06/01 Golf tonight and not a cloud in the sky! A while back I was worried I was sleeping too much, these days I know I’m not sleeping enough. But, that’s good. I have forced myself to work on this whole socialization thing. It’s not been easy. But, I’m beginning to see the benefit. I’m slowly but surely developing a social network of both men and women. I’m learning much. It’s getting a little easier. I’m happy.
06/02 Avery is coming down with a cold so we took it easy today.
06/03 The grass is mowed! Bagging the entire yard went just fine. I had to empty the hoppers about five times. Brother did show me how to take it off, and I had to do that once because the grass was so thick and wet it clogged the whole chute up. So, I do know how to remove it, but I prefer bagging as it is so much tidier. The girl is unnaturally enamored with her Tractor. I need to have a camera in the cubby so I could have shown you the neat green worm that was crawling up my leg. There’s a lot of turtle activity around my house, I almost mowed over one, nesting I presume. Now to clean up for this afternoon’s date. Flowers! That’s a first. The brush pile got burned! Graham crackers, Hershey bars and marshmallows were sacrificed. A very, very pleasant evening.
06/04 I took the “Girls” to camp and headed down to Rochester. I was tired, spent the evening doing mostly nothing.
06/05 I glad to report the stress of these past few months has had no permanent negative impact on my health. I attended a Bridal Shower for Ashley and didn’t take one single photo. Shame on me! It was raining so hard when I left that my windshield wipers could hardly keep up, yet hardly raining at all in my neighborhood.
06/06 Since my Date from Saturday was still in town and my office wasn’t expecting me, I played hooky. We had a nice boat ride followed by lunch. Now he’s gone back to the mountains of North Carolina. I will be seeing him again. There are airlines needing revenue . . .no? This evening I need to reacquaint myself with my laundry room.
06/07 It’s been a long, long time since my desk was so out of control.
06/08 I’m going to be seriously disappointed if I’m not sore tomorrow as I worked harder at the gym this morning than I have in a while. I lost my first golf ball tonight.
06/09 I’m not one bit sore. I guess I need to work still harder. OK, so I’m just a little bit sore. A dreary day. I actually had a nap with Avery this afternoon.
06/10 Coco: 89 minutes, 6.0 miles, 4.0 mph, HR=125. It really was Hanna’s turn, but this cooler weather is better for Coco. I managed to get everything done at my office that had to be done there. I can work from home this evening and tomorrow.
06/11 Avery spent the morning. Hanna and I went for a walk this afternoon: 72 minutes, 5.20 miles, 4.3 mph, HR=140. The Garmin Forerunner 305 takes a long time to locate the satellites and I’m often missing part of my route, I should have done like I did yesterday and set it outside for a bit before I left. Yahoo Messenger with Video and Voice: The next best thing to being there! Or here . . .
06/12 My policy to not wear shoes I can’t walk five miles in served me well this morning. I just scratched my shins bloody. Time to get out the Benadryl.
06/13 I got to watch a fantastic fireworks display from my bed last night! So much for getting any extra sleep. Gym. Work. Piano lesson. Psychologist. Shopping. I’m tired!
06/14 I get my permanent crown this afternoon. Best one so far! The grass is mowed. I’m thinking my height adjustment thingy doesn’t work. I keep setting it higher and higher, yet it still seems I’m mowing too short. Does anyone else get grass in their belly button when they mow? My colored Adirondack chairs for around the fire pit have shipped!
06/15 Morning thunderstorm. Poor Coco, she just hates thunder. My lawn is happy. My last session of the Golf Mentoring program. My team won the scramble! I’m now signed up for a Beginners’ League that starts already on Monday.
06/16 I haven’t had any geese in my yard for about two weeks. I think I was right in figuring the goslings were too small to get very far away from the nest. Today they came back. With the goslings. But, I had anticipated this and stopped at the hardware store to buy some green poles and iridescent holographic bird repelling ribbon. I’ve not seen anyone else do this my way. We’ll see if it works. The tape is holographic, moving and makes quite a bit of noise. Let’s hope it works. If it looks like it will, I’ll buy a few more poles as I’ve got ribbon left over. Dinner at Arthur’s in Hackensack in celebration of my Parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary.
06/17 A surprise tea/shower for Ashley. Pizza party in celebration of Carol’s birthday.
06/18 When the wind died down at sunset, the geese moved in. Damn! My Adirondack chairs are here! This week’s job is to get a protective coat of clear paint on them.
06/19 Frederick S Richards Course 1323/55. One ball lost.
