This past week has been bitterly cold. The temps have been in the single digits with wind chills below zero. This isn’t the norm around here and I hate it. I hate the cold weather so much that I didn’t even go to my aqua aerobics class for fear that the water would be too cold and I’d freeze walking across the parking lot.

So instead of going to the aerobics class, the Great Hunter and I drove to New Haven to pick up his deer sausage. It was a very pretty day, but so cold. He said he usually goes four lane highway all the way but I convinced him that the more scenic route was via the two-lane country highways, and it was.

We’ve also been busy this last week putting together two kitchen pantry cupboards and a buffet and managed to do it without killing each other. What a major coup that was. The Great Hunter has Essential Tremors caused possibly by the toxic water at Camp Lejeune from when he was stationed there in the ’60s. The Marine Corps, of course,  denies this. It’s difficult for him to work with small items because his hands shake so badly and there were lots of small screws and things. So for once, it was me doing most of the work (plus, I follow directions better) and he was my assistant handing me tools and supplies.

When I bought the house in 1989, I had five upper cabinets, but only three of them were full-size cabinets. The other ones were half cabinets above the stove and above the refrigerator (almost useless). Over the years, we’ve added one double cabinet and two more upper cabinets. The original kitchen had no dishwasher and only an open breakfast bar. We eventually enclosed the breakfast bar and put in a dishwasher and another lower cabinet. Two of the four lower cabinets in the kitchen are blind corner cabinets meaning that two-thirds of the cabinet is wasted space because things are virtually unreachable except for the areas right in front of the door. I have literally crawled (with great difficulty) into the cabinet to retrieve a bowl that had fallen into the great abyss.

I ordered the cupboards from Amazon. The first cupboard we put together took us about five hours; the second one, only about three and a half. I ordered the buffet from Wayfair thinking it would be a perfect match for the cupboards. Much to my disappointment, when the buffet arrived, what had been depicted in the photo as white, turned out to be gray; totally unusable.

When I spoke to customer service they agreed with me and I got a full refund, free return shipping, and return pick up at my home. Three days later, the cabinet was picked up and my refund was in my bank. Way to go Wayfair! And my replacement was on its way.

Now, on a very cold Saturday, after about three hours, the Great Hunter and I have finished the buffet and it looks great with the cupboards. I can’t wait to fill up those cabinets!

As another plus, this project kept my mind off my racing, chaotic atrial fibrillation heart and got me one week closer to seeing the doctor and hopefully getting my heart back into normal rhythm.