The garage is clean... at least for a day or two

April 27, 2015 - Monday morning
33 degrees/clear/calm
Pentoga Road

It's a quick one. Down and dirty. Final projects for my class are due in today and naturally, there were more than a few students who waited until the last minute. Several came in overnight and no doubt, there'll be a flood pouring in today as my graduate students hurriedly pull their research together in an attempt to fulfill the requirements of the course. 

As always, there will be one or two who will stretch the time limit to the very last moment... as in later this week. It always happens and I'll worry right up until I get their papers into my hands. 

I swore when I went from teaching high school to the university level that I would never again worry about a student's inability to get his homework in, but I've found that my concern never left. I think it's called being a teacher.

We spent the majority of Sunday cleaning the garage. Sargie volunteered to help and let me tell you, the dust flew. Things either were put or thrown away. 

Even the coolers were pressure washed and made ready for another summer of use. Totes? Sure why not. 

When by myself, I tend to piddle around while cleaning, rediscovering a tool or often, basically forgetting what I am doing and starting a new task... much like a child does when sent to clean his room and finds a toy he received last Christmas and begins to play with it all over again.

Sargie knows how to clean. There is no corner too dark, no amount of nuts, bolts, screws, or nails, too insignificant to ignore. Items, those that I'm not sure where they belong, tend to be shoved neatly out of the way. Sargie makes sure they find a permanent home.

We ended the cleaning session well after lunchtime when I got out the big guns and pressure washed the floor. It's now almost pristine, beautiful, clean... too nice a place in which to park a mere automobile. Now if only I could find that guy who sneaks in and insists on making a mess and not putting things where they belong.

We took our usual Sunday afternoon drive. The weather was perfect and we just ambled around the local area.

Last night we raked around the wood sheds and hauled pile after pile of leaves and sticks into the woods. The place is beginning to look almost presentable!

Sargie is back to work today. I'm going to walk my five miles this morning, grade some papers while cooling down, then get started working in the garden. The boards used on the raised beds from three years ago have rotted. All were salvaged from a pile that was sitting in the back yard when I bought the place and were well on their way to crumbling then. They will be replaced with new, treated, 1x8's that should last much longer. I also want to begin hauling fill to those places around the yard that are too low. 

It's going to be another busy day on Pentoga Road which goes to prove one thing; that a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

It must be the bulldog who messes up the garage. I'm pretty sure that's a guilty look plastered on his face.