Life's a mix, as it so often is....

[gerisullivan]

My weekend was a mix of work, rest, accomplishment, disappointment, delight, and concern, all topped off with more that needed doing. It looks like the week is bringing more of the same.

The driveway seeding work continues. It's too bloody hot'n'humid to do anything significant on it today, though I may still run out and pick up the soaker hoses that I hope will handle the watering issue. We have rain forecast -- severe thunderstorms, actually. I'm inclined to wait until they pass before shoveling any more dirt. Yes, it will be heavier afterward, but at least I'll have a ready supply on hand to fill in however much gets washed away.

I'm confused about how the landscape cloth is supposed to work. I don't see how the grass will grow through the weed barrier it's advertised to be and I'm thinking I picked up the wrong stuff all together. Yes, this stuff would protect the seed from the birds, and it lets water through, but it also blocks out a significant amount of sunlight and says it needs to be covered with 3-4 inches of mulch. I'm regretting the fact that I took the wrapping off the 300' roll, but I'm not going to cut it into the two strips needed until I understand better what to do with the stuff.

My phone started acting up again Saturday, and continued doing so through Sunday. Intermittent lack of dial tone, including cutting out in the middle of calls. Oh, joy. Seems better today. If they fixed the problem based on my repair request, they haven't told me so yet. Is the problem gone for good, or has it just gone a lot more intermittent than it was over the weekend? It's a mystery.

While the phone problems are present out at the NID box (the network interface outside the home, where the phone company is responsible for the wiring and signal), they reminded me of the phone jack I broke in the kitchen a few months ago. While shopping for grass seed, I picked up a new wall mount jack, and successfully replaced the broken one today. Hey, I even managed to use my new wire strippers without difficulty right out of the package. Small accomplishments like that help me feel not quite so hopeless as a homeowner.

I like owning my own home, and strongly prefer it to renting in every respect. But I also remember well the sheer relief after Jeff moved into Toad Hall back in 1989. After several years on my own, it was absolutely wonderful to not have to know how to do everything the house needed for upkeep. Not that I'd been managing it all that well on my own before that, as the squirrel-gnawed holes in the soffits there so clearly showed. I've already done more in the way of home improvements here than I ever managed in 20 years there, but I still feel like I'm falling behind rather than keeping up with basic maintenance issues. It's wearing. So I celebrate each small success, and try not to be overwhelmed by how much it takes just to keep a place going. Another small accomplishment of the weekend: sealing the edge where the bathtub meets the floor. I hadn't previously noticed it wasn't caulked, and I only started having problems with it after I discovered just how good the tub is for baths.

The weekend's and today's disappointments both involved planned visits from loved ones, neither of which occurred due to illness. It's been too long in both cases and I'm sorry plans couldn't work out as...planned. And that workable alternate plans couldn't be made in either case.

The biggest delight was of course spending Saturday afternoon and evening with kip_w, malibrarian and their irrepressible daughter, Sarah. The highlight of the day, and the reason for my visit, was Sarah's dance recital. As Kip wrote in his account of the event:

Well, it was an interesting enough show, albeit long, with a whole range of talent on display. There were the ones who watched the others to see what to do. The earnest plodders, who had to work, but kept at it. Then the ones who did it all and put some style into their moves. Next above them were the ones who could smile the whole time, and even better were the ones who were in character all the while. At the peak of their craft were the youngsters who made dancing look natural and enjoyable -- as if they weren't doing it because they were told to, but because this is just what you do. That's not easy! It's especially hard in dancing to look as if you're doing what comes naturally -- you know, "your heart is broken, so you do a high kick." There's really nothing natural about it, and being able to fake that is a great skill. To call it a gift would be to ignore the work that probably went into it.

Finally, Sarah's class did their bit. Sarah was right on top of it, and knew her moves.

The recital was a much bigger deal that I expected -- there were 34 numbers in all -- a few solos and duets, and lots of ensemble pieces. Sarah's piece, for example, featured 5 dancers, all about her age. Ages ranged from about 3 through high-school. As Kip said, there was a wide variety of talent present. I found there to be at least one dancer in each piece who was a pleasure to watch. The ones who were painfully awkward just helped remind me of just how much there is to learn -- how to hold and move arms, how to make movement flow rather than jerk. Styles represented included ballet, jazz, modern, tap, "lyrical," hip-hop, and acro (as in acrobat). I didn't find any of the 4 hip-hop numbers convincing, but there was a senior modern dance to "Endangered Species" that was great. All six of the dancers *nailed* step after step, staying right on the beat and doing really interesting, compelling steps and moves. Sweet.

Sarah was charming on stage. She kept her attention on the dance, always mindful of the current move as well as the steps that came next. Several of the dancers in her age group and a bit older had problems with that, as is natural given that we're talking about pre-schoolers here.

Between all of the shoveling, and Saturday's adventures, I was pooped by the time Sunday rolled around. I slept in, caught up with the world via my computer, listened to the last programmed concert of the convention on the Concertino audio stream, called and talked with Daddy, wishing him a happy Father's Day and hearing about the thought he's giving to buying a 1995 Ford Econoline 250 van that's apparently fully decked out. Neat. When it finally started cooling off in the late afternoon, I raked the inside edge of the driveway, visited with my neighbors, and started planting grass seed. I fertilized, covered, and watered about 100 feet along the inside edge of the drive, and hope to finish that side after it cools down a bit more tonight.

Daddy's ultrasound of his carotid arteries is this Wednesday. I don't know when he'll get the results and am trying to save my concern for when we know what (if anything) there is is to be concerned about. Sometimes the distance between trying and succeeding is large, other times it's utterly manageable and fine. This, too, is a mix, just like everything else live is bringing my way these days. Hey, at least there's lots of good stuff mixed in! It could be so much worse, so very much worse. Here's hoping it doesn't get any closer to that direction.

Comments

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

We've been dealing with growing new grass at our house for about ten days. It's coming in, but in weird little patches.

We've been quite lucky - no gully-washing storms so the grass should, ultimately, grow in pretty well. And we're due to get some rain a little every day this week, which means we won't have to water.

I've also had a mild adventure with plastic sheeting for gardens. Our builder blew some grass seed in an area where I didn't want grass. I had a partial role of the garden sheeting, so I put it down. Gradually, we've been planting some bushes and flowers through the sheeting. However, we've noticed the grass is coming in BETTER under the sheeting than it is in ost of the rest of the yard! Weird.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Okay, maybe I am supposed to put the landscape cloth on top of the seeds like a couple of people have told me. I understand the part about it keeping seed safe from the birds, and how it could help hold some of the moisture in (even though it lets water through, so water should also be able to evaporate. What I don't understand is how the grass gets through the cloth.

My bet is that your plastic sheeting is acting like a little greenhouse, and that's why the grass underneath it is growing better than the rest. Not that I understand any of this, mind you.

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the lack of sunlight under the sheeting is what puzzles me. I thought THAT would help suppress the grass growth. But, there are some little holes in the sheeting, so maybe that supplied enough light and water.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

I've decided when and if I ever have to live alone again I'm budgeting for a handy man/someone to shovel and mow or moving someplace where it's included in an association fee, because it's really just too much to manage alone and not what I want to spend all of my free time doing.