Wasn't That A Dainty Dish To Set Before The Queen?

Casper is boring me.  Or to be more precise, sitting in front of a computer ten hours a day and then coming home to, as Dean likes to call it, our hotel room, bores me.  After work we take Angus for a walk, eat dinner, clean up, watch TV, go to bed, get up the next day and do it again.  Consequently when we come to Sheridan, where we are this weekend, I’m always looking for something to do.  SOMEthing to do besides watch TV in a half-empty house. That’s why a few weeks ago I decided we should pull off the paneling, get the walls textured and then paint them. I really needed something to DO that didn't involve a remote control or a computer.

We've torn off the paneling.  It's been textured and we've been doing a bit of painting.
 

I really hope soon I will be able to show you the finished project.

We’ve spent the last three weekends up here priming and painting ceilings and walls.  Gosh, I’m beginning to hate painting.  But I hate being bored more.   

Last weekend when we were up here Dean said, “I need to tell you something.”  My heart sank.  “Oh, no, he found out I threw away the dog fur the last time I brushed Angus” I thought. But no.  It was much less traumatic.  He just told me that once we’ve finished with this living-dining room redo, I need to find a project that doesn’t involve him. 

This weekend, as much as I wanted to finish the last bit of painting, I told Dean he could do whatever he wanted to all day long on Friday.  Anything he wanted.  All day.  Because I knew Saturday it was supposed to rain and THEN we could finish painting.  I thought he would spend this gift from me organizing his garage/workshop so he could frame the windows and put on the baseboards in the house so he’d be able to 

create some kind of uniquely Dean object d’art.  But he surprised me by spending about five hours watching You Tube videos to help him figure out how to put together the special fancy chainsaw sharpener he’d purchased last fall.  Too bad he discovered he needs to order a different grinder wheel to fit his baby electric chainsaw but I’m sure those cottonwood branches hanging over the house aren’t going anywhere.

Since it was a warm and gorgeous day I decided to keep myself busy by trimming the potentilla.  By time I’d finished clipping and hauling 15 branch and dead-leaf filled tarps my body hurt so much Dean had to help

 

 

me get up off the couch where I had dropped after stumbling in from the yard.  My hand might have been a bit less claw-like if he would have realized the big 2-handle hedge shears didn’t work because the screw that was loose was in the clippers, not my head, and not because I was “probably clipping at an angle instead of straight on.”  But on the bright side, after using the smaller hand-held pruning shears my fingers were curled in the exact position I would need to hold a paintbrush later, and the scabs and scratches on my forehead and arms shouldn’t leave a scar. 

Later, in the wee hours of the night as I was fumbling for the Ibuprophen, a family hike in the Tongue River Canyon sounded like a much better plan for Saturday than more painting or yard work. 

Dean managed to contain his disappointment that we wouldn’t be painting.   

Where's Myra?!

Where's Angus?!

 Pierce and Emerson asked him geology questions and even listened when he answered which was a totally new experience for him. 

 We headed home just before the rain started

and on the drive I saw three bald eagles.  Every time I saw one perched high on a tree I thought about asking Dean to stop so I could take a picture but then I'd think it would just be a waste of time since all I have is a little point and shoot camera.  I finally decided that was just stupid so when I saw a Golden in a tree I decided just because I didn’t have a fancy camera with a telephoto lens it wasn’t a good not reason to try.   

 I should have had a fancy camera with a telephoto lens.

This morning we woke up to winter. I knew it was too early to think we wouldn’t get any more snow but, like dying, even though I know it’s inevitable, it’s hard to truly believe it’s really going to happen to me.  There was no yard work today.  There was no hiking today.  Dean wishes there had been no painting today.  But I wasn’t bored.  

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Wasn't That A Dainty Dish To Set Before The Queen?

Really? That's What It Took?

Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to make yourself  your husband get up, grab whatever manly tool is required and repair things that have been staring him you in the face for weeks, months, or more likely, years?  You know, things like a toilet that sounds like a bull moose in heat whenever you flush it.  Okay, I haven't actually heard a bull moose in heat, but ...  oh, wait, that would be because only women moose, women mooses, a woman moose would go into heat.  I meant a bull moose making those manly bull moose sounds to attract a female moose in heat.  Like she would really be attracted to some big-nosed, ugly, bellowing, clumsy moose who thinks he's mother nature's gift to ungulates.  She just wants baby mooses.

And then there are things like fences with planks (or whatever those straight up-and-down parts are that keep your neighbor's dog out of your yard and garden) that are so old that on occasion one or more of them just decides to fall over and leave a big hole in your fence.  Did you know yellow labs love pumpkins?  Oh, and some people have stacks of paving stones neatly stacked next to a nice big area of dirt (formerly known as grass) just waiting for the perfect moment to create the perfect path.

And there's the  painting and staining which always seems to take a back seat to more important things like gardening or rocks or did I mention gardening?

What is the secret?  What does it take to get that ever-growing list of projects crossed off the to-do list?  I've put a fair amount of time into thinking about this and I've come up with a few solutions.  One of those is to decide it just isn't worth doing.  Cross it off like it never existed and lessen the guilt.  So what if the toilet sings?  Maybe it's a method of water conservation.  You know, if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down. 

Then there's the just wait solution.  If you wait long enough, somebody will take care of it for you.  The guilt your neighbor will feel after their dog has brought home 15 pumpkins from your garden through a hole in the fence is an amazing stimulant to fence replacement.  Paying for half the wood will ease the guilt you your husband feels because the week the fence is rebuilt he is forced to work late every night.

But the solution that never entered my brain, not even in my wildest imagination, that caused me to open my eyes in wide but happy surprise is this.  Point out that in a very short time your daughter will be bringing her beloved fiance home for Christmas.   I know.  I'm shaking my head in wonder and amazement right along with you.  It's only been three years but yes, we now have a kitchen with painted walls.  And not only that, I've heard whispers that soon there will also be real stuff, like things in frames, hanging on those newly painted walls.

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Really? That's What It Took?