I’ve been in a decidedly irritable mood of late, as Mrs C could attest. I seem to be in a perpetual race against the hands of the chronometer and the chronometer, more often than not, is winning.
As you know, last year we purchased the house we were renting. There were some great entries about this whole process in my old blog, which is nothing more than a memory now thanks to my incessant tinkering. I know just enough about computers and web-building to do great damage when left unsupervised.
My house, though, is a lovely chateau down the bottom of a steep driveway that allows me, when standing in my garage, the vantage point of a baseball dugout. I don’t know why I like that so much but, also as you know, my garage is one of my favorite places on the planet. The house itself is modest – 3 bedrooms (one is my office), 2 baths, and about 1500 square feet – but it’s nice with vaulted ceilings and large hallways. I like large hallways. It has carpet in nearly every room and I love carpet. I hate hardwood floors; always have, always will.
The best feature of the best house ever (I have bias) is the backyard. In fact, when I came to peruse the house after losing the other, I walked right by the property manager – who was intent on showing me the interior – and onto the deck, took one look around and said “I’ll take it. Now show me the bedrooms.”
It has a pretty large deck, which I much enjoy, and a very large backyard for golden retrievers to play in. The house itself is at the end of a cul-de-sac and we have the “wedge.” One extremely large side yard, another decent-sized other side yard and a good connecting dog-run in-between. If I were to have woken up in my old house – in any of my houses prior – and had an epiphany of “Tom’s perfect backyard” this would have been it. Amazing what providence will provide.
Behind the great backyard is a little green belt so I also have the advantage of privacy, which I also much enjoy. Mrs C and I, having lived in the country and in the suburbs, have said in the past that the perfect home – for us – would have a bit of a country feel in the backyard while being smack dab in the middle of the suburbs. Can I get a “hell yeah” on finding that? Thank you, providence, once again. You rock.
My sublime abode, however, has some drawbacks. Every utopia does. The fencing around the backyard is, of course, expansive (which is good) but very, very old (which is bad). There is very little in the way of storage in the garage or house. The back lawn is vast, grows very high very quickly (it’s all weeds, really), and is on such uneven ground that it is time-consuming to cut down, which must be done quite frequently. Small matters, all, since numbers one and two can be remedied and number three is well worth the effort to keep the golden park in form.
Remedied, that is, with time. That immortal enemy.
My irritable mood, the one I mentioned in paragraph one, sentence one, comes from wanting desperately to get the new shed up (for storage) and to replace all the pickets across the back fence, and seemingly never having the time to progress. Life is just so much regular maintenance and puppy chasing. If I had my druthers I’d take a week’s vacation, maybe two, send the entire household – puppies included – to the French Riviera and spend that time alone getting projects done. I know, I’m a sick, sick man.
Of course I realize, too, that each project leads to two other projects so that by the time the family returned from vacation to a new shed, lovely fence, and perfectly organized garage I’d be irritable at having no time for all the new things I wanted to do.
Such is life.
Since none of that is possible I’ll just push through, find a smile and wear it, and try not to annoy everyone with my obsessions. Time permitting, though, I’ll stop by here as often as possible and complain to all of you in collective therapy. You are good for my soul.
So thanks for listening, carry on, and enjoy today and all the days beyond. Get something done. Take a timeout, too. Try not to obsess and please don’t be irritable.
I’ve got all of that covered for you; leave it on me. 😁
Tom Being Tom 
Ah, the irritables…..I hear you my brother! I like carpeting too; I grew up in a house that had carpeting in every room but the kitchen.
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Just imagine how you are going to feel when shit starts breaking in addition to the long list of chores you have.,
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I know! I think that’s why the stress … I want to get my projects done before the broken stuff comes. 😦
But speaking of which, while I was writing this I was thinking of you, Steve. My projects are nothing compared to your massive endeavor right now!
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Yeah, but the actual work of that massive endeavor is being done by others. The only heavy lifting I have been doing so far, besides cleaning up the site, is writing checks
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Which is, undoubtedly, how I’ll handle most emergency repairs. 😉
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That’s a lot of carpet! The kitchen and commode rooms are both tiled (but the sink area for the master bathroom has carpet). In our old house we had really nice hardwood floors throughout the living room, kitchen, and hallway … so we carpeted over it. 🙂
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This is me commenting here. That may be as much as I get done today as I sit here wishing I could come up with something even half as clever as Eddie Izzard’s ruminations on the best laid plans of mice. Maybe it’s something in the weather, though: solid rain this morning, brightening skies as the post-meridian approaches.
Perhaps if you perspicaciously push toward penitence providence will provide a place for your plans to be…uh…worked on.
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Chris, you just won a new TBT award: “Most Googled Words or Phrases Necessary Before A Response.” Congratulations! This most desiderated conferment agglomerates oodles of cachet!
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I think I would try to do the same, as far as trying to send everyone one on vacay so that I could do and catch up on things I need to. But, as you said, those things will just lead up to more stuff to do. And puppy chasing is a form of therapy I think, no I’m sure so that’s mandatory for your well-being.
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I promise never to give up the puppy-chasing, even if I have to keep adding puppies. Thank you, huntress!
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My condolences to Mrs. C. Tom, I am sending my crab ass (too damn many projects) husband to your house. You two can commiserate together. Mrs. C., I’m sending a limo for you… cocktails and bonfires at my house! 😉
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Wait! I’m dropping my projects to sit by the bonfire. Let the shit sit out in the rain; shed be damned! 🤣
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Remember what’s important Tom… 😂🤣😂
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I love hardwood floors; always have, always will.
(I hate having things done.)
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Done as in “completed,” or done as in “done for you”? There are certain things I want to do (and I almost never ask for help from anyone when doing them) and certain things I don’t want to touch so I hire out (even though it might be something I CAN do). In either event I want things DONE!
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Done as in always burdening ourselves with having to do sth.
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Ah yes, this I understand. Which is why I only choose projects I like, and leave the rest to the handy-peeps. 😁
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Fair enough.
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Never enough time 😦 Pick one project and only focus on that one, if others pop up, put them on a list. Finish the one thing. When you’re done, remember to take a few moments to enjoy it too
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Damn good advice. Thank you, Grace! I shall, at least, try. 😉
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I feel your pain–now that the weather is nice here finally, Ken and I made a list of all the things we need to do, and it’s SO LONG!!
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I got a ton done in the yard on Sunday, and the area for the shed is level-er. But I gotta lay some rock and sand to get it right. And, of course, I added more to the list along the way! 😖
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