The Good Life

Somebody pinch me...I must be dreaming.  Things could not possibly get any better than they are right at this moment.  I am sitting on my back deck (which I spent several hours scrubbing, painting, and arranging over the last three days...)  I am listening to my favorite "space music" (new age instrumental) CD, I am sipping on a glass of (cheap but decent) Chardonnay, and I am clicking away on the keys of my laptop.  My freshly cleaned and filled spa is humming, a dozen feet to my left.  It might even be ready for us to take a soak tonight before bed (much needed after the last 48 hours spent on the afore-mentioned scrubbing, painting, and arranging, not to mention crawling around weeding one of the six garden beds in my yard that was screaming for attention.)  Sometimes, I am very pleased with the current state of technology.  Of course, if the battery on my laptop dies before I am finished with this entry, I will become quickly un-enamored of  that very same technology...

This is my month "off."  For some reason, I was not able to find any events for the business during the month of May.  Which actually is a good thing, because, as I have mentioned, my yard looks like ****, and it's going to take quite a bit of effort to get it up to snuff.  AND once the "meat" of the summer hits, and I am out of town most of the months of June, July and August, there will be no time to address any yard issues.  It needs to be as done as it's gonna get by Memorial Day.

We broke down and called a landscaper this week.  I have to get the "public" areas of the yard looking decent before my neighbors run me out of the 'hood.  We're going to have this nice man lay some sod in the front yard, and in what I call the "cemetery triangle"--the strip between the driveway and the LONG fence that separates us from the "marble orchard" of the Catholic Church next door.  AND he's going to plant a hedge along that fence, to give us a little more (psychological) separation from said cemetery.  It's going to be worth the 2 grand it's going to cost to NOT have to do it ourselves.  Digging in this dirt is an undertaking for only the most intrepid garden engineers.  In other words, we're wimping out.

I am still in charge of the back yard, though, and I am quite proud of what I've accomplished so far.  Last week, I actually sat down and made a list of at least fifty things that I want to get accomplished this month, and we made pretty good headway on that list in the last three days.  I might add, my husband's brother and his wife are coming out from Chicago for a visit later this month (only the second time any of his family have visited in the twenty years we've lived here...), so that's going to mean several INSIDE the house projects need to be accomplished as well.  So much to do, so little time!

But, right now, I'm listening to music, drinking wine, enjoying my deck, and clickety-clacking away.  And loving the heck out of it.