Before The Husband got out of bed yesterday, I had two hours in which to think up ways to spend the day. After breakfast, when I asked if he had any plans, he said he needed to change the lawnmower blades and mow our yard and Nanny's yard. As for me, I needed to go to the grocery store and to Big Lots and Tractor Supply, take some shoes to my aunt, and weed the vegetable garden.
The trouble is, it's hot. And humid. And the mosquitoes, horseflies, and chiggers are on the warpath. Neither I nor The Husband was excited about outdoor chores. In planning my day, I put weeding at the bottom of the list, intending to do it late in the afternoon.
The little red tiller has been sitting in the yard ever since we brought it home from Son #2's house, two weeks ago. We tried to crank it last Saturday, even using a power drill to turn the engine, but couldn't get it to run. Son #2 said it had cranked for him after a few pulls. Seeing it sitting out there yesterday, I decided to see if I could figure out why it wasn't cranking for us. I dragged it onto the back porch (where there were fans running), and The Husband and spent about an hour fooling with it, but never got it to run. It's getting fire. It has gas and oil (though the oil looks really dark). We have a spare carburetor, but by this time it was almost noon, and we both had other things to do.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been intending to drop off a pair of shoes at my aunt's house. I bought these shoes online, and I ordered the wrong size. My fault. When I did the online return process, the company kindly said to just keep the shoes (they were cheap). I queried family members and discovered that they would fit my aunt. I needed to go see her, anyway, just to visit. I would see my aunt, first, and then do the shopping/errands, and then come home and work in the garden.
So about 1:00, I hit the road. Visited with my aunt and uncle for a long time. One of their daughters dropped by as I was about to leave. After chatting with her for a bit, I went about my errands.
On the way to town, it occurred to me that there was a problem with my plan.
The sole purpose of the planned Big Lots run was to get a bag of dark chocolate-covered pistachios and cranberries. (OMG. These things...! Fortunately, it only takes a few to hit the spot.) If I were to go to Big Lots first, the chocolate would melt while I was grocery shopping. I could not allow that to happen. (The smooth, shiny spherical-ness is part of the joy of eating them.) But if I did the grocery shopping first, my frozen foods would thaw. Since buying the chocolate was not imperative (I can do it next week), I nixed it from my list. I was only going to Tractor Supply to window-shop hose carts, so I nixed that, too, and drove straight to the grocery store when I got to town.
Conveniently, there's a liquor store attached to the grocery store. I've been wanting a bottle of jalapeno-flavored tequila, so I went to the liquor store first. The only jalapeno tequila they had also had cucumber flavoring in it. Though I wasn't keen on the cucumber part, I bought it, and at the grocery store, I picked up a few things that I thought might do well in a cucumber-jalapeno margarita (but forgot the limes, damn it).
It was pushing 4:00 when I got home. The Husband had not changed the lawnmower blades - still too hot. He helped me bring in and put away the groceries and went back to his ukulele play-along video. I mixed up two experimental margaritas with the new tequila. I used fizzy lime-flavored mineral water for the base. The only orange liqueur I had was blue curacao; in it went.
A blue margarita is just wrong.
The whole margarita was wrong.
We drank them, anyway.
I'm still not sure about the cucumber part.
Anyway . . . .
We never got around to the rest of our chores.
I was in bed by 10. Before I went to sleep, I noticed that the new A/C unit was LOUD - roaring, sort of - but I attributed it to just being a different noise than what I'm used to. At 2:00, I woke up to bumping sounds. The Husband was cranking up the box fan. The new A/C had gone out.
<sigh>
* * * * * * * *
I'm sitting here looking at the little red tiller, still on the back porch. This would be a great time to use it, if it would run, as Nanny just left for church (she toots the horn as she goes by). Should I install the new carburetor and see if it will crank, or get busy with the hoe while Nanny is gone?
I wanted to change the oil before the new carburetor goes on, but I don't have any oil. Looks like the hoe is the winner, if I want to work right now.
But it rained last night. The garden is probably too wet to work.
Maybe it's a good day to paint.
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