First Weekend Alone in Almost Six Months

Why can't I wake up in the morning? I've never been a morning person. Lots of people can spring out of bed around dawn, or at least some semblance of a morning time (which I consider to be half past eight), and some can't. I fall into the group that can't, but in my case, I can't seem to even be functional by lunch time. Yesterday I slept until 2:30pm. Today I was up about three hours sooner, but still, it botched up my half-formed plans of going to church. Yizong has been bugging me to go to Trinity Christian, and I have been twice. Neither time impressed me, as the guy that was preaching was an unqualified disaster at doing so. Today the senior minister was supposed to be preaching, and Yizong really wanted me to hear him. Alas, church started at 11am, and I was still fast asleep.

When I did finally wake up, I once again found myself with nothing to do. It's amazing what you can get accomplished when you have nothing to do. Last night I finished adding some categories to previous blog posts. (I don't know why I did, but I did anyway.) Today, after wasting more time in front of the TV, I dragged myself over to the barber shop for a haircut.

I go to a Pro-Cuts a couple of miles away from me that has one of the best stylists I've used. She is oriental, I'm not sure from where. Her name is Evon. She has a way and a touch that surpass anything I've had before. When I get in her chair, she holds my head gently but firmly, moves me around where she needs to be, and takes some time and pride in her work. My hair isn't that complicated--I always ask for a 4-guard on the sides, short on top and no sideburns. A lot of stylists take about five minutes and boot me out of the chair. Evon makes sure all the little details are taken care of from the length to the shape to the alignment of the sides. While all this is wonderful, it's the shampoo after the cut that takes the cake. I always have my hair washed after a cut. It gets all the little cut hairs out and makes me feel refreshed. The way Evon scrubs and massages my scalp is pure bliss. Too bad she's married.

After my haircut I went back home and, on a lark, decided to trim my crepe myrtle tree in the front. It has been getting out of control and knocking against the house, so with nothing else to do, I got out my lopper and pruned it back pretty severely. I hope it turns out in spring/summer, but at least it looks like most other crepe myrtles that have been pruned around here.

During the pruning, I noticed that three of my across-the-street neighbors were having a supper together. I also noticed Screamer was not joining in. I asked him why, and I get one of the most annoying answers: "because." He likes to do this repetition of "why, because" over and over just like a grade schooler. He's a sophomore in high school, and I think it's important that he start getting into the more adult phases of life. (Not too adult, but definitely into the high school arena.) I told him he should socialize more, if for nothing else to hear some more interesting communication. It didn't go well. Screamer went, and five minutes later he was chased out of the neighbor's house by their kids, all grade schoolers. Screamer really doesn't get acting adult yet, but I'm working on him.

Well, the pruning of the crepe myrtle done, I had to go to the store for some twine. The waste disposal company won't take away loose branches. They have to be bundled and tied. I didn't have any twine, so that's what I went for.

After the store back home, it was too late to tie up the branches (too dark), so I settled in to surfing the web for awhile. I got hungry, but I really didn't want to go back to the store for more food. Instead I practiced my biscuit making again. I started out a few days ago with a recipe I found online. It wasn't all I hoped, but Julia Child's recipe works wonderfully. I got it out of Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. This is the second time I've made the recipe and the fourth time I've made biscuits. I've got them down pat now. And I've got all my dishes in the dish washer, finally!

I wish I could say I'm looking forward to this week, but I'm not. Work is going to be contentious with a software problem that seems never to go away, and I somehow found myself on another hot-button issue on the trainer. On top of that I also get to find out what the bad news is on my air conditioner replacement. Well, at least I had a couple of days where I was able to downshift. Finally!

Friday Night and Nothing To Do

So why am I at home on Friday night instead of going out and being social? Good question.

Something happened today that greatly curtails my free time and money for awhile. I had an air conditioning guy come out to look at my heater. It has been acting up for about a week and a half, and I've been slowly and progressively getting colder in my house. Today that a/c conctractor delivered news which I had been dreading and expecting at the same time. My entire air conditioner/heater needs to be replaced. Both indoor and outdoor units. That translates to a minimum of $4,000 at the very least!

God knows that I'm going to have trouble raising that kind of scratch, and of course it won't be $4k. It'll be more because of my house, or the setup, or any one of a hundred reasons to hike the price. I've got a home warranty that will offset the cost a little, but I'll still end up paying the lion's share of the repair. With that in mind, and not having any other outstanding invites or plans for the night, I figured low key and cheap were good words to implement tonight.

Would that it went the way I had anticipated. This afternoon I finally got around to a hobby that had been completely put on hold due to the girlfriend: reloading. I sorted out all my spent brass and started the process of depriming all that brass. By 8pm I had snapped the pins in both my decapping dies, bringing that part of the process to a screeching halt.

I've been putting off doing housework. I loathe house cleaning (one of the things I know I need to do, but only did begrudgingly when Monica and I were still together), so I've put it off. Now that may be the only thing I've got to do that's active. Chances are I'll end up vegging out in front of the TV, rotting my brain with some rerun movie or TV show. Ah, the joys of being single again.

Temporarily Not Single

Yesterday I had planned to try to not be home as much as possible this weekend, but it's been a hard week, and I wasn't really in the mood to play games, so instead I just did the responsible host/homeowner routine today. I slept in way late due to the second shift madness and got up about an hour and a half before we were to meet my uncle and his family for lunch.

That lunch took a lot longer than I thought. We showed up at the restaurant at noon and didn't leave until nearly 3:30pm! The usual thing happened: My parents talked with my aunt and uncle while I talked with my cousin who is one year older than me (more or less). My uncle's family friend was also there, and she split her time about half and half in the conversations.

Heather, my cousin, and I talked about school, high school, the reunion I just got back from, church, TV, and anything else we could think of. It's nice to have that type of person who you can just talk to without having to do any kind of mental filtering. Both my and her parents embarrass us to some extent, and we were corralling them to a certain degree, but, with one exception, lunch went incredibly smooth (a nice change from the norm).

After lunch we all split up. Mother thought I was going home with them, but the fact that I drove my own vehicle and had told her numerous times I had other things to do along didn't seem to register with her. I checked my clock and noticed that the Pampered Chef party I had planned to go to was already over, except that it wasn't today! It's two weeks from today! (Thank God for iPhones and Facebook.) My afternoon having become uncomplicated I escaped to Academy Sports to talk to their golf guys for awhile (yes, I'm starting a new hobby, God help me!) and then came home while mother was asleep.

At home I finally hauled out the new fence slats and nails and repaired the fence between my house and the vacant house next door. (That's a long story for another time and another blog.) That work done I just hung around with my dad until mother woke up and started stirring the pot again. Dad and I have an adult-to-adult relationship where mother still treats me like I'm ten years old. So far it's been an amicable weekend with me copying daddy's CDs (he has great taste in music [or he's cloned it on me, whichever]) and getting the house in a little order.

Tomorrow may be a little more contentious as there is nothing to do but go to separate churches. Mother wants to go to "my church." Except that I don't have a church any more. So naturally she says that we'll all go to First Baptist Arlington. My response? Not a chance in Hell! This project is my own undertaking with my own goals. I honestly don't need mother interfering with it. Will I go to FBC Arlington? Maybe, but definitely by myself.