The Dog Days Are Here

Summer may have had a dubious presence in July, but it has returned with a vengeance in August. Yesterday was in the 90s with humidity making the air so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.

That continues this morning. Already 80 degrees at 6 a,m, with 89 percent humidity. Whew! Makes me wonder what the rest of the season will be like. Here’s hoping that the weather holds.
Sometime shortly after Labor Day, Lawrence and I are going to build up the driveway and reinforce the edge with concrete. We talked through the project yesterday in great detail.

Sounds like it will be an all-day job – but it also sounds like it can be done in a day.

I love talking through projects with Lawrence. He doesn’t bristle at anything. And even when my thinking is less than spot-on he always has a disarming way of telling me that. He might start, “I can see where you would think that, but …” or “that’s something you could do, but this might work better.”

Sometimes I could just hug him. Everyone should have a Lawrence.

Especially if they’re cooking up a grand conspiracy. And I am cooking one up. If I can score the time off work, Lawrence will help me for at least a day or two. The goal: Finish the kitchen and bathroom before the mother gets back from her trip.

I don’t know where she got the idea that she’s the only person who can paint (especially considering that it was ME who painted the house a few years ago) but that’s her thinking. And she has a LOT to paint. A LOT. But in typical mother fashion, she’s in 80-project mode, all over the place like an ADHD kid.

One thing I can’t seem to get her to move on though is the kitchen cabinets. I want them done – yesterday. In fact, a few weeks ago, I wrote on my calendar that by Aug. 17, the kitchen and bath are done – or I move. (Well, that was a little premature, if not a little rash. At the time, it was done in the interest of my sanity. These jobs are just going on for entirely too long.) However, add a few weeks to that date and I just might make it.

For now, the goal is to see how much I can get done in those two rooms before she leaves. But today, I go back to the job that pays the bills so the house stuff will have to wait.

For now.