Staining the deck, Music lessons, Sleepover with the iPod

1) Staining the deck oughta be easy. Our deck is a flat single-level rectangle, maybe 10x14 feet, without any structural elements of interest.

For the past 15 years I've picked out a warm, dry afternoon and applied a fresh coat of gray stain to freshen its appearance. Piece of cake, right?

Well not this year. I kept getting confused about which plank I was working on, even though you can see that a freshly stained plank looks different than its adjacent and somewhat weathered neighbors .

As my frustration increased and progress decreased, Sally came to my rescue and completed the staining as I cleaned up the brushes. Whew.

In a phone visit the next day, my daughter Holly suggested that it was similar to the problem I have collating, and otherwise organizing papers. Lots of similar looking pieces, but each piece, whether board or page, having a unique position in the whole.

(2) Watering the yard

Our 23 year-old home is not equipped with a built-in lawn-sprinkler system. That was fine in the early years while the kids were growing up, but now we're empty-nesters with more time for gardening, and the city now has a year-round restricted watering schedule allowing watering only on certain days and only at certain times on those days.

Because our areas for gardening have grown substantially over the years, it's increasingly challenging to get water to the plants, with limited outside water faucets and garden hoses.

This year I had a lot of trouble figuring out how best to configure the hoses and sprinklers to accomplish the job. Bringing her library organization skills to bear on the task at hand, Sally helped me set up a network of hoses, feeder hoses, winders and sprinklers to reach all around the house and down the hill into the shady, half-acre back yard

(3) The impact of music

We bought a computer-based piano instruction course, which I've begun taking. I like it so far. I also signed up for conventional piano lessons which start in mid-June.

I've found myself whistling more than I have in several years.

I listened to music on my iPod for 6 hours straight one night last week. I totally enjoyed an impromptu living-room sing-along that we had with another couple at our piano a couple weeks ago (Not me on the piano)