Another Saturday

Today I will go have breakfast with my brother-in-law and then go see my sister at the nursing home. After that, I will go out to church and clean. The rest of the day is open. I may work in my yard. I would have to get some more mulch to finish the job. I sold another book on Amazon. This one was $10. I have it all ready to go and after breakfast I will go to the Dearing post office and send it off. Ours is not open on Saturday morning. Dearing is the same distance as going downtown to ours but there are no stop signs on the way there.

The next week will be wild. I'll mow Monday evening after Bobby gets my mower going. I'm taking off Tuesday morning to get my hair colored and cut. Then Tuesday evening I have both the library board meeting and the foundation board meeting. Myra will be coming Thursday evening and staying the night. Sometime before then I want to strip the bed in the guest room and remake it. I can't remember if I did that after Scott last used it. Before we leave for Branson on Friday morning at 7:00, I need to contact Cyndi and see if she can feed Missy while I'm gone. We are going to go to the Bluegrass and Bar B Q festival there on Friday afternoon and then go to a show that night We will go to the Branson Landing on Saturday morning. Myra has never seen it.

Sunday, I speak at church and the following week will be even busier.

I've had trouble with this cell phone I got from my daughter. Twice now it has locked up while backing up my contact list. The only way I can get it going again is to take the battery out and reboot the phone. I sure don't like that. But as long as that works, I guess I can remedy it that way.

I wondered what I could do to repay him and decided that I would make some homemade peanut clusters and take some to him tomorrow at church.

I'll take a photo of the mulched flowerbed in the back yard and share it here. I also weeded it last evening. I think I'll get another plant for that hook out there.

As a postscript, there's this..this morning I went out to church and cleaned. When I got home I was really tired. I was going to rake and bag some leaves but first I sat down to relax a little bit. A couple of hours later I awoke. I was groggy but got up to look out the back door. I was amazed to see that my lawn has been mowed. I went to the front. It too was mowed. I couldn't believe my eyes. I called Bobby and asked him if he had mowed for me. He had. He had come over to check out the mower again and decided to start it by bypassing the celinoid. Then he began to mow. He first mowed the back and then the front. When he put the mower away and turned it off. Then he turned it back on and it started! He tried several times and each time it started. Evidently, the jarring created by mowing must have caused the celinoid to work. Next time it may not though. That's a sign that it was going out.

Very Busy Friday

I really got a lot done today. At 6:30 AM I left to go to Independence to get my hair done. After that I came back home and went out to get gas and wash my car. Then I went to the Dollar Store and bought a few things I needed, including a birthday card for my friend, Bill. His birthday is Sunday. Then I went to town and paid the taxes on my house. That was a chunk! I stopped by the florist and ordered flowers for Monte at Windsor Place where the alliance holds their meetings.

After that I came home and did the minutes from yesterday's meeting. Then I called Bob A. and asked him if he'd like to go to Bartlesville with me. He had worked hard all week too and decided to go. We walked the mall and then went to Dink's for Bar B Q.

Then this evening, after reading awhile, I got the two bags of mulch out of the carport and mulched the flowerbed in the center of the backyard. It took both bags.

I notice my clematis is blooming now and so is the purple spirea. I will post some photos of them here. The first photo is that purple spirea. The second one is that trellis that John made me for Christmas a couple of years ago. The clematis grows on the fence and blooms and on the ground but does not flower on the trellis. I guess there's not enough sun in that area.

Tomorrow I will clean the church. It's my month. Bob A. said he would help me. That will make it easier to get done. When it's his turn, I will help him. That last photo is the clematis growing on the patio trellis. It is simply lovely this year. I guess it was all that rain.

Another Problem

O.K. Enough is enough! I went out last evening to mow my yard and the mower wouldn't even try to start. It's either my starter (I had a new one last fall) or my battery and I'm betting on the battery. It's several years old and those things aren't known for a good long life. I was stumped as to what to do. Finally I called Bobby. I swore I wouldn't do that again but I had no other option. I have no trailer to take it anywhere. He is tied up until Friday trying to get one of their mobile homes ready to rent. He will come look at it on Friday. Boy, I hate to ask him for help. He's always swamped at his own home.

I will call the Amberg brothers when I can get their number from Bob. Maybe I can get them to mow for me. What else can go wrong? I'm afraid to ask.

I ran my dishwasher on small load last night. The line still leaked under my sink..but very little. It ran into the small green dish I have setting down there under the sink. And I found that if I use the side of the sink with the new garbage disposal, it doesn't leak under there when I run water. So that's what I am doing. That way I can avoid calling a plumber. I am going to lose some money when I take off on Tuesday the 15th and this July when I take off a week to go to camp. I don't want to lose any more.

On another subject, I have ministerial alliance at noon today so I will take off at 11:30 to get there before the ministers show up. I will distribute the agendas and the minutes from April. I seldom get to eat because I am taking the minutes. I contacted Jennifer at the library last night to tell her I did not want to be secretary for both the board and the foundation. I just got myself out of eight years doing that for the alliance. That meeting is next Tuesday evening. I am also taking off Tuesday morning to get my hair done. We go back to Branson the weekend of the 11th and 12th and I am really ready.

Wednesday Again

This evening I will go out to church and duplicate the minutes and agenda for the ministerial alliance meeting tomorrow noon. When I get back I will finish cleaning up the mess the storm made. I'll cut off the spent and ruined peonies.

