Watching Paint Dry, and Other Stuff

 We went to town three

different days last weekend 

to choose a paint color

 for our front/dining/kitchen room.

It's all one big room 

with that 22 foot open beam ceiling... 

Um yeah, that's a huge blotch of color

to worry about.

We've been living with white walls forever.

All of our Navy housing walls were white.

Our rented house off base in the Bay Area

had white walls.

When we bought our first home, 

we painted the walls white.

At that time we just couldn't commit to

any certain color.

We've lived with white walls here

for 12 years, but now that's changing.

I wanted color and it has to be warm, cozy

and evoke the feel of a cabin in the woods.

We slathered on some big  blotches of color

from the sample jars and then literally watched

paint dry to see if we were in agreement on which

color to choose.  We started out way too dark,

but finally figured it out.

We made a decision, 

lived with it for a day and then bought paint,

and started working on our latest project.

We wanted to get the inside window frame/sills

painted before the window construction resumes.

Um yeah, that project still isn't done.

Never mind though, 

it will get done... it just has to.

By Thanksgiving I'm beginning to think.

It's been a stressful month.

We stood our ground with the construction 

project coordinator who came up from 

Sacramento to see what we were unhappy

with. He agreed with us that they

need to reorder the two largest windows.

Now we wait to find out when the windows

will be ready, IF they have even been ordered yet.

Seems like the guy handling the order from the 

manufacturer is out on sick leave or something.

They haven't been paid yet, so there's hope.Yikes!

The furlough worries are temporarily over

which is a huge relief.  Yet there's still the threat

that this could happen again in January

and that is just downright unnerving.

Our family member in Oregon

that has been so sick, was in the hospital

again and this time we couldn't get over there

to see what we could do to help.

Rick wasn't allowed to take time off

from work, because of the furlough rules

that essential employees stay on the job.

No sick leave, family medical leave,

or even vacation time was to be taken

without disciplinary actions occurring.

Now that just plain wrong.

The latest Liberty news:

She chewed up Rick's eye glasses.

They fell out of his soft sided briefcase

on the porch 

a couple weeks ago, and Rick didn't 

realize it until he got to work.

He called to see if I could find them,

and sure enough there was our little 

girl chewing on the leather case that

the eye glasses were in. 

At first I thought there was hope that

the glasses were still safe inside,

but that wasn't the case. 

She had already chewed up the eye glasses.

She also found his little Swiss knife

and chewed that up as well.  

His pant pockets loose all kinds of stuff

into his recliner chair, and of course

Liberty loves getting up on  her his chair

for a cozy nap.

Here she is stealing strawberries from under

the garden fence.  She also ate my one and

only summer squash that grew on her side

of the fence this summer.

  It was there one day, and gone the next. 

The good news:

We changed the way we get our internet. 

We've had the new system about three weeks now,

and it's so nice with no more worries 

about going over the limit at the end of every 

month.  There's no overage charges,

 and it's half the cost

of our previous provider. (Verizon)

Now we can watch videos, and movies,

and whatever we want online!

We did have to cut down a few of our trees

to create a clear line of sight to some tower

or something over on another hillside.

We will be using that wood for next winters 

firewood, so although we feel bad about 

the trees we won't let cutting them down

  be a wasteful thing.

We also stopped our Direct TV

and so far the only thing I miss is 

having the local news on first thing

in the morning. 

Most of our favorite shows

can be watched online a day 

later than the original showing.

That's not so bad.

I have to actively search for the news

online and I do check several sources to

get a well rounded view of what's going on.

Hopefully this weekend we will get 

a bit more done on the paint job...

oh what have we done starting a huge

project like this.

My "great room" for lack of a better word

is so torn up and messy with paint cloths 

everywhere and furniture out of sorts.

Yikes.

 This weekend is also busy because

of a potluck at Seniors, and then 

the American Cancer Society Tea

on Sunday.  I'm completely ready for that.

Everything is packed and ready to go.

I think.

Take care and have a great weekend.