Long Weekend

Saturday my friend Alma came over and gave me some yard lessons. She helped me pull weeds, determine what was weeds, what to do... she's going to let me know when she can do it and I'll buy Roundup and she'll spray everything. The side of the house by the Tile Room, however, needs professional help. She is going to call her yard man to see if he can do it for me. It'll be worth it. I will also have him kill the stumps since it needs more help than just me.

In any case the kitchen side of the house and the back looks good. Once the weeds are sprayed Alma tells me we'll be OK until next spring and then she'll help me again. I would be lost without her knowledge. She is helping me fix things and figure out what to do. Helps to have a friend who has built houses. :)

It's warm and I am so unambitious. I haven't done anything with yarn (except buy some) over the long weekend. I will force myself today.

I am heading into a busy period. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment. Thursday I have a meeting. On Saturday Sara is coming with her boyfriend's daughter to clean up the yard. It's nowhere near as bad as it was so it shouldn't take much time. And also Saturday is a big birthday party for Ruth, Susan's mom. That will be crowded. I will have to arrive early, I think to have a place to park.

And then the night of the 13th I drive to the Tomato to pick up Ally and Matt. They won't be here anywhere near long enough but I guess a day and a half is better than nothing. Hopefully I can go for Christmas. My schedule calls for it anyway. And a vacation in October.

I spent a half hour this morning trying to hang TWO pictures! One I had to change the frame because the glass broke in the move. I had a picture in the right size frame that I really didn't want to put up so I took it out and used the frame for the one I did want to hang. No problem. The problem came when I looked and saw that I needed to move another one up a bit higher (and probably STILL needs to go higher!). The hanger fell out. It would be just so much easier if the darn manufacturers would put the hangers on the frames BEFORE they sell them. I can't tell you how even with my smaller hands and fingers how awful and terrible it is to try to get those darn tiny, tiny nails into the tooth-like hanger and onto the frame. My left thumb will probably be black and blue.

There are things I'd like to get done before Ally and Matt get here but we'll see. Today I already have the laundry going. I did it Friday but today if I can get some of it done ahead of time that will help for the weekend. I have other pictures I probably should hang but I want them to be even and that's hard to do alone.

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Yesterday was a bit depressing for me. My Grampy Schafer died July 4, 1971. For some reason I thought I was younger but no, I was 14. And the house burned down in February 1972. Sadly I do not remember much of 1972. It was not a good year. So ages 14 and 15 weren't great for me. If I did not have such a loving and devoted family I'm sure I wouldn't have made it through. My family has never had money - we struggled all the time. I live on a tight budget and even then am not sure I will ever be able to fix what needs to be fixed at the house and am hoping I can squeeze enough to get the house refinanced but those repairs are one month's worth of car payment money, add in the landscaping that must now be done on the other side of the house... but the house is mine. As mom says, money isn't everything but it sure would help sometimes. Anyway, what I wanted to say was we never had money but we always had each other. Today I know I can pick up the phone and call my mother or brother and they will always have time to talk to me or to listen or to just BE there for me. Financially things have always been hard and always will be. But I have emotional support which I need just as much.

I have many acquaintances, people I know, people I work with. I have friends. And I have some friends who are so much more than friends. I have been blessed with a wonderful family, a job I really like and have an aptitude for and I have been "adopted" by a family who truly treats me like family.

So why did yesterday bother me so much? Well, stupidly, I missed the annual showing of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" which I love. Perhaps I will have to buy that on DVD. I watched the Military Channel's "Revolutionary War" marathon and it made me incredibly homesick. Lexington, Concord, Boston. Fort Ticonderoga which I have been to, too. All the places where the war had happened, I had been many, many times. We were history buffs in the family. Vacations were educational as well as fun. And add on the fact that it had been 39 years since my Grampy died and I got way, way too emotional. So I stayed shut up in the house, alone, all day. Today I will finish inside chores and maybe go buy myself some lunch even though I have plenty of food in the house. I need to mail a card and if the dollar store is open I will go see if I can buy a trowel there. I need to hit up yard sales (Susan... are you listening?!?) to see if I can buy some gardening/yard related tools. I don't expect to do a lot of it. But I need to at least keep it going. If I had known that it would get so bad so fast after I had paid $300 to have it done the first time I would have gone at it myself even as much as I hate it. But Alma will keep me focused and on track. I would be lost without her lessons!

So today, at the end of the long weekend, I will finish chores, try to do some crochet or knit work and get ready for a busy month.

Oh yes. One other reason for yesterday's blues - the last day of the month will be the 23rd anniversary of Shannon's death.

July is never an easy month for me. Never.