3 June 2011 - Pop's birthday

Well, Pop, it’s your birthday today. I have been struggling with this, fluctuating between weepy and mentally giving you a piece of my mind. Still haven’t forgiven you for leaving us so unexpectedly. Robin tells me that I should find a quiet spot and talk to you. (Note to not with. Damnit.) But then I always seem to be talking to you these days, or flogging myself for not learning more from you while you were available. 

But it’s June, the rhubarb is fresh in the farmer’s market and perhaps it is time to make your birthday rhubarb-strawberry pie. I’ll bet D2 has one already made. Last I spoke with him, his rhubarb had bolted and he needed to chop those stalks down. 

This year is flying by. Jack, who has been at the Parkview house for nine months is finally home. We have been busy painting. In the abstract, it doesn’t seem all that difficult to throw some paint on the walls. In reality it is a different story.

·         Patch holes. Sand holes. Prime patching.

·         Paint the ceiling. Let it dry. Tape the ceiling.

·         Paint the molding. Let it dry. Paint second coat. Let dry. Remove ceiling tape. Tape the molding.

·         Paint the walls. Let them dry. Paint second coat. Let dry. Remove molding tape. Tape the walls and floors to paint the baseboards.

·         Paint the baseboards. 

It seems endless. Discovered that our hallway—a very short hallway has 11 doors that open into it. That’s an awful lot of woodwork to paint. However, moaning aside, we are making progress. I have big hopes of getting at least one room finished this weekend, but the forecast is talking about temps in the mid 90s. I may not be able to handle a hot house plus the humidity factor of wet paint. We shall see.

It is hard painting a house to sell. These colors are so not me. but I have to admit it looks clean, light and airy. It is a yellow based beige with white trim, so it complements the gold tones in the kitchen floor and in my oak furniture. 

The living room and dining room have all the  furniture gathered up in the center of the rooms and are covered with plastic. We are at a place where we can put the rooms back together, except that we need to have new carpet put down. Not sure whether to move stuff again, or just wait until the carpet is in. This whole process has been horse and buggy intensive.