Sundays At Casa Claire

Sunday ended nicely, with Lisa and I having a great meal at Mike O’Shays in Longmont. The regulars were there watching football at the many screens across the bar.

I made sure to catch a selfie with my favorite fictional Hell’s Kitchen bartender (FJM) Kyle Dooley.

But before I got to enjoy myself, I had my chores to do.

Since I did most of the outdoor chores on Saturday, my only fur family chores were the regular snacks and feedings while I chopped and bagged a week’s worth of fruits and veggies for the fur-family and daily rounds regulars.

Then Lisa had me hump a very heavy wooden file cabinet (a gift from the extraterrestrials Everette and Michelle) up from Geppetto’s Studio to Lisa’s office.

That humping was over bumpy natural landscape and all up hill. My back is thanking me for it as I type this.

Lisa then had us travel to Staples to pick up the hanging files and folders that will make the file cabinet fully-functional, so that she can sort all of the family files that are now sitting in boxes here and there throughout Casa Claire.

I’m hoping that post retirement project keeps her busy for a little while.

I may have to move some of the boxes to different spots to extend the project.

Then I had two repair projects I needed to take care of while the weather held.

Age and use had caused one of the soldered bolts holding the door cover of my very old mailbox to give way, so I needed to drill out the old bolt head and replace it with just the right sized nut and bolt.

Now, a normal human would have those bolts all squared away in his workshop sorted by size, etc.

My bolts all sit in a giant jar mixed in all sizes and lengths and must be sifted through to find the right size (selected by eyeballing it) and then find a corresponding nut that will fit it.

My grandfather Spaghetti had his similar system in the back basement room of the Riverdale house.

The hunt for the perfect nut, bolt or screw is often the best part of the repair job.

It would have been quicker to drive into Berthoud’s Ace Hardware and purchase the perfect nut and bolt, but that would be cheating.

Then it was on to repairing the flag pole.

Something had caused the upper ring of the pole to come lose, allowing the flag to crumple to the bottom of the pole.

I searched and found and mounted just the right sized plastic band with another scavenged perfectly sized screw under the top mount on the pole. Voila. Old Glory sails again.

Now, just as with books, looking at the end results of these projects never tells the creation tale.

Everything looks easier from a 20/20 hindsight viewpoint.

I’m sure Adam leaned over to Eve on Day 7, when God had finished creating the earth, and whispered, “shit, that didn’t take much.” Indeed, that one comment is really what got them kicked out of Eden.

Anyway, repairs completed, and dinner at MOS all behind us, we put our feet up in the two recliners Lisa had been cleaning with toxic chemicals all afternoon. They looked brand new.

Her retirement really may lead to my unexpected demise.

I expect an autopsy.

Well, it’s Monday again. But it’s the week before Christmas so hopefully the legal world will have its focus on more celebrations and less litigations.

Lisa has a follow-up appointment with the eye surgeon at 7:40 am, so I really need to get moving.

I hope all of you fine, five readers got the last of your Christmas prep done and dusted.

I hope your workweek is mild to non-existent.

If you are traveling somewhere else to celebrate, better to leave early. And may your travels be safe and uneventful.

I’m going to head upstairs and cuddle some kitties, then make my rounds.

Then chauffer my darling to her eyeball doctor.

But whatever else we do, let us make today a great one.