Shortly after sunrise, I was standing at the French doors looking out and I said to myself, "Self, that there grass looks dry." I stepped out and felt it, and sure enough, there was no dew on it. Again, I said to myself, "Self, you ought to get out and get the mowing done and get that chore out of the way."
And that's exactly what I did.
I was about halfway through mowing my front yard, when two pickup trucks pulled into my driveway. It was the painter and his employee. As I waved at them, cut the mower off, and walked over to talk to them, my first thought was, "Boy, I'm glad I put a bra on."
Because if I'm at home, you never know. I may or may not be wearing one.
Anyway, the painter introduced himself to me -- because we'd spoken and texted on the phone, but hadn't yet met in person -- and apologized profusely for the delays and the hassle and the headaches. We walked around the house and talked a bit about the job. He said before any checks get written, they're going to make sure I'm satisfied with the job. I showed him this,
and he said, "Oh yeah, we'll touch that up." He got to looking, and that wire up there isn't even attached to anything, so they're going to just pull the whole thing off, and neaten that edge. They are going to have to put a second coat up, since we're going from such a light color to such a dark color.
We also discussed how the previous owners were not quite the handymen they thought they were. I'm in the position where sometimes I have to compromise between what I really want, and what I can actually afford to pay for. If it had been up to me, we'd have sanded all the way down to the bare wood and started over completely. But that would be more labor than I could pay him for. I told him, "If it looks good from the street, it's good enough for me." For now, at least.
Long story slightly less long, they're going to try to get it finished Monday. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm loving the colors I chose. I especially love the contrast between the mahogany and this blue.
If I'd known it would look so good together, I'd have just had them paint the house in stripes.
After they left, I finished mowing, deadheading the last of the spider lilies as I did so. I brought the last few fresh flowers inside, and mowed the rest down.
In other news, I finished another charity hat.
I put it into the gift drawer, then went stash diving for the next cast on. I found this ball of mystery yarn in the bottom of a project bag.
I have no idea what it is. There wasn't a ball band. I'm thinking it's yarn that was given to me when a friend or relative de-stashed. Some people have suggested it's Caron Simply Soft, but it's not smooth enough, nor soft enough to be that. Whatever it is, it's becoming a hat.
I think this time, I'm just going to do plain stockinette with a few random ridges of garter stitch. Keeping in mind that most homeless people are men, I want hats that aren't so fancy a man wouldn't wear them. I am making some that would appeal more to women, but most of them will be either unisex or masculine.
Yesterday, my friend loaded up all the blessing bags and delivered them to the Sisters who will be handing them out. She said they were literally jumping up and down when they saw what was in the bags. My friend also got to witness the very first bag given out. Here's what she wrote in our Facebook group:
There was one guy that Sister told me had been living on the streets but was working to get himself cleaned up and had just found a place to live. He had shelter, but nothing else, and he was in the Samaritan House today. She asked me, "should we give HIM one?" I said, "YES! Definitely!" So she asked him what his favorite color was, he said blue, and we found him a bag with a blue hat. He was THRILLED. He had a super-thick Pittsburgh accent, and as he was rummaging through the bag, he said, "Oh, man, 'ere's everything in here!" I was pretty happy to see the first one go into the hands of its recipient.
You know, when I was a kid, I thought Jesus didn't know what he was talking about when he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Now that I've been on the receiving end of the blessings that come with giving, I understand just how right he was.
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