So again, thanks kids!
Or at least Thanks Ty, Megan and Zack. Last night they said the girls hadn't chipped in yet.
Come on girls: don't give credence to the cliche that women are lousy tippers.
Last night, Ty brought the kids into town and we had dinner together. The kids and Zack played baseball in the back yard while Jay cooked up the burgers. The men all moved the fridge out of the garage while I made patties: we're having the floor repaired this weekend so everything has to be moved out.
Last fall I bought a big old TV armoire at a garage sale for $6.00. My plan was to paint it all fun and funky, sort of MacKenzie Child-like. I have no room in my house for it but thought maybe one of my kids in their big new houses could use a bit of storage. Problem is the thing weighed a ton. Too heavy to haul up into my office, so I left it in the garage.
In the end, we all decided it was too much trouble to haul anywhere so Adam and Zack dragged it down to the boulevard.
In the quarter century we've lived in our house, we've donated many large things to the neighborhood. Here, most of us are not too stuffy to furnish our houses with alley and boulevard treasures.
Many years ago, we put a sleeper sofa on the boulevard and a gal who lived a block down was walking by and said she wanted it; she took the cushions and came back in a half an hour with a pickup. someone else had taken the cushion-less sofa.
That's the risk all us recyclers run.
Last fall, I was so proud of Josie when she came home late one night and said "I just saw a dresser in an alley, let's go get it!"
Yes, my kids were all raised right.
My only concern about the armoire is that it was raining. I hoped someone who could use it would come and take it before the weather ruined it.
Less than 24 hours after putting it on the street, a gal knocked on my door and asked about it. She collects and refinishes furniture for relocated homeless women and kids. she was nearly as excited to have the old thing, which she plans to outfit with a hanger bar, as I was to be rid of it.
I've learned over the years that there will always be another cheap piece of furniture I can refinish, paint or decorate. I've learned to let it go.
Recently, I borrowed the first season of True Detective from my folks. I finally started watching it this week.
I'm really enjoying it. It's gritty and intense and well written. Woody Harrelson and Mathew McConaughey are both fantastic in it.
But what I really like best about it is how well it's filmed.
As I said after slogging my way through all four of the Hunger Games movies, I really hate the current fad for ultra close ups. It's a cinematic cop out.
There's none of that in this television show. Every frame is carefully constructed and composed to give the viewer a real look at the people, the place and the atmosphere surrounding the action. It's gorgeous and adds so much tension and depth to each episode that you could watch them with the sound muted and still get the feel of the piece.
I have two episodes left.
To keep from letting the show get me down (it is really heavy and I suspect will try to break my heart) I've been watching the third season of Once Upon a Time between seasons. I like the show. It's silly and fun but I do find the Disney thing a bit heavy handed. I'm just relieved that Robin Hood wasn't cast as a CGI fox.
Although that fox may be the hottest hero in a Disney film, ever.
It's the voice.