I Have a Couple More Touch-Up Jobs, But My Back Porch is Officially Ready For Summer Occurrences

When you touch-up the gray areas for the mistakes of white paint droppings, then you touch-up the white areas for gray paint dropping, you feel some sort of way. I loved painting, but I've never been perfect with the brushes, and doing railings is nearly impossible.

I did take a break from Pet-Finder meandering for a new dog, to look at online outdoor rugs and I was like, "Holy expensive, Batman." But then a quick trip to BJs did me well, as the same one I saw online that I wanted was almost $700 cheaper. So, I picked it up. It was huge and barely fit in my car, but on the back porch it was swallowed whole. 

It does match the furniture, however, and pulls the green from the umbrellas and the grass. Now, if only Fox Pest Control could get control of the Carpenter Bees, and I can get brave enough from stopping the sparrows from building nexts in my eves...(eyes of the sparrow - they're God's creatures and I love having them).

I honestly spent another 8 hours, making for 24 hours of labor in redoing, sanding, filling in wood rot, sanding again, painting, and repainting to fix the back patio playground. 

This morning, I'm up at 6 a.m., showered, and pulling together my doctoral robes for another graduate commencement at the University. We skipped a year because of the pandemic, and I'm happy to know that 2020 was invited to congregate with 2021, so there's a holiday of graduates to applaud and celebrate. I'm hosting a crew in Canisius parking lot, responsible for alphabetizing, lining them up, and walking them onto Bellarmine Lawn. It's supposes to be beautiful, and there's nothing more wonderful that a gorgeous day to graduate our students. 

This afternoon, my friend from S. Dakota, Dr. Kelly Sassi, who does what I do with the National Writing Project, will be sharing her son who has been in CT at Wesleyan College for the last four years (phew. That was fast). I finally get to meet Allesandro, as his film project is being screened in the morning and he's heading to my house to get away for a little while (long-haired hippie sort, just like I was when I finished). Tunga's coming in from Stamford and my afternoon goals are to walk the shoreline and to find a good restaurant for dinner to celebrate the day.

I'm not anticipating a crazy summer on Mt. Pleasant, and when I looked at the corn hole set in the garage, I can't help but miss all the summers with BBQ, tournaments, fire pits, booze, and laughter. I'm hoping this summer will bring some of that joy back to Mt. Pleasant. 

And I can't help but look at that patio with a little sadness. To the right, under the grill, is where Glamis went to lie when she was really sick. The next day, she crawled underneath, almost to the door. I had to coax her out both times and held her in my arms on the grass under a blanket. 

The back yard is quiet this year. I welcome any and all who want to bring their noise my way.