April Fools! Actually, there are things I love about my house, but like anyone who owns a money-eating car, boat, house, or whatever, there are things that are driving me insane.
Back To The Front
I just keep reminding myself that my yard work is more of a marathon than a sprint. This is the only way that I can avoid being dejected.
Last night as I entertained a guy who will be making a cost estimate to repair my carport and damaged portion of my gutters, as well as paint the soffit and ironwork of my house I started to fight the front yard again.
To my pleasure my Ryobi gas-powered multi-tool (I have the string trimmer, edger, and bush trimming attachments) actually started with only a little convincing. Sure, the gas was a bit old (and stabilized) and I had to yank the cord (settle down, Francis) in order to get the engine going, but once I did it it ran like a champ.
I still have much yard work to do, but I just need to keep reminding myself that it is a marathon and not a sprint.
And did I cover in clothing from head to toe last night? You bet your ass I did.
Taking A New Look On Life (Again)
Yesterday I received a piece of news which made me stop and think. A friend of a friend passed away on his way to work yesterday; he was twenty-nine. Twenty-nine? That’s almost fifteen years younger than me.
“Why do I keep putting things off when I have no idea when it will all end?” was the first thing that crossed my mind.
I’m not going to profess to change radically, a little bit every day is all I can commit to doing. I’m not recommending that you to change if you are living the life that you desire; all I’m doing is to remind you that our time is limited — enjoy it the best you can.
ITP Flickr Pic
I made it to one baseball game in Denver.
This is obviously not the most picturesque image you’ll see from Coors Field, but it is the best shot that I took all night.
Guilty Confession Time
As a reward for working hard in the yard last night I watched a movie. The movie? 8 Mile. I was a energized by it last night as I was when I first saw it in the theater in 2002.
Oh, and as I surfed IMDB to get that 8 Mile link I saw that today is Cate Blanchett’s 40th birthday — still looking good for an old lady.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – tired
Current Music – catching up on multiple podcasts
Website Of The Day – Saw a commercial yesterday for the Fifty Million Pound Challenge and was intrigued. Sadly it’s about losing weight and not winning 50 Million units of former British currency.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – yard work
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (4)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 12
Marta Rides – 0
May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
My yard is a disaster right now. I still don’t have a working lawn mower (to be sorted out this weekend) and the weeds are taking over. On a positive note, I did spend part of Tuesday morning, after my bike ride and before lunch with Jerry, in the yard, I sprayed the weed and feed (I can already see the weeds dying), cleaned up the garden beds, sowed more lettuce seeds and moved some plants around in the front. We are only going to stay Saturday night in Rome, so I hope to get more done on Sunday after scouting trail with the Colonel.
I’m sorry about the passing of your friend. I had a wake up moment a few years back when I turned 35…the same age as my mother when she died. It didn’t happen overnight, it took a couple of years, but that was when I started to turn the corner. I started taking care of me, learning to say no, letting go of the negitive in my life, etc. Life is to short to not be happy.
I’ve been forgetting to mention it in the actual blog, although I have mentioned it in one comment, I’m skipping Twisted Ankle. Yep, I’m ending my streak at four.
I need to buy some weed killer (perhaps tonight when I make a Lowe’s run — and in other news I’m stimulating the economy quite nicely now — for other goods).
It seems like everyone is skipping TA this year. Other than Sharon and Jan I don’t know of anyone else running. This will be Jerry’s first camping trip, 60% chance of rain on Saturday, three dogs in the tent, Becky’s Bluff…all the makings for a ‘fun’ weekend.
Twisted Ankle seems to have turned into an “every other year” event for folks. Two years ago I was the only one to camp, at least until I found TLS and the Wil You Suck’s up there on Saturday night.
I signed up for the half when registration first opened, but if you’ve read the blog since then you’ll realize that I’ve put in virtually no mileage so I’m not going.
Good luck — not that you’ll need luck.
It sucks it is supposed to maybe rain this weekend (do I sound like a weatherman?). We are leaving early tomorrow to go up to NC to camp & bike.
Randy & Lisa, we won’t be super far from you, we will be at the Badin Lake campground in the Uwharrie National Forest. Ever been there?
Martha, hpoefully it won’t rain so Jerry will have a good time, becuase he’s gonna have to learn to like camping, and a good first experience would be nice.
Paulie – Don’t be calling Cate Blanchett and old woman, she is younger than us!
What did your friend’s friend pass away of/from? (grammer girl, which is correct?) I’m sure you’ve seen this somewhere, but Tooth Fairy (from many hashes, closest to us was Savannah, and I’m sure he was at Hedon) died of cancer a couple days ago at 45. It does make you think.
You haven’t been running? I hadn’t noticed 😉 I feel totaly unprepared for this weekend but we are going anyway. What’s the worst that can happen?
Barb, I don’t think i’ve ever heard Flip Spiceland use the word ‘suck’ in his forecasts…so no i don’t think you sound like a weather man. 😉
Jerry will be with me, he’ll have a good time. Oh, there will be plenty of beer for him also. I wouldn’t be surprised if we bump in to people he knows from his racing days.
No caused of death has been released. All I know is that he died on his way to work.
If Jerry’s racing days were ten years ago then he’s already run into to someone from back then — me. He probably doesn’t remember me from George’s back then, and I think we used to run from some shoe store near Peachtree Battle back then as well.
Oh and Barb, Cate Blanchett is old; we are just older than she. 😉
I meant to tell you that Jerry did remember you. He thought you looked familar when he saw you at Jill’s, when I showed him an older photo of you he did recognize you.
At every race we usually bump into somebody he knows from the old days. I think his friends like that I’m dragging him back out.
Hey Barb, I’ve camped in Uwharrie, but only at “backcountry” sites off the main trail. Not sure what Badin will be like.
Uwharrie’s only 1.5 hrs from us. If it rains, maybe we could meet up for lunch someplace in between?
We probably won’t be able to drive all the way out to Uwharrie this weekend – not only would Nolan cry half the drive (he’s at the right age for that), but we still need to clean up from last weekend when all the relatives were in town 😉
Hope you have good riding weather. Paulie, keep going in the yard – it’s all downhill from here… 😉
I wish it were all downhill. Not only would I be able to visualize things in their completed state, I could roll the trimmed limbs easier.
Randy/Lisa – (I’m never sure who’s writing) – I would have invited you, but with that almost brand new baby, I figured you wouldn’t be up for camping. Plus, our friends that we are meeting have a 1.5 year old that is staying with Grandma for the weekend, so they are all about a no kid weekend. If this place works out, we will go there again (Amy & Matt live over in Jacksonville, NC, so it is sort of kind of half way). I heard from Kev that the baptism was last weekend, I figured you’d need a weekend of just regular kid craziness without extra relatives.
I’ll call you if the weather is really crappy & we feel the need to get out of there. But, we’ve got tarps, we’ve got cards, we’ve got booze, we should be just fine.
FYI- the Brits have not gone to the euro, the pound is still their unit of currency. My instrutor this week is a Brit. Bit of a twit, too.
I’ll be back to regular commenting next week.
-FP
And here I thought I was being smart by identifying the Pound (£ and not #) as the former British currency.
“…smart by identifying the Pound (£ and not #)”
*cringes*
Pound Sterling = £ (not lb), # = a hash. 😛
# is a pound symbol in this country; you confuse many when you call it a hash symbol, especially when talking to hashers. 🙂
And I realize its name is Pound Sterling, but I rarely hear people include the Sterling when talking British currency.
But what the hell do I know, I’m just another ugly American. 😉