Getting Back into the Groove

I woke up late on Saturday. I paid some bills, and went through the mail I had held until Friday. It took me longer than I thought it would to write the Blog post, but I guess I was just out of practice.

I had to call Brighthouse and have them reset the cable box. It had filled to 100% of recordings during my absence (how was I supposed to know they were planning a 24-hour Macgyver marathon?) Even after deleting most of them, it kept telling me it was at 100% and some of my functions were now disabled. But, Brighthouse and I eventually got it all straightened out.

I did little chores all morning and early afternoon (wound the clock, refilled the pill box, shaved and showered, etc.) Then I moved onto bigger things. I cleaned all the poop out of the 40 pounds of kitty litter (fresh last Sunday morning) and put the kitty litter in the wheelbarrow (that I had moved to the leaf-covered patio).

I hauled that out to the horseshoe pits (long overgrown as I could not use them this year) and dumped half on each end. Then I used a shovel and dug it all in, mixing the kitty litter clay with my soil. Why? Because you are supposed to have clay in horseshoe pits (I have a loam soil) and I do want to use them next year.

Also, my driver last night told me it had rained here while I was gone. I checked the gauge and found we had over an inch of rain since I left and I knew I could dig in the ground without hurting myself. I did get a text or two from Jake and found it is almost impossible to reply to a text while wearing work gloves.

Next, I washed out the extra kitty litter pans with bleach, rinsed them with the hose outside and set them upside-down on the plastic patio furniture to dry.

Then I used the blower to get all the leaves off my patio. Almost all the leaves in my yard have now fallen.

When I finished with that, I refilled the bird and squirrel feeders. I went back inside and washed the bedspread (covered with a week’s worth of cat hair) and my terry cloth bathrobe (that I didn’t take with me) as well as some kitchen towels.

When I was down in South Carolina, Jake had mentioned us making beans with hamburger when he was just a lad and that stuck in my head (I guess). So, for dinner, I sauteed a sliced yellow onion until it was soft and then browned a pound of ground chuck (that I had thawed) in the pan. I drained off the grease and added two cans of Bush’s Baked beans (back in the day it would have been Campbell’s Pork and beans, doctored with ketchup, mustard and molasses, but that was what I had and it was easier – no doctoring required).

While that was simmering, Jake called. He had been watching a documentary about the 60’s and the hippy movement and wanted to know what my generation did to screw things up to where we are now. In my defense, I was at the tail end of the 60’s, so I sort of reaped the benefits of those who marched and protested, but didn’t do any of that myself. By the time I was old enough to notice, the peace and love movement had spawned the Weathermen bombings and terrorist plots.

So, while I sympathized with him and his questions, I had no real answers. Yes, we were going to change the world and I suppose we did, but not necessarily for the better, if you get my drift. Life might have been hypocritical when you were a teenager back in the 50’s and 60’s, but it was a simpler time and, in many ways, better.

After we hung up. I put the bedspread back on the bed and folded the rest of the clothes. Then I dished up a bowl of what Luanne used to call “Texas Beans” and ate them, along with some buttered bread, for my dinner.

I watched some TV and then read some of the last of my new books until bedtime.