Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from May, 2015 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 7:24 am on May 9, 2015 Permalink  

  What a great day. Sunshine always makes everything work out oh so well. The winter quilt is off the bed, and out to the clothesline it went. At the end of a busy day, my arms are weary. Dennis helped by taking the quilt off of the clothesline in the late afternoon, and who could resist snuffling in all that fresh air scent. No matter how hard companies try to replicate the fresh air scent in their products . . . it just isn’t going to happen.

  Of course, when the bedding is switched out, it leads to a whole other ball of wax, or should I say a whole other ball of dust bunnies. I admit, I did skimp. I did not vacuum off the bottom of the inner spring unit. Many of you would ask “Why put yourself to more work, how much lint could you possible find as lint falls down and that would put it on the floor?” Here is the rest of the story. In times past, Grandson Nicholas has always loved playing on the bed that is in the west porch. It’s a room of total windows: eight to be precise. Nicholas had played with marbles and some decided to roll under the bed. When Nicholas reappeared with marbles in hand, he also had a head of lint fuzz. It was a bit funny, but it was also embarrassing. I knew without a doubt, my mom Lena was rolling her eyes from the great beyond. Lena did not skimp. Her and my dad’s mantra was “You don’t have time to do it right, but you always have time to do it over.”

  I have thought this through: the deal is . . . we keep Nicholas from going underneath the bed until such time that I step up to the plate and do it the right, Lena way.

   
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  Noreen 6:09 am on May 8, 2015 Permalink  

  We are enjoying the rain even if it is at a trickle at a time. For most of the day the purple clouds have hugged us much like a flannel sheet. The grass doesn’t need much encouragement in the way of rain and did beckon Dennis today. He decided that to begin mowing more than once a week would send the wrong message for the rest of the mowing season.

   
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  Noreen 7:22 am on May 7, 2015 Permalink  

  Somebody poked the clouds and we received a wonder 1/2 inch of rain. The perennials seem to have popped out of the soil.

   
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  Noreen 5:09 am on May 6, 2015 Permalink  

  I would love to get out my stepladder, and be brave enough and steady enough to stand on the very top step and poke holes in those stinking clouds that won’t let the rain come out. Yeah, well . . . in my dreams.

   
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  Noreen 5:53 am on May 5, 2015 Permalink  

  What a great day to be outside. The question of the day: whose idea was it 25 years ago to outline the flower gardens with bricks? We needed to make it easier to till the gardens and also to mow up to the edges. It was amazing how much heavier and larger the “old time” bricks were in comparison to the terracotta colored newer ones. With just the right clash the newer ones would break or chip. I can’t imagine what it would take to break the older ones in half or to even chip them. My hands had all they could do to span the width of the old ones. We stacked them neatly against the railroad ties that are the foundation of the potting shed. When the time comes to give the potting shed a new coat of paint, we sure do not want to be moving these behemoth bricks another time and Dennis did not want them stacked against the sheeting of the potting shed.

  Our Fleet and Farm wheelbarrow, that was a special years ago for $19.99, would really have its frame twisted if more than 20 of the heavier bricks were loaded into it at one time. The far east flower garden will have to wait to be de-bricked, as Dennis and I need to rest up a bit. The plan is to take the pickup to the far east bed: load them all at one time and haul them home with one trip.

  Yup, the older ones on Stauffer made great strides today in keeping the gardening a bit easier to manage. There was no counting the volunteer maple seedlings that thought the space between the bricks was up for grabs.

   
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  Noreen 6:25 am on May 3, 2015 Permalink  

  People that tell us they are bored in their homes and are looking for something up in the clubs . . . Dennis and I shake our heads. Nothing says loving than washing off the white siding after a winter of horrific winds that left dust and dirt that ran like muddy rivers down the sides of the home when hit with soapy water. Lots of rinsing and it looks as good as new. The down side is that right now the windows on the house are hard to look through with all the water spots. Did I hurry to start the house windows? No.

  I preferred to get the sets of patio doors washed on the garage porch as well as cleaning the carpet. We know where our priorities lie. We spend more time outside, and when we are in the house, it’s dark and time to go to bed. The porch is the perfect spot to take some rocking chair time when a break is called for from the gardening or the mowing of our acre.

