Sleeping in is a GOOD thing!

That is, as long as you don't make yourself late for work or school. I didn't, but woke up at 4:30AM, went back to bed, lay there thinking I may as well get up; I wasn't going back to sleep. I obviously did. Somewhere, it registered that someone else was up, moving around, and since Steve was gone, it must've been Ben. Then I woke up at 7:40. Good thing Ben was already gone, since his first class is at 7:45!

I've needed to sleep in like that for months. I've been running myself ragged with all the moving and building that's done and still needs to be done. My body's exhausted and my brain won't shut down. There are a million or so things to do over the next 6-8 weeks between packing and building and getting out of our current domicile. Then there are my plans for what I need and want to do to make the new one livable.

A couple years ago, I slept until noon. I've done that only once before in my entire life. About the time Steve was going to come see if I was still alive, I stumbled out of the bedroom. One of the cats checked for him. She put her nose on mine, in my mouth, in my ears... she really was checking for signs of life. She did wake me up!

Finished the load of laundry I started yesterday morning, left soaking. Paint didn't come out of the clothes. Oh, well, that's why I was wearing old junk I don't care about. Did another load because I thought I had work shirts (uniforms), and they were all in the hamper. So I put one in the dryer for a few minutes and put it on still damp. It's not cold enough yet for damp to be a problem. Supposed to get warm again over the next couple days.

According to the calendar, yesterday was Tuesday. But it acted like Monday. Sales were slow, one problem after another, and just to make life more interesting, corporate was working on our computer and things got changed that shouldn't have been. There were 4 guys hustling to build 60 trusses yesterday. So they were beat before they got home. Dinner was microwaved frozen 'meals'. Nobody could have mustered the will or energy to cook.

This morning, there are 11 fewer parking spaces than usual at work. First I parked around the corner at the bank, but they only have 4 parking spaces, needed to move the van asap. My van's parked in front of the store. I don't do that, but there's nowhere else to park. There were boulders on the sidewalk the size of garbage cans. The slope where the Colorado blue spruce were is now denuded. It looks better without the grass and straggly brush than it did without trees. But what does that do about erosion over the winter and next spring?

OK, OK, there are times I indulge in sarcasm. I have a sign on my van "Before you make yet another derogatory comment about how ugly I am, consider YOUR willingness to buy my replacement". There's a little Central American bistro a few doors down. Nice people run it, food's fantastic, but I'm fed up with the women who "do lunch" there. One of them asked me how I could stand driving such an ugly thing. Easy - it's a lot faster and more convenient than walking. It's paid for, too. My co-worker's comment, when I told her about it was 'Trade ya!' I liked that. Don't think I really want a Lexus, though. Last week's comment, in Ben's hearing, was "No wonder the old thing's so ugly; look at the brute driving it". It's a 26 year old Dodge cargo van - it was ugly when it was brand new. Age has not been kind to it. But my gentle 17 year old is a brute? C'mon, that's adding unnecessary insults! Where are these people coming from that they've never heard of the little courtesy of keeping thoughts to themselves? California? Or are they just disgustingly affluent?

I've been painting in between all this. I have 3/4 of the 31 foot trailer painted. The lovely '70's paneling was horrible dark. When you know your're going to have to spend a lot of time in an 8' x 31' space, it makes sense to have it be as light and livable as you can make it. It's possible to paint paneling, but whoever came up with the grooved stuff should have to paint it. That would be a fitting punishment. At least one coat MUST be brushed on. A roller won't cover well enough. The only part I haven't touched yet is the bathroom.

The bedroom and kitchen are primered, in pale yellow and white. The paint was the right price, so it doesn't matter what light color I use as an undercoat. Lowe's has mistint paints for $5 per gallon. These are paints that are usually $25/gallon. As long as the finish colors are compatible, we can live with other's 'mistakes'. There are 3 coats on the floor, but I'm holding off on any more until the bathroom floor has plywood on it. That's a 2 person job, can be done after the shed's farther along. The living room has one coat of green suede. I have yet to primer the cabinet doors for the living room or bedroom. The living room doors have insets of 70's cliche' gold veined mirrors. But they will reflect light, so I'm going to leave that alone. The other doors have yuchy dark amber textured plastic. The bedroom ones, I'll paint over. The kitchen ones, I took the plastic out. Steve says I can easily have a glass place cut glass for them. I'm not too sure when I'll afford that, but I can paint the doors in the meantime.

I left a ziplock of hinges and another of door handles on the table Aug 29, and they disappeared. They re-appeared this weekend in the far back of the farthest bedroom cabinet. Ben and I are pretty sure what happened, but since they're back, I'm going to leave it alone. $30 worth of hinges is pretty important to me. The door handles are a take it or leave it thing. I want to replace them. But what I want is $60+, so that will have to happen little by little.

I'm supposed to go to Sandpoint this weekend, while the other grandma's gone to California. Carter is saying some words and phrases. "I do it", "You do it", and "yes" to almost anything unless he's fussing about something. The other night Erin asked me what I said to him, since he was saying 'yes' a lot. I told him that if he wants to talk with me on the phone, he has to say something, not just breathe in my ear, and he mustn't fuss. He's getting the point that I won't talk to him if he fusses.