A post in which I allow serendipitous fate to decide the pace of events

I was wiped out again today. I just kind of drug around. The lump on my neck is smaller than last time, and I don’t feel as bad as I did at Christmas, but I’m still below par.

Terry came by this afternoon out of the blue. It’s always good to see him, and we caught up a bit on what’s going on.

While we were talking, the phone rang. It was James. He said that they could do the bedroom this weekend if I was free. I am, but I was planning to do some work in the yard this weekend, and then rest. But we have the paint already, and I’ve been dying to sling some paint in that room. So I turned it over in my mind for a minute and told them to come on. Inwardly, I was cringing a bit, I have to admit. The yard is a wreck, and I should really be babying myself a bit at the mo. But this needs to be done.

Since Terry was there anyway, I went in the bedroom and started pulling stuff off the walls to give him. There were several things that I had planned on getting rid of anyway, and it seems to be a tradition that Terry gets dibs on my previously-loved items. I sent him off with an armful.

I started stripping the room: moving all the furniture that I could by myself, rolling up rugs, taking all the pictures down. I also took out the 87,000 nails that were in my bedroom walls. I’ve been in the house for twelve years, and have re-arranged the bedroom several times. Each time I do of course I have to re-hang all the pictures, plus there’s getting new things, switching things out, etc. Since the walls are dark, the nail holes show white when you pull the nails out, so I usually just leave them in there.

I ran to the store for drop cloths, spackling paste, etc. I spackled all the holes up – there were a good many! I figured that would give us a leg up on tomorrow, since Jeff and James weren’t coming until after work tomorrow night (they usually get off around 10pm).

About this time, Eve called to tell me that she and Dad had Cole and Ava for the weekend. I suppose the timing could have been worse on that, but it’s hard to see how. Of course she and Dad expected me to drop everything to run over there with no notice at all.

I went on over to their place to have dinner. I wanted to see Cole and Ava, and I figure I’ll have all day to work tomorrow anyway. So I played with the baby, talked to Cole as much as I could (the older he gets, the more taciturn he becomes – so much like his father), helped Eve clean up the kitchen, and was just generally an obliging son/uncle.

Dad hit me up about going to the beach with them, and I declined. I had the perfect excuse since SELF is that weekend, and Russ had just called me today to confirm my hotel reservations. Eve was trying to get me to cancel the trip to Atlanta so I could go to Pawley’s Island with them! Not bloody likely. I do feel sorry that Lisa has been hooked in – but not sorry enough to go. They asked me if I had heard from Cindy and Paul about Brenden going. Paul had talked to me about it, and said that it would be Brenden’s decision, but I couldn’t believe that the invitation would be accepted. They haven’t laid eyes on Brenden in three years now, except for one scary incident at the hockey rink where Brenden was playing. I just cannot understand the workings of their minds.

So Eve proceeded to have a melt-down at the dinner table because she was sure that Paul would present the trip “in a very negative way”. This of course gave Dad carte blanche to launch in to the “how much I hate Cindy and Paul” song and dance yet again. Sigh. Cole and I were embarrassed, and of course Ava didn’t understand what was going on.

After a while Eve came back to the table, and things calmed down. I did my best to be agreeable. I enjoyed seeing the kids. Still, by the time I left, I was ready for a bit o peace and quiet. Oy, it is just so much work to be around Dick and Eve.