Puttering to my heart's delight

Had a decent weekend, after the furnace fiasco.  Dan the Man "challenged" me to get a FitBit and I managed to work and walk around over ten miles this weekend.  Take That DAN!  In between puttering I was sputtering as the painter called and said he was not done with the condo, and he has been working on it for three weekend (and I had already paid him for the work).  I told him that was not acceptable as I need to get the condo on the market ASAP.  He said he could finish it this coming Saturday.  Unacceptable.  I called Dan and railed for a bit, as this is his son in law who is (was) doing the painting and said "UNACCEPTABLE" and apparently he called BJ and said UNACCEPTABLE and BJ showed up a few hours later and said they would have it done by tonight.  Gotta love Dan and how he can crack that whip.  It's not like I have an extra $800 a month to pay for the condo and dues and I would really like to sell it quickly and now is a good time.  But I truly doubt it took five coats of paint on the woodwork and they hadn't even started on the bedroom or closets.  I said to forget the closets, stop farting around and get it done immediately.  I was and still am hot.   I took my aggressions out on laundry and a trip to the Ace Hardware and got a few things for the house and worked in the yard for about three hours.  My roses are coming this week and I want to get rid of the peonies that have been sprouting, which I have been able to do. 

I have Bird today.  Hyphen seems to be on the mend but will still be gone for a number of months.  After therapy, if I am not too "down" JB (not BJ) and I intend to get some stuff for the house, like a push broom for outside and some pansies, which are hardy little buggers, and a couple of nice pots and soil to set them outside by the front door.  Hopefully Joe the Yard Man will stop by tonight and we can discuss the small patio I want in the back yard.  Nothing significant, just about a 6x6 patio where the "aromatic" garden was.  The aromatic garden consists of crappy soil and marble sized clay bits and the area is totally unsuitable for growing anything but vines and birds.  Spread some pea gravel and lay pavers down and have a place for the fire pit and some yard chairs.  Sophie's son put together a grill for me yesterday and that contributed to my agitation as when I asked him not to force something and to calm down he did the exact opposite.  Hence I took another walk.  But I yell ya, three hours in the yard turning over soil and getting ready for the arrival of the rose bushes and I am sore but much more placid that I was.  My hands, however, are very stiff and although I did get up early to play the mandolin this morning I had to wear the brace on the left hand and I a, less than happy with the level of playing and pain. 

And that, dear reader, was my weekend.  Well, not quite.  Saw Itzhak Perlman on Saturday, which was a good show, and Sunday had a nice brunch with a few friends.  But the agitation caused by BJ as well as Sophie's son was almost enough to drive me to...well, plant more and turn over more soil.  I also got another bird feeder and the birds are most happy.  Threw some grapes out for the birds and squirrels and decided that it was not the squirrels that have been getting in the trash dumpster but more likely raccoons and I am going to remedy that with a bungee cord.

Off to get another round of Coke.

Furnace issues

Yes, we gots 'em.  New furnace is being installed tomorrow.  The current furnace is not cooperating.  Seems the "secondary heat exchanger has cracked" and is not repairable.  So sans Souci is not so much this week. At least this didn't happen in the dead of winter, but, geezo pete it is cold and casting snow flurries down to the cold ground.  So Dan was here today to help arrange the financing. He brought me lunch but to be honest I don't have much of an appetite.  Gonna try to eat dinner and relax.  The furnace tech was able to do something to the old furnace to get it to run, but it may shut off at any moment.  He also left me two space heaters should I need them. They should be here about 9:30.  So yet another day off of work at th cost of $3,700. Yee ha.

On a more positive note Simcha spent the day bird watching. I got the boys a small perch for the music room and Simcha watched a pair of gold finches feed and boy did that capture his attention.  Was able to get a cardinal feeder for the back and the other two boys sit on the bed and watch the action.  It was a lighter moment of the day.

