Now It's Thursday

My days are whooshing past at the speed of a bullet these days.  I was actually awake at 5 am this morning and driving to work at 7:05.  Who am I?  Where is the Joanne that sleeps until 9 and never gets dressed?  Gone until January.

I am browning up nicely.  Using sunscreen.  And now having to stop using any products with a floral scent as the mosquitos are already busy biting me.  I was outside on the front porch for 2 or 3 minutes, looking at my garden bed, and was bitten by an especially rabid mosquito. I don't even want to talk about the ticks.

The Tomato Seedling count is now up to 36.  Early Girl, Sun Gold Cherries and, finally, a 12 pack of Arkansas Traveler.  I just HAD to have the Travelers as I really loved them last year.  Rose colored and very tasty.  I can always bring the extras to work for a "freebie".  G is not amused.  He thinks the assemblage of stray plants on the sunroom floor and the shelf is getting to be "too much".  I agree.  But if the Arkansas Traveler had been available earlier, I would not have bought the Early Girls.

I tell customers, who are on the fence, that one single tomato seedling is $2 and 12 seedlings are $5.  Buy the 12 pack flat and just compost the ones you don't use.  I tell them but find it hard to follow my own advice.  The poor little tomatoes.

Ironing.  I have been doing a lot of ironing since I was 13 or 14.  My mother used it as punishment.  Sending me to the cool, damp basement on summer afternoons (and weekend mornings) to iron everything the family wore.  Tee shirts, jeans etc.  And all the pillowcases and sheets.  I loved it down there.  All alone with a radio to listen to "rock and roll".  No pesky brothers.  No bitchy mother.  Peace and quiet and a growing pile of ironed clothes and a long row of shirts.  Accomplishments.  I still find it meditative and very peaceful.  And I still love looking at the long row of ironed shirts, the pile of pillowcases.  I did stop ironing teeshirts when my high school aged teens begged me to STOP.  I was embarrassing them.  No one else had sleeve creases in their tees.  I still ironed the jeans.  My German friends ironed their "tea towels" which they used to dry dishes.  I loved that. I love the Zen of ironing.

I did some investigating and I was correct in thinking that taking down a rotten chimney is pretty easy.  A scaffold to work from, an air chisel to break the mortar and a 5 gallon bucket to fill with bricks and then lower to the ground (I had thought to throw the bricks into a tarp on the ground).  Most of the comments said it took from 7 hours to 2 weeks to take the whole thing down and cleanup (working 2 hours a day for the 2 weeks).  Then I would need to have "people" ready to close up the hole in the side of my house until we were ready to insert the new French doors.  My window and door guys are also the roof guys (and the siding and paint guys).  So they could tidy up the roof, lay a new cement foundation for the French doors and add trim on the inside and outside.  I will also be having the house painted.  I'm not sure it will be this year.

I could do the whole chimney myself if I wasn't afraid of heights.  The YouTube videos look pretty simple. I wish I was more of a Handi Andy type girl.