The doctor had told us that my energy level would most likely pick up after three months and boy, howdy, has it.
In this past month I've cooked up a bunch of meals for the hot weather (which hasn't hit yet), did an awesome job of cleaning the kitchen counters (which are in need of another cleaning), set up Google Assistant speakers throughout the house (four in the family room, one in each corner, I had to stand on a step stool to do this and Brian had to pull the entertainment center from the wall so I could pull the plug through the back to an outlet). I finally found a use for some little cell phone stands I'd gotten on Meh a while back.
Two weeks ago, Brian reminded me that there was a recycling thing going on at the local supermarket, so I went into the garage and started pulling out old floor cleaners. Carpet cleaners from thirty years ago! Back when we had carpet. Floormate cleaners that I kept meaning to take in for warranty work, just never got around to it. Little Green clean machines - one that I rarely used because it was hard to get to, so I bought another one. (Back when money wasn't so tight and I had more dollars than sense - those days are long gone.) The back of the pickup was full. Brian drove down to the recycling program and was told "we don't take that for free, that's five bucks for each item". So, the stuff is still in the back of the truck and he'll take it to a permanent recycling center, just to get rid of it.
And once that got started, that organizing that one corner of the garage, well, it kind of led to cleaning the rest as much as I could. The shelves still need to be done, but I can do a little at a time. Lots more to get rid of. Old skis (from before I was married), old Bell helmet (from the time when Brian hoped I'd come to love the dirt, loudness, three wheeling terror and work of desert trips), old Christmas lights, old aquarium equipment (there's still a huge container of fish flakes)....you know, just more stuff to get rid of.
So, garage done for the time being, my mind went to the painting of the aluminum blanks. I've had a really hard time getting it right. Trying to do it before it was so warm outside, thinking the cooler temperatures and no breeze in the early morning would be a plus. Yesterday I figured what the hell and started working on painting when it was sunny and breezy. Guess what? The warmer the paint was, the better it mixed and the smoother it went on.
Yeah, there are some lumpy parts, but I figured they could go on the inside of the blank. After the blanks are etched and bent, the small areas won't even be noticeable. So, I'm stoked about that. I can finally start making some fun (and rude) things with my Curio.
This past weekend, Brian did work on the patio. Pulled out an old dead bush, got rid of old bark ground cover in areas which the cats had been using for a litter box. Years and years of dried poop, gone. He put down new bark and hosed off the cat tree (it's an old one, actually made with wood, not cardboard!) and did a really good job cleaning the grill. Yesterday, between coats of paint, I finished cleaning the patio. I pulled out the cat bed and hosed both sides of that, an old plastic tv shaped cat house, hosed that out, hosed the patio itself. Then I noticed when walking barefoot into the house, the mats in front of the doors had lots of little pieces of stuff that stuck to my feet and I carried into the house. So, I hosed those as well. They were very dirty. The little pieces of stuff were from the asphalt roof tiles that flaked off during the years. So, the patio is nice and clean.
Even nicer with the additional energy, I've been keeping on top of paperwork. It's some sort of miracle, I tell ya. I did the bank reconciliation yesterday and it took less than ten minutes. Nice. Customers are getting their invoices and tracking numbers before UPS has even picked up the shipments (I'm suppose to invoice when shipped). Before, I just put it off until tomorrow. Until a month or so later and I had a pile to do.
So, today, I'm going to not do stuff so physical. I think I might work with the Curio, if the paint is dry enough. It says "24 hours", so maybe not today. But I can design something.
The amazing thing about this is I'm actually DOING things, not shopping on Amazon, thinking "oh, I want this, I want that"...I'm using what I've got. The spending thing just kind of slid into my life and now, I want it to slide its nasty ass out. I'd rather be doing, creating, cleaning, than adding things to a wishlist.
And it feels damned good.
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