  That acre did get mowed today. I am the pusher with the front yard. The rider has too large of a swathe and the grass looks uneven. I need to keep my hand in the mowing as it is great exercise for every aspect of the ole body. I will admit that our trimmer is a bit heavy to lug around behind Dennis on the remaining yard. Would I have to do trimming . . . no, but we do enjoy a yard that is tidy.

  For all that we enjoy outside, there is no time for boredom . . . thankfulness . . . yes, when we can shower up and sit on the patios and enjoy it all until it is time to do it all over again.

   
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  Noreen 3:29 am on April 27, 2015 Permalink  

  A sunny day that brought warmth with it. Hopefully, this could be a run of more of these sunny warm days. Dennis and I kept moving our spots for enjoying coffee by the rising of the sun as it shone through the trees. We were lulled by morning doves cooing in the distance.

  We didn’t set out to have a list of yard work, but by the late morning, we had managed to trim some shrubs as well as low-hanging branches of the maple tree. I raked Black Walnuts’ spears and bits of branches from the gardens to fill the bottom of the neighbor’s burning pit. Dennis cut up the trimmings and branches to fill the pit and the fire cleaned everything up, ready for yard work another day. We always seem to find something that needs tending on our acreage.

  The treat at noon was a twelve inch sea food sub from Subway. It was a very generous helping of the goodies. We enjoyed half of it at noon and the remainder will bail me out as to what to make for supper. Priceless.

  As I mentioned, we very rarely find that we have nothing to do. It is possible we make busy work where others wouldn’t see it or do it. Dennis looked over the yard and deemed that it was a great place to hang out for the entire summer season. I agreed wholeheartedly.

   
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  Noreen 5:41 am on April 25, 2015 Permalink  

  A day of blustery high winds but not much measurable rain. Small branches have fallen from the Maple tree and are just large enough to call for a “pick-up” day. I consider us fortunate as it is not unusual to see around town, fairly large trees that have caused damage as they either fell in total or split during the high winds of the last weeks. I did track down several small plastic tables that took flight. I forget that we get several false spring starts every year.

   
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  Noreen 7:10 am on April 23, 2015 Permalink  

  Spent the afternoon with an individual that I have known for several decades. She has seen the very best of me and the very worst of me. In the late 1990s she came to me in the Watonwan County Assessor’s Office seeking information about a job posting. She sat in the chair opposite from me in a long tweed coat with a little black hat, complete with a veil perched upon her black hair. Renee got the position as my assessment clerk.

  I am the fortunate one; I am retired. Renee is twenty years younger than me and has two children in high school. Way back when, her oldest child, Joe, was in kindergarten and now has his master’s degree and is a father of two little boys.

  Employer and employee, not always the friendliest relationship to get the job done that was at hand. Somehow, Renee and I have weathered all the years and all the storms. I can empathize with her as perhaps no one else can as she is in the same department, but with more responsibilities than ever before.

  It was an afternoon to share, to laugh, and to vent with the promise of getting together again some time.

   
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  Noreen 5:27 am on April 21, 2015 Permalink  

  I half expected to see ice on the Koi pond this morning. A blustery 39 degrees is quite the reality check as we headed to the garage with coffee in tow. I keep forgetting that we are only in the third week of April.

  The epileptic will be having two trucks in town on Thursday to pick up gently-used clothing and light household items. The items are taken to the Savers stores and I believe the one nearest us is in Rochester. The collected items are stocked and resold. The funds are used for the Disabled American Veterans. The DAV also has a drop off site in New Ulm, but this curbside service in St. James can’t be beat. Dennis and I used the earlier morning hours and went through our home. We will have a nice sized donation for them.

  In our home, Mondays represent laundry day and also a trip to the Super 8 pool to limber the body. Being 5 minutes away from the pool, it takes a pretty good excuse to pass on the workout. When we got home and had a bite to eat, both of us headed for our favorite chairs to take in the noon news on the television. It was a combination of being weary from a good workout at the pool, the gray skies darkening the house and the wild winds whistling through the huge evergreen right outside the northwest corner of the house that prompted both of us to check our eyelids for cracks.

  With us snuggled into our favorite blankets, the naps were deep and sweet.