Day 150 / 215

Saylorville Lake - Cloudy 74 Degrees

You’ve all heard a retired person say, “I work more now than when I worked!”  That’s kind of how Champ’s volunteer work here is going now that the flood waters are receding.  I am having a similar spurt at my part time job in town. My friend decided he wants to completely overhaul the displays at the store and we started last Sunday. The project will likely take another week. Champ’s flood clean-up work will take much longer. After a long week of hard physical work, we both said we would take it easy this weekend and be ‘retired’.  It’s not quite turning out that way.

We woke up this morning and greeted the cool 56-degree morning and saw that the high would only be in the mid 70’s. Both of us simultaneously launched into big projects. I have been wanting to wax the motorhome for some time. Today became a day to work on conquering my fear of ladders. I spent this morning washing and waxing the driver’s side of the motorhome. I wonder if there is anyone who remembers movies of the 80's who can apply wax to a vehicle without hearing Mr. Miagi's voice in their head? My task required lots of standing at the top of a big ladder. Something I wouldn’t have even attempted last summer. Champ came around and checked on me periodically to be sure I wasn’t in a heap on the ground and even took a couple of pictures in case I never did it again. Those who know me best know I rarely stand with my feet planted anywhere but on the ground. I have the other side and the front and back to do tomorrow. More reconditioning my brain to not be afraid.  

Champ gathered material from old projects and build me a nice rack to keep my computer, folders, bird books and my Paleo bible that I refer to daily right now. Before, things were kind of piled in the corner on my side of the table where I spend most of my indoor waking hours. Now things are nice and organized, the way I prefer them. My neat-freaks heart is happy with my new custom build storage. Courtesy of my talented husband.  When we started this chapter, we went through all our credit cards deciding which ones to keep.  The Menards card was one of the first to go. We never thought we would need a home improvement store much in this life. Wrong! We go to Menards and Lowes regularly. I am continually surprised at how many little projects we do around the ‘house’ these days.

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I took time out and went to a fascinating lecture over at the Visitor’s Center about the geological history of Central Iowa. I’ve been a rock hound all my life and know some basic history about the glaciers and oceans that were once here. This was the best hour I’ve spent in a long time. I was thrilled to see that the promotion I did of the event in the newsletter paid off. The auditorium was full of fellow nerds, some toting in boxes of fossils and rocks for Michael to help them identify and learn more about.

All in all, it was a very satisfying day. I worked hard again and loved that I can do the work I want to. I waxed by hand for the exercise. Like I said in an earlier post, we take every opportunity we get to stay fit and healthy. I’ll get another good workout tomorrow. So much for holding down the lawn chair this weekend. That’s okay.

Until next time…