6 Days in June

Here is what's been happening for the last 6 days:

14 June - Blood, Shoes, Books and Sawdust.

Today started with fasting lab work in preparation for a doctor’s visit next week. The phlebotomist took one look at my feet and said, “I love those shoes!” Now, my fashion sense is usually determined by sale signs saying 75% off plus an additional 40% and that is exactly how I bought these “Shark Tough” water sandals for use when kayaking. But this is the second time someone has said they loved these shoes. Karen described them as almost trendy. I just bought them because they were a great buy.

After returning home and getting some food in my tummy Penny and I went to the library. I needed more to read out in the shop. I’m averaging a book plus every 2 days.
The rest of the day was spent in the shop.


15 June – Pancakes, Wine, Kitties, Tomatoes and Sawdust.


Banana pecan pancakes again for breakfast today. We did our normal Friday morning visit to Target. Today they had a bunch of wine at 75% off so we bought about 8 bottles. It’s probably a year’s supply at the rate we go through it. I just couldn’t not buy decent wine that only costs $3.24 a bottle.

Each time I feed or clean the kitties in the cage all but 1 of them run to the other side of the cage while I work. But one of the white ones comes over to my side and watches everything I do. When I set the food down it is the first one there and gets its fill before I close the cage and the others come over to feed. When I fed the kitties today I started with a plastic spoonful of food and held it out to them. Of course the white one was right there. With a little patience and time I had all 4 kittens eating out of the spoon. The older gray kitten, whom we are beginning to call Meredith, won’t come anywhere near the food until I close the door and go away.

Here is what the dresser looks like today. A basic box. I had fun drilling the 64 holes for the adjustable shelf supports. It’s a lot easier than it looks. You just take a piece of pegboard and use it as a template. The holes are automatically spaced correctly.Tomorrow I start on trim.

I haven’t had good luck with the garden this year. I put it in hastily while I was doing the sprinkler system and the plants are not growing well. I think I got the soil mix wrong. All of the tomato plants except the 2 bush cherry tomato plants got wilt. That’s a fungus that must have been in the soil. It causes the plants to – a – wilt and die. We are getting a bunch of cherry tomatoes though.

The squash and cucumber plants are not forming fruit. Caterpillars are eating the parsley. The “Bell” peppers were actually hot banana peppers. I do have lots and lots of basil growing and sage, thyme and oregano. I lost the cilantro again this year. The 2 eggplant plants are now forming fruit and 2 of the blackberry plant cuttings I took while kayaking have taken root and are growing. I will be feeding the birds blackberries next year.

16 June – Mahi-Mahi and Sawdust


We went to Harbordock’s for my Father’s Day lunch today. I had the usual fried fish, cheese grits (yum!) cole slaw and sweet tea. We got Penny’s favorite table – all the way at the end with windows on 2 sides. A gray heron visited on one of the dock timbers and provided a nice wrap-up to a very pleasant lunch. We hit Fresh Market on the way home and then it was back to the dresser. Today it was side legs and trim. It's not just a box anymore.

17 June – Fathers Day and Lots of Sawdust


We were treated once again to Walt Richardson and one of his singing homilies at church today. He volunteered to do the homily today. Father asked him what his qualifications were and he told him that he raised 8 children. Father jokingly told him that that wasn’t enough. Walt, who is African-American, told father that he would give the homily in high definition and living color so father let him do it. Each time I hear him sing I wonder if it will be the last. He has a hard time getting around now.



My Dad’s birthday always falls close to Fathers day so it was easy to remember. There was always some confusion whether his birthday was the 16th or the 18th but I would always send both cards together and that way the date didn’t matter.

Both Karen and Christy remembered Fathers day and called me. Karen called while I was sanding the dresser and I almost missed her call. The sander disguised the vibration of the cell phone. Today I cut down some ¾ inch thick poplar to ½ inch thick to use as parts for the 3 drawers and did some finish sanding on the dresser.


18 June – All Saw Dust All The Time


Today was all dresser day. I cut and sanded the drawer sides and assembled them.



19 June – Wet Cats, Knocked Up and Sawdust

We had a big rainstorm move through yesterday and we ended up with some damp cats. Today I made for a more rainproof set up for the cats. We’ve had so little rain that the cover they were under hadn’t been tested. It kept the cats mostly dry but needed some improvement.

We have 2 movies that we want to see and we knocked off Knocked Up today. Penny had a haircut appointment near the mall so I joined her after that. We got lunch at Krystal and ate it in the movie parking lot while listening to a book on tape. That’s the way we spent many lunch hours when we were working. We caught the reduced price matinee movie. I thought the movie was great. I laughed so hard during the delivery scene that my eyes were tearing. The movie touches on many serious issues but doesn’t loose its comic touch. I like it when I forget that I’m watching actors and just enjoy the story.

Back home again I put the bottom pieces in the drawers. My hands have been getting very sore so today was a mostly rest the hands day.

We had another rainstorm today to test the new set up. They came through this storm better.