What Goes Bump in the Night?

Last night, DH is watching the Tennessee-UCLA football game and I am busy adding to my family genealogy, when we hear a huge crash and what sounds like glass? shattering. We each made our way around the interior of the house looking at windows and glassware, cupboards, shelves, etc. and find absolutely nothing. Is there a neat poltergeist in the house?

Not finding anything inside, we decide to venture outside. It's late and quite dark out. There is a streetlight out front at our neighbor to the west, but our tall oak trees pretty much block out that light.

So flashlights in hand we made our way outside, checking the windows in the garage, checking windows from the outside, the deck which has an aluminum table with porcelain tiles on top. None of that has even been touched.

Both of us are really questioning our sanity at this time when we check again in our bonus room (read catch-all storage). There on the floor is a thin metal strip about 2.5 feet long, of the type used in those plastic storage boxes for hanging files. Apparently the tape holding it to the now-folded plastic storage box detached itself and the metal strip ended up on the ceramic floor. So we dropped it to make sure that is what we heard. It had a sound like someone tossing a rock through a window! I sure was glad to find out we did not have a resident poltergeist.

Labor Day

Why do they call a day off from labor, Labor Day? One would think, on Labor Day you would work.

Being "retired" I've considered actually doing something in the lines of work. We have a deck that needs to be prepped for staining, but have decided to wait until after the grass is cut. I have decided to put off painting the dining room table until it cools down a bit. Somehow painting in 85-90 degree weather does not appeal to me. Then there is the artwork and family photos to be hung. Or the crabgrass to rake out - if the weedkiller ever kills it.

So the acutal Labor Day goes something like this:

TL: What do you want to do today?

DH: I don't know. (See this is typical).

TL: Why don't we go look at paint and stain. Sherwin Williams is having a sale.

Segue to SW store. No samples to take home and compare with Olympic samples. No one really able to "sell" us on some deck stain. No one to ask about paint for dining room set. Blah.

Segue to Lowes. Find sample size stains to take home and try on deck. What a neat idea. Of course, on the way home it pours, so probably not going to try today. Then sun comes out and drys up all the rain and I try all three samples on a dry spot under the overhang on the deck. Sample one is too light. Sample three is too brown. Sample two is just right. Hoping lawn guy shows up tomorrow to cut the grass. Then we can move everything off the deck onto the lawn - er crabgrass. DH thinks it is going to take several days to stain the deck. I don't think so. Having single-handedly performed this operation on our deck in Michigan, I know it is but an afernoon's work. I'm sure he'll try to make a mountain out of a mole hill, like he does all our projects. No wonder I do so many of them myself!

Happy Labor-less day!

Asking for Directions

The DH is a great driver, he really is. I say this now and I truly believe it. Most of the time. And he is never averse to asking for directions either.

There have been a couple of instances though, when we have somehow managed to be going the wrong way on a one way street.

The most memorable one was on a trip to visit a relative in western Michigan. My dad, who had been there many times, was giving us directions. He would punctuate his mapping skills by saying "Look at Me" at key spots of his instructions.

The trip time came and was uneventful until we took a turn down one street and ended up traveling the wrong way down a one-way street in traffic.

We laugh about it now, and still blame dad's "Look at me" for our wrong-way excursion.