My favorite weekend of the whole year is over and it wasn't all that. Seems like I've been saying that a lot lately. But so far, 2008 isn't shaping up to be much better than 2007. Which, between the death of my mother and the sudden, sharp decline of my father, was the worse year of my life.
I ended up spending about half of the holiday weekend working at The House. But wait, I like to keep things in order, so let me start at the beginning.
Friday
I had a stomach ache for most of the day and was really looking forward to just going home and lying down. When I got there, Tom had made plans to go hitting with a couple of his teammates. This should have been perfect, but somehow he convinced me to come along. I was intrigued by some mumbo jumbo about a virtual reality batting cage and the promise of a chocolate marshmallow milkshake at Del's Freeze.
So, I went, and I have to admit, the batting cage was pretty neat. It was inside a semi-air conditioned warehouse, which was a bonus. What made this one different from the usual batting cage is that there was a projected image of a batter on a large screen at the back of the cage. When the virtual batter threw the ball, a real ball would be shot out of a hole. So it was much more life-like than just waiting for a machine to spit out a ball. We spent an hour there, then went to Del's for yummy milkshakes.
Saturday
I did sleep late, as planned. Then I got myself moving, packed a bunch of stuff into the Kia (vacuum cleaner, brooms, leaf blower, extension cord, step stool, several empty boxes, a portable radio, various cleaning supplies, small tool kit, towels and a jug of ice water) and headed over to The House. It's strange to have to bring so much stuff. I'm used to Dad having plenty of tools and whatnot. But everything has been sold, so if we need it, we'd better bring it ourselves.
Deciding what to do was the hard part. There was plenty to choose from. In fact, the list is overwhelming. Imagine a 50 year old house that hasn't been properly cleaned in many years. Then factor in several smokers and walls that haven't been painted since I was in middle school. Yeah, nasty.
I started with the den, as I knew that room with its paneled walls wouldn't need painting. I vacuumed, dusted and wiped until it looked much better. Joy kept herself busy doing the same in the back of the house. Our realtor, Gail, dropped by to see the house, as the first time she'd come by we were gearing up for an estate sale and there were heaps of stuff cluttering the place. Gail is a chatter and stayed for quite a while. The gist of her visit: paint the walls and put in new carpet - then we will get the house listed.
When Gail left, Joy and I took a lunch break. (Pumpernickel's, of course) When we returned, Jo and Rachel were there getting ready to paint. While they worked on their project, Joy and I kept cleaning. I cleaned the heck out of the stove and the refrigerator and I learned that isopropyl alcohol is great at removing sticky stuff. I pretty much wiped the entire stove down with it. I stayed there working until 7:00 and that concludes the first day of my holiday weekend.
Sunday
Late morning, I went back to The House. This time I brought along a bunch of lawn and garden tools. Joy arrived just after me and Jo and Rachel right after her. Because the house has plaster walls (not wallboard), every time a nail was removed, a small chunk of plaster would fall out. Not to mention that Dad used wall anchors for practically everything he hung on the wall. As a result, there was much patching to be done. Joy took on that job while I stayed outside to pull weeds and trim bushes. The morning was fairly pleasant, so I didn't mind too much and I had my iPod and an audiobook to keep me occupied.
I finished the front and north side yards. At that point I had filled the two trash bins, which would have to wait for Thursday to be emptied. So I left at 2:00, to try and salvage at least part of the weekend.
Besides, I had a date with Tom. We had decided to take a few items from our arsenal over to the gun range at the Police Hall of Fame Museum. Surprisingly, this was my idea. While Tom was away at his conference last week, I was home alone with a house full of guns, but no idea how to use any of them. I'm not terribly fond of guns, but I think part of that is because I'm simply not comfortable with them. Time to remedy that then.
The range is very nice, indoor, air conditioned. First, Tom had me shoot the 22 revolver. A nice, easy gun with virtually no kick. I didn't do too badly with the target at about 15-20 feet away. Then Tom set me up with the 380 automatic. The small gun has a tiny kick, but not much. I learned how to load it and get it cocked and ready. I did okay with it too, though it's obvious I'm not a natural and it will take a lot more time and rounds before I'm any good with it.
Tom, on the other hand, is quite a good shooter. He's had a lot of experience shooting and is extremely comfortable handling weapons. And he's super cautious, showing immense respect for them. We brought home his last target with a very impressive mid-body grouping. Except for the hole in the area of the left hip. That would be one of the rounds I shot. (the other didn't even make it onto the paper)
Monday
I puttered around the house on Monday morning, debating various possible chores before deciding on freelance. After about two hours of that, Tom came into the office to announce that he was going to brave the wind and go for a bike ride. I wanted to ride too, so we started organizing our road bike gear to head over to River Road. As we were beginning to load up the Kia, we noticed that there was quite a lot of wind, actually, and changed our plans to mountain biking instead.
The weather was perfect: clear blue skies, light wind and a comfortable temperature. Tom and I rode for about two hours and boy is my butt sore today! Ouch. I haven't been on a bicycle in several months (gasp!) so my body wasn't quite prepared for the onslaught. But it was worth it. We had a really good time, we both rode well and nobody got hurt. Success!
