“Remoted” – Day 399 (Monday)

Several things happened today, which was another vacation day. None could be describes as thrilling, but none were horrible, so that is a solid win.

In a minor personal triumph, the artwork on the kitchen wall was finished. Sort of. The small framed recipes are not aligned quite right, and suddenly, the perfect photo for the kitchen wall is one that was delivered to the gallery on Saturday. One of the photos needed framing and a fingertip was sliced on the glass. It didn’t bleed right away, but when it did, luckily the blood smear landed on the back of the matt and not the front. 

The DNA results from Ancestry arrived, earlier than expected. The 50% Finnish was pretty much expected, but the absence of Swedish and the presence of 11% Scottish and 8% Irish were surprises. Apologies may be owed to a long string of random, St. Patrick’s Day drunk men over the years who insisted I was an Irish lass despite my objections that I am not. Turns out they weren’t wrong after all. 

The icing on the cake was the arrival of my new glasses from Zenni. For weeks I had been eye-balling aviator frames that come with magnetic clip on sunglasses, waiting for a coupon special. When I was in college and finally got contact lenses after having worn glasses since third grade, the first thing I did after leaving the eye doctor was go to Stuart’s Department Store and buy aviator sunglasses off the rack just like people who didn’t need prescription lenses to function. I have loved aviator sunglasses ever since. I have lost nearly every pair bought back when contacts still worked for me.

When I watched The Glorias on Netflix several weeks ago, an interesting movie about Gloria Steinem, my aviator frame coveting reached a fever pitch. After sitting in my shopping basket for weeks, the glasses were finally ordered on an inconsequential free shipping special ($4.95 savings). Less than a week later, the usual Zenni marketing email announced more aviator styles had been added and a 10% off sale, which would have saved more. Errr. Exactly what I was trying to avoid. But I have the glasses now and can finally stop stalking Zenni, EyeBuyDirect, and all the other online eyeglass sellers. There is no telling what I'll do in all the freed up time.

Based on items listed as available at my local Lowe’s store, and after tallying the balances on three Lowe’s gift cards, I drafted a list and drove to the store tis morning. The list included Rustoleum spray paint for the deck table frame, Rustoleum fabric paint for the deck umbrella, two rolls of garden fencing (9 rolls in invemtory!), bark mulch (5 bags for $10) and annuals for the various containers and flower beds. Despite help from two people working at Lowe’s, the fencing could not be located. This is why I hate shopping, Chapter 419.

A can of navy blue spray paint for the table was bought, but Lowe’s doesn’t have the fabric paint (Home Depot has Facebook ads running for it, which is how I knew it exists). The bark mulch was in the parking lot area of the Garden Center, which I didn’t learn until I had done two laps around the covered Garden Center looking for the fencing and the mulch. I went back inside to look at shovels and string trimmers, then forgot about the mulch until I was through the register and  headed for the exit. When I got home, the temperature was within the recommended range, but it was too breezy to spray paint.

While I was in the yard with the dogs and assessing the breeze, a family with several young children and an infant tumbled out the back door and into the yard of Neighbor Guy’s house. It was not Neighbor Guy or his wife, whose only younglings are two dogs. There were squeals and exclamations over the size of the yard and the shed, and I started feeling like an eavesdropper, so I headed inside. Looks like the nice neighbors are moving. Again. 

That big beautiful house next door seems to be a launching pad for whoever lives there, and the next owner will be the third since I moved to The BungaLowell in 2016. According to Zillow and Redfin, the house isn’t even on the market, despite several showings this afternoon and a lockbox on the door, and the value has gone up considerably since the current neighbors bought it in 2019. Maybe it's me who is driving the neighbors away, and if so, why don't my powers extend to the Nuisance House across the street?