Mulch, mailbox, cement arrgh

Well, as I sit waiting for the blueberry buckle to cool enough to hide it in the cupboard I will update the vacation log. It is a beautiful clear night with an over half-full brilliant moon shimmering over the water of the harbour in front of the house - looks like the cover of a Mary Higgins Clark novel. I was thinking of the boys out on the water tonight as one of the boats is headed in to the plant to unload in the a.m. and the #1 son is on another one, what a good night they‘ve got. Someone mentioned to me that I must worry having a son and husband on the water especially since the sinking of a local boat and I said “no I don’t, the only time I don’t worry about that boy is when he’s fishing, I know where he is and what he’s doing for at least three days” the opposite of what was expected of me.

Yesterday truly felt like the first day of my vacation without work or teaching first aid but I was up earlier than I wished in the a.m. because of a fair bit of traffic - husband leaving, daughter being driven to work, chauffeur returning from transporting her etc. I headed out and ran a list of errands returning in time to be advised by daughter # 3s boyfriend that she had called from work and “said to tell you to clip the cats claws” as he was transporting them in to her at the nursing home for a SPCA fundraiser. It is a three person job to clip Klyde the Himalayan’s nails and there were only two of us, him with no experience in this activity. Amazingly there were no trips to ER to deal with any accidents. The boyfriend showered and left shortly with cats accompanying as he was dropping them off on his way to be a sandwich artist.

I had about one hour of restful bliss and then…the landscape designer calls to say that he is going to pick up the remainder of the mulch. Just what I want to do, rake mulch. But NOT going to complain because this has been over a year in the getting done. The flower beds do look great. They’ll look even better when I the perennials get transplanted in the fall.

As I’m putting the final touches on supper there was a bout of marital discord arising from the male partner’s obsession with the weather. He began checking the forecast (remember this is five days away at this point) for Sunday on the weather channel and whining about the pig roast. I must confess that I (without warning too) lost it - big time! I reminded him we’d discussed it before we ordered the pig, asked if he could change the weather if it didn’t turn out the way he wanted, told him we’d have a good time no matter the weather unless he acted badly and made sure we didn’t and reminded him the forecast often isn’t accurate one day to the next let alone 5 days in our neck of the woods. I assured him I planned to enjoy myself he could whine if he wanted but not out loud and definitely not around me. We ate a quiet supper and then I departed for scrap booking class - probably saved his life I told the other participants. I got four pages of the house construction done so perhaps I need to clear the air before I head out as it makes me more creative.

This morning didn’t begin in a promising way as there was the usual frantic dash for work by baby daughter followed by a 7:30 a.m. cell phone conversation about boats, quota etc. with the fisherman who lost his last week conducted from the bedroom by the life partner. So, not only was I up early but I got to make breakfast for the landscape designer. Hmm. What is wrong with this picture?

He makes his way out to begin running cement. As he’s getting started he asks if I have a bucket? Yep I do, so I head back to the house to get it, along the way I clear the breakfast dishes, load the dishwasher, and open the windows. When I call out to see if His Nibs still needs the bucket he says “I wanted it about 15 minutes ago” to which I reply “if you wanted it so badly you should’ve been more organized and thought of it first”. Memo to self, this is retirement simulation to make sure you don’t feel badly for not being able to!

So in between being a laborer assistant for mixing cement, shoveling gravel and other glamorous jobs the positive outcome is that we now have our beautiful new mailbox which the kids gave us for Christmas installed at the head of our driveway on an aluminum post, mounted in a deep hole filled with concrete. As the installer said “just let that plow driver try to get that this winter and he’ll know it” as our old one was a favorite target last snow season.

I have a blister from raking the grass clippings. This afternoon I supervised the daughter’s boyfriend mowing the lawn at the old house and he did a very thorough and careful job. I was beginning to think that the daughter was being a bit harsh when she said he’d never mowed or done anything like that before. But as I stood talking to a friend who pulled up in her car on the side of the road as he was finished mowing and began whipper snipping I watched as he very methodically cut all the tiger lilies and sedum completely off from around the parking area. As I told the husband about it later I said “they will grow back” to which he replied “but not this year”. Sigh.

It had finally cooled down after supper enough to walk the dog and we headed out to pick blueberries. She is not a good helper, she tried to eat them right out of the bucket when I wasn’t looking and get to all the good bushes first - kind of like taking the kids when they were small. I managed to get enough to make the now cool blueberry buckle so I’m off to bed. Too much relaxation - I can’t take it.