That bit of fence you see on the far right was invisible on Friday evening. The whole right side of the garage roof was covered with two layers of canopy from the trees above. Wires hung above the fence line were fouled with the branches of fast-growing (maple? birch?) which were multiplying and threatening our phone and cable service with every strong gust of wind. I got to work with arbor saw from the roof of the garage and took the high stuff down, then continued taking them down from ground level. My electrician neighbor assured me none of the wires on that pole carry power, so I gingerly trimmed and sawed and hacked until I’d cleared three small trees out with a handsaw, ending when I was faced with stuff too tall to drop alone. When I was done, I built a pile of brush the size of an import sedan next to the driveway. Having that area clear makes a huge visual difference from the road as well as from the backyard.
Lots of other stuff happened this weekend, including a river birthday party, garage reorganization, a long-needed gutter cleaning on the east side, and a backyard screening of Despicable Me 2.
Sunday continued with more work: a trench dug in our backyard in preparation for the addition of hardwired power (The house came with knob and tube hung from porcelain insulators off the office porch, which the building inspector made us remove before we moved in. I’ve been making do with an extension cord run from the greenhouse, which has hardwired power, for five years. My electrician neighbor looked at it and told me it would be a snap to run wire from the greenhouse to the garage, so I busted out the shovels!) Finn and I saddled up the bike train and rode downtown for some lunch, and then took the scenic route home.
Then we tuned up her starter bike, checking the tires and adjusting the seat and handlebars for her size. After that I was beat, so we came in and read books for about two hours, taking turns reading each page. She’s getting better, and faster, and I finally recorded about two of her books on video. Then we made two pizzas from scratch (homemade dough!), and after she went to bed, I kegged the hefeweizen.
This morning I’m paying for it in aches and pains, but it feels damn good to get all of that done.
Little feet running in the early morning. Bacon and eggs for breakfast, family style. Rolling out to the beach with armfuls of toys. Soft, lapping waves from the bay. Chattering teeth: “I’m n-n-not c-c-cold!” Sandwiches and cold beer at lunchtime. Hard play until mid-afternoon, And then rest in the air conditioning. Huge steaks and fresh corn on the deck for dinner with Dark & Stormys to wash it down. Twilight on the beach with fresh drinks, a cigar, and laughing children. Finn curled up on my lap in front of the waves: “Daddy, I think I need to go inside and go to sleep.”
Vacations are some of my best memories of being a kid; I hope Finn remembers these days the same way as she gets older.
This is a picture Finn drew of her science camp; the four figures at upper right are Finn (blonde hair), two of her campmates, and the teacher. The object in the foreground is a bottle of Coke, and the fountain is the coke spraying in the air after they added Mentos. Finn informed us that the people are smaller because they’re far away from the bottle.
Science camp looks cool, man.
What better way to start off summer than with a date for tea with Mama and sushi for dinner with the family?
The weather in Columbia was perfect for walking around the lake, and we took full advantage of it.
Saturday was busy as well. We spent the day in the yard, cleaning up the hedge, weeding the garden, playing in the fort, and getting things done. In the afternoon we went up to our friend Jen’s ice cream party in the county, where we caught up with friends, chased bubbles, and enjoyed the sunshine.
On the way home we stopped off at Big Bad Wolf for dinner, something we don’t normally get to do given the location. Once we had sated our appetites with barbecue, we headed upstairs to start repainting Finn’s room.
Between the three of us, we got all but one wall done and cut in; we’ll hit the walls with the roller one more time and touch up the edges, but it’s almost done.
March 12, 2012
June 8, 2014
Normally, I don’t repost stuff I see on HuffPost, but I like a lot of what this writer says: 10 Things I Want to Tell My Kids Before They’re Too Cool to Listen.
Figure out what you love and own it completely.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
Right on.
After a long two weeks of work, the yard sale went off this Saturday without a hitch. We drove around Friday night putting signs up amid the neighborhood, and by 7AM on Saturday there were people stopping to look at the stuff we hadn’t put out yet. Finley was very excited to help with the sale, enlisting Mama to bake brownies and muffins for her to sell along with a collection of My Little Ponies. She made a sign and set aside 10% for charity.
It was hard to see so much of her childhood disappear down the road; the guy who bought my backpack tried to talk me down from my price, but considering he’d gotten bargains out of me before that (and was not so subtly trying to send his wife away, who was prepared to pay full price), I held firm. He wound up wearing it home—they filled their car to the brim with other stuff—which was a fitting way to send it off.
Finn was the consummate saleswoman for the whole day, and got great responses from everyone who stopped by. She was out of brownies by 10AM.
People seemed to come in waves. There were few times when nobody was here, but every half-hour or so we got a surge of tons of people at one time. Most of the big stuff was gone by 10 but lots of odd stuff left too—things I never thought we’d sell. I was pretty lenient on haggling with people but a few came in so low I immediately played hardball and kept the price firm. $5 for something marked $40? Fuck off, lady. One woman asked if we took checks. An Asian fellow talked me down from $3 to $1 for a watch, then wanted to throw a $.50 shirt in for free. I made him dig through his pockets for the $.50 on principle.
Most people were very nice, however. At 11:55 a lady stopped by with her mother and waded through clothes for the next half-hour, finally stopping with a huge pile and the rest of Finn’s lemonade. It was so beautiful outside, we didn’t mind staying open an extra half-hour. We sold more stuff then, too.
Speaking of Finn, by 11AM she was sold out of everything, save one pony. Her total take was $19, which means the cuteness factor force-multiplied her sales by roughly 300%.
After cleaning up, we putzed around the yard for a couple of hours before going to the neighbors’ for a cookout, beers, and ice cream. All in all, a great Saturday.
