don't really build stuff with the intention of having it last anymore.  I mean, how would that benefit them?

So my Labor Day was spent napping and not buying anything.  You're welcome, economy.  Anytime.