Saturday Story

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday (big surprise) although I must say I slept lousy. I got a cup of coffee and filled in the blog entry. Then I got another cup of coffee and made my shopping list. Somewhere in the middle of that, the smoke detector in the office chirped and said, “Low Battery.” So, I stopped and changed the batteries (anything to get that broad to shut up!)

I ate the last of the cold pizza for breakfast. Then I stripped the bed and started the weekend wash. I watched some of the Today show and then shaved, showered and dressed for my morning errands.

I was in no big rush (I wanted the sun to warm things up a bit) so I finally headed out at 10:00 a.m. First stop was the Sunoco gas station at 5 Mile and Inkster (it’s usually the cheapest around here and was today – I checked) to fill up my gas tank.

Then I was onto Kroger’s. As you probably know from my rants, they are still remodeling. So, I got my 14 items and headed to the checkout. The checkouts have recently been remodeled as well. There are a LOT more self-checkouts and less real checkouts. And, as of yet, NO “15 Items or Less” checkouts! They only had three real checkouts working and I got stuck behind a lady stocking up for a week-long camping trip (groan…)

So, it took me about 10 minutes to shop and over 1/2 hour to check out!

From there, I went to the Feed Store to pick up another bale of straw. But, when I pulled in, there was a flatbed truck and they were loading all the remaining straw onto it. I went in and asked, and they said the guy with the flatbed had bought everything and I would have to come back tomorrow after 10:00 a.m. for more straw.

Okay, so that was that, I guessed. But, as I was getting into the car, a guy and his kids pulled up. He jumped out and asked the store guy loading the straw if they were taking it all and he said, “All but one!” “Great!” the guy said and went into to buy the last one…

Sh*t! I thought briefly about going back in, but with those kids, it was probably for a Halloween decoration or something. I’ll just come back on Sunday…

Next I went to Office Depot and picked up a couple of office supplies I was running low on. Finally, I hit the Post Office and mailed off a package.

I didn’t get back home until about 12:30 p.m. (mostly due to Kroger’s). I put away the groceries, got the bedding out of the dryer and remade the bed. Then I filled in today’s Blog  to date and went out into the garage.

I sprayed down all the bolts on the motorcycle with that penetrating oil. I went in to wash up (that smell is all-pervasive) and realized I was hungry. So, I took the time to make yet another BLT. I ate that sitting on the couch, watching the world go by outside my picture window.  That’s when I realized I could smell that penetrating oil in the house! Crap! So, I opened several windows and then I headed back into the stinky garage.

The new grass had just sprouted so, while I need to cut the lawn, I couldn’t cut it where I seeded. You’re not supposed to cut new grass until its 3-4 inches tall (I still haven’t cut the grass around the shed, for example). So, I had to cut it really stupid-looking. My plan was to go over the spots I couldn’t cut with the line trimmer. However, when I dug that out, the battery was dead. So, that particular project stalled until the battery charger could work its magic.

I moved on to my transplanting.  I cut the big iris leaves into short fans with the kitchen shears. My Brother Carl told me that my Mother used to do this and it helps with Fall clean up. I divided the two biggest clumps and moved half of each into the English garden.

As you can see, the peony I planted doesn’t look that great. It never did flower, BTW. It might be that it’s just cold enough to turn it dormant and it will come back next Spring. I dunno…

So, I went and dug out the one from the back garden. I had planted two back near the little Buddha a few years back, but one since died. I thought I’d save the good one before the Virginia Creeper got it. I planted it near the one I put in this year in the English garden.

The line trimmer battery was still charging, so I gave up on that and just watered all the new grass.

I finished up and locked up everything at 6:30 p.m. I had missed the local news, but watched the NBC Nightly news.  Then I found the first pre-season game on Hockey Night in Canada: The Washington Capitals versus the Winnipeg Jets. God, I didn’t realize how much I missed hockey!!!

My friend B___ called and we chatted for a while. Sitting on the couch, I realized how tired I was. I wished I’d taken a nap.

I made dinner instead of going back to the hockey game (I just listened to it instead). I cored the cauliflower and cut it into florets. I chopped the beet greens and then cooked them both. I had thawed that mock chicken (or city chicken) I had bought a while back. So, while the veggies were cooking, I fried the mock chicken up.

I plated my supper and went back to the hockey game. Dinner was delicious! Somewhere during the third period, I fell asleep. The score was 2-2, but I have no idea how it ended.

When I woke up for a bathroom break, I put away the leftovers from supper and then went back to bed, leaving myself a mess for the morning.