06/20 What was with all the deer crossing the roads on my way to the gym this morning? I managed to not hit any. Following NC Guy’s advice, I’ve put a coat of clear UV protection on all my Adirondack chairs. I was able to clear coat one this morning and assemble it this evening. The rest are in the flat and drying. I’ll assemble those tomorrow. I think I’ll stop at the hardware store on my way home tomorrow for a proper tool as that will make it go ever so much faster. According to the instructions (yes, I read them) these chairs require two people to assemble. Ha! I’ve still got one white chair in the box that is destined to be painted pink, but first I’ve got to decide which of the two pinks – one is too light, the other too dark. There were two bunnies playing leap frog in the backyard. Hanna noticed them when I went to take a picture. They’ve gone home now. I’ve replaced the dead Schefflera and Ivies with Nerve plants. We’ll see if I can keep those alive.
06/21 Is it a sad state of affairs that I just can’t wait until my very own set of socket wrenches arrives? The lawn is mowed. My chairs are done! Except for the pink one. Amazing how much faster/easier with the proper tool. My aching back! Perhaps some time in my therapy tub is in order? It’s been years since I fired it up, I wonder if it works. It works! I’ve now been power washed and rendered useless. Might as well go to bed.
06/22 No Deer on the way to the gym this morning. What’s different from Tuesday? “Tickled Pink” is full of gas and oil. She could really use a bath but I don’t think I can make that happen. It looks like rain. Rain would be good as I had to turn the sprinkler system off. The pump was making an abnormal noise, good thing I went outside to admire my chairs this morning and heard it. I can’t get that serviced until tomorrow.
06/23 I tried to teach Avery to help pick up sticks in the yard. She could manage to toss the small ones I handed her into the cart, but didn’t grasp the concept of picking them up herself. We were in and out a lot as I don’t want her to be getting sunburned. She’s good about wearing her sun hat but won’t keep sunglasses on her face. The Gardener was here all day working on the mulch. The sprinkler system didn’t get fixed, I’ll have to call and remind them on Monday. It’s thundering and lightening now so I should be OK without it for the weekend.
06/24 The bike is loaded, the car packed for a bike ride with PDM. I just heard thunder. Boo! I think I’ll put that rain jacket back in my backpack. 3 Hours 23 Minutes, 39.48 miles, 11.6 mph, HR=149. And we didn’t get wet! PDM is stronger and faster than me on a bike. The plan was to go to dinner by boat, but it’s raining. Perhaps our luck will hold and it will stop just when we need it to. And it did!
06/25 It was raining when I got up, so no walk. I started on laundry. The sun came out. A girlfriend called wanting to get together, so we’re going boating! I anchored my boat on the party side of Big Island. Can you believe that? Me neither. Note to self: Buy fenders!
06/26 I scratched my shins bloody again during the night last night before I decided it was worth waking up completely to take some Benadryl. I can’t figure out why the itching. Almost every day at chow time I go into the service bath to pick up Blondie’s dish. While I’m sad writing about it, I hardly cry any more. My walk with Dave got rained out (we had a nice chat over coffee), but Mother Nature must still like me since she saw fit to have sunshine for the important stuff – golf! Tony delivered my paddle boat!
06/27 Earlier this week I got a chip in the windshield of my Wagon. Last night, on the way to golf, I got another one. The weird thing about these two is I would have sworn it was a bug hitting the windshield. There wasn’t a belly dump to be seen and whatever hit hardly made any noise at all. While the Wagon is the worst of the two cars to replace a windshield because of the rain sensor, I’m grateful to have two chips in that one instead of one chip in each of the two cars. There are still too many belly dumps around, so I’ll wait until fall to have the windshield replaced unless either of them starts to spread out. My shrink pronounced me “Good to Go”. He thinks at this point I’m wasting his time and my money. Funny how I resisted going, and now I’m almost sad I’m done.
06/28 Tony needed a ride to Eden Prairie. Stopped at Byerly’s for groceries. Organized my dinner. Fell asleep in the hammock and slept for almost two hours! My dinner guest woke me up when he called to announce his departure from the airport. We had a nice dinner. Never got around to eating the chocolate he brought from Paris, so I guess I get it all to myself! I should probably move it to someplace the dogs can’t reach.
06/29 The grass is mowed for another week!
06/30 Avery really wasn’t herself today. But, she took two good naps, and so did I, so I’m not complaining. That’s three naps this week for me! She did totally figure out how to move that three wheeled cart thing. Maybe next week we can take it out on the driveway so she can go farther without my having to worry she runs it down the steps into the living room. Tony got my pedal boat in the water!!
