Getting Things Done

In a sign that I'm a true masochist, I lived one crazy day, and best of all, it was all of my own making. In the process of getting things done, however, I had to blow off an old friend RC who had recently contacted me. Sorry RC. We had home improvement duties as well as baking bread and brownies.

Either way, it was quite an interesting day, and of course I'm going to bore you with the details. First off, there was the looming problem of our front door. JH and I had framed it out but it still needed to be installed. We were living with this massive opening in the front of the house and only a tarp to cover it. Luckily, we were still in Summer, so the weather was in our favor, but it was showing signs of Fall, and cool weather was on the way. The situation was compounded by the fact that JH was going away and would be gone for a couple of weeks, leaving me on my own to do any sort of home improvement projects. Yikes!

Because he's such a great guy, he also agreed to stop by after work and help me put that darn door in, probably aware of the fact that our house was open to the great outdoors.

We were also having internet issues. I.e., it wasn't working. You begin to realize what a slave you can be to the internet, and with no way to blog or search the web, I have to confess to feeling a bit lost.

I contacted our internet provider and they ran through the diagnostic, and sure enough, the problem warranted a site visit. She told me that there were service people in the area, but that she wasn't sure if they could make it. I told her we had errands to run, and she said to get them done now because they might be over in a couple of hours.

Fortunately, we had done our morning school work, which for the record, the kids are fairly independent at doing. They are really good, most of the time, at motivating and working on their own.

However, not anticipating any time constraints, I had planned on doing several errands that now had to be abbreviated in the interest of time. I was going to have to be flexible, and knock them off one at a time, prioritizing of course, and then stop when my time ran out.

At 11:30, we headed out the door and planned on being back by 1:30 at the latest. Our first stop was the dump. My in-laws are visiting and we have to clean out the construction waste that has collected in the barn. This is the stuff that can't be burned, which included anything painted or stained as well as composite materials. I have been slowly chipping away at that stone, and we were close to being done.

After the dump, we went to LaValley's for real man supplies, then to Blue Mountain Guitar to get N some drumming items that his teacher requested, as well as pics for A. I was talking to the drum expert at the store and he knows N's drum teacher and gave her rave reviews. He kept saying, JB is awesome. She's an awesome teacher. Good news.

After LaValley's, over to YiPing market to get more wrappers for our favorite activity, then home to wait for the internet guy. Talk about whirlwinds, I'm thankful the kids are so cooperative and well behaved, because wrestling with them really slows you down.

When we got home, I started preparing some things for dinner, just so that I wouldn't have to worry about them once JH got there and we could get down to business. Part of that was making mom's famous raisin bread which helps her get through the day. Have to keep mom nourished. Since we're baking, we also made casserole and brownies.

Vtel arrived and within a few minutes, the guy figured out what the problem was - the modem had come unplugged from the wall. Why didn't I think of checking that? Just another example of how hard life can be when you've got a peanut sized brain.

Now that we had internet, I could go on living, which meant getting dinner ready and then preparing for the massive door installation. JH arrived around 5:30, R came home by 6:00 to feed the kids, and we were in business.

It took us about 3 hours to put that thing in, mainly because when it comes to doors and trim, you want things to be reasonably lined up. It's not like siding where you can compensate for your errors with a few good whacks with a sledge hammer. Where aesthetics are concerned, finesse is in order. We wanted to line up the door and the side windows as best as we could, without damaging the trim. It took a bit of time, but shims and caulking are your best friend.

It was dark by the time we were done, and with the kids fed, R had prepared a couple of plates of food for us, and we sat down and ate like real men, with dirty hands, elbows on the table, drinking a few beers. All we needed was football game on TV and we would have been set.

Having done all the domestic duties while also getting real man work done just goes to show you that one can indeed aspire to be Bob Vila and Martha Stewart at the same time. Just don't mix up your outfits.

One final note, as we were cleaning up, JH recommended taking all the power tools inside, but I was tired and hungry and it was getting dark, so I said I'll just take care of it later. JH commented that it's only a problem if it rains. Sure enough, it rained that night, but more on this later.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.