Saturday Chores

We started the morning by waking up at 5:42. As nice as it is to occasionally sleep in, I hate to get up late on Saturday because ... well, it's the weekend, and they're so short that we want to maximize our time. But a quarter to six? That's really pushing it.

So, after imbibing appropriate amounts of coffee, I began by tackling the reorganization of my tools. The girls gave me a 204-pc. Craftsman set, and I wanted to try to get it all in my tool cabinet. I laid all the mix-and-match duplicates on a towel on top of the deep freeze, and then counted how many sockets I would need to buy brackets for (hint: a lot).

So I toddled off to Sears for socket holders & a new toolbox for the truck. I then spent 45 minutes pulling sockets out of their carrying case, and mounting them on the strips I'd just purchased.

While I was doing that, my wife came back from grocery shopping, and started cleaning the grill. It was in rather dire need of cleaning ... we didn't use it at all, last summer (we can't remember why) and therefore it didn't get its first-weekend-of-the-season cleaning. We kept thinking we'd roll it out, but somehow just never did.

So it's cleaned, the new gas tank is hooked up, and my wife is trimming the pork steaks. We have a new sauce to try - something called "Sweet Baby Ray's", which is new to us.

Younger daughter is preparing a four-cheese baked pasta dish to accompany the barbecue, and I'm thinking we'll eat well tonight.

* * * * *

It's another clear, sunny day with blue skies & very few clouds. We noticed, after spending our first winter here, that people seem to drive faster & with less caution on the first few weekends of summer. Today's traffic is a good imitation of motocross: not the kind with the ramps, but the old-fashioned county fair kind, with cars barely avoiding collision as they weave their figure-8. I watched several near misses in the parking lot at Wally World, while waiting for a clerk to open the propane locker.

The road traffic isn't much better, as those drivers who've been putt-putting through the snowy months have rediscovered their accelerators ... and they're not afraid to use them.

Oh, well, I've been known to push the pedal to the floor a few times, too ... just not usually in heavy traffic. I trust my own driving, but all those other drivers out there? I mean, who knows what they're up to? Since most people here don't seem to know what that stalk on the left side of the steering column is for, I'd rather not take the chance.

* * * * *

My wife has informed me that her next task is take older daughter in hand, and start going through all the boxes in the garage. It looks like most of them belong to said daughter, and I suspect there will be quite a pile o' stuff for the city trucks to haul away, next week.

Have a great day - or evening, depending on your time zone - and thanks for stopping by.