Can't Cut the Rope

My friend, Susan, is moving.  Yesterday, I took my truck to her house to help her deliver a few items she was giving away.  She had four young men helping to load and unload.  A huge shelf was loaded onto my truck.  I had rope in the truck for tying items down.  The truck always has rope in the bed.  One of the young men tied a knot so tight that it was almost impossible to untie.  It was suggested that the rope be cut and I nearly hyperventilated.

"It's just rope.  Cut it."
Then, sensing my reluctance (major understatement),
" I'll buy you new rope."
They had no idea how close I was to passing out!

My Latest Dream House

It's no secret to my friends and family that I have dreams of moving to a smaller house in a less secluded location in a few years.   It's fun to browse house plans and imagine myself in them one day.  Here's one I came across recently thats seems nice.  It's a little larger than I want.

NO MORE Latex-Backed Rugs!

A few months ago, I put a latex-backed rug on the screened porch deck, right by the door.    I moved everything off the porch earlier this week for the deck to be pressure washed.  The hardest thing to move was a stupid rug.  It had a rubber backing, which had stuck like super glue to the porch.  I tried scraping the latex off and it wouldn't budge.  I crossed my fingers that the pressure washing would be able to remove it.  Nope.  It didn't do a thing.  ^%$#@!     I need to get all that mess off within the next week because all my porches are scheduled for staining and painting.

Getting Ready for Major Porch TLC

This was long past due!  This month, I'm having my house pressure washed and getting the porch stained and painted.  It has been looking terrible.  I'm also getting an underpinning on the house.  I'll post more about that once it's done.

The last few weeks, I have been cutting back all the bushes around the house.  I had to work around two bird nests with babies.  I didn't disturb either oil the babies had flown away. I had let my bushes grow fairly large, which I didn't like, just so it would block the view under the porch.  Now that I'll have an underpinning, I can keep the bushes small.  I also wanted to cut everything back so it'll be easier for everyone to work on the porch.

This week I needed to get everything off the porch for the pressure washer.  Understand - my porch is a wrap around - 3 sides.  It's big.  I liked big porches until I priced having it stained and painted.  I had it decorated.  It didn't feel like too much until I had to move it all off.  I can tell you this, I won't be putting all that stuff back.  It's time for a purge!

3-Sided Wrap Around Porch

A Two-Susan Day

Today was a Two-Susans-Day.  It started with a memorial service.

The first Susan was Susan T  and it was her memorial service I attended.  I spent a great deal of time around her back in the 80's.  There was a group of us who hung out at The Elks Club pool practically every day one or two summers.   Looking back we were an unlikely group.  We had quite an age range and we certainly had a lot of different personalities.  I'm really not sure how much we all had in common, but somehow we formed a close connection that remained over the years even though many of us seldom see the others.  Susan was a very important part of that group.  So was Ruth Adamek, who passed away a few years ago.  Those two ladies knew how to be happy.

Happy people know connecting with friends and family is the most important thing and if you can do it with a sense of fun and joy and love, then you'll truly have a wonderful life, no matter what comes your way.  Susan and Ruth were so full of joy... always.  Wherever they were was sure to be a happy place.  The Elks Club pool was an incredibly happy place to be back then.

Late this afternoon I kept thinking about how Susan T lived and suddenly sitting at home relaxing by myself seemed completely wrong. I am incredibly lucky to have a bunch of great friends.  I'm thinking I'd like to start seeing them more often. Ordinarily, I like to do my playing and running around during the day, but even though it was late in the day, I picked up the phone and called Susan H. She's my YES Friend.  If she has spare time, she will always say yes to a friend.  She's always ready for fun.  It was perfect timing. She had time to spare and was close by. We were able to fit in a fabulous ride in her new paddle boat, a thrown together dinner and a fun movie.

Sometimes hanging out with a good friend is the most important thing you can do.  Susan T would agree.