The Weather is Messing Up My Plans

The weather messed up my plans to come to Houston and now it is messing up my plans to go back to Del Rio.  It rained heavy both Friday and Saturday and once again this afternoon.

Whenever I get to Houston the first thing I do is mow the front lawn so the HOA does not send me a love letter.  The front was not so bad this time because I still have St. Augustine grass that did not die after last year’s drought but the backyard is a jungle with all the crabgrass, some funky ivy that has wrapped itself around my crape myrtle and has also taken over part of the lawn.

The only way to get rid of crabgrass is to dig it up and for that I brought a pick axe but it is heavy and it makes big holes with every blow apart from making my arms ache so have had to go back to a shovel.

Was hoping to use my electric weed eater to help me chop some of it down but that is not possible with all the rain that has fallen…do not want to electrocute myself!  Worst yet end up in the hospital since I have no health insurance coverage.

Needed to go to Sears to see if I can find a good quality pruner but I do not drive in the rain so those plans are shot too.  My neighbor chopped down his tree and now it is sprouting on my side of the fence.  The Black and Decker pruner I bought last time I was in town is a piece of doodoo…I can not even cut small size limbs!

Was going to try to go to the last day of the Harbor Freight Sidewalk sale but again the weather interfered with my plans.  I think my whole life revolves around yard work and I am not too happy with that.

This morning I woke up at 4:15 a.m. and could not go back to sleep.  Here I have the opposite problem than in Del Rio…my washing machine works but the drier does not.  Decided to wash clothes so I could go dry them as soon as the laundry mat opened. It is in front of the subdivision and is rather nice.  The machines are new and much cheaper than in Del Rio.

Had to wait until this morning to buy the Houston Chronicle since again the rains ruined my plans to go purchase one yesterday and get a head start on my shopping list.  I barely glanced through it because I kept on falling asleep so decided to take a nap (something I do not usually do).  Would you believe I took a four and a half hour nap?  Neither do I but I did.  Even heard the rain but was too sleepy to care.

Was hoping to start on that nasty five letter word…TAXES…but I have not had time, energy or motivation but I better get some as October 15^th is right around the corner and I do not want to go through what I had to endure last year.  Did I learn my lesson?  Apparently not, guess I am a procrastinator by nature and at this stage of my life guess I always will be :-(

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

So Many Projects, So Little Time

I am overwhelmed to say the least with all the projects that I need to complete this month.  The one weighing the most on my mind is my income tax return that I found out last night is not due Friday th 14th but Monday October 17^th.  It gives me a little wiggly room but I am going to pretend that it is due Friday anyway.

I have not prepared an income tax return in years as I have mostly had a CPA do it.  Reading that thick book is torture but I think having to gather all the stuff is even worst.  Good thing is it bored me to sleep so I didn’t even have to take Nyquil.

We had slow steady rain all of last night.  I put out a few buckets to capture some rainwater for mother’s other plants.  I don’t know why I kept on waking up every two hours or so.  Most people that know me know that I am NOT a morning person but today I got up 5:00 a.m.  Again I think it is from just worrying about all I have to do.

Friday the propane guy finally showed up.  Said he had gotten his truck out of the shop on Thursday.  I took a picture but I don’t know how to fix the date.  Was messing with the camera and instead of getting it to post the correct date it now has the erroneous date stamped on the picture to boot….grrr!!!  

The mosquitoes are really bad, we even have them in the house but I cannot use any kind of sprays or chemicals because of mother’s allergies.  In another blog I had read that the author used eucalyptus oil on his dog.  I wonder how effective that would be in humans?  Has anyone ever tried it?

Thank you for the e-mails concerning my bout with the cold/flu.  I am feeling much better but I still have a cough especially at night.  My uncle is also feeling better but he gave the flu to my cousin.  This is surprising since they had both had flu shots.

Would very much like to go to San Pedro campground before Billy Bob and Barney leave but I don’t want to take a chance in making them sick.  Maybe I can drive by, honk and wave??

Wasted Month

I feel like I wasted the whole month of September.  It came and went so fast and having to sandwich in two trips to Houston did not help any.  One of the main reasons for going besides getting my home security system fixed was to go get forms and instructions at the local IRS office.

I was lucky at that since I figured I had to go downtown but found one close to my house.  For the past twenty or so years I have been having my taxes prepared by a CPA and paying a pretty price for it.  Sure his report is pretty and all that but now I need to cut down on unnecessary expenses, so this year I will prepare them myself.

You are probably wondering, weren’t taxes due back on the 15^th of April?  Well, technically yes as well as your payment if you owed taxes but if you filed an extension like I have done practically all my working life you have until October 15^th.  Since it falls on Saturday this year I guess I only have till the 14^th of October.

To make matters worst I have no idea in which of my zillions of boxes I have my tax information.  Guess I will be going through a lot of boxes L

I am trying to catch up on all the laundry as well.  It would go much faster if I could go to the Laundromat but my mother insists on having the clothes dried on the solar dryer (clothesline).

I think I had mentioned before that I did not know if I had lost my camera or left it in Houston.  For a while there I could not find it in Houston either until I went to the garage and found it on top of my clothes dryer.  Figured it was fried after all it only spent the hottest months in terrible heat but after I changed the batteries I got it to work.  Only problem is that the date got messed up and it now thinks its April.  Well Belinda why don’t you read your manual?  As you might guess, it is also in one of my zillion of boxes…

Yesterday I spent a good deal of the afternoon clearing weeds and trying to remove baby mesquite trees which unfortunately have a very deep root system.  Billy Bob if you are reading this THE HULLA HOE DID NOT WORK.  That thing is useless.  Finally got a square shovel and used it to remove the weeds with less effort on my part and most importantly less stress on my back.

Hope you all have a good Sunday.  Twenty-nine days to Terlingua :D