Monday Moanin’

One of the reasons I was glad the Puerto Rican posse didn’t show up on Sunday was sand. I thought about it too late on Saturday. You see, those railroad ties (or whatever the hell they are) are a hell of a lot deeper in the ground than the landscape timbers will be. So, I needed something to fill the void.

I called Angelo’s Landscaping (where I got the mulch and then the dirt a couple of years ago) on Saturday around 1:00 p.m. But I found that they close at noon on Saturday.

So, I was faced with a dilemma. I could go to Home Depot and buy, like, 30 bags of play sand (even with help loading that would be a bitch). My alternative would be to dig out all the dirt in the raised bed vegetable garden. I’d have to replace it with my magic dirt mixture come spring, but that wasn’t such a bad idea.

But, as you know and fate would have it, they never showed. So, Monday morning, I called Angelo’s and asked what the smallest amount of fill sand I could buy. They said one ton. So, I asked them to deliver it today, and make sure they put it on the side where I had put out the traffic cone (or else I couldn’t get in the garage).

Sidebar: I paid more for the delivery than the sand, but it was worth it.

I went to Brighthouse at 11:30 a.m. I took in the cable box and asked for a new one. She started giving me the rap about if it’s the signal that’s a problem, it could wreck the new box. I told her a tech had been out last week and replaced the line, so I’m pretty sure it’s the box that’s the problem.

Then she asked if I wanted the same box, a newer box that has more recording space (same price) or the newest box that allows recording up to six shows at one time (for $5.00 a month more).

I said I’d take the newer box (because my 15 year old one is fncked) but I didn’t need to record six shows at once as I don’t watch half the shows I record now.

She said, “You realize you will lose any shows you currently have recorded.” I said there are still some Mountain Man shows, a shit-load of DIY shows and a couple of old Thin Man movies on the damn thing, but I was willing to give them up to be able to watch TV again.

So she had me sign for the newer box.

Sidebar: It was weird. The damn box is like one half the size of the old one, but it’s like twice the hard drive size. Technology!

I got a text from Vicky as I was leaving, asking me if I was at lunch because she couldn’t find me. I explained I’d left early to avoid the lunchtime rush (I still was three people back in line, BTW). She said she forgot her lunch and thought she’d go with me. I said sorry, but did she want me to pick her up something. She said, no, she’d just go to Wendy’s.

Since I was already at Farmington and close to Five Mile, I went to Kroger’s and hit up their deli. I got a pound of some “Greek pasta salad” and bought some more Ziplock one-quart screw top containers.

Sidebar: When my mother was alive, I had, like, 16 of them. I used to take her soups and stews and stuff in them. But somehow they have all disappeared and I only have three left. Maybe they all got pitched when they cleaned out her fridge. I dunno…

I went back to work and ate my pasta salad while reading a book. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad (the salad, not the book).

Back at home, the cold front was moving through. The sun (earlier today it was bright, beautiful and warm) had disappeared. The wind had picked up and it was starting to get chilly.

There was no sand in the driveway, BTW. But I had told her, “Today or tomorrow is fine.” So, I wasn’t concerned.

I was entering the Kroger debit charge into the computer when I heard a truck backing up. Sure, enough, it was my sand. He dumped it spot on and it looks like just the right amount!

I watered the porch plants and the last two hostas transplants. Then I got my drill and did three more landscape timbers. There are only three left, and I thought I could power through and finish, but my back said, “Oh, hell no!”

So, I buttoned everything up and went inside. Then I installed the new cable box (it was still in the factory plastic). The hook up was simple. It then took a long while for it to go through its initial internal set up (it kept flashing changing codes).

But, finally the clock showed and I saw a live show!!! Hurrah!!!

But, there is a downside (and they did warn me). The new box has the new TV menu (like Jake and Carla have), not the old, familiar one I knew. The old one showed hour blocks of time as the header and you scrolled down to see what was on each channel. This is more like categories: “Entertainment” and “Movies,” etc. There was no instruction book, so it will take me a while to figure out.

I heated up a bowl of the bean and bacon soup and made the last ham sandwich for my dinner.

Then I watched TV (of course) until bedtime.