Until It's Done

Inspirational song: Joy to the World (Three Dog Night)

I got a second wind somewhere around 10 pm, and started painting closets in earnest. Now 1 am has come and gone, and I am used up. I'll refer to the notes I took during the day about what I wanted to say, but I don't know where the pretty expository writing is going to come from.

This is the second to last night here, and  I'm still finding ways that my Park is saying goodbye to me. This morning I found a handful of tiny blackberries and strawberries in a bowl on the stove. Apparently the rodents all got together and decided as a parting gift, they would leave a few plants alone. How sweet of them. They go along with the two cherry tomatoes that fell off the vine last week, as green as they could be. I left them sitting on the container of tomatoes from the grocery store, and today they were sufficiently purpled to go in an omelet. I never got much that was edible out of my years of trying to garden in the Park, but at least I will leave here having had two tiny tomatoes and a handful of berries. Not a great return on investment.

We lost hours of potentially productive time having to run some cats to the vet. Everyone was due shots, but I had to prioritize based on my schedule. Jackie and Athena won the elimination round. Jack needed the doctor to tell me whether her lack of good grooming habits are from obesity or something more ominous. We are waiting on test results. Of all my soon-to-be travelers, I am able to clip claws on everyone except Athena. As I told the vet, that's like trying to sharpen a running lawnmower. I want no part of that business. It took both the doc and the tech, plus a large towel and careful manouvering, but eventually they made Athena 100% less pointy. Couldn't do a thing to make her less bitey.

I put out the call for reinforcements tonight, and got one taker. One of my mah jongg friends said she was a night owl, and she was willing to come over after ten, and help me paint the master closet until past midnight. She is a lifesaver. I made the mistake of not painting before the closet system went in, so it took me hours to do all the cut in work. She came along behind me and did the rolling in all those little spaces between shelves and around bars. I am in her debt, especially considering she helped clean a few months ago when I had had surgery and lots of distinguished guests were due. I promised her I would treat her to a concert at Red Rocks. All she has to do is get most of the way there.