Old winter's song

Work has been annoying. I guess that's true of whatever we do to make money that doesn't add to our level of happiness. But the boss is going to be just one time too pushy for me and I will walk on him. I have only done that twice in almost nine years but it always costs him to get me back, and he hates that.

My girl was over Thursday night and we talked a little more about her friend while she sanded a display table of my dad's and I made dinner. I asked her about photos but she says she lost what she had in a hard drive crash. Her friend's family is too torn up to ask for photos yet. Well, that let out my best idea so far. I was going to get her the stuff for a scrap book. I thought that would let her go through her treasures and memories and give her a safe place to tuck them away and put them on a shelf to look at when she needed them.

I like gifts with some thought in them. After the fire the little rose shaped, rose scented soap I got in my personal care bag from the Red Cross was my treasure. Everything on the property stunk so of burned house and I got that smell on me working clean up. I had nothing but that little rose soap to make me feel "pretty" again. I smelled good. I felt better.

The mate, bless his pointy head, for his first birthday gift to me gave me a musical jewelry box and a set of metric sockets for my motorcycle. It was perfect. It let me know he wanted to encourage me to get better at taking care of my bike and that he saw me as a woman still.

My probably best ever gift to him was a candle castle I made in a gallon bucket and then hand carved. I molded a couple pringles cans and let them set, poured two inches of wax in the bucket, put the towers in the bucket on each side and pour four more inchs of wax. Then I carved windows, rocks for the base, the top of the walls, and brick patterns all over the walls. I left the moat smooth. I made a wooden box and put spare wicks, a long, steel rod thin enough to make a wick hole, a pair of tiny sissors, a big toothpick, a nut pick, a cheap scalpel, a pack of matches and a small rag. I called it a "Candle Destructo Kit".

He used to sit in his chair at night and "destruct" a burning candle with his pocket knife and whatever he had to hand while he watched tv. It took him a long time to turn the castle into a flat hunk of remelt me wax, even with all the neat tools he had to work with then.

The sis gave us a box with a sewing kit, sissors, thread, measuring tape and the rest, tossed in a cribbage board and a deck of cards and some dice. She gave us all a gift we could really use after the fire. All the kind donations of clothes and no way to fit them, ya know. And a game of cards or dice is a way to pass the time in a small space with four people.

The box of cards and envelopes with a pack of stamps was great, too, that someone sent me. I could write my thank you notes and even had stamps to send them; Thoughtful, literally.

My gift to me is getting the house done over. I have spent almost every penny my windfall brought me. I can't believe how quickly I can spend money for a woman that hates to shop! I have a brand new queen mattress coming, I have the base and box springs, I got a new full bed a couple months ago but it feels too small after years of a king size bed so that is going upstairs to replace the spare bed there, leaving me with one full mattress to find a home for.

I have all new coming for the living room. I have never bought real new furniture in my life and I'm running out of time so I went for it. There is a window getting swapped out in the dining room and one getting finished off in the kitchen, the ceiling on the porch being fixed up, the plumbing, including one area of floor being replace and one shelf in the kitchen being rebuilt.

Except for the kitchen and dining area the place is getting new vinyl floor and carpet in the living room. I have the paint and wall paper to do it all the way through downstairs and to lose the carpet upstairs and paint the floors. It really will be almost all new. The bedding and curtains for my bed room are in the closet. The window toppers I may use are on the back porch. I need to clean a rug I am keeping to use in my bedroom but lots of it is going to be fresh, to suit just me.

It is such a lot of blessings and such a lot of work. I have barely scratched the surface and I guess I am getting discouraged. I pack and haul and give away and there is STILL more stuff! And you never know if all your ideas are going to work until you get them put together. So I took a break this afternoon to blog a little and let my brain rest. I think it's list time. I better get after it.

I want it all done before the winter gets serious here. I have leaned so much on the family that I hate to ask for more help but the place has me out numbered. Which was the problem in the firest place. Too much house and not enough bodies to keep it up. I have to move on it and get off here PDQ!

I went home last night, very reluctantly, but I had to care for the animals. Now Buck isn't eating. I tried all the different dog treats in the house and he just looked at me. I finally got him to eat some beef. Timone is doing better, I think but I don't know what Buck's problem is. I went to town to get them some flea off stuff. It's supposed to last three months but only made it about six weeks. It's hard to treat the chow/lab with her heavy double coat.

While I was in town I decided to get dinner. A friend's band was up on sign at the bar with good food so I decided to stay. He had just lost his mom this week and I couldn't make the funeral. I had a decent dinner and drank coffee. When the band started showing up I chatted with my friend, the Rocker. His bunch does a genre of music I am not familiar with but they do it well.

We have a mutual friend in KMA so I called her on his cell and got her to join us. I bought us one round of drinks and then went back to my coffee and water. I tip well so the waitress is not stressed by it. KMA had lost a friend this week and her ex, that she was still friends with, a month or so ago. We were doing our best to help each other go on with living. Rocker's wife and his youngest boy with his girl friend joined us. KMA and I shot some pool. I even won two games during the evening, fair and square although all the player I was up against were better than me.

I was headed for the other bar before going home to get some country music and KMA joined me. We made our polites and went out into the now calm, but drippy night.

The band there did one song and took a break so we shot some more pool. The gutiar playing computer guy didn't speak to me. I guess there is nothing going to happen in that direction. We still had a pretty good time compared to sitting home whining our faces off in sadness. I got home about two thirty and went to bed after giving the dogs a treat to make Buck eat a little more and letting them out and in again.

I slept late today, I needed it. Now we are all caught up and I am off to continue taking stuff out of here. Ya'll have a good weekend!