So I think it is time for a Coke and smile, oh, no, that's not right   Well, hopefully the furnace upgrade will be finished by noon and I will be able to take my walk, hit Krogers and make a nice dinner.

That's th game plan for tomorrow.  Hope your day was better than mine

To steal a line from Green Tuna

Ice, ice, baby.  Seems my furnace is out.  Oh, yes it is!  Came home yesterday and thought I was merely having problems with my thermostat only to learn that was not the case, although I will be replacing the thermostat (bad thermostat, bad!).  Consumers Energy did a service call last night, when it was  62 degrees in the house, still warmer than it was outside, but he didn't have the part and  voila,  it dropped like a rock last night and and to add insult to injury it also snowed a tad (are you fuxing kidding me? April 22nd?  Snow?).  Now I sit wrapped in fleece in a 59 degree house, still warmer than outside, but we may be approaching homeostasis.  The pair of gold finches is at the feeder and they look as cold as I feel.  So I sit home and waiting for the part where Comsumers Energy returns with the part and warm the cockles of my heart and home.

I am missing the spring social at work and I feel like I am letting down my trivia team by not being there for them today.  But staying home and awaiting Comsumers is my priority.   Hey, maybe mittens are in order...but how to write this?

I heard through a 'acquaintance' that Hyphen is doing a little better than we were lead to believe.  She is alert enough to be worried about her people.  Made me glad I am still one of her people.  Looks as if she is soon to be headed to a lengthy rehab, but at least  now I have a conduit to inquire as to her state of being and send along encouragement and the occasional giraffe.  I remember when I broke my hip some eleven years ago that while other lives go on you still must recuperate and do it by yourself.  It gets lonely the longer the recovery time is.  Thank goodness I had my buddy and late neighbor Jerry to fetch things for me and make sure I did my exercises.  And I remember how overjoyed I was when  Gastric and her sister visited me one Saturday morning armed with warm bagels and cream cheese.  Not that I can go visit Hyphen, armed with bagels and cream cheese, but at least I feel like the situation is not as dire.  I was really heartened to hear that and if Hyphen happens to be able to follow this blog I can assure her she is still needed and wanted, but also that I am doing better then I was doing back in late January when this house had yet to achieve its full potential, as it has now sans heat.  Sans Souci sans warmth right now.  But the bottom line is the longer the recuperating period is, the more you long for a return to normalcy.  Those little routines that comprise the ennui of life.

So, y'all, do the Consumers dance.  Make them come sooner rather than later.  I need to take my walk, warm my hands up enough to play instruments of music and watch the snow melt off the roofs.  I guess, looking on the bright side of the icicle that is, this is not a bad time of year to be without heat.  It could have been the dead of winter when folks are all having heating issues and I would be low on the repair list.  But still...Please come soon...Shane...come back...Shane!

Stealth cat

 Grey cat on grey couch on a grey day.  Not quite fifty shades but enough to arouse my blogging.  Had a good session with the Bird and sent an email to Hyphen that I hope gets to her.  Managed to get in my walk today and was going to pick up the mandolin but I can't find my picks. Besides it is almost 10 p.m. And I need to ramp down, not unlike this fellow.  Pleasant dreams all

Magic Plastic Tuna run in

So it is Monday morning and some folks don't want to be here.  That said, I had a close encounter with the Magic Plastic Tuna.  I was entering the women's rest room and she was preparing to egress when I heard a very loud "thud" sound and that was she throwing a wet wad of hand towel paper into the trash can, missing be that that much.  I have never know any one to be so rude, inconsiderate, hostile and unpleasant as she of the Tuna fame.  And she seems like such an unhappy person that there is little wonder why she treats most people around here as beneath contempt.

 You might have thought the loud thud would have been enough to wake me out of this sleepy state that I am in but NOOOOOOOOOOO! I am on my second Coke, about to get my third.  I also almost deleted a file I was working on in my stupor.  Luckily my eyes opened at the right time.  WHEW!

