Saturday's Story

I woke up on Saturday at 6:30 AM, after a night of troubling dreams. Apparently, eating a lot spicy pizza before going to sleep is a bad idea!

After my morning rituals, I got dressed and, at 9:00 AM, headed out. I managed to go to Home Depot, Westborn and Kroger’s and still make my 10:00 haircut appointment.

We talked about Thanksgiving and both my barber, Michelle, and the owner, Big George, said they were going to go to Costco (Michelle) or Kroger’s (Big George) and buy a precooked Thanksgiving meal instead of making one. I’ve never tried that before, but I do know its now very popular.

I said I had a turkey breast in the freezer I bought on sale a while back that I planned to roast (a lot less leftovers), but I did have a thought I shared with them. I could buy a little Cornish game hen and roast it. Then I would take an extremely tight close-up photo and post it, telling you all it was my Thanksgiving turkey!

I was back home about 10:45 AM, but had not received a call today from the delivery people. Which is probably okay, because it may take me all weekend before I am actually ready to install it!

I was gratified to see the bag the Boy Scouts had hung on my door for me to put non-perishable food in had been picked up. I filled that sucker up (I have a large pantry) and hung it on the door again for them. What gratified me was that, last year, I did the same thing and nobody ever came back for it!

I put away all my food stuffs and then got back to work in the bathroom. I was using a razor knife (the kind you use to get paint off glass) and taking off the old silicone caulk, carefully (so as not to scratch the tile), one tile at a time. I had gone through three razor blades (it’s the grout that seems to snap them) before I took a break.

Well, I say, “took a break” but what I did was to start the second load of laundry: my pants. socks and under shorts. But, before going back to work in the bathroom, I grabbed a kitchen chair as my back was starting to hurt from hunching over.

I went back to the tile scraping after checking my email and answering a few new ones, while drinking my third cup of coffee this morning.

I took another quick break to put that load in the dryer (setting the stove timer so I won’t forget) and start the last one of my shirts, t-shirts and the bathroom towels.

Back to work again. I did get the call from the Lowe’s delivery guys saying they would be here within the hour. The timer went off, so I hung up my pants. I took the time on that break to go outside (nice out, BTW) and refill the bird feeder and squirrel feeder.

I also broke up and spread out the last of the rye bread (before it went bad). It was cool! This has never happened before, but, while I was throwing the bread around, a brave black squirrel raced up, grabbed a chunk of bread and ran back to a pine tree. I smiled at his audacity!

Back inside, I spread out a bag of dried kidney beans on a half sheet pan and sorted them, looking for stones (none, but I have found them before) and discarding yucky-looking ones. These rest went into my stew pot and were covered with water to soak overnight.

The washer noted it was done, so I put the under-shorts and socks in a basket and put the shirts and t-shirts in the dryer. I set the timer for 35 minutes and folded and put away the clothes in the basket.

It was 1:45 PM and I was hungry, so I stopped and made a BLT. I ate that and then went back to work until 2:17 PM, when the doorbell rang. It was the delivery guys with my vanity! They asked me where I wanted it and I asked them if they would put it in the living room (so I didn’t have to worry about the stairs). So, they did.

I hung up my shirts and then I did something I haven’t done for ages: I took a nap!

I woke up just before 4:00 PM. Since I know it gets dark by 5:30, I went out with the transfer shovel and cleaned out the state park grill. I fired up the charcoal starter after taking out the T-Bone steak I got at Kroger’s this morning and the brats I thawed out yesterday. I seasoned the steak with just salt and pepper (on both sides of course) and let everything come up to room temperature.

I made a pan of Uncle Ben’s Original wild rice for my side dish.

When the coals were ready, I cleaned the grill, oiled it and then cooked the brats first. Then I grilled the steak, again putting fresh rosemary stems in the charcoal.

When the steak was done, I took everything inside and took a picture for you. Spoiler alert: The rosemary was just for show and the yellow sheen is the pat of butter I always put on my steaks while they rest.

I ate my dinner while I watched the news. The steak was a perfect medium-rare and everything was delicious!

I noticed I had a voicemail from B___ who had called while I was outside. So, I called him back and we chatted for a bit. Then I put the rest of the wild rice and the brats in the fridge.

Back at work, I finally finished scraping off all the silicone caulk, breaking one more blade in the process. Then I cracked open the window and scrubbed the wall with mineral spirits and steel wool (that’s supposed to get all the remaining caulk off). When I was finished, I left the window opened and shut the door to keep the smell out of the rest of the house.

It was just after 10:00 PM. I got the new vanity out of the box (I wanted to see it and make sure it was okay) but just left it in the living room. I still have a LOT more work to do in the bathroom before it can go in!

I watched one taped TV show and then went to bed for the night.