Notes from Maine - 2024/08/04
Double and twin are the same thing. I’ve always been confused by this. When I look up double right now, it says, “consisting of two equal, identical, or similar parts or things.” When I look up twin, I get, “something containing or consisting of two matching or corresponding parts.”
That’s the same word.
My sister, nephew, and Mom drove up yesterday. They spent all day on the road to drop Mom off and then later today my sister and nephew are driving, riding, and flying until they get to Scotland. It’s a nested vacation—Scotland inside a Maine sandwich.
Mom is staying in what we call the “dorm” room. One of the guest rooms is filled with beds. When I bought this house, the walls of that room were pink and the carpet was pink. It was Jenny’s room, according to the markings on the door jamb. I used to have a record of Jenny’s height through the 1980s. That jamb went away when I replaced the door many years ago. All the pink went away too. Now the room is green and the carpet is tan. It’s a boring room, filled with beds.
Mom said she wanted to stay in the “Double” bed (or maybe she said the “Twin”?). I thought she meant the little bed near the door. Even though the words mean the same thing, a “double” bed is 54 inches (1.37m) wide and a “twin” is 38 inches (0.97m). On a previous trip, she replaced the box spring of that little bed because the old one was slippery (or crinkly?) and the new one is crinkly (or slippery?). I’m confused by that too. Suffice to say, I made up the wrong bed.
She came downstairs looking for pillow cases and I said, “I put them on already.”
“Not on the Double bed,” she said.
That’s when I learned that (at almost “retirement age”) I’ve still failed to learn what people call beds. I guess I’ve always referred to the bigger beds as full. I’ve also just become reacquainted with the fact that a Twin bed is also referred to as a Single bed. That’s maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever encountered. And then we move up to the Queen and King. How did the royals get mixed up with this?
Apologies to non-US readers. I’m now learning that sizes are not standardized from country to country, so my quoted dimensions above might be unfamiliar to you. Looking through the chart of mattress sizes, my favorite is the “XL Family Bed”, which used for, “co-sleeping with multiple partners, children, or pets.” This mattress is 144 inches, or 12 feet wide (3.66m). If you had to put sheets on this bed, it’s about a day’s hike on hands and knees from one side to the other, so stay hydrated.
Mom will be here for several weeks while other family members come and go. We have tons to work on, which should make her happy. She was very bored back at her house, and there are always a million things to paint up here. Mom seemed less than thrilled about the first thing on my list. I’d like to get the fascia painted before the roof goes on. It’s not impossible to paint fascia after new drip edge is applied, but it’s less efficient. I have to replace several boards out back that I’ve already torn down. The nails went through the old metal roof in such a way that rain was constantly weeping into the grain of the old fascia. After a few decades, those boards were all rotted. It didn’t make them easier to pull down though. I was at the top of my tallest ladder, holding on for dear life as I pried those giant boards off. With the right planning, it should be much easier to put the new ones in place.
All that work needs to get done before the roofers arrive. I don’t have a specific timeline for their arrival, but it should be any day now. I will be relieved when they’re done. The roofing project has been looming over me since that April storm dropped a tree on the house. That was a lifetime ago. In the kitchen, the vision is coming together. I used a stove burner for the first time in a year. The ovens are installed, but not hooked up yet. I hope to get the island in place this week, but we’ll see. That cabinet has a lot of details that need to be thought through.
