random thoughts – Day 2,257 (Friday) – matts and mowing

There were tasks scheduled for today, specifically, working on the photo matting and framing for an exhibit, and mowing the lawn. One of the photos is a nonstandard size and needed a special window matt cut. I found a framing shop close to the house.

It was a great time in the shop, and I ended up being there a couple hours. One of the owners demonstrated the matt cutting machine to show me some fancy additional cuts that could be done, but we decided against it. We had a great time chatting about downsizing homes, frames, matts, and a local arts group her husband is involved with. Later, her husband/co-owner arrived. He is an artist and he and I had a great talk about hanging art shows while he cut the matts and she had some lunch. 

Almost all mowed.

The lawn was less successful and energizing than the framing shop. It was my first mow since moving here because stepdad next door mowed my  yard last fall when he did his. My mower is electric and today I discovered my cord is too short to reach all of the front lawn. At least a dozen times it unplugged itself when it reached maximum distance, and I swore and stomped to the outlet to plug it back in. 

There is an L-shaped section in the front yard along the driveway and at the edge of the road that is still tall and shaggy because I couldn’t reach it with the mower. The opposite corner of the back yard has a corresponding shaggy patch that I couldn’t reach. Now, I need to determine the length of the cord so I can buy a longer one.

Mystery matter.

Near the shaggy back yard spot lies a surprise. There is mysterious matter in the form of a large black blob of glossy something that is dark like tar or licorice. There were small flies on it. It didn’t smell. 

Based on the size, I know it is not cat, dog, bunny, or deer poop. A lot of local people have been mentioning bear sightings on the Nextdoor app, so that was my best guess. I carefully mowed around it and decided to deal with it further tomorrow. An internet search for bear poop seems to have confirmed the guess.