Monday, May 27, 2013

Catching Up, Fixing Up and Laying Down

It's a new day in Frog Pond Holler, day four of my five day weekend. I still haven't fixed the trailer skirting, I've been riding around with four sheets of the stuff in the back of my truck for a couple of weeks. I have, however, been catching up on a crap load of laundry. When the pipes were stuffed, I washed small loads in a storage tub in the bathtub, which works fine, but carrying the bucket of water to the back door to dump after each "cycle" is rough on an old woman's back. As a result, there are mounds of laundry everywhere. I am making progress. I can see the bathroom floor peeking through.

There are also several piles of dishes in various stages of mold growth throughout the kitchen. I'm pretty sure there's shit growing in there that rivals anything science has yet to discover. We did wash dishes during the plumbing constipation, but again, hauling both wash water and rinse water to the back door is a tedious affair, so either the dishwasher (with lots of bleach to kill that shit) or the clothes washer (also with lots of bleach and vinegar to kill smells) have been running non-stop.

I moved my bed Thursday night after work, pushing it against the wall. It partially blocks the entry way to the bathroom, but there's still room to pass. It's a wide door way, there were double doors originally but Ma took them down and I have no idea what happened to them. I had put off moving the bed for a while, telling myself that someday I'd share the bed with someone besides three dogs and a cat, but the reality is that for now, I don't, and I feel more secure being able to curl up against the wall and I'm less likely to push Yoda off into the floor in the middle of the night. This gives me more room for my craft crap and my roll top desk for the jammie job. I can always move it back later.

Moving the bed uncovered piles of assorted goodies that the critters, probably Yoda, had hidden underneath. I haven't cleaned that mess up yet.

Meanwhile, out in the yard, The Amazon and I set out two giant lavender bushes someone she works with gave us. They look kinda rough at the moment, I think once they get settled in good I'll cut them all the way back and let them start over. I need to get some more dirt, once we picked all the fricken boulders out of the hole there wasn't enough dirt left to fill them back in. My yard was a creek bed at some point a couple hundred years ago so we have lots of rocks.

I bought some flowers to fill my empty hanging basket, but they're waiting until I can buy dirt. I also set out a pot of sage by the steps to ward off evil from entering the house (don't judge me, I'm desperate.) I covered the hard-to-mow spot between the steps and the edge of the porch with plastic. I'll cover it with some landscape gravel which I'll get when I go to get dirt. Eventually I plan to put a big ass planter there with some goldfish. I've wanted a pond, but I didn't want to run a cord for the pump. I found a small solar pond fountain online for about $30 that should work.

The Amazon was feeling froggy and helped mow the grass and move the wood pile. I've been on her case to go for a physical for a couple of years now. She's felt pretty shitty for some time and at the ripe old age of 28 she'd never been for... ya know.. a lady physical. I kept telling that she needed to get herself checked. Ain't no telling what's going on in there. I played on her fear and told her she might be harboring three uterus' in there or somechit. I started calling her Triuterops.

And yes, she will be horrified by my discussing her girlie bits on the the innerwebs. I've probably scarred her psyche so many times at this point, it won't matter.

She got her first lab results back earlier this week and was started on thyroid drugs. She's been full of piss and vinegar ever since.

Also this weekend, I set out an elephant ear bulb. I had them in the flower bed before, but Ma had Aunt Moses mow them down, along with most of my bed. She hated when I planted stuff in the yard. I don't know why, she never went out there.

While planting the one bulb, which I know from experience will grow and spread like a mother effer, I pushed the shovel in the ground, hit a bit of brick from the foundation of Granny's old house which caused the shovel to go a little to the side and toss me face first into the hostas. If there had been a slithery thing hiding in there, T.A. would have had to just dig a bigger hole and bury me right there. I used the shovel to get up and got tossed back on my ass.

Right in the front yard, on the state highway with bumper to bumper traffic heading to the campground.

We're going to work on the grass a little more today, wash more clothes, maybe paint the bare wood around the bottom of the porch and get the worst of the skirting fixed.

Baby steps.

I've got one more day off. I have to go to the nursing home for Ma's quarterly evaluation thingie. I was late with the check again this month. When I called to tell the money lady there, she got kinda snotty and said, "I think I'm just going to arrange for her check to come here, the other $30 can go in her spending account."

She can do that? I was like, "Could you? It would make my life a lot easier." She said it like I was going wild spending Ma's check.

Ho.

Anywho, I'd better get back to it. Maybe after this episode of Late Night goes off. And I have one more cup of coffee.

Ya'll have a good one. Later Taters!!!

 

2 comments:

tiff said...

That's a lot to take care of, but thank goodness you have real running water again. What a relief!

BetteJo said...

How'd your pipes get fixed? I was waiting on a good story for that. And glad the TA finally went to the doc. Damn kids!