What is Your Worth?

        We have contacted landscapers throughout the years but have never been able to afford the asking price.  The last bid was at 8,000.  Uh, that’s twice the amount I was willing to go – though I thought it was still too high.  Since then Richard has been watching DYI videos on what we can do. 

        While we were watching the DYI landscape videos, we heard our censors go off to indicate that perhaps there was more presence than just the turkey in our yard. Two youth were at the door announcing that they were willing to do some landscaping work.  I let Richard know.  He ended up hiring the kid who said he would replace our pipe hose for 50 dollars.  That’s a lot of work for only 50 dollars – but Richard accepted his offer.  No written contract.  No credentials.  The kid is a high school drop-out.  But he did it.

        He weed wacked the hill in the back and offered Richard a hundred dollars to cut out beds so we can plant.  Richard told him he would not want to do it for a 100 but perhaps 100 per quarter and divided the land.  It’s been quite intensive labor – probably more than the kid had bargained for.  Richard has given him a few advances as we really are getting our money’s worth.  Perhaps Richard ought to offer more incentive - like twice the amount if you can get the project done by a certain date. 

        Thus far the kid has labored in our yard each day, but the amount of time seems to lessen each day.  He’s not what I would call dependable.  Fortunately we are paying him by the project and not by the hour.

        Richard had told Don (not his real name) to take Sunday off as he did not want to be responsible for breaking the Sabbath.  Only Don does not share our same standards and worked while we were at Church and took the day off on Monday.  On Monday Richard told Jaime and I to help him move rocks to cover the pipe. 

I hoped that Google would not come by to take pictures while I was bending over.

        I don’t know how often Google updates their maps and residential sites.  When we first moved into the house we currently live, I remember looking up our WV address on Google and seeing my neighbor bent over in her yard.  It reminded me of a yard decoration that some people might have in their yards.

They have updated the WV location since, but the address we have now has not been updated in the last six years at least as the house is white with blue trim and we have changed that to green trim.

        I remember taking a break and sitting down to create this post.  I was so tired that I couldn’t even think.  I ended up going to bed majorly early (like 6:00) and haven’t made the effort to even start the post until yesterday and it was only a start.  I knew that I would not get through everything I had at least had the sense to brainstorm on Monday.

        I don’t know what happened on Tuesday. I had a busier schedule today than on Tuesday but still found the time to get the majority of this post written – hoping I’d be able to proof read and add pictures today.  So there you go.  A half baked update on my life right now.

Anniversary Relived

               Yesterday marked the 20^th year of my marriage with Roland.  You think a couple might want to spend their 20^th anniversary with some kind of milestone celebration.  But both of us managed to forget – and yet I had just mentioned it to Jenna the day prior.  And thus our anniversary was celebrated in the same manner that many birthdays and anniversaries have gone during the pandemic.  We labored. 

              We moved the freezer into the back room. We emptied the water barrel moved that as well.  Refilled with water. We unstocked and took apart shelves in the office and put a couple up in the backroom and one in the laundry hall and restocked them.  We finally did take a break between 10:30 and 11:00 to grab some food.  I had hoped for breakfast and NOT Mexican, but we ended up at a local Mexican that we had never tried. The food was good but the prices were a bit steep, I thought.  

We came home and continued with moving items and rested more.  We did set up the table in the back room and had moved a few chairs in this morning.  The shelves are stocked with games.  It looks much nicer.  I had gone to check facebook and was reminded that of my anniversary and “celebrations” in years past:

 Let us not forget that our initial marriage took place two days before the twin towers were bombed.  Thus our anniversary is celebrated simultaneously with 9/11.   On my 10^th anniversary I had gone to Mrs. Cavanugh’s with the 2^nd graders. My mom passed away the day after our 14^th. And yesterday . . . I put my arms around Roland and asked him if he knew what day it was.  He sheepishly guessed our anniversary.  We decided to count our expensive lunch as our 20^th anniversary celebration.

Speaking of 20^th – my sister, Kayla, and husband, Bill, have their wedding anniversary coming up on – you guessed it, the 20th of this month. I was hoping that one year we would/will be able to do a cruise in September to celebrate both of our anniversaries.  Disneyland would work as well as it will be dressed up for Halloween later on this month – or at least had done it mid-September in the past.  I don’t know how much COVID may have changed that.  Until this pandemic ends I do not wish to travel – even just to the Big City of Roseburg.

20 years.

Day 5: More Pictures

On our fifth day was two weeks ago today.  We were at the house Randy put us to work.  Who doesn’t love doing yard work during their vacation?  Better than being cramped up in a plane or a car I suppose. Also his corner lot yard is much easier to manage than the wilds of our backyard. 

