(re-run)
When I visit my beach house, it’s usually for two nights. One night is a no-go. It’s too much work to pack up and take the dogs, driving down one day and driving back the next. Every now and then I get an extra third night. That seems to be the difference between getting the usual stuff done and getting the extra stuff done.
I don’t get to town until 1:00 p.m. or so on Day One. By the time I do yard work (picking up the pinecones so the dogs don’t try to eat them), fix lunch and haul everything inside, I reward myself and run to a couple of thrift stores. Then I come back, work on some inside project, turn on the news and settle into my evening routine of reading, writing, watching basic TV (eight channels!) and going to bed by 10:00 or so (I’m usually beat).
The second day I either do more yard work or do my Zumba class on Zoom. Then I take the big dog to the beach for her walk and come back and play ball in the yard with the medium crazy dog.
On the third day (today) my neighbor came over to hang two new shop lights in the dark garage, fix my gate, and look at the roof repair in progress. While he did that, I sorted button-down shirts to donate from my pioneer outfit inventory that has been sitting in my garage for almost four years. The pandemic killed school field trips, which killed my business. Etsy got greedy and changed its policies in the summer of 2017, so I got out of there, and my sales dropped drastically.
I was able to find a private Catholic school supported by a thrift store. The thrift store said yes to my offer of 100 boys’ button-down shirts. I got them bagged up and ready to go by 3:00 p.m. I fed the dogs and then headed out to find the thrift store called Branches.
I punched the address into my GPS, and the crazy lady voice took me down weird side streets to get me to 480 Webster Street. I gave the people the shirts and then found Bank of America to get enough cash to pay my neighbor for his three hours of work.
Meanwhile, I had put a load of white shirts in the washer to freshen them up after four years of storage. I was only able to dry half the load at a time, then fold them and put in the other half. There was also yard stuff and garage stuff to put away, including the big ladder that my neighbor had used to check on the roof.
The roofers showed up to put on the second coat of waterproofing (flat roof), and I paid my neighbor. Then I came inside and framed a few pictures that I had matched up with frames this morning.
It was a crazy busy day, but a good one.
Oh, and I saw this hawk, biggest one ever.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 