Action!Day

Has been declared to be tomorrow. My dad is coming up and is going to direct us as we put up gutters (during Action!Month in May, we tore the old rusty leaky gutter off the front of the house and bought 497,003 bits of white plastic guttering from Lowes Hardware, then took 497,003 bits of white plastic guttering back to Lowes and exchanged them for 56,399 bits of brown galvanized steel guttering. We didn’t need as many bits since Baker B had gravely overestimated how many bits were strictly necessary). Daddy is also going to bring his presser washer so we can pressure wash the house and the deck, as a preliminary step to actually painting. Well, staining. Both look really really really bad. He is hopefully also going to direct me in repairing our ceiling fan light in the livingroom, which quit working quite some time ago, leaving us with a very very dark livingroom. I thought I could do it after helping him fix the light in one of his ceiling fans, and I took it all apart, but it was… weird and different than his. There were several other things we need help with, but that’s all I can remember, and probably all that will get done. I don’t think pressure washing is on the agenda- he’s leaving it for us so we can do it during a rare non-rainy period that will be long enough to include painting/staining. Which will probably occur sometime in the 83’d century.

So we’ve been cleaning house this evening. Daddy initially was going to bring his buddy George, but sadly George could not come. Neither could my brother. So he’s bringing his BFF, Barbara. I was not too concerned about George or my brother seeing our messy disorganized nasty house, but the BFF has inspired some panic-cleaning. She’s only been up to visit once, and that was right after I had my hysterectomy, and I could be forgiven a messy house. Now I have no excuse. Well, other than that I’m a messy disorganized person who would rather do about ten zillion other things than clean the house.

But it’s not too bad. I think Baker B and I have been doing a slightly better job with our housekeeping chores, and although it would never win any Good Housekeeping Seals of Approval, it did not take us too long to arrive at the "not visibly filthy" stage. And it’s not like I really need to impress the BFF. There’s just something much more serious about a parent-and-aunt-age female visiting than, oh, George or my brother visiting. Incidentally, I’ve known the BFF all my life; she grew up a few houses away from my dad and his family, and was originally his sister’s BFF. So they have been neighbors for over 80 years and have plenty of conversational topics, and I’m very very glad he’s got someone to hang out with. 

The other exciting thing to report is that the Outback has a new home! Well, in the sense that although it’s still sitting in our driveway, cash was exchanged and it will be departing for its new home early next week. We sold it to a young guy who lives in Spruce Pine, a pretty little town south of here where it is a mystery how anyone can survive as there is no visible means of making a living. He needed a car and we needed to get rid of a car, so that worked out very well. He brought his own mechanic to look it over. I’d love to know where you get a traveling mechanic – I could use one of those. The traveling mechanic was a very nice guy too, and got the car running within about thirty seconds. (The big problem is that the transmission is on its way out. The less big problem was that the battery died, and when Baker B took it out and had it charged, the cable broke as he was putting it back in. Leaving it unmovable and in our neighbor’s parking spot because we had put it there where our OTHER neighbor, State Senator For The Dark Side and father of the Perpetually Screaming Children,  put up a basketball goal right behind our cars, of all things, and I said IF THEY HIT OUR NEW CAR WITH A BASKETBALL I WILL FUCKING KILL THEM!!!!! so Baker B arranged the Subaru so that it would block any stray basketballs by parking it  sideways in the occasional-summer-weekend neighbor’s spot— then it died)

Where was I?!? Well, whatever, the car is sold and I don’t have to deal with any more creepy Craig’s List emails, and we at least got the price of the brakework we just had done. 

And now I am falling asleep over my keyboard (as is everyone else by now, I don’t doubt) so I will wind this up.