Fact: 1 in 3 men wait until Christmas Eve to do their shopping.
Well, yesterday was a zip, nada, nuttin’, boring! However, today made up for it!
We were up at the crack of dawn, well, perhaps just after the crack occurred. Scout, The Wonder Dog, assisted us in getting up, demonstrating his acquired pointing skills! With a soft bark, his butt faced the bedroom door, and his tail was as straight as a string; we knew he wanted something!. This gave us a clue he wanted to use the doggy facilities! Watching him waddle down the infamous hallway with his hind legs crossed was fun!
He was funny as he came back inside quickly and used his new pointing skills again. He found a dead bird and wanted me to do something about it, and I thought for a few minutes and then proceeded to take action.
A make-it-yourself kit!
Anyway, we had our morning cup of joe and took the morning pills, which at our age looks like a handful of carious flavored Jelly-Bellies! Mary went back to bed to keep her arm quiet, and I decided to put together the potting stand I had bought her. Well, silly me (it’s tough being a man and not reading the instructions), I did not realize it takes two to put it together.
Mary found my humor a little disappointing!
I quickly called Tom, our handyman, and he popped over and did the hard part, making the legs so the rest of the assembly work could be done standing up. My knees do NOT like kneeling anymore; they get cranky!
I departed Tom as I needed to give Mary a shower which requires two of us; thank goodness we have that extra large shower! I washed her up as far as possible, then down as far as possible; she washed the possible! After getting her back into bed, I returned to the assembly area, where I heard some new swear words that I had not heard in years.
It was a battle; the table won!
Tom had to take the thing apart two more times, and of course, I asked why he didn’t use the English instructions instead of the Indonesian instructions. He departed at 9:30 AM speaking in tongues!
I puttered around with the table until the doorbell rang at 10:30 AM; it was Nine Juan Juan; he came to detail the Silver Fox and the Grey Shost! They required some TLC, and boy did they get it a cleaning; they now look like two new cars. Juan dug under the seats and found some dinosaur bones; it had been a long time since the last detailing.
At 11:00 AM, Carlos came to do the lawn, but we decided to wait as the front yard was full of blowup toys (don’t get any funny ideas” and the backyard grass was still barely growing. Carlos saw me struggling with the table, and he and his helper lent a hand; actually, they lent four hands.
Carlos put it together quickly; I did not know he spoke fluent Indonesian!
OK, we are making progress! The table is complete and in place! Mary can pot/depot her plants, prep the veggies, and wash everything before going into the house!
I need to level it and get a high-quality tarp to protect it against the elephants, oops, elements!
It is lunchtime, so I go to the market to get the essentials like bread and milk, plus whatever else is on the list. Mary loves to put things on the list that are hard to find, so it took me longer than expected. I looked for twenty minutes to find kosher pork and the left-handed broom was another trial of my patience. Finally, after locating the Yack butter, I made it to the checkout stand, where two old people (a lot older than me) were arguing with the cashier about the price of booze. Why me? Why me?
I picked up some sushi and Cape Cof potato chips for Jan and dropped by to see her for ten minutes. She misses us, but she doesn’t know that we also miss her twice as much (there are two of us!)
I nibbled on two before going VFR to home, where Mary needed me!
Returning home, I whipped up some homemade beef-barley soup right out of a can. I added a selection of sushi and some toast, and we had lunch! Mary came to the table.
I returned to doing chores around the house, and then Dru came over to return some money I gave her at the dance last week; I had forgotten about it! She also brought us a case of Kendl-Jacksone Chardonnay as a Christmas present.
We love our wine but have had zero since last Tuesday; alcohol and narcotics do NOT mix! We didn’t even miss it.
All was quiet for a while, and then Colleen called; Joe was at the garage, ready to put up my new-fangled Christmas lights. Govee Outdoor LED Strip Lights, 32.8ft RGBIC Outdoor Lights with 64 Scene Modes and 16 Music Modes, IP65 Waterproof Smart Lights with App Control for Home.
I plan to use them all year, green for St. Patty’s Day, red for Valentine’s Day, patriotic color for July 4th, etc. I even plan to do black and blue for election day! Oh, BTW, I can control the lights from my phone!!
No removing lights anymore!
We got one string up across the garage, and Joe & Charlie are coming over tomorrow to do the remaining lights across the front of Casa Valencia.
Yes, he is a cyclops!
It was way too cold to do anymore, plus I needed to go to Home Depot for some supplies before Joe arrived!
Mary and I passed on dinner as the late afternoon lunch was still filling us up. We watched a Christmas movie in the bedroom and then crashed.
My cough acted up in the evening, and I finally, at Mary’s suggestion, went to the TV room and sat up in the recliner, and got some sleep until about 5:30 AM.
