Tuesday and Assembling a Leaf Vacuum

I got up at 5:30AM and dressed and had my oatmeal and coffee and Chai this morning. I had just started this blog when Scott called and brought me up to date on their activities.  I brought him up to date on mine. His hours have been changed so he will be working 8:00AM until 5:00PM now. He actually prefers 6:00AM until 2:30PM. But his new woman boss decided he needed regular hours like the staff. He was not a happy soldier. He has to deal with heavy traffic to get there that much later. I suggested he go in when he wanted to at 6:00AM and have coffee at a coffee shop nearby and maybe avoid the bumper to bumper traffic that way. He may do that.

I have fed the cat and her kittens that show up here morning and night. They go through a bag of cat food a week but I can't let them starve and they are ferrel and so they would.

I have watched the progress of the latest hurricane and been thankful my younger son and his wife no longer live in Florida.

Keith called a couple of days ago and they are doing some work on their house again. They may finish fixing it up with laminated floors in their second bedroom and paint for both bedrooms and then later sell it for a larger home. At his age, I wouldn't recommend it but I kept my opinion to myself.  From my own experience, your 60's are no time to take on a mortgage, For one thing, the first half of a loan period almost all of the payment goes toward interest and very little toward the principle.

They are leaving in a week or so for their tour of Europe. I hope they have a great time! They certainly deserve it!

More later....

I got out about 8:00AM and mowed the west side yard. It was 73 degrees. Now the entire yard is finished. It was a little wet with dew but I only had the west area to mow so I went ahead with it.  It is done for another week. It is nice out there this time of morning. I did get three mosquito bites though. I will put some anti-itch cream on those.

Suzanne sleeps in until later in the morning so it will be awhile until she contacts me to tell me what day she wants me to help her clean the next door apartment.

More even later.

The trash collectors came this morning and I put away the trash containers in the garage of both 210 and my own.

Suzanne finally contacted me and said Thursday or Friday. I will clean my apartment on the alternate day...whichever one that is. 

More even later...

I received my new leaf vacuum this morning in the mail. I spent the better part of an hour trying to follow the directions to put it together. I finally called Bob to see if  I could bring it over to him and maybe he could figure it out. He said he would come over and try. We could eat lunch at Eggberts here in Caney.  So while he was on his way, I finally figured it out myself  but it was too late to stop him. He came in and looked over the directions and agreed that I had it figured out correctly! Amazing! I am completely confused when something has to be assembled, especially when the directions are not too clear.

I went ahead and took him to lunch since he had driven all the way over here ....really for nothing after all. We had a nice visit anyhow. He had to get back to Coffeyville before Joanne called to ask him where he was. :) So he left a little after 1:20PM,  Joanne was working at her church to fix a lunch for Tuesday (today, I guess).

When I got back home to the apartment, I found another package. Evidently the bag for the leaf debris came with the vacuum. That was not noted in the write up for it so I ordered one. Now I have a spare. 

I haven't tested out the vacuum yet. I am too tired to mess with it now. Just trying to put it together was exhausting and it is 2:50PM now and 90 degrees out there. Maybe I will try it later on this afternoon if the weather cools down. Right now I am just too tired.

I got my Reporter in the mail and my trash/water bill and will attempt the crossword puzzle in a little while. I scheduled the payment of that bill at the bank.

More later...

After I did the crossword puzzle, I took the newspaper over to Nancy's and gave it to her along with the coffeecake she likes so much.

While I was visiting with her, Carolyn came and was waiting for her to go to dinner with her. Nancy didn't know she would be coming at 4:00PM and was not ready so she ran to get her purse and Carolyn waited for her. I went out to Carolyn's car and told her that Nancy would be right down. She went up to get her purse.

Then I came on home.

More even later...

Later, I raked the few leaves I had into small piles and then got out my new leaf vacuum and my long extension cord and hooked it all up. I hadn't realized how heavy that leaf vacuum was until I started vacuuming up those leaves. It mulches the leaves as it vacuums them up too so I had the bag about 3/4 full when I finished.  I unzipped the bottom of the bag and dumped the contents into my bag buddy with the large black plastic bag in it. Then I went out back and got one of my lawn chairs and sat down to rewind the long cord. When I finished I was exhausted. I came in and drank a ton of water. Of course, this fall it will be cooler so that may help the situation.

Karan was going to buy one too when she gets back from Italy in a couple of weeks. But if I am 5 ft. 3 1/2 tall and fairly strong for my age and she is 4ft 11 inches tall, I am not sure she can handle one of those. They are bulky and pretty heavy.  I texted her and told her to wait until she got back home and I would bring mine over and she could see if she could handle one before she buys one.  She agreed.

I am doing my laundry this evening. It is mostly towels and underwear. It's only 7:25PM so I should have time to dry everything and put it away before I go to bed at 9:00PM.