Afternoon date

 I’d just about giving up all hope of getting out to see a movie somewhere other than my living room. I thought that with the endless round of cartoons and superheroes that would always be my fate going forward.

Calling all wanna-be ukelele players

 

          Since I had finished my last batch of library books and was avoiding the one for my book club (like a grumpy 9^th grader, I hate being told what to read), off I went to get more reading material.

Shopping Weirdness

 

Okay, I should stop being dumbfounded by Halloween displays in July, but I recently saw a couple of things in stores that left me scratching my head.

          I was standing in the check-out line at my grocery store when I spotted this:

Dan, Dan, He's Our Man

 

          We had a different yoga leader on Sunday, our usual guy – sweet Dan - being away for a few days. (Really? How much relief from daily life does he need? He teaches yoga, for heaven’s sake.)

A Week of the Long-Retired

 

Okay. Yes, it’s been way too long since I’ve logged in. I wish I could say life has been so jam-packed with exciting events that I haven’t found the time but – nope.

          Last week was typical of the routine of my days:

Wine and Plumbing

 

Today I woke up – and stayed up – at 4:30, thanks to a variety of unhappy joints that now seem to lock up and ache after being immobile overnight. Now I realize the blessing of retirement is so you can fit in an afternoon nap to compensate for the sketchy sleep the night before.

This weekend My Guy and I wandered over to a neighboring small town – even smaller than ours- to check out a winery we’ve passed from time to time. Two years ago, it was a dog kennel, raising German shepherds, but now it’s kind of a trendy spot, offering quite a range of pretty good wine.

 I did a sampler sort of thing, getting small (too small in my greedy opinion) tastings of 5 different ones, while he opted for their Cab. There was soothing live music out on their patio area although we stayed inside with the air conditioning. The place was a pleasant surprise out there in farm country and I picked up some great heirloom tomatoes on the way home.

          I’d spent Saturday morning sorting out what I could of my still-disassembled kitchen, earning that wine in the afternoon, and Sunday continuing the task. There was sawdust and grit inside every one of my lower cupboards, which meant figuring out how to jackknife my body down and into the bottom areas. Another planned change to this kitchen is to install pull-out shelves on the lowest level and this confirmed the need for that. At one point I had to grab the seat from the couch to kneel on. At least I now have clean, better organized shelves.

      

    Today is an interesting mix of electrician at 8:00 (Jump up and move the car so we’re not trapped in the garage by his truck), lunch with a friend at 12:00, then race home for the plumber who’s coming somewhere between 2:00 and 4:00. Betcha can’t guess which end of that time range he’ll arrive at. 

          But it’s worth it. Imagine – a working stovetop and a sink you can actually run water into! There’ve been some close calls when I’ve absentmindedly started to empty my tea down the open hole where it would have landed on the bare wooden shelf below.

Asphalt to Iceberg

 

After a succession of men with measuring tapes last week, and having my kitchen torn apart yesterday, the end is in sight. The new countertops have arrived. Oddly, instead of the linebacker build you’d expect to see, the slim craftsmen hauling, hefting, and positioning these big quartz slabs look more like they were born to ride in the Kentucky Derby.