Time Warp

EVENTS

1. April 26 was the date of the AuSauble Expo Geocaching event in Grayling. We got there early and had a chance to talk to lots of people - some more talkative than others! (inside joke) Tim and Susie, Jerry and Lydia were at our table and provided the really enjoyable conversations! Dennis and Josh were nice enough to demo the new Oregon Garmin for us. Everything these days looks like an iPhone to me. We met some new cachers from T.C . We never went to the Expo part. Somebody had collapsed over there and an ambulance was arriving so it seemed like a good time to leave.

2.On May 3rd I went to Melanie's baby shower. She looks wonderful - the baby is due in July. It was great fun to see everybody. I sat at the Hardy family table - Barb, Shelly, Evie, etc. - we missed Sharon and Melissa. The games were fun - baby gift bingo and scrapbook pages! The food was spectacular and the buffet table was very attractive. Melanie got stacks and piles of presents. Little Izzy will be the best dressed baby in town - at least for the first 6 months! I enjoyed the whole thing.

YARD WORK

Dick has power washed every wooden surface - it took about 3 days, and he's really feeling it in his hands and right shoulder. He's always eager to do it, and I think that he secretly likes having a project to do outdoors in this nice weather! Next he painted the decks all the way down to the river - that took another couple of days. The deck looks terrific.

He has also cut down trees and hauled load after load of brush down to the brush pile. The snowblower has been taken to the shop for repair, fine tuning, and summerizing. The leaves have all been blown out of the perennial garden and we're planning to use compost for mulch in there. It's fun to watch the perennials poke their heads up into the sunshine.

Yesterday, while I was prepping picnic tables for painting, he slipped into his waders, went into the river and started up the sprinkler system for the coming season.

PROJECTS

1. The tractor project - the tractor that Dick uses for general yard maintenence has bad hydraulics - he says the hydraulics are frozen and he can't raise or lower the hitch, among other things. We looked at a bunch of new tractors, but they cost more than we paid for our first house. Now we're looking at having it repaired and using it for another couple of years.

2. The recliner project - in 1991 we bought 2 swivel recliners for each other as a retirement present. Now we're ready to replace them with a newer model. Waiting for Riverside Resale to come out and look them over and hopefully take them and sell them for us. Actually, I'd be happy if they just carry them out and load them up!

3. The shed project - One thing leads to another. Now that I have a golf cart, I have to have a place to park it. We've found a shed that we really like, and Dick has staked out a spot for it by the turn-around. It has been ordered, but it hasn't been built - and we're waiting for the builder to come out and check the staked-out spot to see if he can place the shed there with his truck and trailer. If all goes well we should have a shed by the end of June.

4. The landscaping project - We've had a couple of landscapers come and look at the front of the house. Our bushes are all overgrown and need to be replaced. We've already seen a plan from one of the landscapers and it looks great. We're past the point of digging out the bushes, transplanting them and then planting the new stuff. Now we look at it as creating jobs! We're so patriotic!

5. The plastic railing project - The railings on the upper deck and the front porch need to be freshened up. Rather than sanding and painting we're thinking of replacing them with the white plastic or vinyl stuff that looks so nice and is very low maintenance. Brown Lumber is coming out tomorrow to check it out.

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Sometimes we wonder how we ever managed to do all of these household maintenance projects when we had three kids, a dog, two cats, and two full time jobs. Right now we have just about as much as we would want to handle!

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Trivia - Jon and Kate plus 8 - does anybody else think that she treats him badly, badly, badly? She is not loving towards him even in front of the cameras. Poor guy has to take her bad mouth every day. She criticizes him, corrects him, makes fun of him repeatedly. What do you think?