The definition of lazy: shooting photos for today’s post from my chair on the porch this morning.
I didn’t even stand up.
From the adirondack chair on the right. Don was in the one on the left.
This vine appears every year and is a pain in the tush. Usually, I yank it. But this twining around the railing is sort of pretty. So it has a temporary reprieve.
It reminds me of a morning glory. But it isn’t.
I mowed a heck of a lot of lawn yesterday because the weather was so beautiful and there was no humidity. The lawn needed it and I was feeling feisty, so I tackled the back forty and the entire front lawn. It looks awfully pretty this morning.
I’ll say it again for those who think Don should be helping me (he offers to help every time): I like mowing. I’m good at it. Don is okay at it. I’m more precise.
I actually get excited when it’s time to mow. Go figure.
Today? Deductions. I had every intention of starting in on all of that tedious stuff the other day but I didn’t. I have always functioned at my best when I’m facing a deadline. I’m the person who waits until the last minute and then gets it all done, who wrote every paper in high school and college the night before. I accepted this about myself years ago. Though my thoughts are always planning ahead, my actions sometimes lag behind.
But I’m facing a deadline now, so today I will plant myself in the office and start adding and subtracting and multiplying.
This one I did stand up for, but that’s because I took it a few days ago.
Happy Saturday.
The porch looks beautiful! Claudia, I always enjoy your photos and Don’s. Thank you for taking the time to photograph the small things…they bring much joy.
Thank you, Lovenna. You are very welcome!
Your photos are great, even if you were “lazy” about taking them!
I’m like you …. sometimes I need a deadline to get tasks done. Then I work really well with a date looming. No deadline …. sometimes it sits if it’s not super important. Deadlines are best in my world!
My dh is amazing but cutting grass is not his passion …. I loved to cut our grass, keeping the lines and design in order. So we made a deal years ago …. he makes dinner, I do the yard work. Except for the snow. He loves his snowblower so that domain is his. I do the laundry, though he does help me fold and will throw in a load here and there. He does the dishes (which means he loads and unloads the dishwasher). I wash the counters down and polish them pretty! He will buy groceries but I sort the pantry and clean out the fridge. We do the garbage/recycling together a we have to walk it down the lane and that’s a 2 person job. He cleans our bathroom, I clean the half bath on the main floor. I dust and vacuum and wash the floors. I think we have a pretty even separation of chores. No complaints on either side.
Hope your number crunching goes well today. We’re off to the theatre ~ last show today and strike tomorrow, then it’s back to “normal” life!
X Chy
Same here! Don cooks every dinner. He has always helped with laundry, throwing a load or two in, often when I’m not aware how much is in the hamper. He buys most of the groceries and is much more willing to run to the store for something – often for me – than I am. He usually recycles. He climbs a ladder, goes on the roof and cleans out our gutters because I am afraid of heights. And on and on. We’re happy with our division of chores as well. If I need help, I have only to ask and he’ll be there.
Have fun with the show today, Chy!
My husband and I have a pretty-good division of chores in these days. I’m grateful he does the things I don’t want to do, like grocery shopping. Or stand in the line at the pharmacy, waiting to pick up medicines . He also gasses up (and washes) the cars. I pick up the dog messes on the lawn so he can mow. I tend to the feral cats; he tends to the gardening/weeding. I take out all the trash but he cleans the toilets and washes floors (because I can’t handle the odors anymore with my asthma). I take care of all the finances/banking plus pick up the mail at the post office, but he’s the one still going out there to a full-time job every day. He likes to do laundry, so I’ll fold. He cooks (because he likes to; I don’t!), so I’ll do the dishes and clean up. I think it’s just the rhythm and compromise of a long-running marriage. Courtesy. One partner’s strengths; the other’s weaknesses. Yin and yang. It’s all about sharing life and getting stuff done so you both can go on to other things; adult responsibilities before adult pleasures.
It actually was a learning process to some extent in the earlier days of marriage because I did try to take on too much with working outside the home, then all the duties of home. We didn’t even have kids but I still couldn’t do it all (how DO parents manage?!), frantically cleaning all weekend (4-bed homes at the time), doing laundry (sometimes ironing), doing all the shopping, bathing four good-sized dogs nearly every Saturday (a lot for one person to do; that’s 16 big paws/feet to wash alone, and SO many towels). I’d get exhausted and yearn for 3 days to the weekend, not just two…so I could catch my breath; relax; do bills & paperwork (good luck ever cracking open a novel to read!). To be frank, my husband didn’t learn to really pitch in until about five years into the marriage; I was working at my paying job as hard as he was his, but we did NOT have a good division of chores at home and other tasks of life. I sort of blew up about it and then we got on a more even keel. It all comes down to communication and intuition the longer you’ve spent time together.