Meeting with the Bird today and I don't know how I feel about.  I wrote Soph a rather angry email on Friday and actually sent it and now I am regretting that decision...somewhat.  Hopefully we will kiss (no, not literally) and make up.

Oh, shit...I am off to get an energy drink and hope it doesn't make me too lightheaded

adieu

A weekend of puttering

And unfortunately I can't relax enough to sleep.  Meet with the new therapist today and right now I feel like this lump under the blankets, which is in fact Gonif.  Saturday was a lovely day, warm and inviting as a spring day can get.  I worked some outside.  And I took a long walk and met more of my neighbors.  I love living here.  It is the perfect house at the right time.

Today, well, actually Sunday, I walked a lot, made a rather elegant brunch and worked more outside.  I love to putter and I was getting beds ready, not for a cat, but for roses and lilac bushes. I cut back some existing somewhat brown bushes hoping unto hope that they will spring to life.  I am hopeful as it is spring after all, that the miniature Japanese weeping maple will start sprouting leaves.  I raked what has passed for a lawn and spread grass seeds in advance of the early evening rain.  I actually fell asleep for twenty minutes but have since awoken from that slumber and now I am wired for sound.  TV this time of night is minimal.  I guess I shouldn't have taken that long walk before dinner.  I was so excited that a pair of gold finches came to my new feeder that I went and put a songbird feeder in the back yard, assuming, of course, that the cats would enjoy watching the birds as much as I do.  So I will make do with whatever sleep I can get.  If I can sleep until 4:30 I will be happy, as it is now after 1:00 a.m.  I need to start playing music again and practicing the mandolin and get back my hands.  Right now they feel stiff and arthritic but some musical exercises will help lessen the stiffness.

Well, Gonif has decided he needs my attention. So time to try and relax and catch a few winks before I get tiddly.

The lump that is Gonif 

Puttering around the house

As I was yesterday.  This weekend will mark the last of the packages to arrive before the austerity budget kicks in at the end of business today.  My rose bushes should be shipped soon and I will be  puttering around the garden this weekend.  Today and tomorrow look like the more promising of days to work in the yard.  Brad pulled a lot of junk out of the backyard and my work is cut out for me.  Raking and getting those damn terracotta balls out of the area to the left of the deck.  Also seems like a good weekend to grill and grill I will.  Sunday is iffy so I may just go and get bagels and read the paper on the porch until the cool rain arrives later in the day.  My jonquils are in bloom, the peonies have grown considerably since the bushes where removed and I discovered that I indeed did have peonies and jonquils.  A friend is taking me to the big greenhouse in the area, a shout out to Van Atta's.  Time to start thinking about perennials.  I want a garden to have color from early spring to late fall.  I have two bushes out front I believe are dead.  They are gone this weekend.  I will try cutting them back but there appears to be no life in the reeds.  Putter, putter, putter.  And walk.  I am up to a forty minute walk a night.  I leave the house around, well, when I leave.  And back in forty minutes.  I get in over a mile.  I think I have dropped a slacks' size in a month.  This side of the street is more pleasant to walk on.  I am not waylaid by crazed neighbors who want me and my time.  No, here there are pleasant and young families.  It is much more like a neighborhood and less like a dorm atmosphere of the Glenmoor area.  You ask "are you happy you made the move" and the answer is, Yoda, Am I of course yes.  It will be a nice weekend of gardening, pleasant meals on the deck, baseball and some basic battery recharging.  Monday I go back to see the Bird therapist.  I should and will probably send a long note to Hyphen to let her know I am doing well and miss her and her Hyphen-fuxing therapies.  I actually have real stationary, a fountain pen and sealing wax with a letter L to emboss on the envelope.  This weekend I will also activate my new iPhone and my Amazon Echo. So a baseball, puttering, cooking and electronics weekend is ahead.

Sans Souci, y'all!