The Call of the Running Tide

So, suddenly, it’s been a busy week.

On Tuesday, I drove to Old Orchard Beach, then across to eat lunch on the causeway at Naples.  Total mileage was 282; about 8 hours away (not all on the road, but most).  Weather conditions were varied — rain, clouds, bright sun.  Really, I couldn’t have asked for a better day to practice driving.

It looks like my Practice Driving Day is going to be Tuesday, for the foreseeable.  I am going to have to remember to bring along a sandwich with my drinks; catching lunch on the road is more expensive than I can justify.

Driving/being away from the computer had an unexpected benefit:  I figured out the solution to something that had really been bothering me about the WIP.

Yesterday, I had to go to Augusta to renew my license.  I was able to make an appointment online, so the actual renewing license portion of the day was fairly stress-free.  What was stressful was that my phone stopped working.  By which I mean that the screen was unresponsive.  It really is too bad how much I depend on that device, not to mention that I really like this particular phone, for reasons both technical and sentimental.

Two Verizon stores later, the problem was fixed, and now I know how to turn off my phone when I don’t have access to the touchscreen, so — yay.  At the second store, where I found the person who could actually solve the problem, I was informed that I have “an old phone” — purchased in May 2020 — and that I can expect things to start failing.  She did try to sell me a new phone, which she was liege-bound to do, which I understand.  But I’m going with Fingers Crossed for now.

Steve’s day lilies finished blooming a couple weeks ago, which meant that it was time for me to get the severely overgrown gardens at the front, sides, and back of the house Dealt With, and the shrubbery that had grown up in front of the basement door knocked down.  I called a landscaper, who came by yesterday to look things over.  He made suggestions, provided an estimate that was, err, steep, but less than I had expected.  He arrived this morning with a crew of about twelve young people, wielding every gardening tool imaginable from shovel to backhoe, and they set to.

As of this writing, the old garden/overgrowth/weeds are gone.  I can get to the basement door again.  All of the opportunistic maple trees are gone.  A new garden of perennials will go in the front — I see a flat of orange coneflowers out resting under the maple trees planted on purpose.

I didn’t have time to take a picture of the situation, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it was not only overgrown, but becoming dangerous.  I’m unhappy that the rose bush Steve gave me when we moved in is gone, along with his beloved lilies.  Actually, the rose bush may have been strangled by vines; I didn’t see any news of it this summer at all.

The cats are pretty sure they didn’t sign off on all this excitement, and they have been watching it all Very Carefully from various windows around the house.

Just to round out the week, I called to make an appointment with a new cleaning person; my previous person having quit somewhat suddenly.  Hopefully, we can come to an agreement.

Absent the continuing work of the landscape crew, I’m in for the weekend, and looking forward to writing the scenes I’ve mapped out, and fitting them into the WIP.

Here are some pictures from Tuesday’s  adventure.