There are times when I have to ‘encourage’ Don to help out with something, but most of the time our division of chores works out well.
My dad could do anything! Very resourceful. From the generation who fixed things rather than just going out and buying ‘new’. Although his occupation meant he sat at a desk all day, he could also do other things like car maintenance and repairing the kitchen sink faucet; build stuff. More importantly perhaps, he was the last at home in a big family; his mom increasingly needed help due to her health. So, as a kid, he brought the cow back and forth between pasture and barn, milked her. Got up first before everybody else to stoke the wood stove even on the snowiest mornings on the prairie, long before his school day started. His mother taught him to sew a seam (he knew how to use a treadle sewing machine); darn a sock and replace a button. He could wash clothes and iron. He knew how to cook a meal (wonderful cook) and clean a house. He left his parents’ home to marry Mom and then didn’t have to do any of that stuff for years and years but, man, did it come in handy once Mom got permanently disabled; he had the early homekeeping skills to fall back on when he and she had to essentially trade places.
My dad, too. He could fix anything, make anything, taught himself to paint in oils, taught my mom, who didn’t even know how to boil water, how to cook. He was the youngest of 6 kids and his mother was ill much of the time he was growing up. He took care of her and did everything around the house. Then he went off to war for 4 years. I called him for advice up until he died. We’d always say, “Dad will know!”
He did it all.
Wow, Claudia, our fathers seem similar. The Greatest Generation!
Absolutely!
Your view is so pretty, I see no need to get up either. These past few days w/o humidity have been lovely, but it came roaring back this morning. School starts around here this coming week so, naturally, it has to be stinkin’ hot again. It’s kind of a tradition in these parts.
Always happens when it’s time to go back to school!
We all have things we love to do. I am allergic to grass, so my brother does it. I do the pruning. It works.
I love your porch, especially the glider. I know you let it rust, but have you thought about powder coating it? It isn’t cheap but so worth it! My mom and I bought metal motel chairs years ago. They were starting to rust, and when she passed away, I decided to restore them. It was $125 a chair, but now I have a Coke red chair and a turquoise blue one, both weatherproof. And, a ton of memories. (Two more to do, budgeting for them!)
Just an idea for the future!
I’m allergic to grass, too, Tina-Marie!
Not worth powder coating, really. It only cost us $25 over 20 years ago. We have other things we need to budget for!
Love your pictures. Some times I take pictures of the outside while staying inside. LOL I understand your mowing passion. I always mowed in town. But out here Ted bought an expensive mower…so he can do it. I used to mow my lawn, take a little break, then push my mower a block and a half to my mother’s and mow her lawn , then go back home, take a shower , get dressed and go to work. When I was much stronger. LOL. But I liked mowing too. Blessings, xoxo, Susie
It’s very satisfying. You see the end result immediately!
Love how the adirondack chairs are aging. They look good with the glider.
Thank you, Olivia!
Claudia, I have a love-hate relationship with taxes. I hate doing them but I love the precision with which I lay out the numbers on accounting paper. No TurboTax for me, just good old-fashion accounting paper and a fountain pen and a calculator. Hope you get through what you need to do so you can go on to something you enjoy a lot more. Today, I’m sewing up the pieces I cut out yesterday for a 1920’s inspired kimono-like lounging robe. I thought it’ll be a million steps up from the fraying sweatshirt I usually wear in the house!
Our taxes are too complicated to use Turbo Tax. We have an accountant who works with actors, etc, do our taxes. She lives in Los Angeles. Too many deductions to figure out, too many W-2s and 199s. It’s crazy!
But I do add up all my deductions on paper, with pen.
I love this whole beautiful post! the pictures AND the words.
especially this line… ” I accepted this about myself years ago. ”
I accepted that about myself also. and I feel just fine about it! LOL!
Yay!
“This one I stood up for….” Hahahaha! THAT – was adorable.
Can’t say I hope you have fun messing with your tax stuff today – cuz that’s basically just not possible – but I hope it at least goes quickly so you can get back to enjoying this picture-perfect weather. Have a great weekend. Peace.
#Resist
#ProtectMueller
Thank you, Janet. It’s awfully pretty outside!
Claudia we are exactly alike when it comes to getting things done. I wait until the last minute but I’m constantly thinking about it. Procrastination. I’ve always had it and feel guilty when I don’t “work ahead” but I am what I am and have had to accept that about myself. I’m the only person it affects so why worry, right? Speaking of which, maybe I’ll get the kitchen floor mopped today. I’ve only been putting it off all week!
Take care,
Chris from Normal
Exactly! If we’re comfortable with that, it doesn’t matter!
Everything looks so lovely. Relax and enjoy the week end.
Marilyn
Thank you. You too, Marilyn!
hope by now the tax work is done so the rest of the weekend is yours to enjoy!
kathy in iowa
No, it’s not done, but it will be in a few days. Thanks, Kathy.
