Day Off

We were supposed to have had to work today, but they ended up giving us the day off-- for Randall's funeral.  I know all the maintenance guys would want to go, and all the other supervisors, and of course, the front office people. 

It's been tough on all of us, even those such as myself that weren't really all that close to him.  Randall was one of those rare people that everybody loved.  In all the seventeen years I've worked out there, I never heard anyone say anything bad about him.  He was quiet and kept to himself a lot, but he was nice to everybody.  It sure is going to leave a hole...

I spent a good deal of my day working in the flower bed.  I finished weeding and deadheading, and moved a few things that were too close together.  Then I swiped a soaker hose and gave the garden a good drink.  I mean a really good drink.  That seemed to perk everything up.  I also finally got the last of the spider lily bulbs planted.

I took my garden claw and tilled up a bed.  Spider lilies don't really need to be planted very deep, so the claw was enough.  Well, I got the dirt loosened up well, then just kind of tossed the bulbs out there.  Wherever they landed was where I poked them down into the dirt. 

And that's that for planting, for this year anyway.

I few days ago, my friend Cyndye was remarking how the sweat runs down into her eyes and gets on her glasses when she works in the yard.  I mentioned that I have that same problem, and wondered if they still make those dorky looking sweat bands that were so popular a few years back.

Dang if she didn't up and send me a couple.  Dallas Cowboy colors, too.  Yeah, my friends know me well.  

I wore one while I was puttering around in the yard today, but it was so cool that I didn't really need it. 

I spent the rest of the day working on what I've come to refer to as "the blankety blank cross stitch".  About a week ago, I discovered a pretty grievous error, and had to rip out the entire Fleur-di-lis.  Normally, I would have ignored such an error and kept on going, and I tried to this time, and kept on going.

Perhaps I shouldn't have.

See, when I got to the bottom-- after spending days ignoring the aforementioned error--  I discovered that the bottom of my Fleur-di-lis would have overlapped the top of my letters.  So, out it had to come. 

Since picking out cross stitch-- especially black cross stitch--is a rather tedious and nerve racking experience, I relieved the tension by picking out one length of floss, then using that length to cross stitch the letters. 

Now, I've got the entire thing picked out and started over, and we're once again moving forward instead of backward.

I just know I'll be glad to get the dumb thing done, so I can get back to knitting.