Devin doing dishes

Roland mowing lawn

Jenna looks overly thrilled in all of these pictures

happy to have recruited family to do chores

I was certainly not dressed for the part

"This is NOT how I wanted to spend my vacation"

holding the cord of the lawnmower

Me with my youngest grandson

This is how Roland and I would vacuum at the church. 
He would push the vacuum and I would hold the cord.

Reminiscing 70+ years: Dreams

            Mom loved to dance, but didn't have many  opportunities to do so as it wasn't one of dad's favorite things.  She told me that she was a brilliant choreographer during her sleep and she would dance the night away.  She said she wished she were as active during the day and that perhaps she could lose some weight.  I think often my mom felt self-conscience about her appearance  and perhaps did not pursue her dreams of dancing as she didn't figure she had the figure for it.
          She did seem to lose weight whenever she was involved in a sewing project - usually clothes for me.  I know she made matching shirts for the entire family when Kayla was just a baby.  She did make a couple of matching outfits for me and Kayla.  But as I think about it, I believer most of her projects she made were clothes for me.
           I liked wearing something that had been made for me personally from fabric that I had chosen - even what might have been "drape" material for a kid's room.  She never discouraged me from wearing what she may have thought of as bizarre. I would  rather be in something that I helped design than look like a billboard advertising a certain brand of jeans.  I didn't know that we were poor and it was just less costly to make clothing. 
          When mom wasn't dreaming about dancing, she said she was often sewing in her dreams, and she would make elaborate designs.  But there are a few times she would share really bizarre dreams with us.  There is only one that I can remember in detail, but I will share two,
          The first one happened on a family trip.  We'd been vacationing in Yellowstone  I would guess.  Mom had a dream about fishes who had taken on human personalities.  She said the leader of the fish walked and talked like John Wayne. 

But that is all that I remember.

          The other dream involved the bedspread.  This is not an accurate picture, but something similar to how her bread spread appeared.

         

     This is the bed spread she slept beneath when she was having her "Cotton-Picking" dream.  She said she was on a plantation picking cotton for what felt like hours.  She could feel herself working hard - so hard in facet, that when she woke up she was perspiring . 

          It took several minutes for her eyes to adjust.  She had been wearing glasses for most of her life, and her vision was quite distorted without them.  She looked at the floor and saw a bunch of linty fuzz scattered between her bed and the TV and wondered what it was and why it was there. 

          She had indeed worked hard at picking that cotton - but not just in her dream.  Her hands were busy feeling the little balls upon her bed spread.  Mom had managed to single-handedly ruin her bed spread while she dreamed.  For as she was picking cotton from plants in her dream, she'd been tugging at the stringed pattern that held her bed spread together.  It is funny but yet it's not - at least not at the time.  I don't know if she ever got that physically active with any of her other dreams.

Not Even Close

              This morning I started a search for pics to go with the next post I had mind – which has only been written in my head and outlined on paper, but still needs to be transferred which I had planned today but things don’t always go according to plan . . . like yesterday morning seeing Riddle before the town awakens and the streets have no traffic on them whatsoever.

            I did not notice any traffic as I drove to the blueberry patch this morning.  The drive seems long each time I go out there, but somehow felt even longer this morning.  I had gone a different way than I had the other 12 – 20 times I’d gone there before.  The sun shining directly over the spotty windshield did not help matters.  I felt like I had been driving for half an hour at least.

            I wish I had left the house sooner.  It had been cool when we first arrived, but warmed up really quick – not as hot as yesterday morning, but still – not the most comfortable temperature.

            The berries did not seem as big and full as they had been last year.  It’s also later in the season, but they just started accepting pickers yesterday. Roland had wanted us to return with 50 pounds.  That is a lot for just two people to pick.  We stopped at eight, but returned to the patch for seven more bringing us to a grand total of 15.  I told Jenna that 15 and 50 sound a lot alike.  We decided we’d return on Saturday with Roland.

            Neither Jenna nor I had eaten before we left the house.  She ate as she picked.  Of course it didn’t fill her.  (That girl’s a walking stomach.)  I debated on whether to stop somewhere for breakfast or return to the house first.  Roland was quite disappointed that we had not picked more.  Last July we had picked over 20 pounds in record time – but there were six of us picking!  This morning it was just me and Jenna.

            I couldn’t park in the driveway as the big yellow truck had returned.  I only saw one worker, though I believe there were more.  Surely it was more than one person making all that noise. I checked something on the computer before making my way to the kitchen. Roland and a worker were talking.  I asked Jenna if she just wanted to go out to eat – like she’s going to say no – but Roland ended up fixing breakfast for us and I was reminded of a meeting I had scheduled for this afternoon and told Jenna I that I would take her with me – though I didn’t particularly want her at the meeting, I had already promised that I would take her to the library and the location of the meeting was between the library and our house.

