Counting Flowers on the Wall

 Reading:  Finished "Every Tool's a Hammer"  and am now on "Finding Time and Space for Creativity."  Both of these are an attempt to jump start my creativity, getting me to do something besides scrolling aimlessly on the laptop.

My main project this week has been the kitchen window.  We put in a garden window - meant for plants or (according to the brochure) to display precious items, but the only precious items that get put there are cats.

It sometimes gets a little noisy, because Stumbles is the one who has seizures when she sleeps (she's fine; it just comes with the wobbly cat syndrome).  But the other night, just before bed, I realize that in her thrashing around she had kicked the side windowpane loose!  A lovely 2" gap to let the bugs in and the AC out.  Not just the AC - Stumbles was exploring it to see if she could push it open enough to go exploring.  I really didn't want the entire pane to fall out.  But at 9 o'clock at night, in the dark, I didn't want to do repairs.  The only way to reach it is to stand on the AC air handler.   So I did what any self-respecting redneck would do - grab the duct tape.

Actually, I'm classier than that.  I used Gorilla tape.

I let that handle it for a few days because the next two days were my work days at the Museum and I'm knackered by the time I get home.  At least I didn't have to go shopping - I talk a lot about Bob's hoarding tendencies, but I did find a caulking gun and four tubes of window caulk in the barn.

So that was Thursday's project - the old channeling was coming loose, so I pulled out all the old caulking, cleaned out all the gunk with a toothbrush, and recaulked the whole window.  Had to pause once to go turn off the AC because I was standing on it, so every time it clicked on I was getting hot air blown up my butt.  Had to take a second break to switch from shorts to long pants because it turns out that biting fly season is not quite over and once one fly finds you it sends out invitations to all of it's friends.

And the redneck fix will now be there permanently.  These was not a high-end window 20+ years ago when we put them in.  The channeling is plastic - and did not cooperate about being snapped back into place.  In the heat and the bugs I didn't feel like sitting there holding each piece, one at a time, until the caulk hardened enough to hold it in place.  So the caulk went on, and the channeling was taped into place.  Now I don't think I can ever pull the tape off because it would probably pull the channeling and the caulk out and possibly the window panes.  But I did a neat job.

But that's not what I was going to write about today.  I was going to write about the cruise that I'm not going to take.  Rob and Amanda like cruises; they just took one and were planning on getting reservations for another (it's cheaper if you get reservations 6-10 months in advance).  And they want me to come along.

I have never been on a cruise, nor have I wanted to.  I remember feeling superior to the people on cruises when we were in Alaska (*we* came in on the ferry).  Those huge ships, spitting out people and then a couple of hours later sucking them back up to go drop of their money someplace else.  No, thank you.

But we want you to come, they said.  It will be fun.  You need to do something besides sit at home and go to the museum.  You should do something different.  Let yourself have some fun.

I really did think about it.  Maybe I should get out of my comfort zone.  I looked at pictures.

Oh, no.  Not only no, but Hell No.  No effing way am I getting on one of those.  Up to 3,000 guests (and another thousand crew) stacked on top of each other like chickens in crates in an egg factory.  With all that noise and crap going on.  People getting drunk just to deal with it.  Stimulation overload.  Where the hell would you be able to find a place to stand quietly and just watch the ocean?

I thanked them for their kind thoughts, but said that I could see myself spending most of my time in the cabin with my head under a pillow.

But then they went off about how they had to find *something* for me to do.  That I couldn't just spend my time at the Museum, and otherwise at home with my cats and my spinning wheels.  That they had to find me some happiness.

Whoa, there.  I tried to explain - I enjoy their company, and I am always so grateful that they think of me, call me, come to visit, have me come to visit.  But I am not their responsibility.  

The next day, thinking about this, I found myself humming the old Statler Brothers song "Flowers on the Wall."  I texted the link to them.

I got the text back.  "OK, we get it.  LOL."

Nice when music can solve a problem.