Projects

Dan here, coming to you from in front of the fire Tuesday evening. Quiet around here now, there was several young adults next door most of the day. They left around dark. They were well behaved. 

I have been quite busy of late. On Monday I erected the windbreak for the grill. I managed to get the three posts set and the short stockade fence attached. I remembered that woodworking projects are much like quilting projects. Just like when I design and build a quilt, I often get almost complete and see a different idea I think would have worked better. Were I to build the fence again I would make a couple minor changes, but hopefully it will perform as I intended. When it is windy I could not grill because I could not control the temperature inside the grill. Time will see if it works better now. Looks nice anyway. 

I started on the project of finishing up between the side of the house and the neighbor’s fence that denotes the property line. When we started I had leveled off fill intending to seed and tend that way. I have since decided that having to mow the 4 - 8 foot wide area the length of the house was going to be way too much effort. Remember I’m retired, and I am slowly learning how to do nothing better than I did in the past. Before I retired I seldom did nothing and never learned to do it well. I rather doubt that I will ever excel at doing nothing but I am finding that, with practice, I can tolerate the concept at least. I decided to remove 2-3 inches of the fill I put in and to cover the area with crushed stone. Clean look and hopefully I can keep it that way with very little effort. 

As an example of how low my daily goals have sunk, the other day my main goal was to brush off the big bug that was sitting on the top pane of the front window overlooking the pond. Now there is something that has nothing figured out completely, it had been there for several days, just sitting there. I finally got to it late in the afternoon and brushed it off the window. Damned near landed in my hair. I was rather glad it did not.

I demonstrated that my ability to do stupid has not gone away in retirement. I had purchased a bag of string beans and as suppertime approached I set on the front patio overlooking the pond and got the the beans ready for the pot. Job done, I set off for the kitchen, stopping at the fire pit to toss the ends and bad beans into the pit. What did I do? Proceeded to toss the prepared beans into the pit and stand there staring at the intended waste still in my other hand. I was still cussing myself out when Carol got home from her Dr’s appointment. Worked out OK though because the burgers removed from the freezer in the morning were still frozen. I went to Norway and brought home pizza. Oh well, I never claimed to be smart, just good looking. Like I always say “all is lost when we loose the ability to laugh at ourselves”.

You may hear from Carol on Friday or maybe me again. Carol is often worn out by the end of the week. Much like she is by early evening. I think she has mastered the art of nothing and would much rather be doing more something instead.

Rain is in the forecast so maybe I can get some sew time in. I sewed about two hours the other night, I just prefer sitting out by the crackling fire listening so a book or reading instead when it is nice out. I’ll sew when I need to go in, winter is coming faster than we realize. Remember, only the days are long, the months and the years are short.

Also remember, where ever you go, there you are, if I’m supposed to meet you there and you get there first, draw a blue line where we planned to meet. If I get there first, I’ll rub it out.