And that pretty much concludes Memorial Day Weekend 2008.
I ended up spending about half of the holiday weekend working at The House. But wait, I like to keep things in order, so let me start at the beginning.
Friday
I had a stomach ache for most of the day and was really looking forward to just going home and lying down. When I got there, Tom had made plans to go hitting with a couple of his teammates. This should have been perfect, but somehow he convinced me to come along. I was intrigued by some mumbo jumbo about a virtual reality batting cage and the promise of a chocolate marshmallow milkshake at Del's Freeze.
So, I went, and I have to admit, the batting cage was pretty neat. It was inside a semi-air conditioned warehouse, which was a bonus. What made this one different from the usual batting cage is that there was a projected image of a batter on a large screen at the back of the cage. When the virtual batter threw the ball, a real ball would be shot out of a hole. So it was much more life-like than just waiting for a machine to spit out a ball. We spent an hour there, then went to Del's for yummy milkshakes.
Saturday
I did sleep late, as planned. Then I got myself moving, packed a bunch of stuff into the Kia (vacuum cleaner, brooms, leaf blower, extension cord, step stool, several empty boxes, a portable radio, various cleaning supplies, small tool kit, towels and a jug of ice water) and headed over to The House. It's strange to have to bring so much stuff. I'm used to Dad having plenty of tools and whatnot. But everything has been sold, so if we need it, we'd better bring it ourselves.
Deciding what to do was the hard part. There was plenty to choose from. In fact, the list is overwhelming. Imagine a 50 year old house that hasn't been properly cleaned in many years. Then factor in several smokers and walls that haven't been painted since I was in middle school. Yeah, nasty.
I started with the den, as I knew that room with its paneled walls wouldn't need painting. I vacuumed, dusted and wiped until it looked much better. Joy kept herself busy doing the same in the back of the house. Our realtor, Gail, dropped by to see the house, as the first time she'd come by we were gearing up for an estate sale and there were heaps of stuff cluttering the place. Gail is a chatter and stayed for quite a while. The gist of her visit: paint the walls and put in new carpet - then we will get the house listed.
When Gail left, Joy and I took a lunch break. (Pumpernickel's, of course) When we returned, Jo and Rachel were there getting ready to paint. While they worked on their project, Joy and I kept cleaning. I cleaned the heck out of the stove and the refrigerator and I learned that isopropyl alcohol is great at removing sticky stuff. I pretty much wiped the entire stove down with it. I stayed there working until 7:00 and that concludes the first day of my holiday weekend.
Sunday
Late morning, I went back to The House. This time I brought along a bunch of lawn and garden tools. Joy arrived just after me and Jo and Rachel right after her. Because the house has plaster walls (not wallboard), every time a nail was removed, a small chunk of plaster would fall out. Not to mention that Dad used wall anchors for practically everything he hung on the wall. As a result, there was much patching to be done. Joy took on that job while I stayed outside to pull weeds and trim bushes. The morning was fairly pleasant, so I didn't mind too much and I had my iPod and an audiobook to keep me occupied.
I finished the front and north side yards. At that point I had filled the two trash bins, which would have to wait for Thursday to be emptied. So I left at 2:00, to try and salvage at least part of the weekend.
Besides, I had a date with Tom. We had decided to take a few items from our arsenal over to the gun range at the Police Hall of Fame Museum. Surprisingly, this was my idea. While Tom was away at his conference last week, I was home alone with a house full of guns, but no idea how to use any of them. I'm not terribly fond of guns, but I think part of that is because I'm simply not comfortable with them. Time to remedy that then.
The range is very nice, indoor, air conditioned. First, Tom had me shoot the 22 revolver. A nice, easy gun with virtually no kick. I didn't do too badly with the target at about 15-20 feet away. Then Tom set me up with the 380 automatic. The small gun has a tiny kick, but not much. I learned how to load it and get it cocked and ready. I did okay with it too, though it's obvious I'm not a natural and it will take a lot more time and rounds before I'm any good with it.
Tom, on the other hand, is quite a good shooter. He's had a lot of experience shooting and is extremely comfortable handling weapons. And he's super cautious, showing immense respect for them. We brought home his last target with a very impressive mid-body grouping. Except for the hole in the area of the left hip. That would be one of the rounds I shot. (the other didn't even make it onto the paper)
Monday
I puttered around the house on Monday morning, debating various possible chores before deciding on freelance. After about two hours of that, Tom came into the office to announce that he was going to brave the wind and go for a bike ride. I wanted to ride too, so we started organizing our road bike gear to head over to River Road. As we were beginning to load up the Kia, we noticed that there was quite a lot of wind, actually, and changed our plans to mountain biking instead.
The weather was perfect: clear blue skies, light wind and a comfortable temperature. Tom and I rode for about two hours and boy is my butt sore today! Ouch. I haven't been on a bicycle in several months (gasp!) so my body wasn't quite prepared for the onslaught. But it was worth it. We had a really good time, we both rode well and nobody got hurt. Success!
And that pretty much concludes Memorial Day Weekend 2008.
