Saturday Night, over Easy...

I was up during the night again, so didn't wake up until 7:00 AM. I warmed up a cup of coffee and posted the Blog. I looked at the mess in the kitchen and then looked outside. It was dead calm, so I threw on my shorts and t-shirt. The kitchen can wait; I've got a driveway to spray!

I had some problems with a clogged line, but by 9:00 AM, I was back inside, after spraying all the vegetation, twice. It took two gallons, but I got 'er done. The first thing I did was to wash off my Crocs. I've had various problems in the past and don't want to walk on the lawn with shoes potentially dipped in herbicide.

Then I went out back. I re-seeded the areas that didn't have a lot of grass growing in that disaster area of the wood chips. Then I turned on the sprinkler. Next I grabbed the garden sulfur and applied it to the lone remaining rhododendron (I had four and two or three of them had actually bloomed, but this summer's weird weather has been hard on my plants).

Back inside, I cleaned up the mess from last night's dinner. At 10:30 AM, I went out and turned the sprinkler off. Then I dusted the tomato plants with garden dust bug killer (there's been a few bad indicators, recently).

While I was out there, I chatted with my next-door neighbor. He, like I, is concerned about the height of the new paved road versus our driveways, come winter time. I asked him if he had anybody (he's a contractor, if you remember) who could give me some gravel to build up the end of my drive into a ramp. He said he's been thinking about snow plowing this winter (he has a cement driveway, except for the last 15 or 20 feet) and may just cement the rest of his drive. If that's what he does, he will have to remove like four inches of his gravel and could put it in my driveway. I told him to come up with any solutions and the price and let me know...

Back inside, I finally took my shower. I thought briefly about cleaning the house. But, I really didn't feel like it. In fact, the only thing I was feeling was tired. So, I lay down on the bed and took a two hour nap.

A friend's call woke me up. We chatted for a while and when we hung up, I checked my voicemail. I returned a call from my brother Joe and then started thinking of what I should do for the next few hours. The phone rang again and it was my daughter Melissa (well, that solves that "what to do" problem). We chatted for a while, and then were interrupted by a call she had to take. She did call back, however and we chatted for a little longer (okay, a lot longer).

After we hung up the second time, I was hungry (not having eaten any real breakfast or lunch) so I popped a slice of the meatloaf into the microwave and made a box of macaroni and cheese. I plated it and went in to see what was on TV. Not much! So, I watched a couple/three taped cooking shows, but that got boring.

The nights are now cool enough I figured I could use my chiminia without looking stupid. My neighbor, for example, has had a bonfire at least once each weekend for the past month or so.

So, I added a bit more larger pieces of wood (any little sticks I pick up while cutting the grass or doing a walkabout out back go in there for kindling, you see) and fired it up.

I sat back in my Adirondack chair with my feet up. I must say it was very pleasant. So, pleasant, in fact, I decided to share it with you, so I reluctantly got up and grabbed my camera. I took 13 pictures, but none of them accurately captured the moment. You see, it wasn't just the flames, but the warm glow they cast on the patio. However the flash wiped that all out. So, I quit and settled back to enjoy the night (Oh, I'll post the best one, but you won't see what I was looking at, really). Oh, and you have to click on it to enlarge it to really see it. As always, just use your browser's "back" button to get, well, back.

When the fire had almost died and I was getting chilled, I went back inside. I started watching the movie "The Unforgiven" with Clint Eastwood, (an old favorite) but fell asleep about half way through.

I woke up around 1:30 AM and after a long bout of insomnia, finally went to bed for the night (or near morning, as it were).