A Weak Command Of Our Mother Tongue
It was another early to office this morning, and mostly because I wanted to make sure I had everything under control before I headed out to work the bulk of my day at my on-going project. Once everything was looking good, I decided to seat myself at piano for about a half hour, just to get some additional practicing done. Now that my fingering and sight reading has come around, I figured it best to keep slowing raising the bar.
I'd had enough of practicing for the day, so I went ahead and changed into my work clothes and drove over to my little/big project, and the first thing I attacked, was getting the last of that nasty milk paint stripped off that door, which ended up being another two hours before it was all off. After I had a short break, I turned the door over and proceeded to strip the other side which only had varnish on it, and believe it or not, I had that side completely stripped and cleaned up in two hours. I'm sure you now understand why I intensely dislike stripping paint. After a little bit of light sanding and a good rub down with steel wool, it'll be ready for varnishing. Now that it's looking really good, I'm glad I made the decision to strip it.
Since I'd used up nearly all the stripper, I headed out to Menards, just to get a few more gallons for the other doors which have only varnish to get removed. Oh my goodness! I absolutely could not believe the shapes, sizes, and clothing the bulk of those Saturday afternoon shoppers I found mindlessly walking around. I really think all our stores need to install full-length mirrors at their entrances, just so their shoppers can see what the rest of us are looking at. In spite of being in my work clothes, I'd say I was more appropriately dressed than the rest of them. I think I'm going to have to start looking down instead of straight forward, and only because I don't like feeling embarrassed whenever I happen to see people wearing far too suggestive clothing.
Upon return to my project, I busied myself with getting some trim boards stripped, and for whatever reason, the gnats were out in full force, and somehow, there were a few which had managed to get under my face netting, and of course I now have bit marks at the back of my neck. I actually don't know how people who're working outdoors during the day, can stand having those devils swarming around them. I managed to kill one of them, and when I looked it over really good, I'd say they're a species which is most likely a new arrival to North Iowa. Considering what I managed to get done today, I'd say my original timeline to get my project finished, will be easily met, and I know the more that gets completed, the more I'll be pushing myself to get it finished-up.
It looks like I'll have to be watering my garden tomorrow, and only because we only received a few drops of rain today. The vegetables are still looking good, which is why I want to keep them that way by giving them the water they're needing. Not even half the sunflowers I planted came up, but there'll still be enough of them to brighten my day with their smiling faces.
One of my out-of-State relatives called while I was working, just to get caught up on the happenings in North Iowa. I couldn't stay on the phone very long due to my stripping process, so I promised to return the call sometime tomorrow. For whatever reason, several of the questions posed to me, were regarding an old branch of my family that were settlers in our area who'd emigrated here from middle Europe. Thank goodness I paid close attention to the stories being told me by my grandparents regarding their parents and grandparents.
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After I got off the phone, the bulk of my thoughts while working, were about the struggles and hardships those early settlers had to endure. We've all heard that old saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention.", but never fully understood that it was put into practice on a near-daily basis back in those middle to late 1800's. When thinking about it, I'm still amazed in knowing that branch of my family were already fluent in two distinctly different languages, and then able to freely learn English. I'm sure it wasn't so hard for them, because it's always been said that once you crack one foreign language, it's much easier to learn another. Times have certainly changed when knowing how many of our native speakers, have a weak command of our mother tongue. Pretty scary, isn't it?
Knowing I'd accomplished what I'd planned for the day, I called it quits, cleaned up my stripping utensils, and then headed back to office to get changed into my street clothes after I gave myself a good wiping-down, and after getting a good look at my neck, I'm sure those darned gnat bits are gonna be bothering me in the night.
On my way home, I stopped at a groceteria to pick up a few items, and while there, I happened to run into one of my high school teachers, who for some reason, didn't recognize me until I told him my name, and once my surname rang a bell, the floodgates of recall began opening. Oh my gosh, we must've been standing there visiting for a good half hour, but at least I was brought fully up to speed with the happenings in his life. Sounds like he's going to be doing some extensive traveling in Europe this summer. Good for him.
I'd say the highlight of my day, was a phone conversation I had with a colleague of mine which centered around the 'greed' mentalities we're seeing with some of our not so illustrious real estate investors, who seem to have an inside track on who the distressed sellers are, and the best times for them to go swooping in for the 'kill'. I swear, there's a handful who aren't satisfied unless they know they've taken full advantage of unfortunate situations. For shame on them all!
Tonight's One-liner is: Listen with your eyes for feelings.