Commitments

Yesterday I put down a deposit on a new, wonderful wood stove.  It's on sale, $870 off, but still (by my standards) very expensive.  And I have to pay hundreds to have it delivered and installed.  Yikes.  I've become very nervous about making financial commitments.  I've got a few money things going on right now, which worries me a bit.  I've ordered 8 cords of firewood ($600), I'm having a home energy assessment done (well, that's free) with a goal of taking out a loan to make improvements to my non-existent insulation, and now the stove.  Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to spend money?  I just got paid today and have barely pennies left after paying bills.

One of my favorite television characters was "Pat," from the old days of Saturday Night Live.  Pat was asexual, you couldn't tell the gender by appearance.  Pat's friends were always looking for clues, trying to trick Pat into revealing his/her gender.  One of my favorites was when Pat said "Oh I feel awful.  It's that time of month."  So their ears perked up--"What time of month?"  "Billllllllllls"  That's how I feel.  Billllllls.

It's rainy and looks to be that way for a while.  We're getting part of the tropical storm that's in the South.  Well, Elizabeth, don't complain--it's getting your plants watered and filling your well (my sump pump has been running, always a cheerful sound for me).  I don't mind the rain but it would be nice to see some sun.  The rain keeps the black flies at bay, but makes it hard to get anything done outside.

What's up for my weekend?  Well, it's time for my summer social life to kick in.  Tonight I go grocery shopping, tomorrow J&M are hosting a Belmont Stakes party, Sunday is dinner with Bill and the Holts, next week is the Blue Heron boys.  I look forward to all of this.

I have to take pictures of my current stove set-up & send them to the stove dealer so they will know what sort of installation they're looking at.  I was going to do it last night but the stove is currently being used as a table to store things, and there's detritus surrounding it on the floor.  Is it DE-tri-tus or de-TRI-tus?  My father always said the latter, but most people use the former.  My father would be nearly 101 if he were still alive.  I think of him often--of all the people in my siblings' and my lives who was an incredibly powerful influence, he's at the top.

I've been visiting Fred in rehab quite a bit.  He has way too many visitors but I like to think he's happy to have attention from me.  So far he hasn't kicked me out.  I was there last night with some other lake people and didn't stay long.  He's doing very well, is making great progress I think.  He hopes to be at Pinewood within a couple of weeks.  Everyone is eager to help him when he gets there--many, many offers are coming in.  He won't know what he needs until he gets there, or whether he'll be driving much, or what.  His main concern seems to be being able to get to the dock.  Oh we do like Silver Lake.

There are some loons on the lake, though I haven't heard of any sightings.  People are hearing them at both ends of the lake.  I haven't heard them lately but the rain is pretty noisy.  One of my friends found a dead loon on shore near Linda's camp.  Linda, always doing the right thing, with Joe's help loaded the stinking, headless carcass into her car and drove it to the Wildlife Rehab Center so they could figure out why it died.  Why was it headless?  And missing the banded leg?  Ah, sweet mystery of life.