I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Sweltering
I spent all Wednesday sleeping–not because I was lazy but because I didn’t feel well. I had an achy head, chills, and nausea. I felt too awful to be awake. I kind of wonder if the damp rainy days aggravated my sinuses or something.
Thursday I felt better, so I went outside and scraped old paint off the outside of the back porch. I had to reach high above my head at times, and the flaking paint rained down on me. Some of it apparently got into my eyes. They have felt itchy and burning ever since. Hopefully, they will recover soon.
After I scraped paint, I painted. Halfway through our mortgage officer called with papers I had to get to her. I printed a form she emailed me and signed it, found the other papers she wanted, and then drove two blocks to our bank and had them faxed to her. I have one more form to get to her but I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for so EJ will help me find it when he gets home. After I took care of all that business, went back to painting. I was able to complete two sides of the back porch before I had to stop. We are supposed to have several days of rain, but when we get another sunny day I will paint the third side and then paint a second coat before moving on to the front porch. When I get all the cream painting done, I will paint the trim green on the house and garage.
We are supposed to have storms this afternoon so I did not paint. However, I was able to accomplish a lot of things.
Every year in May our village has “Clean Up Days.” They rent some huge dumpsters and the villagers can haul their junk there for free. When we first moved here, we used to be able to haul the junk out to the side of the road and the village would haul it away, but nonresidents started bringing in their junk to their resident friends and relatives so the Village starting providing the dumpsters and checking ID. Even so I think some people take advantage of it. I think one year people got in to where the dumpsters are at and filled them up before the villagers could get to them. It’s always the unscrupulous few who ruin things for the honest folk.
Anyway, I spent the morning loading up EJ’s pickup truck with junk we need to get rid of. At least it will be one less trip we have to make to the junk yard.
When I finished loading the truck, I mowed the lawn. Then I took Danny for his walk. It was sweltering outside and I had to take frequent breaks to cool off. I am certain that I have snowman DNA because when it gets hot, I begin to melt.
I have a couple of friends who live in Texas. One of my Texan friends had to move to Pennsylvania for a bit and she hated the long-lasting cold and couldn’t wait to move back to her beloved warm Texas. Another friend and I enjoy comparing our weather. “Brrr!” my friend says. “It’s really cold here in Texas today. “Oh,” I reply, “It’s really warm here in Michigan. How cold is it in Texas?” She answers, “80 degrees! How cold is it in Michigan?” I say, “It’s a very warm 65 degrees.” Then we laugh. But, seriously, I don’t know how they can endure the heat. When we first began to tell people that we were moving, several assumed we were moving south. It’s reasonable that they would assume that because many wimpy Michiganders get tired of the cold and move south, at least for the winter. We exclaimed, “South? Ugh, no! We are moving NORTH!”
The last time I talked to our mortgage officer on the phone–yesterday–she said the weather was very nice in the Emerald City and asked me about the weather down state. I told her it was sweltering (in the 70s). She told me that the Great Lakes are like an air conditioner blowing cool air into Michigan so the weather stays really nice and bearable. I can’t wait to get there!
This afternoon I gave Danny a bath. He hates baths but he patiently endures them. He patiently endures a lot of things he dislikes. His fur is so thick that it takes two or three days for him to dry.
The receptionist from JJ’s current oncologist called this morning. The transfer of JJ’s medical stuff to the north is progressing.
My guys have a couple of errands to run in the Emerald City and then they will be driving down to join me for the weekend. We have a lot of tasks to do. Ugh. There’s so much to do that it feels overwhelming and I don’t know how we will get it all done. Only 24 more days to go.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
You have done a lot TJ, I get tired just thinking of all you have worked thru, there will come a time when you will look back and smile. Love ya!!
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Actually, even though the amount of work we have to do seems overwhelming at times, there’s also a tremendous amount of joy as we look forward to our new life in the north. It’s kind of hard to explain that how we can be both, but we know that this is all leading us to very good things. We are the happiest we have been in years.
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You sound quite busy. Hope you are feeling real fine soon. When on a deadline my aunt counts it in sleeps. She currently has one more sleep in Arizona then home to us. Look forward to your next post.
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I am really working hard to get as much done as I can before we move. However, I know that eventually we will get it all up there. Only 24 more sleeps to go before we close on the house! 🙂
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Hope those 24days will fly away and at the same time has more hours in the day so you can get everything done. Shabbat Shalom and enjoy being together the weekend ❤
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Thanks, Simone!
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