A Long Weekend on the Horizon

I'm sitting here in a very relaxed state. Three entire days ahead of me. Wow. No 'Book Project' to monopolize my time. No company coming (nor are we going anywhere). Three uncommitted days. Wow.

It has been a very long time since I've had this many days without any game plan in mind. Too much time on my hands last year played havoc with my peace of mind. Too much time to think. I was looking back a lot then. Now I'm looking ahead and idle time doesn't frighten me.

There are many projects that I should get busy at. I got a jump start at the outside work today when Dale cleaned out/organized the garage. I would say that he is about 95% responsible for the utter state of chaos it was in, so I am very grateful that he took it upon himself to tend to it.

Dale's initiative with the garage made it possible to find the recycling again (it was deeply buried among insulation from the bedroom renovation project that he is also helping out with). So I made one trip to drop off recyling tonight and should be able to return bottles in the morning.

We also unearthed the lawn mower. Although I hadn't gotten any gas for it yet, I did change the oil and air filter this afternoon. So I'll be good to go, as soon as I fill up the tank.

I found the 'lost' grass trimmers (which was the reason I made my displeasure about the state of the garage known to Dale last night). Unfortunately, I am totally responsible for not being able to find them. They were exactly where I had put them (only I was certain I'd put them somewhere else). So ... I trimmed the edges of the backyard lawn this afternoon as well. A tedious job, but something I can do with a yard full of kids.

As Dale came upon the air pump as he was cleaning out the garage, he asked if I'd filled the bike tires yet. I couldn't do it (I didn't realize that it had an attachment for pumping up air mattresses on it - so it didn't fit on the bike), so he took off the attachment and left the job for me. I made it a bigger job than it had to be. The air pump has to be tilted on its side, for starters (it leaks air, otherwise) and I simply didn't have the knack to fill the tires. But by the time I got to the third bike, I sort of had a system worked out.

So ... the outside work has begun. Lots of forward steps made today, which will make it a much less cumbersome job this weekend. There is a fair amount of outside work left, which is kind of nice. It's supposed to be a warm weekend so it will be good to push myself outside and tend to some of the work that our cool spring has delayed.

Fresh air, sunshine and a sense of accomplishment. Sounds like a recipe for an enjoyable weekend.