I feel fortunate I’ve never had to do a tax return. All I’ve ever had to do is gather receipts and keep track of stuff for the accountants (#1, my dad, who WAS an accountant [til I was age 50 and he retired]; and, #2 my husband who, while NOT an accountant, understands income tax particulars, enough to do our joint return).
Anywhere I’ve ever worked, I’ve always been ‘encouraged’ to go into the accounting departments. I’ve had employers look at me quizzically, like “why wouldn’t you want this promotion with higher pay?” but Dad had tried to teach me some things, and I had zero interest. On one job where I indirectly worked for a Controller (it hadn’t started out that way!), I was given no choice – – go back to college and take accounting classes or get fired (they didn’t say it quite like that, but I got the drift). So, I went to night school for a year and got straight As; hated every minute of it. I’m sure I disappointed my father!
And I was gone from that job within four months of getting those college units. The nature of the work had changed and I knew they were going to try to turn me into a bookkeeper; I was already doing payroll and couldn’t stand that either. You have to stick with things that interest you and to which you’re more suited; like, how many times in more than one office workplace, did I see them try to put a high-achieving salesperson into management when he/she was happier back in Sales. Or the television reporter who insists on wanting to be a news anchor for which he has no talent yet excels in reporting from the field and doing his own stories on location (ala [one example] that terrific movie, Broadcast News, with actors Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter and William Hurt [also Jack Nicholson]).
We no longer do our actual return because the return of freelancers such as Don and me are complicated. We also have earnings from other states in addition to New York. Entirely too complicated for me. Next year will be even worse, as we lose many deductions that we had previously, including Don’s union dues. F the Republican Tax bill.
Wow, what a headache; just gathering all the info to get it to your accountant; I didn’t think of how you both have income from other states. What a tangle! After you ship all that stuff out, you and Don should give yourselves a little celebration; maybe take that beach trip!
On the other subject of this; procrastination. I thought I was the world’s worst procrastinator, Claudia! It’s defined most of my life and I always regret how I yam what I yam; maybe it’s time to accept it. I always wait too late and then lose key opportunities.
That said, my husband and I have recently done a complete flipflop on retirement plans. Not going to move now; aging in place where we are. Took a LONG time to get to that final decision. Shelving major home improvements for now (although I still will unpack out of storage as much as I can; I’m on the hunt for that Roseville!!) and instead hitting the road in 2019 although, at the moment, I still head-scratch as to how we’re going to afford it (I’ll figure it out for sure!). But we’ve got relatives in four states across the U.S. who are getting old and/or sick (seven of them in those circumstances, unfortunately; my husband’s relatives as well as mine); need to see them now, not later; it’s family and we don’t have a whole lot of family.
We’ll rent a small/compact motor home, that’s the plan so far, so we can take the equally-aging dog and I’ll have to find somebody to come in the back gates to feed the feral cats each day; I’ve got some good leads on that. Do-able.
Just decided to not put off; live now; seize the moments. Not the most prudent decision for our financial ‘situation’ but I’m prepared after this to settle in and travel closer to home, like a day trip here and there, like for the rest of the years; live quite simply. There’s so much to do in SoCalif, so I feel lucky in that regard (of where I’m geographically placed!). But, in the meantime, maybe as few as just eight or nine months from now, I’ll be in Michigan, Claudia! I’m so excited. I haven’t been on any kind of substantial vacation for thirty years, not even weekend trips. Always heretofore been tied down with work obligations, too many dogs, matters of health, lengthy care of my elderly parents (years), etc.
I was just thinking of your trip with Don cross-country last year; I may ask you for some general on-the-road tips (I want to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!). I really LOVED your posts from the road!
So, for me, with the whole procrastination thing, it’s great to have made the decisions, I now have the goals and the pressure to get together the money for this and the planning (also my health, to improve stamina); I needed the deadline of a date, so damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead.
That’s a lot of personal sharing; thanks for indulging me.
Judy A-Here, Vickie I envy You to the Most! Good Luck with your Plans!
If you wouldn’t mind I would just like to say one thing about the road trip Of Don and Claudia, They stayed in a wonderful small Town in my state, Called Coalville, that town this year, has been burned beyond recognition.
Very sad but I thought you folks that followed that trip,may want to know.
Judy A-
Judy, I’m so sorry to hear that! I had no idea!
