Sunday, Laboring

I got up at 6:00 AM again. I actually woke up earlier, but didn't feel like getting out of bed yet. I made a fresh pot of coffee and started cleaning up the kitchen. I drank my first cup while posting the Blog and listening to Sunday Morning, Over Easy. By 7:30 AM, the kitchen was clean, the pots washed, the dishwasher loaded and I went to shave and take my shower.

By 9:00 AM I was dressed and had started watering in back. When the watering was done, I started the dishwasher to get yesterday's mess put to bed. I took some pictures outside, and then watered the few remaining container gardens. I decided to wait until after noon to wash down the house, so that the warmer air will dry it quicker.

I called my brother Carl to see how he was doing. He said he seems to be getting a little better each day, so that's good! Then I finally put away my receipts for bills I've paid. I've just been stacking them up for the last couple of months (I'm getting lazy in my old age, I guess).

I also noticed that the old bird feeder's rope broke, so it was sitting on the ground with a squirrel chowing down on it (it looked like he had his whole head buried in the seed). So, I got some rope out of the garage and restrung it, refilled it and hung it back up.

By 1:30 PM, I figured it was warm enough to start house washing. So, I took in the mat and the wicker chair cushions from the front porch. I hooked up the sprayer gizmo to my hose and got started on the south (or garage) side.

Because the cleaning solution is so expensive, I first used just the "rinse" selection to blast away the obvious dirt, spider webs, etc. Then I switched to "clean" and as soon as I had my section washed, went back to "rinse." I worked in sections and slowly worked my way around to the front of the house.

When I got to the front porch, I also washed down the rocker, the two wicker chairs and the front railing. By the time I got to the end of the front of the house, I was also at the end of the hose and the end of the first bottle of cleaner.

So, I dragged the hose back, switched the bottle and threw the hose over the back fence to wash the north side of the house. I finally got that done (I think this was the dirtiest side, BTW) and started on the back of the house. I managed to get the main house finished except for the downstairs addition. I wished I'd bought three bottles, because I could have had this all done today!

I switched out my porch decorations and the summer wreath for the fall ones. I also took down the remaining two hanging baskets and emptied the dirt from them so I could store them for the winter. Back inside, it was 5:30 PM. I watched a little TV to give my legs, arm and back a rest.

About 7:00 PM, I started my Sunday dinner. I made fried eggplant, but switched out the normal seasoned flour with Italian bread crumbs. It tasted great, but I'm not sure I like the bread crumb texture better than the flour.

I watched my usual shows and went to bed about 11:30 PM.