The last two years, I have poured my heart into my Memorial Day post. This year, I lack the words to fully express how I view this holiday. I am grateful beyond comprehension that of those who mean the most to me, those who have served this country have all returned home alive and primarily intact. Most of my family and closest friends who fit this description have completed their military contracts and are now moved on to different phases of their lives. I feel an emotion similar to survivor's guilt, knowing that my loved ones are safe, but thousands of families cannot say the same. My heart goes out to those families, who have to find the balance in their memories between pride and grief. I offer respect to them. I wish I could offer more that would be of comfort.
We accomplished a lot today, even though the man keeps trying to suggest we haven't. He finished ripping apart our master bath last night, to re-install the tile that popped up after less than a year (and grout that cracked as a result). This time it should be a bit more flexible, with a polymer blend in the mortar. We may never know whether that is enough to compensate for the temperature extremes that happen in the floor of the poorly-insulated room over the front porch. While I stayed out of his way this afternoon so he could tile without interference, I scooped all the detritus out of the dining room and piano bar, getting it 90% of the way staged for real estate photos. Unfortunately most of the crap that I moved, plus another half-dozen boxes from the attic, are now piled in the TV room. I have to organize and stage every room on the ground floor at once, because nearly every room is visible through doorways from every other place on this level. I even need to do a sweep outside where bright blue Lowe's buckets and faded candy-colored outdoor rugs are visible through the windows all around. I started touching up the trim paint as well, and I'm very glad I did it. Things look so much brighter in the living room where the paint is fresh. I need to run it all the way around the whole place, and the man will do the same on the outside. The house will look like it's wearing brand new white ribbons threaded through its hair, like a cute little debutante.
Tonight was the 110th installment in our multi-part series, entitled "We have too many things we have to do, so we are going to ditch our responsibilities and go hang out with friends." We take a lot of mental health breaks around here. I admit, I do encourage it. Or perhaps enable it. Or maybe you could just call me the instigator. I'll cop to that. But which would you rather do? Tile a bathroom floor or go to a Birthday Party/Memorial Day BBQ?
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