Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

While many Americans remembered our war heroes and the unofficial beginning of summer in these parts with a picnic or other celebratory gathering, Earl and I decided to get busy around the house. After all, to have a picnic on the patio, you have to have a patio.

Last week we bought all the furniture for our new patio. Today we assembled it. It looks lovely and Earl has a posted a photo on his blog.

When we got home from New York yesterday, the first thing I noticed was that my collection of school clocks were all stopped at 12:59. The master clock that runs everything decided to blow up a circuit board so we haven’t known what time it was until just a few minutes ago, when I cobbled up a different way of getting the clocks running. I’m praying to the Time Lords that a new circuit board isn’t expensive otherwise the cobbling may stay permanently cobbled for a while. On the bright side, we’re no longer stumbling around the house wondering what time it is as all the clocks are functioning once again.

We also moved our lilac bush to a more prominent location in the front lawn. When I originally planted the lilac bush three years ago I put it a tad too close to the front porch. Today we moved it into a better spot that should give it ample room to grow. I always get nervous during my “tree relocation projects” but the two pine trees I moved a couple of weeks ago seem to be doing well. I’m hoping the lilac bush follows their lead. We also planted a new evergreen in the front landscaping to replace the bush that didn’t survive the winter. It’s nice to have all live trees and shrubs for the neighbors to look at instead of having a dead one here and there. It’s so much more cheerier.

I’ve been given orders by the big guy to make sure the camper is cleaned out and ready to go by the weekend. I get to clean the camper because that’s what full-time college students do after class during summer semester. On Friday we’re off to Hillside for some fun in the woods with other bears.

I’m already looking forward to it.

Ask any person on the street on what they like most about staying in a hotel and the answer will vary from person to person. Some like the idea of staying away from home. Others like that they’ve broken the routine and enjoying the fact they’re not sleeping in their own bed.

I like the supply of endless hot water.

I like my showers and baths hot. I love hot water. I know they say that you should use warm water instead of hot water, because hot water ages your skin prematurely. I don’t care. I love the heat of the hot water and I love the feeling of a good steam cleaning.

When the builders of our current home installed the plumbing they were obviously high from pipe joint compound. I’ve seen bigger hot water tanks in Barbie’s Dream House. We have a jacuzzi tub that is best filled by boiling water in the spaghetti pot on the stove and then dumping it into the tub while it’s filling from the tap because there’s only enough hot water to barely cover the jets. Showers in our home last no more than 10 minutes unless you want to switch to what I call the “Ice Follies”. Wash, rinse and repeat quickly or else you’ll feel like a polar bear before you finish the “repeat.”

Someday we’re going to fix this problem.

So in the meantime, when we’re traveling I revel in the fact that we have virtually unlimited hot water available. I wash, rinse and repeat and sometimes I “repeat” twice. I just stand under the shower head and let the hot water soften every nook and cranny of my body just because I can. I sometimes accompany the experience with a few “oohs” and “aahs” in an audible manner. This probably doesn’t please Al Gore but I figure with all the hot water that we’re not using at home (because we run out), Mother Earth owes me a few shreds of luxury from time to time.

I’ve started and abandoned countless blog entries today. I’m not cranky by any manner nor am I depressed or anything like that. Since yesterday’s blow up on “The View” between Rosie and Elisabeth with an “S”* I’ve decided to do further research on The War on Terror and not surprisingly, it’s not pretty. None of it. I look and look and nowhere do I find anything encouraging. Lots of money, lots of dead soldiers, lots of dead civilians. Six human beings, six soldiers have died in Iraq in the past 24 hours. I’ve watched the news shows and I’ve seen several “important” stories: Rosie vs Elisabeth with an “S”*, Anna Nicole Smith’s sister wants to look like her dead sister and Jordin spelled wrong Sparks won American Idol.

It’s seems kind of silly or rather trivial to write about the woman in line in front of us at Panera last night taking almost ten minutes to order, after demanding all vegetables be removed from the tuna “salad”.

On the bright side, Earl surprised me with a little tidbit of news: we’re spending two nights in New York instead of just driving down for the day on Saturday. Let’s hear it for the Hilton Honors Reward Club! So we’re going down tomorrow afternoon and staying until Sunday for GB:NYC4. Now that’s something to get excited about.

*I’ve referred to Elisabeth with an “S” as ‘Elisabeth with an “S”‘ since her Survivor days back when I cared about such shows. She’ll always be the little tramp that stayed on the island far too long in my book.