Notes - a Monday as is /

         Mid-morning. The Deck Renewal crew is tearing up the floorboards and you and Carol are looking forward to the final results by the end of the week. Also, Kim called and is coming down with the boys after swimming lessons at the Y Saturday morning and will stay until mid-afternoon on Sunday. Paul and his old from-grade-school-on friend Chris are going on their annual cabin weekend on Lake Erie. – Amorella

          Mid-afternoon. You had a late lunch at Panera/Chipotle and are stopped at Kroger’s on the corner of Tylersville and Cox roads. When you left the crew was on the lower deck, the built in benches had been taken out as well as three large built in flower containers. You are not replacing the flower containers but the benches will be topped with the composite. Greg P. said he would stain the present railing system and lattice first then take a piece to match for the deck composite stain. You are quite appreciative of his advice and have a gentleman’s agreement on a fair final price as you move along. You paid him the first third today and probably Wednesday another third then a third when completed. Each solid board is twenty-four fifty at Menard’s but it is one of the best composites out there. He said it should probably last thirty years or longer. One board slides into another and no nails or screws show. – Amorella

         1429 hours. A fair price for fair service and goods is my way of looking at it. Angie’s List gives him five stars and the Better Business Bureau gives Deck Renewal an A+ rating – no complaints only positive comments. Plus, he seems a descent older fellow. To me, making a fair profit is not ‘ripping someone off’. We have lived our life that way and gotten along with most everyone (business-wise) all these years. We have got taken a couple of times by people who said they were desperate for money ( a scam) but we learned to give it up and move on. I like to say I’m a cynic, and I am, but deep down if I didn’t have hope for humankind I would have never had the joy in a lifetime of teaching. We like to practice that hope when dealing with people we meet in the world. – rho

         You are presently in the central area of Rose Hill Cemetery while Carol does her walk. Once home with groceries delivered here you came. – Amorella

         1516 hours. We bought cookies for the deck crew but they had left for the day when we arrived. Both decks are free of boards except for the area of the stairs. Everything is cleaned up. The fellow from the lawn care (early feeding) left a note that he would do the back in a week since they were working on the deck today. We each had a cookie to check them out. Carol can’t taste them but she said the cookie was fresh and moist and that she could tell the apple pieces within were apple by the density. It was good. I brought a half with me and it’s gone already. I can see Carol between the gravestones. She is not walking as fast as she used to but it is a deliberate and steady pace. She wants to be ready for the Chicago trip in May. She has a slight hesitancy in her left knee, which is the worst as she walks passed on the road in front of me. We both recognise we are getting older. I had aches doing my forty minutes of exercises this morning. I assume it is the arthritis as it is about forty degrees with a sharp cold gusty wind from the north as the many flags fly.

         Late afternoon. You were reading the latest AARP magazine and saw an ad for the Bose Wave III and are thinking about buying one to replace the two older Bose speakers that have suddenly stopped working. Basically it is some four hundred dollars with tax but it has a remote and blue tooth for your iPads or iPhone. Spooky appears mystified watching as sleet is suddenly hitting the window. – Amorella

         1717 hours. I might look into the Bose tomorrow. Kenwood has a store. I can use my personal savings  -- four hundred and fifty dollars ought to do it. I’m sure it sounds fine and I like the idea of the remote if I’m sitting in the bedroom chair. Bob Pringle had the original Bose Wave many years ago and as far as I know it still works. I love saving my money and spending it once in a while without the guilt of using our household funds. Carol is careful with her budgets this way there is no interference.

         Advertising serves its purposes. Later, dude. Post. – Amorella