May 9, 2010
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Outside Lighting At Last!
TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM
When we bought this house five years ago, (yes, I said FIVE), it came with spot light pairs at three corners of the house. One set was on the far edge of the garage and two pairs at the back of the house. They did NOT come with lights in them. Cheap contractor. The problem came in that they are too high to reach with a six foot ladder and that was the tallest we had.For several years, I nagged the Beast about buying an extension ladder. I even contemplated buying him one for Christmas but had a problem with transporting it and where in the hell would I have hidden it? A gift card wouldn’t have done it because he would have spent it on other things.
Well, today he finally bought a 10 ft. extension ladder (that means two 10 foot sections).
I know! Shocking. He also bought spotlight bulbs while he was there. Once he got up there, he was cussing out the electrician that installed the lighting. He says they are too loose to adjust properly and he ended up having to remove two bulbs because of that. The lights would have hit anyone sitting on the deck at night right in the eyes. I asked him why he didn’t just tighten the screws or whatever but he said it was a little more complicated than that.We were surprised to find out the gutters are as clean as a whistle.
I would have thought they would be choked with pine needles at least. But, who knows? Perhaps the high winds and gusts we had when the tornado hit so close to us did the cleaning out needed. The only thing he found in there was some of the grit from the shingles. One good downpour and those will be gone.What prompted all this attention the Beast gave to the lighting was the painting of the shutters, porch and garage door. OMG! It looks like a totally different house. He put the house numbers back up and even they seem to glow now when they were barely noticeable before. I told the Beast that now we need to paint the deck because it sure could use it but he is now saying that he wants to replace some of the lumber on it. I just rolled my eyes at that and said if he was going to go to that much trouble, he might as well put the extension up for it. You can guess the look he gave ME!
The next thing he’s going to get us is a new mailbox. That seems to have sustained some damage when we got those high winds from the tornado. I hadn’t noticed because I hadn’t gotten the mail until yesterday. The Beast feels important if he gets to do that and look through it first. Men! RETIRED men!!!
He said he’s going to do that…….when he gets a *round tuit*. He says he wants to move it anyway since the time the owner of the other lots here sent a crew over to mow the grass last year and they actually lifted it out of the ground (which was extremely soft and mushy from all our rain back then) to mow and then replaced it and just stomped it down a bit. It’s leaned ever since then. Couldn’t have been all that easy for them, either, since it had been cemented in place. My feet are swollen today. I think it’s partly because of the height I have had my chair at for the past few days. I’m putting pressure on them at different places (and even my derriere gets sore after a couple hours of playing games on Pogo). I made sure I didn’t take in any salt, or I should say *extra* salt and I’ve done a lot more walking today to help get rid of the fluid. So far, so good. It wasn’t swollen badly but I wasn’t taking any chances. They are back to their normal *can see all the tendons when I move my toes* size now.
We had some high winds last night. Looks like they are ahead of the storm front moving in. The temperature is dropping down into the 30′s tonight and we will be in low 70′s tomorrow until the thunderstorms hit here. What’s bad about it is the peaches the Beast found on the ground, especially around the Alberta peaches. Oh, not to worry, there are still a lot of peaches on the tree. It needed some thinning but I told the Beast to let nature do it until we see the trees are starting to stress. That would have been in about a week or so. Now we won’t have to do that. It did it to the plums, too, but the cherries seem to have held on well. The apples didn’t suffer much, thankfully but it’s still early for them to be so vulnerable.
When you read this, it will be Sunday so…..HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! to all you mothers out there in cyberspace.
I had hoped to be able to spend mine with my kids up in Louisville but weather constraints kept that from happening. I’ll be lucky to get a phone call from them but that will work, too. I would have preferred to be with them but c’est la vie! I should see the Princess and more than likely Tara, too. They usually always make sure to stop in to see me and bring a card…….sometimes flowers, too. I’m just glad to hear from them. They all have busy lives. Hope you all have a wonderful day, regardless.Love you all. Wishing you lots of love and good weather. Stay safe.
