From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Household Hints. — Do not deposit wood ashes in a wooden vessel or upon a wooden floor.    Never use a light in examining a gas-meter.    Never take a light into a closet.    Never read in bed by candle or lamp light.    Never put kindling wood on top of the stove to dry.    Never leave clothes near a grate or fire-place to dry.    Be careful in making fire with shavings, and never user any kind of oil to kindle a fire.    Keep all lights as far from curtains as possible.    Always fill and trim your lamps by daylight, and never near a fire.    Good nice pie-crust can be made by always observing the following rule. One-quarter of a cup of shortening to every cup of flour used; to be mixed as dry as possible with cold water, and mixed only with a knife.    Take sweet butter only for baking purposes, and never fail to thoroughly beat together your butter and sugar, if you would be sure of good results in cake baking.    Have metal or earthen vessels for matches, and keep them out of reach of children. Wax matches are not safe.    Ground mustard mixing with a little water is an excellent agent for cleansing the hands after handling odorous substances.    Cut hot bread or cake with a hot knife, and it will not be clammy.    Salt extracts the juices of meat in cooking. Steaks ought therefore not be salted until they have been broiled.    In boiling dumplings of any kind, put them in the water one at a time. If they are put in together they will mix with each other.    Do not cut lamp-wicks, but trim them by wiping off with a scrap of paper.    Never boil vegetables with soup stock, for if you do it will certainly become sour in a short time.    Boil your cream for coffee, and see if the coffee will not taste better, as well as keep hot longer.    Pin-cushion covers made of cheese cloth embroidered and trimmed with lace, wear well and keep their looks.    Some one says that leaves of parsley, eaten with a little vinegar, will destroy the odor of breath tainted by onions.    Hot liquid lye is recommended for removing obstructions in waste pipes. Or let the potash dissolve over night in the pipes.    To wipe dust from papered walls, take a clean, soft piece of flannel. Of course it must not be damp, but the dry flannel will remove the dust.    Varnish the soles of your shoes, and it will render them impervious to dampness, and will also make them last longer. This is a good plan.    Clean the mica in stove doors with vinegar. Take clinkers out of stoves by putting a few oyster shells into the grate, when they will become loosened, and may be removed without injuring the lining.    Save the droppings from spermaceti candles, tie them in a cloth, and keep to smooth rough flat-irons.    Never starch napkins.    An old black bunting or cashmere dress may be made to serve a further period of usefulness by being made into a petticoat.    Between two evils choose neither.    Writing a will does not shorten life, and yet many men fear it will.    Save old suspender rings, and sew them on the corners of kitchen holders to hang them by. It will be easy then to flip them on to a nail, and they will not be so likely to get lost.    Powdered borax with a little sugar, blown into the cracks and crevices with a small bellows, will drive away house-ants.    Have a high stool in the kitchen to sit on when tired, to continue your work if necessary. Perched on its top you can wash dishes or iron with ease. A low stool placed on a wooden chair forms a substitute, but a poor one. A soft sheep-skin mat is restful to stand upon.    There is nothing better for cleaning brass or copper than coal ashes. They are also good to scour knives and forks with. For tin, whiting or fine sand is best.    To cleanse jars or jugs or any earthen vessel slaked lime is good, or warmed lye.    To keep a stove smooth, take a coarse and pretty large piece of flannel, roll it hard, and dip it in fine sand. Proceed to rub your stove whenever you are through cooking. Almost any stove will look better for being done the same way occasionally. Boiled starch is also very good to keep a stove looking well; put it on where it will not burn off — around the back and sides where it doesn't get very hot.

Today, a second time, I see the "dirt" of on the wall in the stairwell. I doubted that it was dirt the first time, and now I do even more so. I believe it may be a mould. If it appears a third time, I will be sure of it. The perpetual leaks may have finally sealed our fate. If it is in the walls, we cannot stay. Perhaps this could even explain the sicknesses that trouble us in the house_of_clocks. Where will we go, I do not know. I have thought long this was coming to an end, and eventually it must. Now seems like a time of wind, I can feel it like a dream taking me to the next scene.

This winter will be cold and long. I have met none who doubt.

