Cooler Thursday

This morning at 7:21, it's only 70 degrees so I took Slinky for his walk. I guess he thought he had overdone it the other day because today he only wanted to walk 4 blocks again. Well, I can't blame him. He's an old dog and I certainly know what it feels like to be an old dog. :)

I took Aleve again last night for my aching knees.

I attended the PINCH meeting last night. I told the group I would be going to Springfield for our Mission Center Conference on September 24, the day of the PINCH Community Wide Basket Dinner, so would not be able to attend. There will be at least two of us missing. I hope it goes well without us.

The next PINCH meeting will be held September 21, a couple of days prior to the dinner so last minute plans and assignments can be made.

Sunday after church Leslie and John and Bob A. and I will go to the church's campgrounds for a business meeting concerning the campgrounds. I imagine they will propose putting the campgrounds on the market. We can rent the grounds for two reunions (family camps) and a women's retreat much cheaper then trying to keep up the campgrounds. They will serve homemade ice cream after the meeting. I imagine that's added incentive for people to attend the meeting.

Other then that, this week is fairly empty. Maybe I can get my lawn mowed and trimmed this Saturday. By then it will need it again. If it's cooler this afternoon, I want to trim back my spirea and one clematis. The spirea is out of control and I want to trim out the dead parts of the clematis.

Next Thursday is our first meeting of the Coffeyville Ministerial Alliance. I will need to send out a notice tomorrow. It takes these ministers several days to decide if they want to attend or can attend and I need to know by Tuesday to call in our dinner reservations.

I will leave shortly to go to work and get back to this later.

Pushing the Envelope

I get such a bang out of this dog. It's 103 degrees out there this afternoon and Slinky wanted in the kitchen badly. It's just too hot for him. He knows he must stay in the kitchen so after I let him in for the fourth time, he lay with his front paws in the doorway...pushing it. He doesn't come into the rest of the house since he knows that isn't allowed.

The morning just flew by.

I've been reading this afternoon. That's about all I can do. At 5:30, though, I will have to put Slinky back outside because I have a PINCH meeting at one of the Methodist churches then.

Maybe by the time I get back home, it will have cooled down a bit. I hope so.

I had intended to go job hunting this afternoon but it was just too hot to get out.

My brother-in-law came over this morning before I left for work and I gave him my Bob's weed whacker. It is a good one...a Stiel... but it has set for over a year. It may need someone to look it over to get it started. I will just give it to him. I have my own battery operated one. I never had the "pull power" to start Bob's.

Housecleaning Tuesday

I will go to Leslie's today and clean her house. It has been two weeks since the last time I did it and now I have a product that will clean John's shower door. I have never been able to get those water spots off but this new product does that. I tested it on my own shower door.

Maybe Leslie will be free for lunch afterward. I'll check that out later.

I will need to wash my hair tonight since I work tomorrow. Yesterday when I was mowing and the gentle rain started, my hair kinked up in a mess.

I was having trouble sleeping last night. My knees hurt. The up and down in filing is taking it's toll. But I like my job. They keep me busy. I got up about 2:00 and took an Aleve and that finally got me through the night.

I made some cinnamon rolls this morning and ate one with my coffee. I will take the others out to them. John can put them in his lunch if he wants.

I just finished taking Slinky for his walk. And what do you know...he wanted to climb the hill. It's been weeks since he wanted to do that but I let him make that decision. It's the highlight of his day.

More later....

I got Leslie's house cleaned. She had a problem with her mirrors. She had cleaned them with something (I assume Windex) and it left streaks on the mirrors. I assumed she might have had something else on that cloth she used. Anyhow, no matter how much she cleaned them, they still streaked. I poured half vinegar and half water into a spray bottle and washed them with that and they came clean.

The shower doors came clean too by using Earth Brite.

After I finished cleaning, we went to lunch. We had a nice visit. She bought my lunch. That was sweet of her. Tonight I will wash my hair. It looks terrible. It's a combination of yesterday's light rain while I was mowing and sweat from the house cleaning today.

Labor Monday

I can see that today is going to be a big day. I have been cleaning "at" the house for weeks...a little there and a little here. Today I have decided to give it a good cleaning. I have started with the laminate floors and dusted them really well. Then I washed and waxed the kitchen floor. It's drying now. Next I will vacuum all the rugs and take down all the tables, etc. in the extra bedroom. I need to de-junk this place really bad. I am tentatively planning on having a garage sale in September or October....after the weather cools down. I have a lot of projects for after the weather cools down.

Richard came over yesterday afternoon and looked at the leaning fence. He said we could do the "prop up" way which would be cheaper or he and Jeff could rebuild the fence right. It would be nice to do it right but I simply can't do that. So, I contacted him this morning and he put me on the list. He and Jeff will sink some iron posts in concrete and then straighten the fence and attach it to the taller posts that are set in concrete with metal strips. I don't know when he will get to it because they are so busy.

After that is finished, I will paint the fence. It needs it badly.

I also need to paint the concrete patio with cement paint. It needs it badly too. I hope I have enough Saturdays before winter to get all my projects finished. I still need to finish mulching the flowerbeds, clean out the shed and the garage and paint the trim on the house. The list continues to grow.

I'd better finish this up and get out the vacuum cleaner.

Whew!

Well, I got the house cleaned...all but the spare bedroom and I'm going to do that now. I stopped long enough to mow awhile. It began to look like rain. Right in the middle of mowing the back yard it began to sprinkle so I finished the fenced in back and came in. If it rains more, it may be tomorrow afternoon before I can get the front and the rest of the back beyond the fence. And I'll have to trim when I can.

