Frankly I’m kinda dragging ass right now.  There’s a buttload of work to be done between my sis’s place and mine and the new place I plan on going to soon.  I think winter’s officially here since the humming bird feeder freezes 5 feet off the ground and the bird bath refuses to thaw out most days.  It was 28 degrees the other morning when I headed into Vegas to return Dan so he could go to work the following night.

I went to Vegas on Sunday and picked Dan up, he came up to help me shovel the shit – literally – out of the house that I soon hope to claim as mine.  Since we picked Monday to start dump hauling, the wind picked that day to prove to us that we were only mortals and it could freeze our asses off and make our job much more difficult than it had to be.  Dan had started bagging the garbage by the side of the house into heavy duty contractor  bags on Sunday – yeah, they just kept throwing garbage, when they ran out of bags, they still threw it back behind the bags.  There were clothes all over the floor, pop cans, general living debris that most THINKING people would clean up on a daily basis, and a lot of shit left behind that a family of 8 should need, like shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc.  With that all bagged up – pretty much – and ready to go Monday, Dan loaded the bed of the steed with bags.  There were six mattresses and a few box springs that had to be taken out too.  If you think I’m writing this for you, you’re wrong, I want to read it a year from now.

The plan was to put the mattresses on top and tie a rope across them, we started with the one that had lain between the front and back yard for the last six months – it was in the back yard now.  I helped him hoist it up on top of the load but not before he propped a chair underneath it and left it to dry all night.  Then I pulled the truck up alongside the deck in the back where he had stacked the rest of the mattresses, we lifted them up onto the ever growing heap.  I figure we were about 15 feet tall at that point.  Rope tied, wind blowing like we were going to Kansas to meet Dorothy, hands, ears, face freezing, we headed to the dump.  It was about 10 miles away, on mostly back roads.

The flashers were flashing, I was creeping along, when we hit the first corner I told Dan it would be hysterical if we lost a mattress…how did I know?

We went on our way and finally reached what I thought was the dump, “No, Mom, it says no dumping.”

What it actually said was no dumping by non-residents.  After we went another 1/2 mile up the road, there was nothing else.  It was settled, we were going back.  I pulled in gently and did a turn around – BTW, there’s nothing up that road but the prison and it’s fairly quiet traffic.  As I pulled back onto the road, I felt something, checked my side view mirror and BOOM, there was a mattress behind us on the road.  I backed up, Dan pulled it off road, and got back in the truck.  “Guess what, that was the top mattress, but somewhere we lost the box spring under it.”

SHIT!  We both busted out laughing.  We had no choice but to go the dump and lose our load because we would never get the mattress back up on top of the heap.  After dumping we went back and picked up our trash and went back looking for the one we lost, it was about 100 yards past the corner where I first brought up losing one.  We were still laughing.  We got them loaded and went back for the couch, chairs, more heaps of crap and a few bags and loaded sky high again, we made the dump the 2nd time that day.  Then we were off to town to spend more money on things needed for the place.

The following day we had another load to take to the dump, but the wind had mercifully slowed down.  That done, I had been cleaning the refrigerator, washer and dryer, mopping, and was seriously in distress after looking at the oven and stove top.  How in the fuck that thing didn’t catch on fire with grease building up in the pan underneath the top is beyond me.  I pulled out the drip bowls and chucked them.  Dan replaced the guts of the master bathroom toilet, and I cleaned the toilets so we could put new toilet seats on because one of them had been broken off with just the plastic hinges still hanging.  We accomplished a lot but not nearly enough IMHO before taking Dan back to Vegas.  It took me a full day to clean the refrigerator, but it sure is purty now.

Now I’m on my own.  *Sniff*  I spent yesterday cleaning the master bath and bedroom and mopping those two floors for the 2nd time and wiping down walls, cleaning out the window sill (ugh) and the floor boards.  All the floors are hardwood – love it!  There were some scrapes on the dark wood which aren’t too pretty so I did the old ‘Hick from the Sticks’ fix the dig/gouge trick.  I had a box of colored pencils here for Riot and I took the brown over and colored over the digs and scratches, then put a coat of Pledge (with glo coat) floor finish on those two floors.  BEAUTIFUL!  They look good enough for me to move in and sleep in that room at some point.

Damn…wish I was at that point but still a ways off.

Coming home from taking Dan to Vegas, I noticed that a.m. that there was a water leak somewhere around the timer in the middle of the property and figured to check it out when I returned.  Foolish, foolish, Granny.  I do know this silt is like quicksand when it’s wet…honest.  The big wet spot around the timer wasn’t where I was stepping, I was on the edge of it…I could see the timer was running and the water was leaking around the timer to the hose that goes to the plants, meaning the hose is frozen and the pressure is causing the leak.  Right foot forward towards timer, sink to above ankle in silt, fall forward with step momentum, left foot to catch fall, sink to above ankle, start to go down, throw out right hand to stabilize, sink to above wrist in silt, but manage to keep from falling face first in the silt-o-mire.

It was hysterical.  Really!  I started laughing as I pulled myself out of the muck and headed to the back of the house for the hose.  It took me 20 minutes to sludge off all the mud up underneath my pant legs and on my legs, my shoes, the inside of my shoes, my hands and sleeves, and I rinsed the socks on my feet down enough to get me to the coach where I promptly took them off and threw them in the garbage before entering.  It’s still funny.  I went back later and turned the timer completely off and shut the water off.

So…I have been playing the Daily Dollar every day on Full Tilt Poker.  Made it to the money a few times, and just out of the money – yah, just out, like 7 and 27 out – more than once.  It’s tough playing against 9K other runners.  But I have to say I believe I have improved my NLH tournament attitude and am enjoying playing in it.  As soon as life settles down to a dull roar, I think to start playing some MTT Sit N Gos…we’ll see.

The morning I took Dan into Vegas, this was also waiting for me.

You just can’t put a price on quicksand silt, mattresses on the road side, and great sunrises.  Which reminds me, when I headed out of Vegas through Red Rock Canyon after dropping Dan, there was a mattress on the side of the road.  Now it is possible the wind could have picked up one of ours and blew it that far…but not likely.

And the turtle is still alive and swimming. I still marvel at the fact that he survived 3 weeks in the ammonia bath from hell.