Weekend on the Plagueround

Just floating a song for fun; not saying anything. It’s really a good highway song, and in the winter, but you can take it anywhere, anytime:

The party raged for seven days until it was complete
Bottles buried in the snow lay hidden until spring
Monuments abandoned, wet dreams unfulfilled
Inspired us to descend when goes on down the hill

In the county of el dorado by the old casino
From a jail cell phone so crowded and so alone
Failed by memory, robbed of technology
Can’t remember your number
I wish you’d get me out of here
Come get me out of here

Prepared for the adventure
Braced ourselves for the cold
Winter coats, pockets filled with ammo for the road
Out into the twilight we braved the icy streets
We never reached our destination
That would not be our destiny

………

Food, of course, has been a thing:

The bagel is store bought. My daughter made the cookies, I made the bread, and my wife made the cinnamon rolls. Her glorious past includes a mildly ignoble run as a manager of a Cinnabon store in a mall food court. Her brother was one of her underlings. The chili is just chili. I do not boast of an award-winning recipe. The weather cooled off and dampened on us a little bit the other day, so I threw together a pot of the good stuff. Bread? Bread is life.

………

When they want to paint, they will paint, rain or shine:

It started out as my daughter helping our neighbor/her friend work on an art project for her 4th grade class. They just went a little crazy from there. They are so, so bad at anticipating cleanup, and they were not happy to be pulled away from some other playtime in order to come back home and pick up their mess.

………

Have I mentioned I’m digging out a patio?

There’s a lot of clay, rocks, and roots, so it’s slow going:

Too early to call them “after” pics. Let’s just say “during.” I’ve had a lot of time to wonder whether I’m an idiot for taking on such a big job with nothing but a couple of shovels, a mattock, and a cumbersome, overcomplicated dirtwagon. The thought of renting a tiller crossed my mind, to help get the dirt up, but honestly I’m enjoying the labor. And it’ll be that much better to step back and take it all in when I’m done. Sporadic progress reports will be a nice, cheap way for me to get you all coming back, anyway.

See you tomorrow.