Study Break

Inspirational song: Tom Sawyer (Rush)

Ah. I was so excited to be done with my homework a day early. I did all three chapters over the course of the day, and all the study questions are neatly worked in my notebook, in purple ink. I thought I was ready to turn out the light and head to bed. Oh, right. Blog.

Some of the reading involved in this class makes me feel like my face is too heavy for my skull. It keeps trying to slide off, pulling my eyelids down over my eyes as it goes. I used to think that I was very interested in property management, because I'd rented out houses that I hadn't been able to sell, and I used to work in that capacity for my grandfather's trust, collecting rents, evicting ne'er-do-wells, and making insurance claims on his properties, on behalf of my mother and uncle after they inherited the lot. Reading about property management, with the memories of my BFF's property management nightmares of this year fresh in my mind, cemented the conviction that I really am not as into it as I once thought I was.

It was beautiful here today, and between chapters I decided that going outside to fetch and carry for the man while he attached pickets to the skeleton of the fence between our house and our young neighbor's. The previous fence came down more than a week ago, and all of our dogs have been thrilled to play in the bonus yard next door. Every day I've had to call them back from over there, when they chased squirrels and extended their opportunities to bark at alley traffic. I am fairly certain they snacked on the spent grain from our neighbor's beer brewing. And once the fence seals off the access, one or both of us will need to go clean up after the dogs again.

This stretch of fence is taking longer to hang, because the Mr bought three inch wide pickets instead of five, to more closely match the rest of the neighbor's existing fence. Had I been at that planning meeting, I think I would have lobbied for the wider pickets like we have on the back. They go up much faster (like 40% faster, if you catch my drift). Somehow I was convinced to sit and pull the staples and price tags out of the bottom of each board, the least fun job in all of fence building. Or am I just fooling myself? Is there any fun job in fence building? Let me go get a brush and some paint, and tell you how much fun this all is.