Good Friday (and I mean that)

I woke up off and on during the night (normal routine – I doubt I have slept more that 1 1/2 hours straight through since December) and finally gave up at 5:00 AM on Friday morning, although I didn’t have to go to work.

I have a meeting scheduled at the bank at 11:00 AM so, it belatedly dawned on me that, by taking Thursday night off, I have no clothes to wear! So, I started a load of work clothes and then ate my breakfast and my morning pills. I ran my remaining tests and filled in my doctor’s diary.

I watched the Today show for a change (a rare treat now, but something I did daily while I was home recuperating), until the phone rang at 8:30 AM. It was the lady from the bank. It seems that her 9:00 AM appointment (the whole reason she had to be in Canton today instead of meeting me at the branch just two miles from the house) cancelled and she said I could come in earlier, if I wanted to. I said I appreciated that, but I still had to get ready. I told her I’d get there as soon as possible.

So, off with the TV and onto the shave, shower and dress routine. Oh, and I can’t forget, hang up the shirts and pants when they were dry. But, I hustled and got there just before 10:00 AM.

I signed a gazillion documents to apply for refinancing my house. I had called last week to see if there were any programs available (I was thinking of the HARP (or Home Affordable Refinance Plan). She said, “Yes, we do HARP refinancing” and looked up the loan number I gave her. Then she said I wouldn’t qualify for HARP as I had an FHA loan. I was bummed until she said, “Which is even better, because they offer something called FHA Streamlined Refinancing.” Why is that better? Because FHA uses the original home appraisal, not only saving me money, but completely ignoring how much less the house is really worth these days!

So, the upshot is that I’ll close within 40 days and drop my interest rate from the current 5 1/2% to 3 3/4%! This will not only save me a ton of money in interest if I should live long enough to pay the house off, but will reduce my monthly payment over $100.00. Sweet!

I was pleased. On the way home, I stopped at CVS and picked up two prescriptions, a box of the cheapest PAS egg coloring, a couple Cadbury eggs, some Reese’s peanut butter eggs and, in lieu of jelly beans (I hate jelly beans, except for maybe the black ones) some Whoppers Robin Eggs. So, I have the makings for an Easter basket covered (except for the basket, of course). Funny, because Lu used to have tons of wicker baskets (and I guess she still does, lol!)

It was around 12:30 PM and I decided I was having such a good day I would treat myself to lunch. So, I went to Red Lobster and got my favorite off their lunch menu: Shrimp linguine Alfredo, with the Caesar salad and the cheddar biscuits, and water with lemon to drink. Even though I think Red Lobster has the best Caesar salad dressing I ever ate, I didn’t finish the salad as I was getting full and wanted to save room for the main course. It was, as always, an excellent meal.

When I got home, the guys from the landscaping company were just pulling in. I mentioned throwing the fallen sticks over the fence and reminded them I wanted a quote for mulching the back garden. One of the guys, with a tape measure in his hand, rang the doorbell a little later and asked me what color mulch I wanted, as it comes in black, red, brown and so on. I said, “Just like that” and pointed to my cedar mulch. He said okay, his boss would get back to me with the quote.

Before I could change out of my “going to the bank” clothes, they were done and gone! But, both the back and the front looked great. They even edged the little sidewalk from Jake’s patio to the garage apron!

My ex-in-home nurse called and asked if I was serious about donating my leftover medical supplies. I said, “Of course! What the heck would I do with an almost-full box of syringes with needles (for the insulin I don’t use), heparin-filled syringes, saline-filled syringes and all the tubing and connectors associated with my PICC line?” So, we made a date for her to come by and pick them up.

I put the fire pit out on the cement slab where I used to have the old picnic table. It’s a little too windy to burn diaries today, I think, but I’m ready now. I took a picture and posted it for you.

I noticed that the clematis out front was growing up and over, away from the lattice, so I got some of that gardener’s Velcro tape and headed them in the right direction. I went out back and did the same thing to the one growing near the other trellis (or is it called an arbor if you can walk under it?)

That got me inspired so I carefully uncovered the reflecting pool, cleaned out the winter gunk (with a transfer shovel so I didn’t BLT (well, I guess I did “L” a little) and filled it with fresh water. That looked so nice, I took the tarp off the patio stuff and put the chairs, footstools and tables in place (they are just plastic and lightweight, Carl). I put the tarp in the garage to make sure it’s thoroughly dry before it goes up in the attic and the hammock comes down (how? I dunno... I haven’t figured out getting up or down the attic stairs just yet, but I will...)

I put out a few of the statues and solved the problem of transporting the heaviest one (the young Shaolin monk) by putting it on my walker seat and rolling it out to the reflecting pool. By then I was getting tired and sore and I noticed it was after 5:00 PM, so I quit. I purposefully didn’t take any pictures for you because I do every year. So, you know what it looks like and you must be sick of them by now!

Well, I didn't really “quit,” just quit outside. Inside, I started to clean my bedroom while I waited for the bedding to wash and dry. This was a natural result of getting all the medical supplies gathered up in one box and ready to go. After I swept the floor, I washed the mirror, TV screen and all the glass tops with Windex. Then I moved the air purifier to the downstairs. I thought the cats might like some fresh, clean air when they use the litter box (I know I will!)

I finally got the bed put back together. I made another ham and Swiss cheese sandwich (this time with the last of my hot mustard, so I added it to the grocery list) and ate that with a pickle for supper. I took my evening pills and settled in for some TV.

Once again I watched “Who do you think you are?” but, for the first time, it didn’t hold my interest. Either Edie Falco’s family’s history was not that fascinating or it’s all those emails I keep getting from Ancestry.com when Melissa adds a picture or somebody to her family tree.

When it ended, I didn’t see anything else interesting, so I watched Ancient Aliens (which can be intriguing every now and then, but usually isn’t). One of those shows was enough, so I set the new one (that would come on at 10:00 PM and is about Leonardo DaVinci) to tape and switched to reading.

I read until I noticed dozing, then turned the light off, put in my bookmarker and went to bed.