Don't Envy Me

Before I begin, if you are seeing this post in your FB feed, could you please make a brief comment on it?  Even if it's only to say hi.  My daily hits have dropped significantly in the last couple of weeks, and I'm wondering if you're not seeing it, or you're all just really busy.  Not that there's anything wrong with being busy...I'd prefer that to you all suddenly finding my blog posts boring...

And now, on to today's post.

You know you live a sad life when you get inordinately excited about getting a new sweeper. 

I've had my old corn broom for probably 25 years now, and it was getting pretty raggedy looking.  I saw a Swiffer commercial, and decided to splurge and buy myself one.  But it wasn't too much of a splurge, because I bought the store brand knock off.  Still, it does pretty good getting the dog hair up, and I may be inspired to sweep more.  It even has the wet mop pads, for like when one of the animals has an accident.  Or I do...I mean spilling something, not peeing on the floor.  

But look!  A new sweeper!  

Don't envy me my exciting life. 

Because I also bought a new card reader.

For some reason, my computer won't recognize my camera if I plug it in directly.  Probably because it's so ancient.  I really want a new DSLR, but not only am I getting more curmudgeonly in my dotage, I'm also getting to be more of a tightwad.  Ten years ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to buy another camera, even though I couldn't afford one.  Now, I have a little bit saved up, but don't want to spend it...so no new camera for me.  Not yet anyway.  

But I digress...I had an old card reader, which had gotten pretty worn out -- as in the cable/wire/whatever was loose.  Sometimes it would read, sometimes it wouldn't.  Even if it did, I had to hold the reader just right, and half the time, it would disconnect halfway through the download.  It was very frustrating.

The first thing I did after buying a new reader was go out and take a few photos of my flower beds to try it out.  It worked pretty well, once I got it all set up and everything.  Which mostly involved plugging it in and choosing a storage folder on my laptop. Very simple, very easy. 

Oh, you want to see the flowers?  OK, here you go:

My Petunias.  I moved them to the East side of my carport and they're doing much better.  I guess the harsh, afternoon sun was just too much for them. 

I'm down to one sad, lonely Marigold, and it doesn't look so sporty itself.  I guess I ought to give up on them, because I've never had much luck with them.    

My calibrachoa has no problem with the sun.  Their biggest issue is me forgetting to water them. 

My lantanas are really taking off, but for some reason, the orange ones are doing better than the pink ones. 

My zinnias.  Not much to say about them, because they always do well. 

And look!  One little bluebonnet is coming up!  

OK, moving right along.  My big project for today was to patch the hole in my laundry room wall. 

I got this repair kit, but I wish I'd read the package, because the little plastic patch wasn't quite big enough for my hole.  I made it work, but had to put a pretty thick layer of spackle on it to fill in all the gaps. 

The spackle turns white as it dries, so don't worry, I won't have a giant pink patch on my wall.  I'll have a giant white patch instead.  

I'm still considering painting the whole laundry room, but that's a big job and I'm not sure I want to get into that right now.  But still, a giant white patch is better than a giant hole in the wall. 

My next project is to start cutting all this mess out of my fence line:

I'll let you know how that goes.   

But for now, it's almost time for a new cheesy Hallmark movie.  Christmas is calling, and I must go.  

I only wish it were cold enough for some hot chocolate.  I guess nog will have to do.