Three Beautiful Things 11/18/17: Working Outside, Dog Break Out, Family Gatherings

1. Today Shawn and Justice, his helper, put the first coat of varnish on the floor. Below I've posted pictures of what the floors looked like before the varnish.)  The Deke and Maggie and Charly and I had to leave the house and we moved to Carol and Paul's for a few days. It was a mild November day and I took advantage of being banished and of having a dumpster in the driveway and cleared the exterior of our house and the front and back yards of all kinds of things: window boxes, planters, a corroding metal table, a clothesline, a piece of wooden furniture on the deck (requiring me to use Shawn's sledgehammer), old plastic chairs, and other things.

2. The Deke drove the dogs over to Carol and Paul's and immediately had to deal with two dogs escaping. The Deke lured Maggie back with food. But, hmmm, Archie was a different story. Archie is an athletic Catahoula (state dog of Louisiana, by the way). Carol and Paul are looking after him for a couple of months or so for a friend. Archie got out and wandered (ran) about a quarter of a mile (maybe) over to Yoke's grocery store and the Deke couldn't corral him until -- well, until Archie trotted into the store and got into a checkout line. There, the Deke leashed him and brought him back. I missed out on all of this because I was sledgehammering a wooden two seated pink outdoor deck chair. I walked to Carol and Paul's when I finished my tasks, sore, tired, but satisfied with a good day's work and happy that no dogs were run over by a car or anything.

3. With all dogs contained, the Deke thawed and warmed up one of those delicious Costco chicken pot pies and Christy and Everett came over over for dinner while all the Roberts were in Moscow for Senior Day at the Vandals' game. We had a great time together and an hour or so after they left to go watch the Zags defeat the Utah State Aggies, Zoe, Cosette, Molly, Travis, Paul, and Carol all piled into the house with grocery bags full of chips and dips and soda pop and other things and they tore into them for a late dinner of their own. It was Paul's birthday, and soon he opened some gifts. By the time he finished, I dragged my tired bones to bed to sleep off a full day of work, dog drama, and family conviviality.

Here are the pictures I took before Shawn and Justice began varnishing the floors:

The New Opening into the Kitchen

The Living Room and Dumpster in the Driveway

The Unearthed Kitchen Wood Floor