Windows are wonderful. They let light in and let us see the world outside. When they are open on a spring day, they let warm and fragrant breezes ruffle curtains and infuse the air with the scent of lilacs and apple blossoms.

But when they are cheap vinyl windows set into 100-year-old casements, they are about as much use as balloon with a hole in it. Air just leaks right through. And when it's January, that air is a bit chillier than I would like.

So, I have been shrink-wrapping the windows with that neat plastic that makes a tight seal if you hold a hot hair dryer to it long enough.

I did one more window today. That's number three of at least five that need it desperately. At this rate, I will done sometime in April.

Unfortunately, I had to disturb some of the wildlife living in the general window area. A daddy long legs had built an elaborate web and probably planned on being undiscovered for decades, since this window is behind the stairs and no one ever goes back there. But I sent him scurrying with the business end of a broom. He'll thank me in the end. It's highly preferable to being walled up between the window and the plastic, like some character in a story by Spider Allen Poe.

Without any assistance and without being 8 feet tall, I still managed to apply the tape to the inside of the window casement and press the plastic in place with the judicious use of a long stick, a pair of scissors and some good old Danish stubbornness.

Now I am going to sit here for a good long time and see if I feel warmer.