Sunday and saving daylight on a ladder

I woke up early on Sunday, but I knew I would. It takes me about a week to adjust to the Daylight Savings time change (whether “Springing forward” or “Falling back”). I resigned myself to not falling back asleep and put on a pot of coffee (eight cups this time, instead of my usual four – it’s gonna be a long day…)

I started writing in the rather lengthy Blog entry, interspersed with watching the morning news. I posted it and then checked my email. I found a rather sad note from Jake, who was letting me know that Luanne (who had been visiting there for the past week) got a call Saturday night. It was from her step-mother Gerrie, letting her know her step-sister, Linda had died, apparently in her sleep.

Now, I didn’t know Linda all that well. The family had moved to Florida when Jeremy was young. But, it was still depressing (Linda was the same age as my daughter Amy).

Lu called a while later, letting me know that she was on the road to Florida to help out her step-mother. We talked for a while and she seemed okay, but it’s all so sad…

I had taken out some pork sausage the night before, intending on making biscuits and gravy. But that seemed like a lot of work Sunday morning. So, I just made the pork sausage into eight patties and fried them up. I ate about half of them with some buttered toast and more coffee.

I ran up to the corner gas station and filled up my tank. I may have jury duty on Monday and it’s not always a wise idea to stop in Detroit for gas. Back home, I girded my loins and went out to finish the leaf guard installation.

Up the ladder, down the ladder and repeat, over and over again… I had a few scary moments here and there, but mostly it was just a pain in the ass. Fortunately, the weather really cooperated. It was even warmer than Saturday, although a lot windier (not that pleasant, up on a ladder!)

At one point, I came in to use the facilities and saw that Melissa had called. I went to check my voicemail and inadvertently (does anybody say they did anything advertently?) dialed her. We didn’t talk long; she just wanted to let me know that her mother Fran’s Aunt Lorraine’s husband was in the hospital and not expected to make it. I always liked Aunt Lorraine. Man, this was turning into a really bummer day!

Back outside, I soldiered on. I finally finished all the gutters by 3:00 PM. I taped a big “Thank You” note to the stepladder and put it over the fence in my neighbor’s yard. I buttoned everything up and went inside.

I felt like crap! Both knees hurt and my back has a kink in it that doesn’t allow me to stand straight up. But, I got the damn job done!

I washed up, filled in the Blog entry to date and headed for the bedroom, my bed and my TV. I quit for the day!

I was just starting to fall asleep when the phone rang. It was Melissa again, checking to see if I was okay (she thought I would fall off the ladder). We talked much longer this time. I finally realized how hungry I was (I’d worked through lunch) so, after wishing her and Dave a Happy Anniversary (17 years on Monday), I hung up.

I warmed up some of that “Chicken with Dumplings.” I was a little bummed to learn that while the chicken and veggies heated up well, the dumplings did not. They weren’t the light fluffy dumplings like when they were fresh. They were hard rocks of flour. Note to self: Next time don’t bother keeping the leftover dumplings. You will be very disappointed.

I called and found out that, sure enough, I do have jury duty (insert “No Comment” here).

I started dozing off again around 8:00 PM, but I made myself stay up until 11:00 PM, trying to reset my internal clock.