One day soon, I will go to the cabin and enjoy it. In the meantime, I settle for enjoying getting needed work done. And this.
The kids were done with school (aka tantrums) for the day, the rains were imminently forecasted, I had reached daylight in my tunneling, and had plenty of dark coming to paint after the kids went to bed, so I took off with my paddleboard.
An almost-deserted Goss Lake
+ almost too warm with the sun on my sweatshirt as the sun slanted down into evening
+ waterproof sleeve for my phone with an audible Robert Galbraith mystery
I was able to ignore the garage even 6 months into the pandemic. But when the air quality forces us indoors, I started to crack. And then RBG died, and Igot mad— mad enough to start cleaning (sorting, scrubbing, painting, organizing) the garage. At least the messier half.
We never properly cleaned out this space when we moved in; it still had some house-related debris on shelves. It had all been painted at some point, but it was old and there was not a storage shelf that did not have evidence of mice on it. And the rodents were nothing compared to the spiders!
The bleach came out as did my fancy painting duds.
I’m not ashamed. I’m 45 and if I’m not actually a ringer for Rosie the Riveter, I’m close enough for my own happiness.
Luckily, on my list to get rid of were cans of paint of colors we have long since abandoned, so I had plenty of color to put a shine on the space.
I can’t finish the project until The Great Construction Project of 2020 is completed, but I’m pretty happy with it so far. And I’d rather be angry and organized than mad and messy. How’s that for a life motto?
To cap a particularly crappy week in a crappy year, Ruth Bader Ginsberg died Friday.
I has started the day hoping to complete this week by breathing air outside today, preferably on a paddle board at the local lake, now that the air advisory had gone from purple to orange, and was forecasted green soon. But how can one enjoy that in a world without the notorious RBG?
As Dwayne often points out, life can be more “ands” than “ors”.
Ruth has certainly more than earned a rest, and if the wrong person died (#NotWishingMcConnellManyHappyReturns), then Goddess needs to deal with it. But for now, all I could do was wear my “You Can’t Spell Truth without RUTH” t-shirt, and take her paddleboarding with me 4 times in 3 days.
Dwayne and Wes joined me for our inaugural paddling–a HUGE gift from Dwayne to celebrate his birthday. I have been longing for a SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) even before my first rental of one, and even more this summer when we found ourselves camping my beautiful, paddle-worthy lakes.
Kyla joined Dwayne and I later that weekend on the slough for a very late evening adventure, and I also went another time with Dwayne, and a separate time with two good friends that weekend. And with Ruth. Ruth, not even smelling too bad by Sunday joined me each time.
I bought the kids each their own laundry basket this week. Kyla already had one she uses with some skill, but Rosie “Not Dead Yet” Whitefoot peed in it, which inspired my basket spree. The idea was to get rid of the hamper in the kids’ bathroom that was just as likely to have clothes around it than it was in it…was a preposition between family anyway?
But of course my kids were ecstatic to receive their new baskets! They didn’t see them as hampers but as an excuse to play their old game, Bucket Head.
For any of you relic readers, you may remember earlier bucket head sightings, here and here and here.
I haven’t had a haircut since pre-COVID, and my puff ball had crossed the frizzy line during the summer. My sister-in-law has the best natural corkscrew curls and had discovered Diva Curls last year. I do not have her awesome curls but I like my waves. So I made an appointment, and came home happier, curlier…and, with products.
The sunset was the beginning of a long week of toxic air. The girls and I started following airnow.gov religiously, celebrating even when we got down to “red” (still toxic, but no long purple). Smoke keeps us inside more effectively than Seattle rain!
I credit Kyla with us taking the last week of summer/ first week of school at the cabin. In the 8 years we’ve had the cabin now, this might just be our third time we got a week here.
Kyla’s birthday was a Tuesday; Wednesday, online school started. Because our district did a slow start of the school year, the kids had a lot of extra time on their hands.
I didn’t.
Just for my own recording keeping, here are most of the tasks I managed to do this week:
Restain and spar varnish deck furniture
Add red spotlight to outdoor furniture
Seal hole and paint exterior door red
Hang Heartsease sign
New planters
Wash all downstairs windows in and out, and screens
Cleane front gutter
Paint front exterior trim
Move rocks and clean off concrete slab
Work on dryer
Take down bunk beds, sell bunk, clean up room
Sort through extra linens
Wash and wax wood floor
Clean out under fridge
Drawers
Painted shoe bench, cleaned out floor underneath
Plant a few more plants,
Weed
Prune cherry tree
Prune grape vines
Wash ceiling beams
Paint hobbit door with black chalkboard paint
Sand wood coffee table to remove markers and crayon
Adjust window latches
But, luckily, my kids encourage me to do other things besides work. One evening, I ordered Jim’s Oven-Fired Pizza ahead of time, rounded up the kids, and picked up the pies on our way to Double Bluff Beach sunset picnic. For the first time ever, my kids wanted to walk along the beach, not just frolic in the water and build driftwood forts. The youngers climbed the bluffs, and Kyla just Kyla-ed, which meant I usually, but not always, knew where she was.
I texted Dwayne pictures of the sunset over Seattle and Mr. Rainier and wished him here, but loving all the rest of it.
On my to-do list: take Kyla to our favorite Farmer’s Market! Try not to spend all my cash there. Check and check!
When Dwayne did make it over for the weekend, he got roped into a few chores I needed help with, but mostly he was responsible for exclaiming appreciatively of my work.
We definitely earned our candlelit dinner at Friends’ house that weekend, and Piper, now habitually drenched, threw herself into the pond for a late night swim, mostly so I would have more pictures of my crazy middle child and her friend.
Needopedia 