Easter Weekend

Yesterday was a beautiful day here and I had a few things to do in the yard and around the house - including fixing some gutters. Not the gutters themselves, but rather these little gutter guards I put in to keep the leaves out. The heavy snow this winter broke a couple of them. One broke right above the back door so when it rained, the water would drip right down in the worst spot. So I set up my aluminum ladder and went up to the gutter on the second floor. About half way up, I get the knee-shakes. And the ladder starts shaking and rattling and I begin to wonder if I should yell over to my neighbor to come guide me down or just cut out the middle man and call 911 directly... Funny how I just shoot right up the first 5 rungs, but after that I am doing one rung at a time, feet feeling like cinder blocks are tied to them, and suddenly the ladder seems way too narrow. And going up is only half the battle. But I got up there, found the problem and crept back down. Having survived that ascent, I had some confidence going up the second and third times to replace the guards.

Then I moved around to the front of the house and broke out my hedge trimmer. The front bushes were way overgrown so I went at them. I should have put on my Jason hockey mask to make the image complete. But I got them pared down to a presentable level and Lucie and I raked and swept up the debris and got rid of that. Trimmed and mowed and the yard work was pretty much done.

Meanwhile, Mocha has found any and every way to get wet - rolling in the mud at the bottom of the downspout or running across the pool cover (it is porous like a trampoline and her weight brings it down into the water. So on goes the bathing suit and I took her up and gave her a bath. Half the yard washed down the drain I think. She was filthy.

In between jobs I was playing with the new Tivo I got with my tax refund money. Comcast went all digital on the 30th which pretty much made my oldest Tivo obsolete (it wouldn't tune in the digital channels). I transferred the recorded shows from one Tivo to another and then found a big software problem that may require an exchange. Too technical to explain here but it is pretty annoying and shutting me out of some features. Calling Tivo support later.

By the time all the yard work and cleanup was done, we were ready for dinner. We can almost see a Chic Fil A from our house so we went over to get some chicken sandwiches and their new peach shakes. Signs everywhere for their new peach shakes. Life is not complete without a peach shake. So we ordered four peach shakes. They aren't available until Monday. So I guess I will not be able to reach my destined potential until Monday... Not to be deterred, we went to another ice cream place but they were cash only and the ATM there wasn't working. We finally ended up at Friendly's.

Some friends (Ashleigh's boyfriend's parents) invited us over for Easter lunch after church so we will do that. That will be fun. I am on vacation next week and the kids are out of school. I think we are making college visits all week for Ashleigh. Suddenly I feel old...