FRIDAY THE 13th!!!

 I usually try to stay home on those days with a one and a three.  My luck has never been that great.  It's like I walked under a ladder with a black cat on top.  This day was no exception.  

Cooper was bugging me to go outside very early ... like 4:00 am.  He usually waits, but this time was VERY insistent.  OKAY!  Let's go!  I opened the door and stepped outside, to be blasted with ear splitting sirens.  I think I set a record for the 10 yard sprint!  I had completely forgotten to turn the alarm off.  

Instantly my phone blew up ... which is a good thing actually.  My neighbor was calling to see if I was okay.  Is that sweet or what?  My second thought was gosh ... I've become the old lady neighbor that needs to be checked up on.  Maybe I should dye my hair again, you know, appear a little younger?  I apologized for the noise.

It was a day of visitors ... a good luck thing ... when I spotted this guy on the game camera.  I did a little happy dance.  Oh my gosh do I ever love seeing raccoons in my yard.  I've no idea how they are getting in, other than following the fox over the fence.  These guys are real climbers too.  I may have to set up a water station!!

That motivated me to do a little more organizing and cleaning.  Honestly, you can't get in three rooms of my house.  This one had to be completely emptied in order to replace this 20 year old original VERY dirty carpet.  I finally got motivated enough to head to town to look for tile ... on the worst day of the year.  

Turns out everyone else stayed home.  I actually stopped in at Home Depot and got a replacement for that electrical outlet thingy that keeps turning blue.  I wasn't impressed with their tile options and there was no one to help me.  Off to the Carpet Store where I've always gone.  

Turns out their secretary/bookkeeper is the daughter of the gentleman that ran the local livestock auction.  When I was MUCH younger, my dad threw the truck keys to me and said "take those cows over to the auction".  By myself???  

We had been going there ever since I was a little kid.  They had a big enclosed room with wooden walkways at different levels, in an arc around the tiny corral.  We would sit there all day and watch the cattle go through.  Dad bought a few here and there, mostly calves.  If we were really lucky, we got to have a hamburger from the little snack bar.  

The gal and I talked for about 30 minutes.  She has only met a few people who remember the auction yard since it burned down many years ago.  Her father was devastated.  She said she couldn't wait to tell him how someone remembered so much of his business.  That made my day.

Anyway .... on to picking out some awesomely different carpet because they don't make tile that even comes close to matching what's in the room next door.  I should have taken pictures of the samples.  Then he said ... I'll have to come and measure.

Uh oh ... you want to come to my house that looks like a hoarder lives there?  Oooohhhhh that's bad luck for sure.  That meant I had to race home and frantically hide all the junk I possibly could.  My sewing room is the worst, and is another room that will eventually be re-carpeted.  I tried to open the door to the closet, but it felt like someone was on the inside pulling back.

I knew the problem.  That little ball thingy on top of the door that keeps it shut, had worked its way loose.  The only reason I knew that is because I saw it on Facebook.  No kidding ... I guess that's good for something after all.  Sorry for the blurry picture, but I wasn't crawling back up there to retake it.  This door is 8' tall.  You have to push down on that round thing and turn it to the left at the same time.

Thank you to the guy on Facebook.  It now works like a charm and the door is easy to open.  Back to hiding stuff!!

While I was at it, I figured I might as well save some time and have him measure the other bedroom.  He could barely open the closet door for that one.  How embarrassing.  After he left, I began cleaning it out.  All that purging at the other house, has caused a crazy lady to come out, who now wants to get rid of EVERYTHING!!  Except the skeleton ... he still lives in the closet!!

I didn't overdo, and in fact I was pretty surprised that I felt as good as I did.  I figured that was enough exercise for the day.  Time to set up my camera for this mornings eclipse.  I think this is supposed to be annular.  I'm not up on all the eclipse terms.

Turns out Friday the 13th wasn't all that bad after all.  The new carpet will be installed next Friday, so I can finally get my longarm set up and clear out a walkway in the house.  As it is, I can only go from the couch to the kitchen sink!!!  The best part?  All those places that haven't seen the vacuum a four years will now be CLEAN!!!