Darn!

I did get the front yard mowed when the rain stopped and it dried out. Then I mowed beyond my fence too. Now all I have to do is trim and since I trimmed last time I mowed, it really doesn't have to be done. I cleaned the house real well today too.

Tomorrow I will clean for my daughter.

Busy Sunday

Today will be busy. I will go to church and then afterward a group of us will eat out together....possibly over to Cherryvale at "Just Us" a real nice buffet. After that, I will do my letters and then I will need to go back out to church to run off copies of the questions for the Living the Questions group which meets tonight at Keith and Joyce's home.

I have already fed the animals and watered the flowers this morning. It is only 74 degrees this morning....which is a welcome relief from the heat. Yesterday didn't get terribly hot either. Maybe fall is in the air. I can hardly wait.

Bob A. will be by after while to pick me up for church.

More later....

Church went fine. Afterward five of us went to Cherryvale to Just Us, a great buffet. Everything is homemade and dessert and drink as well as all you want to eat is an even $10.00.

When I got home I did the letters for the congregation.

Then later in the afternoon, Richard came over and looked at the leaning fence. The cheapest way to fix it would to dig some deep holes, insert some new and longer metal pipe and straighten the fence and attach it after the cement cures. The best way to do it would be to take down the fence, put four by four wooden posts in concrete and build a new frame work and then rebuild the fence. At $25.00 per hour per man (a two man job) for 32 hours labor, that would be $1600. I can't do that. I need to give it some thought. I wasn't going to have anything done until it cools down this fall.

What a dilemma.

I have Living the Questions at 7:00 this evening. Slinky came in the house when Richard opened the door to come back in. It's now 95 degrees out there so I let him stay in the kitchen. If it ever cools down, I will wash and wax my kitchen floor. Right now I wash it but it always looks crappy because Slinky drools all over it. I haven't waxed it in weeks....maybe months.

Nice Saturday

So far, Saturday has been really nice. I met Bob A. for breakfast this morning and then came home to clean up my car. I vacuumed and shampooed the carpet and upholstery and it came out really nice. Then I Armoralled the dash and all the hard surfaces and it looks better than it has in ages.

I went out to see Phyllis at 9:50 and she was sleeping in her chair. I took her hand and thought she might awaken but she didn't. She woke up briefly for just long enough to answer me when I asked her if she was tired. She said, "Yes, I am" then she went back to sleep. I sat with her for 30 minutes or so and then went down the hall to see Gerry. Gerry was playing Bingo so I didn't stop her to visit.

I will leave in a little while to go to the 50th anniversary celebration of Bill and Lana over at Caney. It begins at 2:00.

The temperature today is not bad so far. It's only 86 out there at 1:00. That's nicer then it has been a awhile. Slinky can handle outdoors when it's like this. There was a nice breeze this morning at 7:30.

More later...

I went on to the anniversary celebration at Caney and saw many people I knew from my time living there. I got home about 3:30. Among others, I enjoyed seeing Tim R. as I had not seen him in years. He asked about Scott and I told him the news about my family. He has sold his business and is moving to Salina. There are jobs there.

Anyhow, I got home and did some more laundry. I even washed Slinky's rugs. They were quite dirty. I pressed some slacks and a blouse to wear tomorrow to church. I have taken my bath now and have been watching TV. It is almost 8:00 and the temperature is only 85.

Friday At Last

I'm glad Friday finally came. There wasn't quite as much for me to do at work today. I finished everything up by 10:15 and had some time to waste. Still it's nothing like the other workplace. If Bonnie had worked the last two days, I would still have been swamped. I finished filing everything for Sally and Lynnette today.

When I got home Bob A. picked me up and we went to Bartlesville to eat at a Mexican restaurant, Monterrey House. His Wisconsin daughter sent guest cards to him for his birthday. The trouble is...she sent $85.00 worth of gift cards. So he has asked me to help him use them. I am happy to do that. He is planning to take his Coffeyville daughter and her family out for dinner for her birthday on September 10th. That will be nice. She does so much to help him and her mother.

When I got home around 3:30 - 4:00 o'clock, Slinky was really hot and ready to come into the kitchen. He has been in ever since. It's a little after 6:00 now.

Tomorrow Bob A. and I will go to breakfast at Eggberts. Then later that day I will go to Bill and Lana's 50th wedding anniversary celebration over at Caney. It being held between 2:00 and 4:00 on Saturday afternoon.

Richard is supposed to come look at my fence this weekend. I asked him for an estimate on what it would take to fix it. I probably can't afford it. But the fence is leaning. When Bob built it, he thought the steel posts from the chain link fence he was replacing were set in concrete and did not want to try to get them out so he attached the new privacy fence to those posts. It wasn't too long until it became apparent that those posts were not set in concrete and the fence began to lean a little. He wanted to get it fixed himself but he got sick before he could do that. So I've asked Richard to come look at it and give me a ball park figure on what it would take to set some four by fours in concrete and attach the fence to them.

I want to paint that fence this fall after it cools down but I want to be sure it won't come down with the first hard wind before I spend all that money and time having it repaired and painting it. I have several nice projects lined up for fall. I hope my energy holds up. I want to wash the patio off and paint it with cement paint again. Then I want to paint that fence and the trim on the house. I want to clean out the shed and garage. I want to trim back my spirea bush and mulch the flowerbeds for winter. I did get the Rose of Sharon trimmed back so I can mow under it.