Glutton for Punishment

Today's high temperature was:  77 degrees

Today's humidity was:  34%

Sunny, breezy.

PERFECT WEATHER-(once again).

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I'm so glad you stopped by.  I really enjoy our daily chats.

I read Balisha's blog post this morning, http://balisha-neverenoughtime.blogspot.com/and it brought back a whole lot of memories of the summer's of my youth.  My grandma had a hatchery and a chicken farm.  She got her "mash" for the chicken feed in pretty sacks.



It was the easiest thing to make dresses or nighties out of this thin, cool cotton.  Of course, they were dusty from the ground up feed inside, so you had to wash them, but--they were pretty and bright.  I think some of those feed sacks ended up in the quilts my great grandma, grandma and Mother made.   We were well enough off so I didn't have to wear them for church or school, but Mother made me some.  Sleeveless (like a tank top) or tied on the shoulders--and just hung in an "A" line to my knees.  Mother didn't need a pattern--she had sewn from the time she was 10, so she took measurements and then stitched them up in a quick minute.  They were so cool and nice on a hot summer's day.

Of course, I was practically naked under them, but...I always wore my two pair of under panties, under them.  You wonder...why two pairs--at the same time?  Because....I wore my cotton ones and then a nylon pair on top---to make sure I was completely covered and nothing showed through.  You see--I spent a lot of time hanging by my knees from tree limbs, or climbing up trees, or doing cartwheels.  The fact that I had a dress on, and when I was upside down, it would fall around my head--that never mattered to me.  So Mother made sure, I was a respectable Tom-Boy.  LOL

Weren't those days wonderful?  Seven, eight, nine, ten years old.  Running barefoot all over all summer.  Getting as "brown as a berry," my Daddy would say.  When I got to be around 12, grandma cautioned me, "You need to wear a hat or put some lotion on your face when you are in the sons.  Boys like girls with a milk-white complexion, not all tanned up like a hired man!"  

Like I've said before--I am so glad my parents had another child--a girl, so they could get their dainty little princess, who never got tanned, who never had scabs on her knees, who stayed inside and learned to sew and decorate and draw and paint.  While this wild scallywag was out making forts in the hay bales in the top of the barn, walking across the beam up there (15 feet off the barn floor) and swinging on the rope into the pile of hay in the hay loft--or, catching turtles and frogs down by the creek and making hide-outs in the ditches along the gravel road.
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This morning, remembering how bad the back of my shed looked yesterday, I got my bucket of hot water, my mop and my special cleaning solution and headed out back.  I sprayed the back of the shed to get it wet.  Spritzed the cleaner all over it and let it set for twenty minutes.  Then I got my mop and started scrubbing--no big deal, right? Well, you know how life is.  Tasks or things that look easy peasy, usually turn into the most difficult.

Perhaps my arms and shoulders were inflamed because of yesterday's, having to hold the hedge trimmers over my head to trim Mary's bushes, I don't know, they didn't seem to be too sore.  But--for some reason,having to hold that mop above my head and then work my way down, and then having to bend over to get the siding next to the ground--that back and forth mopping motion just about killed me!!!  I thought it might take thirty minutes--took an hour.  I had to go over a lot of places and spritz on some more cleaner.  Truth be told--I would have taken a picture, but my arms and shoulders hurt so much I couldn't lift the camera up to eye level!!!

So I came in and rested and ate a lunch of sweet corn on the cob and tomato slices and watched my soap.  (It is so good right now!)

At 2:00, I was going to kick back my chair and take a little nap, and I looked over at where the book shelves are, sort of in the kitchen and I got a bright idea!   Bright ideas should be illegal for a person like me!!!

Old picture as I do not have the humidifier running now--

but you can see where the book shelves were.

This is a walnut piece that my great grandfather made.  

Rather primitive in its construction, but very solid.

I was also very tired of walking into my house and this being the first thing I see--

My microwave stand over by my chair--although, granted, it is 

technically in the kitchen.

So--I decided that the book shelves should go into the den to replace this old wicker box.

The one Buddy is laying in front of.

But--then, where would I put the box  I had it in front of my couch last fall and winter, but I don't like it there anymore--the reason it had been dispatched to the den.

So--I had to empty out the box.  And, I had to take everything off the book shelves.  Then I had to dust and clean the furniture pieces and dust the books and pictures and.........well, you know.  It just goes on and on.

As I was working away, I got another bright idea.

I tugged and pulled this heavy old wicker trunk out

to where the microwave stand use to be.

I think it kind of fits in with my other old boxes.

Then I pushed the microwave stand over by the kitchen table,

out of sight of anyone that would walk into the house.

And--"walked" (because it's so heavy) the book shelves into the den---in the space the wicker trunk used to occupy.

Maggie wonders what the heck is going on.

I don't know if I like it this way, but by the time I was done, I could not raise my left arm, so it will stay this way, until another day, when I get another bright idea.

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I didn't hear from Pearl all day--but Dar called to tell me she applied for and got a job at the Meijer's Super center.  Cashier--9.00 an hour, with a cost of living raise every 3 months, working her way up to $12.00, I think she said.  Full benefits.  Man, that is great for her.  I am actually quite jealous.  Man--could I use that kind of money.  Don't know if I could do the work for eight hours straight, but I sure could use that money. Wish I could get a job at home, typing or making spread sheets for some small business, putting files together--whatever!  I'd do that for $6.00 an hour!!!!! but nowadays, there are never any jobs like that advertised in the paper.  Most home jobs are scams in the long run.

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Hey, Bethie?  You know what I found out about the Shaker box?  You can tell if the craftsman was right or left handed by the way the Swallowtail design lays.  You hold the box on your lap and look at it.  If the >>> go to the right, he was right handed.  Holding the box and the pieces of shaped wood in his left hand, putting in the little pegs with his right.  if it goes, <<< he was left handed.  Cool, huh?

I guess our craftsman or woman, was right handed :-)

I think I will take a Naproxen--anti-inflammatory and hit the pillow.  I think I will sleep well, if the pain doesn't keep me awake.  



See ya!