It's About Time...

.....that I got a few things done around the house. Seriously, I'm getting lazier and lazier in my old age, so when I woke up at 5:30 yesterday morning I determined that, for at least that day, to be productive.

I don't know about you but I can be highly influenced by reading something in a magazine. Not to belabor the point because I've written about it before, but I really find the articles in Good Housekeeping to be informative. While eating my breakfast I finished reading this horrible account of a 17 year old California girl who died from alcohol poisoning after drinking 15 shots of vodka. Vodka, I'm convinced, is not something anyone should drink regularly. Are you listening David and Bill? Vodka, unlike say gin, has no taste, thus it is so much easier to consume too much. Every now and again I'll have a martini made with gin. The strong taste of gin requires sipping, not guzzling. I never want a second one.

Well now, that wasn't at all what I'd planned to write, but there it is. What spurred my action was another article about spring cleaning and how if you do your least favorite task first thing in the morning you might just be energized to do more. Right on.

Take a look at this refrigerator:

All done while my banana nut bread was baking! I brought the outdoor garbage can in the kitchen and tossed old, mostly condiments, out with abandon. Old Chinese mustard--gone! Ancient salad dressings--gone! Chili sauce--trashed. You get the picture.

Just getting that project done spurred other ones. I'm not sure how it happened, maybe it was the rain, but somehow during the tree incident, sap got all over the house, including the white windowsills and shutters. I couldn't find the blue paint to fix the shutters, however, I did re-paint the windowsills and the house itself, covering up all the rusty colored stains. It looked so good I thought while I have the paint brush out, let's see what else I can make look better.

The front porch, as it turns out, is what I attempted to refresh next. Oh how I wish I could have found that blue paint to repaint the plant shelf. Not letting this deter me, I at least scrubbed it, as well as the deck and chairs. The windowsill is repainted as well. It sure doesn't look perfect, but it looks much better. With all the tree droppings it is hard to keep it looking fresh. For sure.

There was no stopping me now! If you know how tiny our shower is this will make you laugh. I brought a smallish ladder into the bathroom to clean the walls and ceiling! Although it was a tight fit opening the ladder in the shower, it was just big enough. Job done.

Meanwhile there were men out front digging a giant hole and a smaller one in the front yard. Here's what they did. They blasted something in between the holes which allowed them to run a pipe and our power underground. They worked all day on this project. I did not envy the poor men digging that hole through all the tree roots. Bless their hearts. They returned this morning to finish things up.

Lunch time rolled around and for once I was slightly hungry what with all that activity. I took advantage of the lovely weather, eating my egg salad sandwich by the pool. Have I told you how warm the pool water is already. Gosh, it seems like it won't be long until you'll be reading out us enjoying the new pool. As well, I wrote about it last week, all the lovely red in the back yard, well, it keeps getting better. After you've lived with an all green back yard for fourteen years you appreciate color all the more. My hibiscus plants are blooming like crazy. While I was eating they caught my eye and you can guess what happened next. Clever reader that you are you know that I began thinking of clever ways to show the little beauties, which sadly only last a day.

Truthfully, I had to swipe one of these from Corrine's lovely, bloom filled plant. She'll never miss it. Later on, while having a marathon phone conversation with Nancy I excused myself for a few minutes. I took this over to Angela's house to welcome her mother to Florida.

Her mother was visiting for the first time since Angela and Matt married three years ago. After meeting her last evening, I can't say that she was too impressed with my hibiscus arrangement.

That last sentence was written on Friday morning because I ended up being too busy yesterday to finish it when I got home from my hair appointment. That little adventure will be chronicled in the next exciting installment of "Camera Crazy." Stay tuned....