What a difference

I'm hiring the son of a good friend (as opposed to a bad friend) to do outdoor work for me.  Yesterday he mowed the lawn, the driveway, the "field" I hadn't mowed this year.  Wow does it look great.  Thursday he's coming back to weed whack.  I can't imagine what it's going to look like, but I'm thrilled to have found someone enthusiastic and YOUNG and STRONG who will do this stuff.  When he & his mother came last night I said my place looks like Tobacco Rd.  Forgive me, residents of Tob.Rd., but my deck looks sort of trashed right now.  I haven't put my flower pots out in any order and there's spilled dirt on the deck, and a big pile of stuff that needs to go to the dump but has to be moved with a shovel.  Getting rid of that will make a huge difference.  Come on, girlie, get to it.

Water is no longer an issue--I heard the joyous sound of my sump pump running, meaning the water table is very high.  We had lots of rain, which was a drag but was also fantastic.  I stayed in the boat house one night during the weekend, and it was about 45 in the morning so I fled to higher ground.  This morning it was exactly 40.  A good temperature to walk the bog but wearing a jacket.  Holly & I walked the bog last night while her son mowed--the 2nd time for the dogs & me that day, so this morning the dogs were very reserved in their walking.  No running, no chariot-pulling, just trotting along slowly.

I'm heading to Keene Vall. later this week to start work on their map collection.  Was supposed to go last week but didn't get there.  It's a really pretty spot, tucked into the mountains.

Social life is humming.  Dinner with friends tomorrow night, dinner with friends Monday night, trip to LkPlacid next Friday to meet a friend for dinner.  And I'm trying to lose weight, counting my points.  So far it's working but it's slow, very slow.  Everyone says that's the best way to lose weight, so I guess I'm doing the best.  Patience, lady, patience.

There was a joke told long ago and the punchline was "Patience, little jackass."  The joke wasn't very funny, sort of like the knock-knock joke about "orange you glad I didn't say orange?"  I always think of the phrase when I talk of myself, or want to tell someone else to be patient.

Must move along, have to come up with personal goals for the year.  Work goals, that is.  My own personal goals are pretty much the same every year.  Where I used to work, if you didn't achieve your goal the first year, you could repeat it the next year, but if you didn't achieve it that year you couldn't carry it over.  So far no one here has caught on to that.  But, really, for how many years to I want to list unachieved goals?