schedules

 I am on week 2 of my scheduled life

    I have earmarked times to do certain things.  

    For example: OnMonday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons I walk the dog, then walk myself.

    On Tuesday and Thursday I write.

    Monday is also a day to mow.

    This is how it went today:

    11 a.m. almost finished with the Trib, decided to take a short nap.

    Woke up at 12:45.  So much for schedules!

    I went  to work on the planters but ran into a problem I can't fix myself.  Sufiice it to say, my planters are not constructed as well as some of the more expensive ones.  Hopefully the fix is in for tomorrow.

    So how many times have I walked the dog?  0.  Spent time writing? 0.

    Oh well.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

    I also made Friday my Rockford day, forgetting Jackie has a hair appointment.  So I switched it to Thursday, only to remember I have a museum gig at 12:45.

    After cancelling Thursday's plans, I decided to go ahead anyway, so I rescheduled with people.

    I just have to be home by 5:30 because I have a museum meeting at 6.

    No wonder my stomach aches.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

aaaah!!!!!

 One more thing

    I contacted Comcast because I was still being charged for home security even though I cancelled it.

    The rep told me the account is not cancelled until I return the touch screen.

    Today I took the pad off the wall and stopped at the Comcast store in DeKalb.  Again.

    I walked in holding the pad and said I was told to return the touch pad before my account could be cancelled.

    The guy looked at me and said, "That's true.  But that's not your touch pad.  That's the remote."

    To which I uttered a loud "SHIT"  followed by an, "I knew that!"  And I did!  Brain freeze.

    As I drove home I began to wonder.......where did I put the touch screen?

    I thought maybe I had taken it in on a previous visit, which would cause a ton of trouble.  But luckily I found it in the 3rd place I looked:   my electronics recycling box.

    So I am adding the Comcast store in Rockford to my Rockford Friday list.

    I got home, changed into work clothes, and went out to shovel dirt.

    I was out there about 15 minutes when it started to thunder.

    I had some bags of mushroom compost to take out of the car, so I did that as the rain sporadically fell.

    Then I took some potting soil, mixed in some grass seed, and went to spread it on bare spots in the front lawn.

    The rain came down...rather it came sideways!  When it hit me it felt like it must be hail, but it was the "hard rain that's gonna fall"rain that Bob Dylan sang about.

    Jackie texted Julia and Emily and said, "I don't know what the hell he is doing out there."

    I was drenched.  Soaked through.

    The rain lasted maybe 5 minutes.  

    I decided it was not worth changing and going out again.

    There is always tomorrow.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

yikes

 I was a little busy today

    I sat down for supper at 8:30.

    Granted, I showered before eating because I felt dirty.

    I finally got the 10 saplings planted.  These little trees will someday be might oaks.  Well, except for the ones that are not oaks.  But right now. they are so small I am afraid I will now them down.

    Tomorrow I will try to put stakes near them to warn me.

    Again, it was a great idea.  But now I have to trim around them and make sure they get water.  

    And digging 10  holes is not an easy task any longer.  In my youth I could do that in a couple of hours.  Today it took me 4 hours.  And I am sore.

    I also took my windmill out of the garage and put it in my wildflower area.  I anchored it down so the wind won't topple it.  At least I hope the wind won't topple it.

    Julia and Emily stopped over and helped me move the grill onto the patio an and put my bison out by the wildflowers.  Then we carried out a second planter.  I plan to start filling that tomorrow morning, but I won't work on it for long.

    I am not exactly a go getter in the morning.

    I like to have a cup of tea, some fruit, and read t he Tribune.  

    Today I learned about a competition I would be great at!

    South Korea holds a nap competition.  Contestants take naps.  I assume whomever naps the longest and soundest wins.  Can you just close your eyes and pretend?  I wonder.

    The competition is help to promote the importance of sleep.

    Naps are darn important too.

    Just wake me when it's Monday.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Miracles

Sometimes miracles do happen 

    I called X Finity again today.  Got a different lady. 

    I told her our landline was working, but it was not our number.  We can call out, but not in.

    I also told her I have been dealing with this for over a month and was getting pretty frustrated.   I did not yell, or belittle people, just stated the truth.

    She told me that they sometimes assign a temporary number when they are converting a mobile to a land line.  I told her the land line worked for 3 days, then didn't work.

    She promised service would be restored by 9 a.m tomorrow, May 4.

    I told her tomorrow is May 3, but I will be happy if it is restored May 4.

    Then I realized that she is probably in a country where it was already May 3.

    We went to a retirement party.  

    Either when we came home or before we left, the phone rang!!!  Nobody was there, but it rang.  So I called home on my mobile.....home phone rang.  Jackie called.....home phone rang.  I used the home phone to call Jackie....call went through.

    A miracle!!

    The retirement party was for our friend Renee, who just ended a long and successful career at NIU.

    I actually talked to people!  Most of them I knew, but I even talked to a couple of people I did not know, which is a pretty big step for me.

