Playing Catch-Up

Howdy, all!

How's things? The weekend went pretty well . . . I actually got some work done on the house for the first time in months! I built the frame for my upstairs fireplace mantel and I installed a gas fireplace in my basement. Anybody else have one of these? Holy CRAP! These bad-boys throw some heat! On the lowest setting, with the blower off, it heated my entire basement from about 60 deg. to 80+ in under 15 minutes. Installation wasn't too bad, though I did do a lot of cursing about my contractor while doing it. He had run the rough piping for the gas line but (of course!) it was all wrong and I wound up having to rip it all out and redo the entire thing (about 15 ft. of black pipe, valves, etc.) At least it all went right on the first try . . . NOT usually the case when I'm doing piping work of any kind.

On the writing front, I did 1,500 words on Friday night (yay, me!) and took the weekend off as always. Monday a.m. I woke up feeling completely punk (I wanted to call out of work desperately) but I had a trainee coming in so it was: "off to ye olde salt mines!" for me. I just felt worse as the day went on and when I got home last night, crashed on the couch and didn't move other than to light my new fireplace (sweet!) pull a blanket over me and flip the occasional TV channel. I tried to get in a good night's sleep last night but my wife did not cooperate. For some ungodly reason, she got up at 4:30 this a.m. and proceeded to take the dog out, shower, get ready, etc. She was so damn loud about all of it she woke up everyone in the house. I (being somewhat tired and a wee bit cranky) just growled at her before pulling the covers back up over my head. She left for work early today -so I assume there was a reason for all this- but I have no idea what it was. She didn't say she was going in early or anything. I'm sure she'll give me the full explanation tonight (while I give her an earful about being considerate of those of us who DON'T have to get up so early! Especially when we're not feeling good!) The whole wake up thing threw my whole morning off. I was so tired I slept through my morning workout and just got up, showered, and headed for work. I believe we have discussed my need for a set routine before - I don't handle dissruptions well.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today (though still tired, Dear!!!). Work is not as crazy as yesterday and I'm hopeful that whatever was making me feel crappy is fading away. Maybe it's just the changing season.

Tonight is a Boy Scouts night and I have a Committee Meeting (that's the adults who help run the program) of which I am the Chairman and there's going to be some unpleasantness so I'm not looking forward to it. There's a few issues that are going to put some folks backs up, so I'll be playing peacemaker most of the night. I imagine I'll be exhausted afterward and just come home to crash but one never knows: I may be all wired and have pleanty of energy for writing. We shall see.

So, there's my weekend catch-up post. (I know: compelling writing, ain't it?) More on the 'morrow.

Later!