Days Off

I took a couple of days in the middle of the week to spend time with Girlie Bear and get some stuff done.  I seem to enjoy taking time off during the week rather than just having a long weekend. 

Wednesday was "Clean the House" day.  It's been a while since we did a wholesale cleaning of the house, and I always do housework better when I'm alone.  The kitchen was completely dismantled and scrubbed.  The living room and dining room were dusted, washed, and the floors were cleaned using Irish Woman's electric mop.  Nothing like the smell of Murphy's Oil Soap.

While I was working, I thought of something.  We're not dirty people, and we do regular maintenance cleaning, but nothing brings you down to earth like looking at how funky your mop water is after cleaning the house.  When I was done, the floors shined, and the house smelled wonderful.

That afternoon, I broke out the clippers and started shearing Shadow.  His Newfie ancestry had made him quite shaggy, and he's been shedding bad enough to change the color of the rug he sleeps on.  Add to that the hot and muggy summer we're having, and he's been miserable.

It took three passes over each area to get him shorn, but when I was done, he no longer looked like a throw rug with ears and a tail.  I didn't take him down to skin, well not in most areas anyway.  He has enough fur left that he looks like most other black field labs.  I didn't do anything funky like carve a message into his flank or give him a mohawk, but the temptation was there.  It's not the most expert job that could have been done, but the only part that looks really weird is his tail.  He would not sit still at all, so his tale is completely uneven.  Oh well, at least he'll be more comfortable.

After he was completely shorn, there was a pile of fur big enough to knit a puppy with laying on the patio.  And no, there are no pictures.  No need to embarrass  the dog.

Wednesday evening we had a pretty intense lightning storm, and just as it seemed to be moving on, we lost power.  Apparently a splice in the power line down the block had separated when the line was hit by lightning.  We were without power for about 3 or 4 hours, but the lights came back on just as it started to get dark.  I was actually looking forward to camping out in the basement.

Yesterday was my lazy day.  Had a nice slow breakfast, then Girlie Bear and I went to the library to get her some more books.  She's started consuming books as fast as I did at that age, which makes me very happy.  When we got home, she conned me into watching "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on Netflix, which just goes to show how far a father will go to please his daughter. 

After lunch, I lay down, drank some beer, and watched a couple of hours of Ren and Stimpy.  Girlie Bear wasn't interested and went off to read.  She thinks my choice of entertainment is "immature and goofy".  Guilty.

I followed Ren and Stimpy with an hour or so of Call of Duty World at War on the Wii, and then it was time to make dinner.  Immature, insane comics followed up with electronic mayhem does a lot to work off stress.

Coming back to work this morning was rough.  Today is going to be a much nicer day weather wise, and it pains me to spend it indoors.  Oh well, I'm going to be taking some more time off in a couple of weeks, and hopefully it'll be nice enough to go to the range or fishing.