The house_of_clocks still doesn't have heat. Nobody in the house can afford oil. So we freeze. Hopefully we'll have heat by Christmas, but I'm not counting on it. I think we may just freeze out the winter. When it gets very cold I'll start my ritual of boiling water on the stove. I'm very adept at heating a house with the oven and stove. I've done it many times when either the furnace broke or the oil ran out. It's colder than most would like it, but the pipes don't freeze. Looks like a chilly winter.

i haven't been posting much lately
that will eventually end
i've already decided on my new year's resolution for next year
i will post every day for 2005

it's snowing outside right now
the first real snow of the season
i went out in it early this morning to get my geodon script filled
everything was covered in white drifts
i love winter
however i also fear it
heating the house is always a problem
we haven't gotten oil yet because citizen's energy isn't taking applications until December
plus i hear that some part of the furnace exploded in the basement
i haven't been down to check it out
but it will need to be repaired
i'll have to find out if it was the oil line or the water line the blew
hopefully the water line as the other will get quite messy quite quickly
or will have already gotten quite messy because it's already exploded

my pdoc increased my geodon again
240mg a day now
a very high dose
i also found out that i'm already maxed out on celexa at 60mg

purpleglitter's computer is down and it's my fault
i told purpleglitter she could delete something that shouldn't have been deleted
i feel very bad about that

today is clean the house day
fun fun

life is this
this is life
where will i go?
what am i doing here?
right now i'm sitting at a keyboard.
having listened to the preachings of rev. jeremiah weed
jeremiah weed is a pleasant fellow
he ministers in a slurred voice
his company is fine
he makes me drunk
incoming message...
...
...
comment
...
...
don't worry
i'm not going to do the three dots thing again
....
see four
.....
and five
...
shut up
anyway.
sometimes
things are different
different inside
things freeze up
it's hot in here
but it's cold too.
they might seem opposite
but can exist together.
i'm thinking of jalapeño ice cream
interesting idea
hot and cold
i wonder if it would take off
popcorn flavored jelly beans did
----
dashes
see
not dots
the world is spinning a little
but that's just old rev. weed
asking me
what's up
i don't know where i am
i don't really care
i'm somewhere
that's all that matters for the moment
it's hot in here
i open the window.
it will be cold soon
winter is coming
one of the floaters doesn't like winter
finds it triggery
i wonder what happened in the winter
i wonder why the winter is so cold
the beast comes out in the cold
the beast is protective
the beast sees the cold as something to protect against
winters long march
through my bones
----
four even
and only once
so there
-----
symmetry is overrated
i overrate it
i look at it as important
feel rebellious if i part my hair asymmetrically
fuck symmetry
-----
i hear the leaves
falling to the ground
winter is coming
coming fast
we need oil
do we have money for oil?
no.
but we need it
or we will freeze
i can keep the house heated with the gas stove and oven
but people need to cooperate
i have to stay up all night to make sure the pipes don't freeze some nights
winter is always about tending the fires
making sure everything stays warm
against the bitter cold
and here it comes
winter

Yesterday morning went fine, but we had had our first therapy appointment with our new therapist in the afternoon. Very switchy for that. After the therapy session, I had to fill out a questionnaire that was quite triggery. Didn't like it at all. Too many questions about things I'd rather not be answering questions about.

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After we got home, quite jittery and switchy still, I talked to my dad on the phone. I had thought my previous piano experience was limited muddling through 2 years of piano lessons, never really becoming very skilled. However, he told me that I used to play quite a bit. And that I, we, or whoever, used to have "emotional fits" on the piano that came out as music. Good, intense music. I don't remember that at all. It's very disconcerting to not remember something so obviously important. It was back then though, and everything was much less stable then. Now, I don't know what to think of my music. I don't know how to view it or where it's going or where it's from. Everyday there seems to be more revelations. There is so much that I don't know. So much. So much.

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Spent the night at purpleglitter's apartment last night. I was really grumpy when I got there, because I got lost and my feet hurt a lot. But, I ended up having a very good, mellow time. Just what I needed after the whirlwind. I will be definitely going back in the not-to-distant future.

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Thanks to the efforts of pillowkisser, the heat is working now in the house_of_clocks. However, a new problem has developed: a leak in the upstairs bathroom.

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Tonight, I'm going to get quietly drunk.