A normal weekend here - our holiday weekend was the week before. But on Saturday I went to some garden centres. They have their sales on at the moment, clearing away stock to make way for Christmas. I bought some shrubs, roses and an apple tree, all at greatly reduced prices. On Sunday I went to B&Q (the UK equivalent of Lowe's) and bought three 50-litre sacks of compost. It had rained overnight, so they were really heavy.

I got everything planted up, accompanied by disco and classic rock on my mp3 player (which also necessitated some dancing and air guitar). Very happy with my garden.

But, oh, sometimes I really wish I didn't live by myself. Hauling big shrubs and a goddam TREE, plus big, heavy sacks of compost from the store to the car and from the car to the back garden, was hard work. The planting was strenuous too, as things needed to go into big pots, so I either had to haul the compost to the pots or move the pots to the compost. I was tired after all that.

Sometimes I miss having someone around to help with stuff. But on the plus side, I ate weird food this weekend with nobody there to criticise, and I was able to watch a box set (The Night Of) over the weekend without any interruptions.

This morning, when I had to get up for work at 5am, Lucy woke me at 3.30am as she'd been outside, it was raining and wanted to let me know her fur was wet. I was not amused.

mightshould - I love getting into a bed that's been made with line-dried sheets. I always try to dry mine outside.

Tell Lucy to dry herself! My young monsters prefer 3:30 am as wrestle mania time. I often have to get up at 4, but I still don't appreciate it.

I also agree about having to do everything alone can be an extra chore...

I did what I usually do: Ride my bicycle. I did 52 miles on Saturday on the breakfast ride. Did my normal Sunday night pub crawl last night totaling 30 miles. Being a holiday weekend, there was a third stop and I did it, which meant I was riding home at 1 in the morning. Bearing in mind that any car I *did* see on the rode was probably driven by someone who'd been drinking, I rode the main roads most of the way home with almost zero traffic to contend with, a rare treat for a cyclist. I wanted to ride early today to beat the heat, but I didn't drag my butt out of bed early enough, so I baked on my ride in 90+ temps. It wouldn't have been too bad except that I was riding my 50-year-old bike which weighs a ton.

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I did a few things around the house and watched the Texas Rangers play, the normal stuff.

Oh.... I forget metachat doesn't crop pics. He's a link to the picture of the beast.

Two semi-stressy shopping trips Saturday and Sunday, including a breakdown of the sit-down motorized cart I HAD to use to make it around Big Box stores, but a couple store personnel were wonderfully helpful and I got everything done in time to catch my ride back. At the other trip, I wore this hat for the umpteenth time, but for the first time, somebody (a young bagger) recognized it and called me "the coolest person he'd seen today". After getting everything I'll need for several weeks (and avoiding the wrath of Underfed Pets), I collapsed (I didn't even finish my McDonalds fries! it's not often I'm anywhere near a McD's and the fires are the main attraction anymore) and I slept past noon today. The weather outside was delightful (low 70s while shopping, a little warmer today).

Tomorrow I try to schedule some followup procedures after my Cardiologist appointment last week, including a Transesophageal Echocardiogram (yes, it's as scary as it sounds; the doctor couldn't get a good reading on my faulty heart while taking readings from the outside). My disabled state is okay, as long as I don't have to DO anything: when well fed, both the bird and the cat are pleasant casual company, the local cable internet (Charter) is satisfactory, my disability is deposited and all my bills are paid electronically, everything in the apartment is within 15 steps of each other, the laundry room and the landlord's office are under 100 steps away from my front door (even less if I decided to jump out the window on the back of the apartment, but I don't think I will). And my location (just off Highway 101 midway between San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach) is beautiful... as long as the last nuclear power plant in California, eight miles due west of me, doesn't melt down (and PG&E has decided to shut it down rather than try to get its license renewed in 2025 - but then, the plant is probably a reason my rent is below market level) and no big brush fires start in the area (the largest one in the area so far this summer was 40 miles north of me, closer to Hearst Castle - and the landlord is good about clearing the brush around the property and keeping a big tank of emergency water on the premises), life is good. But I digress.

I went to Vermont for the long weekend. I'd never been there before in spite of 20+ years living only 2 states away. Had a hard time finding places to eat at certain points, but the weather was lovely and I bought cheese & maple syrup to compare with Maine cheese & maple syrup. I stood on a bridge and looked down into an enormous gorge and the sight made me weak in the knees. I also spent some time on a rail trail over in New Hampshire.

Saturday I floated and did laundry and got a manicure with our house guest and got a much needed massage from our other house guest.

Sunday we all had a delicious breakfast together, our other house guest gave me a supplemental massage for lingering pain, and we all went to a baseball game, which was surprisingly horrid because of the drunken loud people behind us, who responded to my request to dial it down a little by amping up -- and, when I got no real response from the security staff, to harassment and bullying for the rest of the game. We are canceling our season ticketholder status because of this. But then we and our houseguests celebrated a birthday with dinner out, including a sunset over water view, and that was fab.

Monday we picked up some dear friends who are visiting from York and spent the day tooling around and hiking on Mount Rainier with them, capped off by a lovely seafood dinner at a nice restaurant.

All in all it was a great weekend.