Not Exactly Back in the Saddle

A long hiatus from blogging (long for me, that is) was not intended to be this long.  But my laptop crashed big time. I blame it on the cheap battery we bought (against my better judgment).  Our IT son has tried to fix it and can't. We're going to take it somewhere for one more try.  I can't begin to think how much has been lost. I'm really only concerned about the pictures.  I think I'm numb in my optimism that the computer can be fixed. Not ready to grieve the loss of whatever wasn't backed up in the last three months or whenever it was that Steve backed it up.

I think we'll be getting a Mac this time. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and the service from Apple.  It's just that I can think of oodles and scads of other ways to spend a thousand bucks right now.

I am using a slow desktop for now. I hate it. Words with Friends is my favorite game, and PAINFULLY frustrating at snail-like speed.

Oh, well, my family got a lot accomplished this past week. My husband took the whole week off work and made a to-do list for around the house and yard.  A list that rivals a child's Christmas list to Santa, except that everything on this list gets paid for with sweat.

How about a rundown of life since the last time I blogged?  I promise bullet points.  If I break my promise, you can use the bullets against me in the comment box.  In random order...

CAR TALK:

• We put the Saab convertible up for sale, which has been emotional for me. I love that little car,
• It was a combined gift to me for turning 40 (although we bought it when I was a bit older than that!) and as a commuter car for our daughter three years ago.  It was a well-spent $3300.
• Daughter has since bought a car with half the miles, 4 doors for taking adults and kids in car seats around in, and doesn't leak when it rains.  But her "new" car doesn't compare to the Saab for driving fun.
• A guy came to look at it after asking --sight unseen--if we'd take $1200 (down from $1875).
• He took it for a test drive with my hubby, and then offered $700. Are you kidding me? NO WAY, JOSE'!!
• I took it to the tire shop yesterday for a wheel balance and rotation. They showed me that two rims need to be replaced, as one of them caused a bruise and some other trauma had caused a bulge in the tire which wasn't safe to drive with. Great. So he put a donut on it and  I drove it home at top speed of 50 mph.  It's got turbo, people, and I feel SO restrained by donuts and speed limit signs.
• Saab parts are not easy to find, so we may be calling Mr. 700 back.

4th OF JULY TALK:

• Am I the only person of sound mind, body, and patriotic spirit who attended neither a parade nor a fireworks display in my hometown where there's been no ban on pyrotechnics due to weather?
• I'm not really disappointed about missing the parade. Haven't gone in years since they're so political and the bands are ho-hum. Remember the days when high school bands actually competed ? Do they still? I haven't seen crisp, clean lines being marched, nor  crisp, clean notes being played for a long time. It's not worth staking out lawn chairs for, nor enduring 100 degree heat that we've been having.
• How many times can I use the word "nor" in one post? 
• For the past few years, the older kids did their thing on the 4th and I took Joel to the fireworks. My hubby is not one for crowds and  fireworks don't thrill him. But our little mother-children tradition of stopping for candy and soda and then finding a parking place near downtown was rendered defunct this year by the boy who said, "Last year's fireworks were lame.  They lasted like 10 minutes."  No, they actually lasted a lot longer, but for most of the time I was trying to find parking.  My bad.

CREATIVE TALK:

• I had a goal to complete 12 pages in a scrapbook this month. Well, I broke my arm patting myself on the back yesterday.  Why? Because I completed 14 pages in 2 days.  I simply took out a box of photos marked "2006" and got out all my tools and paper,  and "went to town."
• When I have a new computer and can upload photos, I will be blogging some "memory lane" posts, so saddle up your reading horse and hang on for dear life. I can be wordy.
• Do I even have to say that?  
• Two moms approached me in the past month and asked if I would consider teaching their kids some art this summer. Well, it sounded great, and so I advertised "art camps" on Facebook and by word of mouth. Lo and behold, I have 8 students betweent the ages of 6 and 11 signed up for Tuesday art camp beginning July 10th. I am so excited to share my passion for art with young'uns whose moms don't find the whole "art thing" at all enticing. The mess, the ideas, the skills, the clean up. So for some cash, I will take the "burden" (my joy) and it's a win-win.

ENOUGH TALK.

Time to return to the infamous list.  I believe a couple of hall closets need to be organized, a  dining room squared away,  some laundry finished, a bedroom pared down.  My hubby is out getting a haircut and running to the library on a father-son outing. Because we all know that watching dad get his hair cut is far more exciting than watching "bombs bursting in air" with mom.  But I'm okay with that. That same dad  has power washed the deck, shampooed carpets, cleared brush, mowed grass, made fruit salad, said no to Mr. 700, and done  a zillion other things this week.

So much to blog about. I really should  ride the blogging more frequently and on shorter ventures.


Happy 6th of July, everyone.