mechanic, accountant, exterminator.. OH MY! And an update from the road...

Yesterday was hard for me. Because the guys finally hit the off-road trail, there was no contact. It was a long day waiting for the text that they had arrived somewhere to camp. But at 11:30 pm they had arrived, set up camp, enjoyed dinner, and had a chance to check in. They rode 122 miles on the trail yesterday - Ken enjoyed it very much!

Life on the home front is.... shall we say, ironic.

Ken has been gone for 6 days. In those six days, I have added the following skills to my resume.

• dirt turner (while I do a lot of the gardening, I don't use the tiller, can't, and so I am tilling the entire country garden the old way - with a crazy tool I inherited from my uncle)
• accountant (taking over all the bill paying)
• small engine diagnostic (the lawn mower started smoking, and I knew enough to call a friend's husband for help)
• demolition (removed all the chair rail in the bedroom. felt good to tear something apart, I won't lie)
• spackler (yep - you read that right. spackling the nail holes as I prep the bedroom walls)
• exterminator (William discovered a bat in the basement tonight. We shut the door. I'll deal with that tomorrow)

The bat was enough to make me laugh out loud. Seriously? It's not like I don't already realize how much I miss Ken. We didn't need a bat to know that.

The garden was the first shock. I have to work it daily - to stay ahead - and having missed two days, I am paying for it. What a workout. Good for the soul! What I wouldn't give to have it tilled...

I'm dealing with the bills - knowing which to pay online, which snail mail, and have them all on the calendar.

If my friend cannot fix the lawn mower tomorrow, I will head to Menards to buy the old fashioned non-electric kind, which I've wanted to get anyway, so I can mow the lawn. It will be a heckuva workout to boot.

In beginning my renovation of the bedroom, I ended up with two new skills. Demolition - taking down the chair rail - is probably my favorite, but spackler sounds pretty cool. I will in the next week be adding painter as well, but I'm not there yet.

But the bat. Seriously? We've lived in this house since 1995 and have never had a bat. I hate bats. Oh, the stories from our old farm house. Ken loves to tell about my horror stories with the bats out there. So the fact that the first time he leaves for an extended period of time, WE GET A BAT. ugh. ironic.

Like I said. We shut the basement door. I'll deal with THAT job tomorrow.