Rolling down the driveway....

While the fence issue sits in here with me like a huge, pink elephant, I have nothing new to report on that topic. I am still researching, and running out of time. I have a few ideas, and will run them up the condo developers flag pole.

I was painting doors yesterday. I counted 5 doors on my family room level. All are stained, all needed to be sanded, primed, sanded, painted, painted. This is a mantra. I was hoping to get away with one coat of paint after the primer, but no luck.

It takes me approximately one hour to paint a door frame, both sides. It takes me about half an hour to paint both sides of a door. Three coats, two sandings, and they must dry overnight between coats. Do the math. I already counted the doors on the bedroom level - 9. That came out to able 40 hours just for the doors on that floor. I am good for maybe 5-6 hours a day of painting, and sometimes I can't do any at all, due to other commitments or my body just needing a rest. I have avoided counting the doors on the main floor, but I know it includes a double front door that needs help. I am really, really going to miss that double front door when I have furniture coming in or out of the condo.

Child has reconsidered the family room, living room, and dining room ceilings. She and her friend will come on their next day off and give me a hand. She and I went out for a bit yesterday. We went to the store for a few minutes for her to get a jacket, then we had lunch. We left the restaurant and headed to my condo, since she had only seen the models so far. We went inside and I saw her little brain doing some major decorating on a condo with rough walls and subflooring. We realized the ceilings are too high in most of the rooms for me to get up there to paint - I will need either a very high ladder or scaffolding or a professional. While they look nice, I am not sure how I will be even able to change lightbulbs in some places. This is why I had the builder in the house I am in now change the cathedral ceilings to regular ones. Accessibility.

As we were leaving the condo and stood on the driveway to get into my car, we looked over at the pond. We saw four adult white-tailed deer running into the woods. We both smiled. I have to say, it does feel right.

We left the condo and went to the local fruit market. I wasn't thinking; call it temporary insanity. I forgot about Child and food stores. I am usually in and out in 12 minutes. We were there for 90 minutes. I told her I could have been home already, put my food away, had dinner, walked the dogs and maybe painted a room. While she waited at the meat counter for a couple of steaks, I watched the lobsters in the display case. One appeared to be dead. I swear one walked up to it and grabbed one of its legs and shook it. Then it climbed on it (I was afraid of some inappropriate sexual behavior right there in the case), then moved off and sat on its head. I pointed it out to Child, who said, "Yep. That one seems to be dead. So what? Someone is just going to eat it." Me, I wanted to take home all the lobsters and feed them. Too much empathy and compassion in me sometimes.

I dropped Child off at her car, and reminded her to let me know when they can come paint. I hurried home to feed the beagles, as I was a little late for their dinner. In my hurry to get in the house to let them outside, I tried to carry everything at once. I had a box of clementines, and I dropped it. Of course, the box opened and each clementine rolled down my sloped driveway, all at different speeds and angles. I had to chase each one, laughing, while the beagles stood upstairs on my bed and watched me out the window. They were probably shaking their heads.

I do need to amuse the neighbors on a regular basis, and I think that probably covered me for the rest of the month.