Dear God, Help me unscramble my brains...

Problem is, my Priority List has too much on it and Christmas is only six months away. The holiday doesn't bother me, except it happens "In Winter". Thus the Priority-Pressure is on.

Top priority is... finishing the roofs. I'm still finding my own way of addressing these. I can get some excellent wood from a friend, but need a truck; I can borrow my son's truck, but it needs repairs; I talked to my mechanic on fixing it with a trade, but he hasn't gotten back to me. I'm trying to create a quadruple-play win situation for all of us - Bill with the wood, my son, my mechanic, and myself.

It'd probably be easier to just load my little car a dozen times and red-flag boards sticking out ten feet? I suppose I could tie them on the roof, too, but getting into the woods would be challenging. Oh. What I need is a hayrack and a tractor!

Minor priority, and I'm working on myself to see it as pleasant interlude (has the same attraction as a physical exam, if you know what I mean)... my lovely supervisor needs to spend six hours riding with me on cases in July. I KNOW. Think positive... It only happens once a year? Just I will have to clean my car up and the brake shoes are starting to rub. I think she looks forward to this as much as I do, since my car isn't known for comfort for larger people getting in and out. Folks with SUV's tend to think it's a bit cramped, the blower fan isn't fixed yet, and on a hot day in traffic... it gets warm. That's why I plan my driving for mornings and evenings according to the weather, but we have both have to tolerate the situation for one day.

This is the lady who told me "they owned me" for two weeks a month over the phone in a sour mood which set my hackles on edge. Some things I don't tolerate well, and that was one of them. I fought too hard for my own independence to allow this asinine remark or humbly accept it, nor am I paid enough to make it worth biting my tongue. I told her if I wanted to take shit off anybody, I'd still be married and she back-pedaled pretty fast.

Anyone else thinks they own me, meet me after dark in the park and I'll bring my handgun... I know, that's so un-Dalai Lama like! At the same time, it recognizes my own hard-fought courage to stand up to situations that wanted to overpower me into submission (good luck with that, hm?).

Other things are far more interesting here. I did put a tarp in the pond-hole to see if it worked for water runoff, which it did. Just filled with sand and about a thousand drowned worms. It didn't help that Granddaughter was attracted to it, running the hose to form rivers and such. I need to figure this one out yet, and something like a drain pipe (plumbing) with holes and landscaping cloth may resolve it. I thought about topping it off with wood, thus making my life easier, since my main purpose of it was water containment. Kind of like the old well covers, and possibly in the dark it wouldn't be prone to growing slime -- or maybe it would.

I have a sheet of glass from my son in my car, purpose as yet undecided. One corner was broken so it needs to be cut (Ace Hardware). I want to get that done before I take it out. I think I have a use for it that showed up this weekend...

Found a desk for a dollar at a nearby sale; thought Val might want it since she's been yammering on such. She wants the one in her mom's room, her mom's computer is traveling to the living room, the 'new' desk had a cupboard for my monitor to reduce the insanity-inducing hum, so - my desk goes to the living room with Sera's computer, Val gets Sera's desk, and the 'new' desk came into my room. For a dollar, it's not in perfect shape but it's sturdy. If I have the glass cut to top it off, I could lay pictures under it and create something personal?

One of these days I'm going to cut the front steps off and build an entrance room to the house. This will involve some shoveling and creative construction, but it's space sorely needed and would be a boon in winter. Not today, though.

I'm head-scratching on building an entry to the door off my room; back up the cold and 'like a 3-season' mini-area. All's I can say is, "Winter's Coming." Why the construction industry hasn't designed large-scale tinker-toy products beats me! Free-standing walls that bolt together in a variety of patterns and sizes would be useful.

I was on a learning curve with the new printer, and I think it's going to become one of my favorite mechanical friends. A lady asked me to design and print labels right after it came into my life, and I'm ready to mail them to her today. (Yay, me!)

I printed a download book on building an electro-magnetic generator, and I do wish I had courses in this kind of stuff. It doesn't have to run years and years in an off-grid situation, but if it provided minimum back-up in a power outage, it'd be well worth my time and investment. I know, there's gas generators out there for a couple hundred dollars, but one needs to consider the realities of life -.

Last year we had a heavy snow and a snow blower (first!). But we didn't have the foresight to get the gas can filled. So we had to shovel the car out to get to the station to get the gas to run the snow blower to clear the drive. Filling gas cans is one of my less-favorite chores, and the current mower is an old electric (I figure if the power's out, I won't be worrying about mowing anyway).

I've been thinking about adding a small wood burner too, in that Heat is sometimes a critical thing. I think this should be considered before I finish the roof and the porch revamping. What I do know is the gas furnace has an electric start, and if we were buried in the snow with a houseful of critters... the thought of holing up in my ten-foot workshop still haunts me?

As we can see, my brains tend to be full of stuff. I also need to print about 50 children's books for a library event July 20 - Sera's going to lead another activity there (!). We were invited back for this one, pretty awesome! ... Same time, I should get the website for a class up and functioning concerning this series.

I think I like pouring concrete. It's kind of brainless once you figure out where you're going to put it. :)