    When I got home my plan was to do a little stuff outside, but my nephew and niece were e on their way to Rockford from points east and they stopped off for supper.

    It was great to see them.  Their mother, my sister in law, is moving from an assisted living apartment to a room in a memory care unit.

    There was a lot of dark humor, but underneath it all is a lot of worry and sadness.

    Julia and Emily came over for supper too, and we all had a great time visiting, telling stories, and laughing.

    The outside chores?  Never got done.

    But there is tomorrow.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Beth brought this in from the back yard.  A rib??

The wooden beds are going......eventually

When your friends realize you need special care and parking.  The really strong young guys who got Jackie in the house were a big help!

OMG

Well,  that was short lived

    Our land line was working fine last Sunday.

    Jackie could call me on it.  I could call on it.  We could use it.

    Last night we could not use it.

    So I called my XFinity friend and explained what happened.  She transferred me to Russell in their tech department, because she could not see any problem with the line.

    I talked to Russell for over an hour.  He eventually said he was passing the issue of our land line up the ladder to a higher tech person.

    He said the process should take about an hour, and then my land line would be restored.

    After an hour, I called our home line.  I got a message that our message box was full.

    OK, so I called Jackie's mobile and asked her to call me on the house phone.

    She did, and the call went through.

    But then I looked at the screen that gives the number of the caller, it was not our number!

    I called that number, the one that came up on the phone, and was given a message that that number was no longer in service and I should call the company's main number.

    What the hell??

    When we call from our home phone number, it shows as a different. number!

    I was just too tired and frustrated to call again.

    We started work on the new raised gardens.  Julia, Emily, Sheri and I moved one garden bed to another.  It was not fun.

    We had pizza and wine to mark the finish of one bed being filled.   3 more to go,

    Beth came in from the back yard today with a bone in her mouth.  Don't know where it came from.  Looks like part of a rib.  She was very proud of her find.  She was not happy I took it from her.

    I scoured the back yard but did not find any other bones.  

    Weird.

    But that seems to be going around lately.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

phase 1

Phase 1 of my Top Secret Project is done 

    Friend Sheri came over today and we put together the final 3 planters.

    Phase 2 starts tomorrow.

    We are going to take one of the planters, put it in position, and see how hard it is to fill it from another planter.

    Anyone with an hour or 2 and an extra shovel is welcome to stop over  after 4:30 and toss some dirt.

    Of course, that all depends on the weather.

    The pit of my brain is telling me, "This is nuts.    You are almost 78.  You should not be expanding your work, you should be contracting it.  What were you thinking?"

    What I am thinking is these are going to be the most expensive tomatoes and carrots ever grown in this universe.

    But when it is done, all I will have to do is go out every other day and spend countless hours weeding.  

    But it is too late now.  I have crossed the Rubicon.

    We have a cleaning lady every other week.  We pay her.  She did not come today because she was sick, so I started cleaning the house.  I asked Jackie if I get the money for cleaning.

    Long and short answer: NO!

    Oh well.  

    One of the gas stations in town is at  $4.49..........holy crappers, Batman!  

    I have a feeling that is going to be considered cheap by next fall.

    Hope I am wrong.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

dominoes

 Sometimes one thing leads to another

    Back in the day, that was a belief held by  the political leadership.  The belief was. that if a country fell to communism, the countries next to it would also fall.  Like dominoes.

    Ain't necessarily so.

    I have an unopened set of dominoes.  I bought it because it has been years since I played, and I. thought Jackie and I could play sometime.  But I never opened them.

    I never found my thrill on Blueberry Hill, but Fats did.  He was a successful Domino.

    I have always marveled at people who set up elaborate domino configurations, either made of dominoes, cereal boxes, bricks, whatever.  Then they hit one and the rest go racing around the design, falling perfectly from one to another.

    I finished mowing the yard today and boy, was I cold!

    Temperature was in the lower 50s, and in the fall that would have been pleasant.  But today it was cold and raw.  I may have windburn on my face.

    I thought the yard needed sweeping because there is a lot of cut grass.  I got out the catcher, then the dominoes started falling.

    To reach the actual sweeper that tows behind the mower,  I had to move the car.  Then I had to move the pieces to my Secret Project.  Then I had to move a sample of my secret project.

    I realized that before doing anything, which explains why the dead grass is still on the lawn.  Plus, I was cold and did not feel like riding the mower around any more than I already did.

    It also partially explains why I have not used my battery powered mower to mow between the existing planters, because that was behind the pull behind sweeper.

    Thus the first domino did not fall.

    Everything is still in its place.  I am still chilly, a full 5 hours after getting off the mower.

    I just put my morning load of laundry into the washer, which means at 9:30 it should be ready to go into the dryer.

    That means I will not be folding towels tonight, instead I will wait until tomorrow night to fold them, which means I will delay doing something tomorrow night involving laundry.

    Why?  Because that is the way I roll.

    And that's how the dominoes fall.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace