May 21: Procrastinator to Do-er

We were awakened this morning by a rumble of thunder and then heavy pouring rain.  You'll understand that John figured the yard was far too wet to mow.  Nope.  For all that it rained a solid hour and that it was super heavy, the grass was dry, courtesy of a strong westerly breeze that blew this morning.  I told John how dry everything was when I came in from trimming the rose.  

I have really struggled lately with getting onto the work I know must be done.  I finally made myself go outdoors this morning and cut back the one rosebush that went wild.  I noted that one reason it looked so wild is that there are several small trees that have taken root in the same area and those were growing up through the base of the rosebush.  It also helped to cut back last year's stems from the lantana.  The whole are looks tamed once more.  

What I also found was two small rosebushes have taken root.  I'm going to ask Sam if he wants them, since he'd talked about planting them on his fence line.  We'll see.  If he doesn't then I'll see if we can get them up out of the ground, but what I shall do with them from there, I couldn't say.  I have two of these bushes already and they grow rapidly and strong.  I have two small roses rooted in a pot as well.  Not sure what those are, New Dawn or this antique rose variety.  Neither is suited to growing in a pot.  So those will also need to be planted or given away.

After lunch, John went out to mow, and I headed to the guest room to clean out the guest room closet.  That closet was stuffed to the gills with various things that we need at various times.  It is very much a storage closet.  John's music room closet is also a storage closet, but do not ask me what all he has in it.  It's his.  This one is not exactly mine, but I tend to be charge of what goes into it.  It's all household stuff.  Canning jars and rings, a spare coffee pot, a vacation Keurig (bought on a steep sale), gift wrap, the five-gallon storage buckets, some extra clothes that Sam sent over for Caleb that he hasn't grown into just yet, air mattresses and pumps and a lovely memory phone mattress that is a HUGE cube that you just fold out into a very nice twin sized bed, pictures, sewing machine and craft bin.  You get the idea.  

The main trouble was that when I've needed to get to the fold out mattress I couldn't get to it without emptying the closet out.  I couldn't get to most of the things I needed most frequently, so clearing it out was the only way to begin today.  

I put on a very interesting history program about the DNA of the 1607 Jamestown, Virginia founders.  Then an equally interesting one on Scottish DNA studies.  I don't know if I've mentioned it but I've a strong Scottish heritage.  The Scots heritage is sprinkled through my mom's family history in so many lines.  And here I was the other night watching "Doctor Finlay" and someone sang a song about Galloway...I've one brick wall line that has the surname Galloway.  No clue it was Scottish though until I heard the song!  

The DNA history things were very interesting.  After I'd listened to several of those, I put on the new release from Jake Westbrook.  I really enjoy his channel.  It all helped the job get done and passed the time nicely.

Yesterday as I worked here indoors, I turned on the radio, but we get very poor reception.  I am of the era that the radio was my lifeline to the world rather than my phone.  Am or Fm, it didn't matter.  As a teen I was thrilled when I discovered that I could actually pick up the tv station on my radio if I tuned it just right.  So, I'd lie in bed at night and listen to MASH or Johnny Carson or whatever Daddy was watching late at night.  

But I was disappointed.  Music that was 30-50 years old...Talk shows about politics, fundraisers.  It wasn't a fun experience.  And as I said, the reception isn't the best.  If I found something interesting the channel would simply fade out until I couldn't hear it any longer.

So today I used my phone and YouTube to entertain me.  And it worked, with far fewer commercial breaks!

In the end, everything except one empty bin and the bin of rice and dried beans went back into the closet.  I plan to move the beans and rice into the pantry.  That's because I tend to completely ignore them.  It's white rice so not a problem in storing that, but the beans...Well, they'll cook even if they are old, but I tend to forget that I have them and don't use them.  

I completely rearranged the closet. Now, I can easily get to gift wrap and the fold out mattress, the sewing machine and vacation/picnic stuff.  

I was tired and weary.  But I had the satisfaction today of marking two items off my list of things I had been procrastinating about doing.  Next up...The master bedroom closet.  But not today!

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