My day

At the end of week 1 of 30-Day Drummer, the instructor told us we could rest, and while I haven't played much today, enough happened that I wanted to write it down before I forget, to coin a phrase.

Installed the new window shade in Pat's office.  We got it the day before at the new Home Depot a mile or two from the house.  The woman in the department with the shades and blinds just about talked our ears off before selling us the product.

Home Depot doesn't appear to have a checkout cashier anymore, only self-checkout registers.  In that area, one woman was responsible for fixing any issues, and I presented her with one.  

I'd collected a bunch of change over a period of months, keeping it in a small glass jar in the drawer with my wallet.  When I took the jar to the credit union, I found that the change-counting machine charged 3% of the total for the service, and I knew where I could do better.  

The Giant supermarket has a CoinBase machine that gives you the option of cashing out for a 3% service charge or getting the full amount ($22.90) in store credit.  I was hoping for Amazon, but Home Depot was acceptable.  However, the HD self-checkout assistant had never seen one of those vouchers, so Pat and I waited until the assistant brought in a superior to apply it to the total.

This morning, I installed the new blind, measuring twice and drilling holes once for the brackets in the window frame.  There I go, playing handyman again.

Out in the back yard, I pulled weeds and cut down budding trees that Google Images notified me are mulberries.  I found a great many of those trees in varying sizes, and as much as I'd like them to grow, I've learned enough to know that mulberry trees grow 40 feet tall and drop lots of berries that stain the shoes of anyone who walks through them.  One mulberry had taken root a few millimeters from the stump of a burning bush that had been cut down on the south side of the house, and I took the pruner to it.  

I pruned a shrub on one side of the shed out back, and dug out some of the weeds on all sides of the shed.  The catnip had died and dried on two sides, so I removed those bushes, but the one remaining catnip on the south side was still green and attractive to pollinators, so it got a reprieve.  Heavy rain at times today, saturating the ground and making the weed pulling easier afterward.

Other quick jobs:  after scooping cat boxes in the basement, I cleaned up some areas on the floor that bore dried cat puke.  Also, I used the Spot-Bot to clean up some areas on the family room carpet that bore dried cat puke.

Dishes were washed by the Braun and put away by me.  I made the bed.  I took a picture of Good Queen Swirly in her new bed and wrote a little story a la "What a Good Cat!" to go with it in a blog post.  

Weight has crept up from 237 and a fraction to 239 and a fraction, so all this physical labor should help get things back under control.  Today I ate only a bowl of raisin bran, a banana with peanut butter, and a bowl of chili with some baked Ritz chips.  The Mexicoke on the Gorilla shelf in the basement remained untouched, well out of the arm's-reach of desire that a past Coca-Cola CEO declared was the company's goal for its products.

Back to work tomorrow morning, and back to drum lessons.  I'm all set for retirement, whenever it comes.  Hobbies include photography, a foreign language, and now, learning a musical instrument.  Pretty standard pastimes for a retiree.  

And so to bed, Pepys-ily.