Trash Day

Today is Wednesday ... early Wednesday right now. Wyatt has awaken before the dawn of day, but I am not all that troubled. I am taking this opportunity to enjoy the quiet of the world. I'm also taking the opportunity to enjoy our new house.

Over the last week, much work has been done around the house - including finishing hard wood floors in both the living and dining room. Finishing the floors in particular proved to be an adventurous task. It wasn't going to be much of a problem, but around the time we were putting the second coat of polyurethane on a severe thunderstorm rolled through Owensboro - dropping something like 6'' of rain in just a couple of hours. There were also threats of tornados, and a neighbor across the street lossed a significant limb of a large tree. We didn't lose any major tree limbs, but we did lose our electricity, which, as you can imagine, made putting polyurethane on much more difficult since it was 8 pm and completely dark outside. Still, it got done.

It's amazing how much satisfaction I'm deriving from being able to do these little labors. Like last night, when I arrived home from work and I realized the trash needed to be taken out since Wednesday is trash day. Strangely, I was somewhat pleased at the notion that I get to put out my trash ... and that my weeks would have a more domestic schedule to them. (I can hear my mother asking if this would still be her same son.) We even have a postal carrier who comes directly to our door everyday well before noon. Again, these simple domestic pecularities are strangely pleasing to me.

Of course, there are other things that aren't quite in order ... like the grass that is well over five inches in places because I'm still waiting for a lawn mower (and a lawn mowing company to come mow my yard in the meantime!). And then there's Lewis ... our neighbor across the street. Great guy and he certainly keeps his yard looking wonderful. But, he - being retired - also has a curious habit of sitting outside of his garage for 60% of the day - enjoying the day, watching cars roll by, probably looking with contempt and disbelief at our lawn. I think our family is going to provide good theatre for Lewis.

Wyatt is off to a hot start this morning. He has already emptied all the milk he just acquired into his diaper: serious unloading. He's now wide awake in his baby seat ... bouncing and laughing at me from time to time. But, praise be to God, he has been relatively orderly the last two days. He had been waking up routinely in the night - 2 to 3 times, but these past two nights he has slept for 8 hours consecutively.

Simple pleasures amount to a whole lot.

Wes