…back in the saddle….for today, anyway.

Today’s project was more weed-whacking in the back yard. Although the front yard is landscaped (well, a lawn and sprinklers, with a concrete edged area around the house with a few weeds), the back yard has never been improved since the builder levelled the lot. The result is a goodly pile of weeds.

Some of the weeds are quite impressive. There’s a few 4 foot tall prickly plants with purple flowers, some foxtails, and other varieties of unknown (to me) names. Many are 2-3 feet tall.

Over last week and this week, I have taken my new weed whacking machine out there, along with long pants, work boots, ear plugs, safety glasses, and a hat. All of those are necessary items; there is the occasional flying weed parts whizzing by my ears.

Today I got another 1/3 of the weeds cut down. There’s one more patch left, about 1/4 of the back yard. That’s a job for another day.

This afternoon, an approaching thunderstorm brought a lot of wind – 20mph, with gusts up to 45mph (according to someones’ weather station a few miles away). A lot of dust blowing from the deserts on the other side of the Salt Lake. It was windy and dusty enough that I had to use the safety glasses when I wandered outside. The advantage of the wind was that all the weeds that I have cut down have wandered off to places unknown.

The weed-eating was my big task of the day. I spent a bit of time on-line looking at the mail, and working on updating my late son’s music site. There were some missing music file links on the pages that he built (and I slightly modified and moved the hosting after his death). I still have to upload the changes. But sitting in the basement was nice; there is a large finished family room down here. I’ve got the recliner and the older 46″ LCD screen down here along with one of the DirecTV DVR’s), so it’s quite comfortable.

We’re basically moved into the new house. All the furniture is here; the replacement mattress came yesterday. We got a new one when we moved in, but it was a bit firm for me. I’ve been waking up (early; which is not what I expected when I retired) with stiffness in my upper back. So we traded for the softest mattress, which was delivered yesterday. I woke up this morning with less back stiffness, so maybe it will be a better mattress for me.

I’ve gotten all the computers hooked up here. The desktop computer and a small Windows 2008 server are set up in the corner of the basement in the area that has been roughed in for a kitchenette area. The wireless network connects to our two laptops, and a wireless Canon MP 620 printer/scanner that’s upstairs in Pam’s scrapbook room (one of the bedrooms upstairs). There’s a small laser printer on the desk downstairs that is connected to the desktop computer, but I have a wireless box for it that needs to be installed.

We’ve got one of the grandkids to spend the night (Joelle; age 9). That’s fun for them, and not too hard if you only have one of them. She had a dance recital two nights ago; there were about 20-25 different classes of varying ages (dancing, cheer leading, and tumbling), so the program was about two hour. But a fun time was had by all.

Tomorrow’s plan? Finishing up the weeding. Although there is a new thunderstorm due tomorrow (today’s was just wind in our area). It’s been an unusually wet June for this area, as for others. But I like the cooler weather. And the basement will be nice when it gets warmer outside.