Week 17 - Last Minute Guest

I'm happy to report that not only did the purging continue but my productivity was up a notch. A BIG notch.

On Monday I headed to the country southeast of Lincoln over lunch to pick up my fireplace tools. Then I dropped off all the electronics when I left work. The students who helped unload my car were so astonished by my ancient Mac that they took their picture with it. I'm sure it was older than they were. Gone is good! I ran home for a quick supper and then went to knitting. What a great start to the week.

I had a super busy day on Tuesday with a meeting from 9:00-noon, thrifting over lunch and then I trained at 2:00 so the day flew. With my newly empty car, it was time to get a new wheel barrow. I was looking for one that was already put together and was willing to pay extra for that so had called around. I went  to the new Bomgaar's in Wahoo on the way home and got a big one with a rubber bucket so it won't rust. As soon as I got it out of the trunk, I started emptying pots into it, which went a long way towards cleaning up the driveway. And then I loaded up the 3 bikes. I was going to be doing a lot of loading and unloading my trunk this week.

I dropped the 3 bikes at the Peoples City Mission over lunch on Wednesday and then headed back to Goodwill. I'd seen a big deco style wardrobe that I thought would be perfect for yarn storage in my front room. It was $80 but with my UNL ID on Wednesdays, I get 20% off. I bought it then measured it and was happy to see that it would fit in my car. Love my Honda! They loaded it up and I was back to work in an hour. Anne and I booked our plane tickets to England in September (for the Iceland knitting cruise) and got round trip Chicago to Heathrow for <$500. Such a deal! And we'd be using points for the Chicago leg. I went to swimming feeling great.

I trained again on Thursday and then headed straight home to unload my new wardrobe. I backed up to the front step and was able to get the legs onto the step but the wardrobe was too heavy for me to lift. I went next door, where my neighbors were clearly home, and knocked on the door to ask for Devin's help. The dog went nuts when I rang the bell but no one came to the door. Seriously? I got into the car and tried to lever it out using my legs but failed so went across the street to another neighbor with a teenaged boy. No answer. What? When I went back to my door, I could hear that the dog was now outside so clearly the first neighbors I'd tried were home. I peaked up their driveway and Devin was there. He came over and it took ~3 minutes to get it out of the car and into my front room. When I was done, the 2nd neighbor came over with his son to ask why I'd knocked. He had been in the shower and apparently his teenager was unable/unwilling to answer the door.

What is wrong with people? I'm their neighbor, not some salesman or Jehovah's Witness. This just seems like a symptom of some greater malaise that's affecting this country. Don't get me started! So disappointed though. I sat down for another Cheerios dinner - my 3rd of the week. That's what happens when I don't cook on the weekend. Oh well. I'll take the productivity over nutrition any day.

Here's another rant about neighbors - one of mine has a car alarm. In Wahoo, Nebraska, where I doubt a car has been stolen in decades. And said alarm goes off in the middle of the night ALL THE TIME! So I went to bed early on Thursday to get a good night's sleep because Friday was going to be a LONG day. Well, at 11:00 pm, the alarm goes off and wakes me up right after I'd fallen asleep. I was determined to figure out which idiot neighbor had the alarm so ran to the window to open the shade but it got tangled in one of my African violets, knocking it over. So not only was I awake but was sweeping up potting soil. I was so pissed that I had to take a shower to cool down and then had to read before I fell asleep again. Grrr.....

Friday was a LONG day. I was working in the morning but taking the afternoon off for Kate's celebration of life ceremony. She had died in February but our horrible winter weather forced them to postpone the service. After a nice lunch of ribs at Red Fox with Layton, I ran a couple of errands, picked up a Frapuccino and headed to Antelope Park. It was a lovely celebration with a huge turnout. Since Anne wasn't there, I was elected to share memories for the water aerobics crew, which was hard but I got through it. Feeling down, I headed directly to Spring Affair.

I have been volunteering at Spring Affair for 20 years and have always been a plant informant. Helping people decide on plants is my bliss and this event is a highlight of my year. But this year, all the plant informant spots were taken so I was writing tickets. Yup, me, a pen and a receipt pad - no plant knowledge required for this. I was bummed and had considered dropping out but didn't. The volunteer pre-sale was at 4:00 but I was not feeling it so grabbed 4 random semi-shade plants and checked out so Lorri and I could grab a quick dinner at HyVee. With a belly full of salad, we were back at 5:45 for orientation. 

I was paired with a woman who has been a ticket writer for years and she did most of the work. She sorted and counted people's plants while I wrote the tickets. There was tons of down time at the start of the sale so I pulled my knitting out of my pocket and got lots done on a new sock while waiting for customers. I didn't hate the night, which was good. I got home at 10:00. Tired!

My friend Susan had emailed late in the week that she was coming to town for Spring Affair and without missing a beat, I'd offered for her to stay at my house. She'd emailed that she would stay with another friend on Friday night but at my house Saturday AND Sunday! I hadn't been online since the morning but got home and still hadn't received any email from Susan. WTF! I emailed her exactly that and she immediately called. While I don't need to clean for Susan (and I'd cleaned the previous weekend), I had some neatizing to do and needed to know when she'd arrive. We made tentative plans to meet mid-afternoon at a nursery between Wahoo and Lincoln and I went to bed exhausted.

Unfortunately I was on autopilot when I went to bed and set my alarm. 5:50 was a rude awakening on a Saturday. Damn! And I'm not one who can fall asleep again so I got up for an early breakfast so I could start neatizing. My morning was non-stop, even when I tried to stop. I was on the phone with Carolyn when Eileen skyped me so I hung up and went to that but then the phone rang and not knowing if it was Susan, I hung up with Eileen and picked that call up. It was Lorri who had had a change in plans so wanted to go to the nursery earlier. I called Susan and her day was not going as planned so Lorri and I headed to From the Ground Up later morning and Susan would go on her way to my house later.

Lorri and I had fun buying plants and I grabbed a quick lunch when I got home then finished picking up the house. Susan arrived in time for tea and cookies and we chatted the day away. With few options for dinner in Wahoo, I pulled ravioli out of the freezer for dinner and we stayed home. I introduced her to The Detectorists on Acorn and before we knew it, it was bedtime. Susan had told me she was going to Lincoln at 3:00 to hang with friends there, which would give me a few hours to get chores done in the afternoon. But when I was wide awake in the wee hours, I couldn't wrap my head around why she would come back to Wahoo to sleep Sunday night, especially because I had to work Monday so would be gone before she got up. Oh well. I fell back to sleep eventually and slept past 8:00. I needed it.

Lorri was coming over for lunch after church since she'd missed seeing Susan on Saturday so we had toast for breakfast to leave room for lunch. We watched CBS Sunday Morning and at some point Susan clued me in that she would NOT be sleeping at my house that night but would stay in Lincoln. This was good news because it would give me plenty of time to get ready for the week. We chatted until it was time to cook. I made corn chowder, corn muffins and brownies for lunch, finishing just as Lorri walked in. We enjoy lunch and catching up and Susan left just after Lorri. 

While it had been fun to see her, I was glad to have some free time. Free except for the 3 loads of laundry and cooking for the week. I did manage to get some down time in between chores, enough that I wasn't completely drained by the end of the day. I'll be keeping next weekend free and clear for sure and hopefully the weather will cooperate. At least my lost weekend hadn't had gardening weather. : )