Last evening my 90 year old friend, Juanita, called. Her optometrist wants her to go to Wichita to see her macular degeneration specialist. She needs to go on the 15th. That's a Tuesday and I generally take the cakes to Independence that week but I'll ask Bob A. if he can do it that week. She wanted to know if I could take off work and take her. I called my hairdresser and changed my hair appointment and then called my supervisor to see if it would be possible to take off an entire day. She didn't have a problem with it. I called Juanita back and told her I could take her. She was relieved. I will lose a day's pay but I think I can afford it. I will try to save some money this pay to make up for it. That's also the weekend we will be going back to Branson.

I got a lot done last evening. I am so glad I bought that pressure washer since it has really paid off already.Here's a photo of my clean patio.

Here's a photo of the yard after I got it cleaned up. My neighbor's mowing man picked up the large limb but not the two smaller ones and when he drug that limb out to his trailer he left a mess all along the way.

Then I went out to mow and the mower didn't even try to start. It's either the starter again like last year or the battery this time. I broke down and called Bobby again. I swore I wouldn't but I have no idea who to call when something like that goes out. He'll come by Friday to check it out.

Cake Tuesday and More

My life is getting more and more complicated. I got my cakes baked last night and iced them first thing this morning so that's not the problem.

While I was baking my cakes and cleaning up after them I got my cooling racks out from under the sink and noticed the boxes were wet. I got my flashlight and looked under the sink. The faucet is leaking every time I run water. I put a small bowl under there to catch the water. I don't know yet how successful that will be. When I have some time, I will just call a plumber. I am not going to call my son-in-law again. He has plenty of work to do at his farm.

On top of that, when the sun came up I noticed a large limb in my backyard. We had a storm last night and the limb broke out of my neighbor's tree. She is now a semi-invalid after having broken her hip and her left arm last year. I don't know what her resources are but I will call her about my dilemma when it gets to be a little later. I hope she can get her mowing man to come clean it up. He has a trailer. I have no way to clean it up. I gave Bob's chain saw to my grandson. I couldn't start it anyhow. And I have no trailer to haul it away anyhow.

I came home from work and dug in. I called Davis Home Improvement to come repair the downspout tomorrow. I spent forty minutes picking up branches and leaves and dragging the other branches to the car port. I then took the garden hose and washed off the drive and front walk. Then I went to the patio and washed and washed. It was still full of mud. Finally I got out the pressure washer and hooked it up. For the next forty minutes I washed and washed the patio until it was nearly clean again.

Finally I came in the house and ate a little dinner. By this time it was after 7:00 so I just sat down to watch American Experience. I will work on things again tomorrow evening.

These photos show the downed tree limb, the ruined peonies and the muddy patio.

I stepped out on my patio this morning and noticed the storm had washed mud all over my clean patio that I had pressure washed in April. Now I have another mess to clean up.

Always something.

I still have to clean up the peonies and the chairs on the patio. That can wait until tomorrow. I also discovered if I used the sink with the garbage disposal in it, the sink didn't leak. So for awhile, at least, that's what I will do.

Monday Again

For some reason, I always dread Mondays. Maybe most working people do. The entire work week is ahead...although mine is only four days. I always have so much to do in my spare time.

Tonight, after work, I will bake my two cakes. In the morning I will ice them and Bob A. and I will take them to Independence to the First Christian Church. He will get a haircut from Carol while we're there. Then we will eat lunch at Big Cheese before we come back home and I go to work. I will work until 5:00 this week to make up for the lost four hours.

There will be no extra activity on Wednesday.

Then Thursday I will leave work a little early to go to the Ministerial Alliance meeting. I also fax in my time sheet since I get paid that day too.

Friday, I will donate a few hours at the library to move books for a new area for seniors.

The following week we are planning to go back to Branson for the Bluegrass and Bar B Q Festival. This time we will take Myra to use our guest ticket.

It rained most of yesterday and is still raining today. I don't mind the rain as long as it doesn't hail. I've had two bad experiences with hail. In 2002, my car was caught in a hailstorm while I was visiting a church member in the hospital. Hailstones as large as baseballs totaled my Toyota car. I drove it for another year before trading it in for my little Honda Civic. Bob was working for FEMA then and we could afford to do that. The Honda had 27,000 miles on it then in 2003. Now it has over 154,000 miles on it.

Last year I lost my roof to a similar hailstorm. That was a mess to get through. Although the roof was insured and didn't cost me anything, the trim on my house was peeling and I had to hire Jeff to sand and paint it and then he discovered that most of the soffits were rotten and he could almost put his hand through them. So I actually spent $2,000 having that work done. I certainly don't want to do that again.

Big Sunday

This will be a big day. I have my roast in the slow cooker and have put onion soup mix on top of it. I will add my potatoes and carrots after I get to church. I have my cherry pie cake out of the oven now. It is cooling. I still have an hour before we leave.

It began raining last night about 2:30. I got up to see if Missy was on the patio and wanted to come in. It was thundering and lightening something terrible and that terrifies her. She was nowhere to be found though. She came in after I got up at 5:00 though. She knows I'll be in the kitchen shortly after five.

The Home Show went well. I gave away nearly all the books and all the newsletters and most of the bookmarks. Many people dropped by my table and checked out what the Coffeyville Public Library was doing there.

I did not eat lunch yesterday. After I closed the table around 3:30, I went by McDonalds and got a McFlurry. I know it's not healthy but it was the only thing that sounded good. Then I got interested in reading my book and didn't eat dinner either. Luckily I had had a good breakfast yesterday morning. I had my usual bowl of oatmeal this morning.

We will have our guest minister today and our pot luck afterward. I will get the newsletters out this afternoon. Then this evening I have Living the Questions at Keith and Joyce's house at 7:00. I will miss my favorite program, Harry's Law. I hate that. I don't have a DVR so can't record it.