Somnambulant Vacation Start

I don’t think my wife got the whole “I’m on vacation!” memo. Yesterday was my first day on vacation but I worked harder than I have since the last snowstorm on the driveway from hell. She decided since I was available for heavy lifting that the only proper way to wax the hardwood floors was to have most of the furniture moved outside. Since it was the nicest day yet of 2015 I couldn’t pull out a weather related excuse as to why not.

Buddy Wandering in the Newly Wide Open Spaces

As we moved more and more outside I was struck by just how big the first floor of the house is. Buddy was more than a little confused and when he realized we were engulfed in one of my wife’s patented cleaning crusades, he slunk downstairs before he was ordered (he’s been through many of these). After I moved most of the furniture out and the biggest plants onto the kitchen island my wife decreed the area was ready.

The Kitchen Island - My Wife is Somewhere Back There

I was ordered into the basement and told to make myself useful by cleaning the garage. Apparently I do not possess sufficient attention to detail when it comes to floor polishing (so I’ve got that going for me). My wife’s cleaning addiction may be a little contagious because Buddy and I made of complete day of it in the garage. I even got the lawn mower out of mothballs and started it up for the first time since last fall. I don’t know if there’s a sweeter sound than an engine turning over after a winter long hibernation (of course I know there is but I was trying to wax poetic).

The Suddenly Crowded Deck

At one point I had all of what my wife calls “my toys” revved up for action. I was burning the last of the gas in the snow blower, test riding the lawn tractor, and then fired up the power washer. I’m sure the neighbors were a little confused. When my wife noticed the power washer operational she mentioned (directed) that the house needed the winter’s grime removed via the application high pressure H20. I was more than ready to comply until I connected the water supply and found some gasket underneath had failed. I tried tightening everything but failed to return it to working order. The only thing it could be used for now is boring holes in the ground with escaping water flow. That was my only failure in the garage though and I reveled a little bit at walking around comfortably outside in a t-shirt for the first time in a very long time, at least in New England. It’s hard to believe we had snow on the ground last week. One of the places that was snow covered a week ago produced the first flower of the spring in my wife’s vast gardens. It says a lot about the hardiness required of New England flora. 

First Flower of Spring Sprouting From Ground that Was Snow Covered 1 Week Ago

Buddy was fascinated with the entire process as I uncovered many long neglected items that had been sentenced to life after usefulness in the garage. Apparently they acquired some very interesting smells during their time served. He seemed perplexed at why I was consigning so much of these fascinating items to the rubbish bin. I acquired a fairly substantial pile of scrap wood that I’d been saving for eventual fires but decided they would all meet their fate last night in one final conflagration worthy of my pyromaniacal side. My wife warily eyed the growing pile throughout the day. She had accomplished a minor miracle with her day long efforts with floors which were returned to gleaming status after a winter’s worth of wear and tear. The only down side to this is the newly imposed rule of no shoes on the floor. I even saw her eying Buddy and trying to figure out how to lessen his impact (we’ll file that in the “good luck” department).

Great Dinner with my Favorite Panamanian

By the time night arrived we were both pretty well spent so I took her out for dinner which turned out to be a good call since it gave us a chance to laugh about the “vacation day” we’d just experienced. I won’t go into the medicinal effect a glass of sangria (her) and beer (me, of course) had at this point only to say it was dramatic.

We returned home and Buddy was released into the back yard as I fired up my forge. The wind was really cooking at this point which required the assistance of a nearby garden hose since the fire was mostly sideways. One side of the metal fireplace was actually glowing red for most of the night. I was kind of interested to see if we could reach its melting point but the designers had anticipated my maniacal experiment and it weathered the test. Buddy pulled his usual trick of trying to rescue perfectly good chewing wood before I could consign it to the flames. He’s very tricky and impossible to spot outside the firelight since he blends in so well.

My Sideways Fire

The stars were out in full force which can only be truly appreciated away from the ambient light of civilization. My wife got into her winter clothes to brave the cool night and directed firefighting efforts against the flying sparks. My sister called at one point to coordinate Buddy’s spa stay with her this week. While talking with her a stray spark caught some of the grass next to wood pile on fire. I was juggling a beer, the phone and trying to stamp out the fire simultaneously. My sister knows me well enough to imagine what my gyrations involved and I could hear her laughing at my plight.

It was nearly midnight before the flames finally finished off the woodpile but the time spent at dinner and in the back yard by a fire with my wife under a startling canopy of stars more than rescued my first day of vacation. I did learn the valuable lesson of not putting bottles of beer and wine cooler on a freshly waxed car though. I’ve got to get down there and clean that mess up now.