Labor Camp

I am so ready to go back adventuring on my weekends as I fell afoul of the drill sergeant that dwells in the soul of all Army wives. A wife who spent time living with a Soldier, especially one that did it as long as mine did, is well acquainted with what can be accomplished. She witnessed innumerable commanding officers and more so NCOs get the utmost out of her Soldier. This doesn’t end when said Soldier takes the uniform off for the final time.

The Basement Project Site Before we Started

The wife unfortunately has been allowed to see what is possible and no amount of deflecting and excuse making can deter her from seeing that the husband can continue to meet the standard. Sloth was nowhere in evidence yesterday as we embarked on the basement re-organization. A good 1/3 of our household goods are down there following our move this past June. Since she was otherwise occupied during the move she didn’t personally supervise the stacking of all the furniture and other boxes of God knows what. She has reminded me of this perpetually since the move when she had to find a certain item and fell victim to my creative but admittedly self-serving technique of placing items where they fit best instead of logically.

My intricate stacking job also failed with the Wonder Pooch and his storm terrors. The basement is his normal place of residence, I usually leave him out of the cage at night and unfortunately a couple of the nocturnal thunderstorms blew through. Buddy reacted by scaling the stack of stored furniture and burrowing into the far side. This did wonders for the plastic we used to encase the living room furniture. My wife gave me the “he’s so your dog” look when she saw what had happened.

And After - With Buddy Barriers in Place

Before we got started we had to make what should have been a short trip to a local store since they sold us a kitchen bench but did not include the assembly instructions. Since I’m not brave or talented enough to try putting it together without I called and they got a set for me. When I told my wife where I was going I saw the evil gleam smolder in her eyes – “Shopping!” I tried to disabuse her of this notion but failed miserably. We arrived and five minutes later I had the instructions and was prepared to leave. After a full quadrant search (she’s perfected the ability to hide from me when she’s not prepared to leave a store) I located her and she met my demand to leave with full wifely equanimity. Forty-five minutes later we were heading back home to a fate foreknowledge should have warned me to allow her to shop as long as she wanted to (but of course no one has yet figured out that time limit).

We spent a full six hours in the basement much to Buddy’s concern as he saw his familiar environs pillaged and turned completely around. My wife found her “Zumba shoes” which launched the whole effort in the first place. I had placed them as far as humanly possible from easy access – this led to another lecture. We found the plastic wrap and repaired the canine inflicted damage to the furniture and then erected a barrier to prevent further incursions, although my money’s on Buddy if he is in the midst of one of his more energetic panics.

Wiingman and The Cali-Daughter Yesterday - The First
Blog Reader is Well Beyond Bump Status Now!

As always we found lots of pictures and children’s toys from bygone days which caused the appropriate pauses to go “aww”. This confirmed the well reported fact that we are so ready to be grandparents. My daughter’s California clan threw her another baby shower yesterday and we’re waiting for a report on that.  So California! Meanwhile the other future (to hear them – distant future) source of grandchildren were running up and down the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The ABFA continues to try and get my favorite son in something approaching her capabilities so she and he climbed Mount Washington yesterday. I had to content myself with the furniture mountain in the basement. I think I worked harder than they did.

Energetic ABFA and Favorite Son Yesterday in the Mountains