Monday, Monday

Ancient 1986 Honda lawnmower started--finally--after dousing the air cleaner with carburetor cleaner after two pulls. Ummm....wish I'd have known to try this last fall...would have saved tons of aggravation.  Apparently there is just gunk in the carburetor and it won't let it fire.  So lawn was mowed without borrowing a lawnmower from the in laws.  Which, as far as I see it, is pretty awesome. Less aggravation.  I love my old lawnmower, really...the wheel adjustments are METAL not plastic and hey, it still running and mows BETTER than the one year old mower I borrow from the in laws. 

Jon is having tons of frustrations with his Jeep.  It needs an oil change. And the "professional" oil change he got while Jeep was at the mechanics is royally fucked.  They tightened his oil pan bolt on with an impact wrench! So he can't get the damn bolt loose and apparently dented the oil pan trying to loosen the bolt.  Apparently if the mechanics give you bullshit paperwork--and they did--none of it really matched the vehicle it means they fucked up big time and don't want it traced back to them.  Okay, so its nearly 20 years old, but that doesn't give them the right to fuck it up. It has lots of issues...it didn't need a new issue.  It doesn't mean we can afford a new-er one at present, either.    We are fully prepared to run it until it dies...but it'd be great if some asshole with a mechanic's license didn't hasten its demise.

Today was busy, busy, busy at work.  Unloaded 40 gates and 6 stock tanks from Tartar Gate first thing, then unloaded 20 pallets of shavings, 2 of which I dumped, unfortunately because they were packed in there so damn tightly...and had to pick up and restack them--at least we needed shavings on the floor.  Too bad I dumped the same flavor both times.  Then I went through my usual Monday morning 11 point checklist...and am finding that cashiers STILL aren't doing pickups on special orders which is really annoying and frustrating and makes me spend too much time going through the filing cabinet to find out which ones really are picked up and which ones just aren't at the store yet. Unloaded Carry On Trailer and went to lunch.

After lunch I drafted Amber K. to help me put away gates. There were just sooo many and some of them are too heavy for me to flip upright on my own.  She was willing to go outside and die in the hot sun with me. Then I tagged all the damn gates and stock tanks, picked up all the styrofoam from the trailer truck and random other trash people like to leave lying about in the sidelot and came inside sweating like mad and drank a ton of water.

I tossed all the defectives, checked in UPS and dumped my trash--then when the ASM walked in she filled up my trash can with like 100 pounds of rubbish from the team lead, and managers...and just left it sit. I dragged it to the back door and swapped out my trash can with another one. Ridiculous.  I swear the managers are the worst about the little annoying things.

This will be the first freight week without Scott A. Should be interesting and stressful.

Country Goat, City Goat

Well, there is currently no furniture on my lawn and my lawn is no longer 12 inches tall in the dog poo zone.  I feel all classed up.

  (I am actually proud my lawn has taken it upon itself to be so plentiful and thick with NO chemicals or annoying fuckery such as bagging clippings and raking leaves. In fact, our lawn is MUCH healthier than those of our neighbors because the grass clippings remain on the lawn and I mulch the leaves and leave them in piles on the flower beds to make dirt.  Not all neat and tidy, but nature isn't neat and tidy.)


Just wait til next trash day when Old Smelly Pokey (our old couch with the spring sticking out) hits the lawn to wait for a very important date with some garbage men, it'll class this joint right up.

Using a borrowed lawnmower, I did feel a bit like I was mowing a hayfield. Cutting it kind of made me sad because the dogs were having happy fun times hiding in the long grass, only wagging tails visible--leaping out at one another then chasing around the yard like idiots.  On the other side of things, I didn't want Redford fining me for having a nice grassy field where a lawn should be--a product of their battle against urban blight. 

If I was allowed a goat, I wouldn't have trouble with long grass and a lawnmower that doesn't want to start. 

Dear Redford Township:

Goats are the environmental way to a nice, healthy, fertilized lawn and make great pets.  No more run off from the horrible chemical spray guys.  No more picking up lawn clippings and sending them to landfills.  Plus, nanny goats give milk and cheese can be made out of it. Goat poo is a lot like rabbit or deer poo and nearly odorless. Just tiny little pellets. Goats run on grass, not gas. Goats don't bite. The dogs and the goat could frolic and it would be amusing.

I also should be allowed to have 2-3 laying hens if I should so chose (not that I in particular WANT them, but I think I should have the right to keep them on my property should I change my mind) because they lay eggs.

I should be able to dig up my entire lawn if I so desire and plant it in corn, tomatoes, green peppers, or what not.  (Not that I can, nearly my entire lawn is so densely shaded I had trouble growing things in planters last summer.) I don't actually know if this is against any city ordinance but I suspect that since it doesn't fit the "sameness" and weird Stepford Wive-ish yard style Reford wants (to distinguish itself from Detroit and Brightmoor) that it probably is.

Spring!

I think spring may have finally arrived in Michigan.  My tulips are finally blooming! I have also turned off the furnace and had my windows open.  Bedding is currently hanging outside on the clothesline instead of only inside.  This is very, very nice. Nothing smells as good as sunshine.

I'm waiting on the mattress delivery guys who gave me a window at 7:45 am this morning of 11 am to 2 pm...I would rather it had been earlier so as to get it out of the way, but a new MATTRESS!!!!  My mom very nicely gave me a set of sheets that will fit the new mattress because she didn't like that particular sheet set for whatever reason.  Sheets are expensive, so its much appreciated. I still need another set in case, for some reason I can't get one set dry before I need to sleep--and believe me this happens in the winter with the indoor clothes line if one or other of the cats, decide that instead of coughing up a hairball on the floor, would rather do it on the bed.

I assembled the new bed frame last night and threw the too small mattress on top of it just so I wouldn't have to be aggravated over assembling things today. I'm glad I got that out of the way. The instructions, while correct, needed better pictures and more steps would have reduced my confusion.

I'm also waiting for Jon to come home from work at around 12:30.  He has been doing much much better about staying at work. I drew him a pie chart of expenses. Apparently, he needed the visual more than he needed a numbers analysis and my constant--hey--my stupid checks aren't going to cover our relatively small bills (relatively small as compared to most people).  I understand that his job is awfully boring and that he works with his dad who is an asshole most of the time, but really sometimes to enjoy life it really all comes down to can pay bills, eat and do fun things, or can't pay bills, eat or do fun things. 

We are planning fun times tomorrow with some friends; and are going to grill pizzas.  Tastier than I ever imagined...its a lot of work, but since our oven had been broken for seemingly forever, some things were discovered such as cooking pizza in a cast iron skillet on a charcoal grill tastes fabulous and smoky.