            Roland made us blueberry pancakes.  We were at the library for less than an hour when I received a phone call from one of the committee members asking if I could meet her earlier.  So, I checked out the media I had collected and assisted with writing information on a card as we are back to the way check-outs had been done back in the day as we are no longer on a computerized system.

            Myrtle Creek isn’t as strict about the checkout procedure as Riddle. As of now, patrons are only allowed two items for up to three weeks.  I don’t believe a limit has been given to the patrons of Myrtle Creek.  Riddle uses clear plastic jackets for their cards.  MC has the old fashioned oaktag pockets – which are easier to fasten to book or DVD but obviously cover more and can’t be read through as the pockets used by Riddle.  I filled out an application for a card.  Jenna asked me to take a picture of her in the tent - I couldn't fit the entire tepee into my camera.  

this is the display case featuring some of the houses
from the little pig story as told on the grand opening

After taking pictures, we left the library and I put my items in the trunk and drove to the location of the meeting (which we normally have at the Church but thought we would try something different this month – and it seemed to be successful)

            After the meeting, I brought Jenna home with intentions of getting on the computer to look up some things and create minutes to send out.  The yellow truck was still in the driveway; in addition, there was a white truck marked plumber parked on the side.  I sat down to turn on the computer before I notice that the power had been shut off.  Oh, my word.  It is soooooo hot.  (We are blessed to have a cool breeze blowing in the room as I’m certain the temperature in all other parts of the house are 20 degrees above the bedroom.  I don’t know why the temperature always feels so much different in that part of the house.

            In addition to the heat, it appears a group of flies have entered the house as well.  Damn them!!!  Currently Roland is going through the house with an exterminator.  We have never seen a rat since we’ve been here, but apparently, they have been living under the house and have been causing problems. Even though we have all this activity going on, we are truly blessed.  Even Jenna who is still without a room.  It really would be nice having her in Salt Lake with her brothers.  At the same time, I’m grateful that she can experience these inconveniences.

            We now have a/c and fan running.  Plants thirsty and watered.  I’m showered and it feels nice.  This wasn’t my intended post.  Hopefully tomorrow.

That Was a Less-Than-Productive Day

                Roland had asked Troy if he would like to earn some extra money by cutting the grass on our hill.  What a chore!  Troy came by about 9:00 the other day and Roland showed him what we were attempting to do outside.  Troy said he could return the following morning to remove the debris so that we can continue our garden.

                So yesterday, Troy showed up with his wheel barrow and worked hard.  Fortunately the sun was not blazing yet.  Troy is a good worker.  He was the most productive yesterday.

                Ike is a retired electrician but had told Roland he would come over to check out some sensitive spots that we would like to change.  I had been on the computer attempting to listen to a recorded lecture.  I played it several times but had allowed myself to get distracted.  The subject of perfect competition and the price floor and ceiling.  Boresville . . .

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

                The lecture was still playing when Ike arrived.  I was also in the middle of writing an email.

   I went into the living room and turned on the TV to keep me company while I folded laundry. 

               

                The TV kept shutting itself off - or so it seemed.  It took the third interruption before my slow mind figured out that it must be related to whatever Ike was doing at the other end of the house.  I thought I had created a post about the power source in our current house, and how occasionally the front of the house has been without power though the back of the house was not affected.  It was shortly after we had moved in.  Roland lost power in his office but was able to run an extention chord from our room to his office and operated the remainder of the day with no electricity at the front of the house.  That was weird.  We had the same problem yesterday.  I don't know for certain if it's been corrected or not.

                Roland worked with Ike as he was unable to do any of his school or work.  I took my laptop onto the back porch - though the Internet was down. It was cooler outside than in our hot house - during that particular moment anyway. I pulled up my textbook (which I had saved on a PDF and so was able to view it) and struggled through chapters 8 and 9 - understanding a bit here and there, but most of it was/is quite foreign to me.  It's a wonder I've been receiving not just passing but actually good grades.

                I got a message on my computer indicating that the Internet was back up and running.  I finished my email and sent it off.  When Ike left, I shut down my laptop and got in the car so that I could run a few errands - which had taken  longer than I had predicted.  Meanwhile, Roland realized that by turning the bathroom switch off or on effected his computer.  That's not a good thing.  Thus Ike's car was in the driveway when I returned. Boy, was he ever frustrated.  I don't know who is responsible for the idiotic wiring that was already there before we moved in.

                 So far no problems.  It's a new month.  April was wet.  May has made a 20 degree jump.  I am wearing shorts.  The A/C is up.  Roland actually put it up last night before going to bed.  Once again, I don't know how I'm going to survive this summer.