This morning I got a trailer load of sand at Builder’s Supply and hauled it to the job site. I drove down to Winchester and bought two more windows at Henley’s, then went to Home Depot for two more. From there I drove to the cabinet place in Shelbyville and dropped off my lists for a quote. My final stop before home was the cedar store in Chapel Hill. They won’t have everything I need, but will have enough to get me off to a good start. I drove home and surprised Liz and Luke. We played and had dinner together. Liz is putting him to bed now, and soon I will drive back to the Mountain, since the masons are coming early tomorrow morning.
Big leap forward.
I woke up pretty early this morning, tried to sleep some more and couldn’t, then read a bit on my phone before getting out of bed. After talking with my parents for a few minutes I drove to the library to print off a few things, then went to the bank to make sure everything was on track for the loan closing this afternoon. From there I drove down to Lowe’s in McMinnville to get a quote on windows. It was high and the lead time was long, so I drove on to Home Depot in Winchester. Their prices and wait times were better, but still not ideal. I also dropped off a list of plumbing and electrical fixtures for a quote. Almost on a whim I went by Henley’s Millwork just down the road, and they had the windows I was looking for – in stock. That was wonderful and I wrote them a check on the spot. I drove back to the cottage and relaxed a bit before going to the library to print a few more things. From there I went to the bank, where Liz was waiting for me. We went in and signed everything in order to close our loan. We were going to drive over to campus to get her some coffee afterwards, but her car key stopped working. First we walked across the street to the supply store to look for batteries, then tried Dollar Tree. Unsuccessful at both places we drove to CVS, which had the right one. After a little difficulty I got the battery swapped out, and we drove to Stirling’s only to find it closed. So we drove to the dump that is The Tavern and got sweet potato fries. Liz said she would get coffee at Starbucks in Manchester. We returned to the bank and went our separate ways. Since then I have just been reading, working on the computer, and taking a quick trip to Piggly Wiggly.
Transitioning from the long weekend back to the grind.
This morning Liz had a doctor’s appointment so I watched Luke until Madeline arrived. I left the house and drove to Home Depot in Winchester, then on to Monteagle. I made calls and went to the lumber yard to buy my lumber packages. That was pretty painful, but necessary. I had a lunch meeting with Sam, the HVAC man, and that went well. This afternoon I went to the job site and moved some logs out of the way, then drove the tractor down the street a little ways to help a guy who works at the Goat Market spread some gravel on his driveway. We talked for a while afterwards. I came back to the cottage and chatted with my parents for a bit, then we had dinner on the back deck. I will do some reading shortly, then hopefully go to bed at a reasonable time.
Enjoying milder weather.
It’s Memorial Day, so Liz had a holiday and I skipped out on work. This morning Luke and I went to Port Royal, but he didn’t want to stay very long. We were almost home when he fell asleep, so I called Liz and upon arriving home she came out to the car and joined us for a drive. Luke didn’t sleep for as long as I would have liked, but it was still better than nothing. After lunch and quiet time we went to Home Depot and Andy’s Frozen Custard in Spring Hill. Before dinner Liz and Luke played soccer out back while I planted vegetables into the straw bales. Dinner, bath, and bed times went well. I won’t drive to the Mountain until tomorrow morning.
Playground, downtown, nature.
This morning Liz and Luke made breakfast cookies and after eating them we went to Port Royal park and saw a father and son that we had met before. Hugo had a “stomp rocket” and was kind enough to let Luke play with it too. Luke really enjoyed that. From there we went to Publix and bought a few groceries. After lunch and quiet time we drove downtown and walked around the square. Luke loved seeing the fountains, especially the coins at the bottom of each. We drove next to the nature park and saw lots of wildflowers. We ate dinner on the back deck, which was nice in the shade and with a cool breeze. Unfortunately the wind died down and the mosquitos came to dine on us. Clean up was fast and Luke took another “shower bath”. He was a bit emotional at bed time, but did go to sleep much earlier than usual.