Claudia,& Vicki,,We have had such Great Wild Fire Destruction this year. Also we sent several groups to California, where we Lost Our Beloved, and Noble, Battalion Chief, While fighting the Mendocino Ridge Fire , in Calif. It has been a heart breaking wild Fire Season! We are all in Stunned Grief. Coalville is a small town as you know and right in the valley between two Huge wild fires So much Destruction. Please remember us in your good thoughts and if you believe, pray for us also
(Look for Fire in Duchesne County, I believe the Coin Ridge Fire if you want to. But I wouldn’t its all so horrible a lot of us “Olders” wearing Masks because of smoke thick smoke in the air. I get a little claustrophobic when major roads all around us are closed because of fire,I feel it is going to just close over the whole State. OK you are now officially informed . ps if you want to look up the Story of Our Fallen Hero, who volunteered with several hundred,Utah fire fighters.(Our/my Division Deploys them.)
Battalion Chief, Matthew David Burchett
Thank You for letting me talk about this, I really Love this Blog and it has a lot of interesting people too. Thanks guys
Judy A XoooXo
I am so very sorry. To lose a brave firefighter in the line of duty is heartbreaking. Has Coalville been destroyed, Judy?
Oh, Judy; I have tears in my eyes. You sound so scared and I definitely KNOW that feeling; fire is frightening and it burned just five blocks from my house last December (it’s a miracle my former house was spared as the fire was only one-two streets up; our neighbors up there couldn’t get back in for five days; this was mid-town; not like we were back in a mountain canyon or anything; of course, in my area, the wildfire burned, in places, all the way to the sea). And, in our county, they couldn’t get the fire out for a month.
It’s good you can talk this out; relieve some stress. Claudia and her readers had let me do that, too. There’s wonderful generosity on this blog. Cyber friends! Prayers and all my healing wishes to you and I am SO sorry about your firefighter.
Here, last December in our Thomas Fire, when we lost a firefighting hero from another part of Calif, our local fire departments put the flag at half mast and solemnly honored him. He fell on our behalf; the work is terribly dangerous. We all felt awful about his death on the fire line. When he was transported back to where he lived, people stood respectfully on freeway overpasses in salute of the long procession below of law enforcement escort and hearse. Locally, our cemetery set aside an area where a flower memorial grew in tribute. Residents needed a way to show their appreciation to him; to gather, cry, pray and demonstrate thanks for his sacrifice. He left behind a toddler, plus his young wife was pregnant when he died. Beyond tragic. The enormity of loss was not lost on us.
I wore the mask for a long time in December; the N95. I’m staring at a stack of them right now, sitting on a shelf here in the home office; we’ll never be without them again, that’s for sure (just as important as earthquake preparedness for us; we’ll never-ever take wildfire for granted again). They want you to always check with your doctor first because ironically the mask can make a person with any kind of respiratory problem breathe harder. But even with the mask, I still had airway/lung issues from December to April of this year; of course, I already have asthma. For me, that first night of the fire and preparing to evacuate, packing the cars for a couple of hours and in & out of the smoke in horrible wind, trying to see in the dark outside with no electricity, it was too late for my airways because I’d already breathed too much smoke in and we didn’t get schooled on the masks for the next couple of days. But at least when I’d dart in and out thereafter, the mask kept things from getting any worse.
Thinking of you; hang in there!
Judy, thanks for the heads-up. Our trip will be nothing deluxe (the ‘budget tour’) and I can’t see ‘everything’ but just grateful for whatever we can do. I’m so sorry to hear about Coalville. I’ll look it up and read about what happened. I know of the devastation of fire because in SoCalif where I live, we’ve suffered the terrible wildfires from last December and I personally know people who lost their homes; taking a long time to get back on their feet. But a whole town? So awful.
So glad to hear you’ve finalized your plans! It sounds wonderful. You will have such a good time! xo
Thanks, Claudia. I’ve been googling like mad, learning and acquainting myself about points along the way of our planned northerly route but my husband said tonight, “Okay, but for now, we’ve got to get back to reality.” And he’s right. Tomorrow the dentist, and so on & so on!
xo
That plant growing on your porch railing could be Bindweed, it’s pretty, but also very invasive. You can read about it here https://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/subject.html?sub=4338.
It isn’t bindweed, the leaves aren’t long and angular enough and it doesn’t flower. Not sure what it is, though!
I do not believe that is bindweed at least not what we called bindweed at the Garden/Greenhouse, I come from. Judy A-
Thank you, Judy.
I have blindweed up at the road where our mailbox is…it does get flowers sometimes and they do look like white morning glories!
The more I look at it, the more I think it is bindweed.
Claudia first of all I too am a “Queen” Procrastinator. I’ve tried 1,000,000,times to change to a “Red Hot” like my siste,r but I Cannot! Those of us in my age category 55-70 should remember the “Red Hot” reference . We used to call people who are NOT procrastinators Red Hots, all the while pretending we didn’t want to be just like them!
Secondly I started laughing right out Loud right here in my office, when you said “I didn’t even stand up to take this picture”‘ Still LOL!! -Judy A-
VERY FUNNY, still laughing.
xoxo
Thank you, Judy!