Unexpected Half Day

Saturday morning, when my alarm went off at 2:45, I was seriously questioning my decision to get up and go in to work.  But then, I thought about the 8 hours overtime, and dragged my weary body out of bed.

I got to work and my coworker said, "You just can't take a weekend off, can you?" Then my other coworker said, "Boy, am I glad to see you!"  And when my group leader yelled at me, I fired back, "I didn't have to be here today, you know!"

I came home kind of wishing I'd taken that day off, too.  Turns out, it's a good thing I didn't.  Shortly after 9:00 this morning, I was coming back from tubing, and I saw someone from my line running out the door with her bags over her shoulder.  "Huh, I wonder where she's going,"  I thought.

Then I saw three more people from my line heading for the door with all their stuff.  About that time, Group Leader Theresa came by and said one of our vitally important machines was down, and it would take them most of the day to fix it.  Since we couldn't do anything without this vitally important machine, they were sending us home.  She said I could stay until lunch time and clean up if I wanted to.  So I did.  When lunch time came, I went down to the end of the line and told her I was leaving, and she said, "Don't you want to stay until 1:00?"

And I said, "Nooooo!"  So, I got an unexpected half day off.  And what did I do with my half day? I'll tell you.

I made a phone call.

Yes, I did.  I made a phone call.  If you knew how deeply my telephone issues ran, you would know how much of an accomplishment that was.   One of my Facebook friends asked me how many days it took me to work up to it, because it usually takes her about three, and I said, "Two months."

Anyway, I called the guy back about that tree I need to have cut down.  I'd been waiting for the ground to dry out, since he's got to drive through the neighbor's yard.  I figured by now it's about as hard as it's going to get.  I'd actually planned on calling him last month, but then it rained every day for two weeks, and I had to wait for the ground to dry out again.   He said he's got two more jobs to finish first (one of them at the plant where I work), then he'll come cut my tree down.  It'll be late this week, or sometime next week that he does it.

After that rather traumatic experience, I was worn out.  I spent the rest of the afternoon binge watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and knitting.  I had some Corntastic yarn that's been marinating in my stash for several years.  Sunday evening, I was sitting there watching football and it started calling my name.  I only had 200 yards of the stuff, so that limits my pattern choices quite a bit.  I didn't want to do another hat, so I finally settled on a cowl.  I chose one named  Gris De Lin.

I've only done one pattern repeat, but I think it's going to look really nice.

Now, now, settle down.  I have been working on the mantle.  Getting these corners done is the hardest part, but we're getting there.

This underside is proving to be the problem.

I'm to the point where I'm wondering how hard it would be to pull the entire mantle off the wall to get it completely clean.  I'm not sure my woodworking skills are up to that, though.

Just for kicks, I started picking at the paint on my French doors.  It seems to be coming off pretty easily.  When I tap on the door, it sounds like plastic.  I'm not sure why they would make plastic doors, but there they are.

I want to paint them a dark brown, about the same shade as my mantle will be.  I'll just have to find paint made for plastic.

Or whatever that stuff is.