Saying bye and Honey do

On Saturday morning the winning bidder of the trusty Shadow auction and her son showed up to pick up the bike. We chatted for a while as I signed over the title. They’re great people and it’s good to know my bike is going to be ridden someone who will really enjoy it and take care of it.

I watched from the driveway as the Shadow made way to its new home. It was a sad morning indeed.

I didn’t have time to dwell on the loss or be reminiscent as I had a list of projects and chores to tend to. It was 10:30 in the morning and time to get up in the attic. A month ago I bought 100′ of speaker wire and swivel speaker mounts so I could put speakers out on the deck.

I climbed up into the attic, made my way to the opposite side of the house, fished through insulation to find the coax cable that goes down the living room wall and out behind the TV armoire. A new hole needed to be drilled through 4-inches of of wood to drop a string down the wall to pull up the speaker wire. I crawled back through the attic and into the garage to get my cordless drill and my spade bit. The drill tuckered out on me. My backup battery was dead.

Off to the local hardware store for a corded drill. The local hardware recently went out of business. Then it was off to the ol’ HoPot. I picked up a reliable corded drill and a 1-1/4 spade bit. I got home and it was up to the attic again. It was 1:30 at this point and probably 200-degrees in the attic. August + Texas + Attic = Hell. I sweated so much that it looked like I just got out of the shower.

It was so hot that I thought I was going to puke and pass out but was bound and determined to run the speaker wire. I was finishing up in the attic and making my way back toward the garage. I had a flashlight, extention cord and my new drill with the new spade bit attached. I lost my balance and had to take a large step so my foot would land on a rafter instead of falling through sheetrock. In doing so I stabbed the back of my calf with the spade bit. I heard it puncture my skin and I became light headed.

I installed the speaker mounts, installed the speakers, ran my wiring and now have music on the deck. And a Band Aid on my calf.

Elise had to go to work later that afternoon. I took some clothes to Goodwill, ran to the bank, had the oil changed in the truck, went to Bed Bath & Beyond for kitchen gadgets and then to Pep Boys for an air filter.

Christine worked for Elise that night so I went over to John’s place for a guys night in. John, Jack, Josh, a deep dish pizza from Mangia and a football.

I got home after midnight and Elise and I stayed up until after 3 a.m. talking our jobs. Man, we’re party animals.

We didn’t get out of bed until 10 this morning. I finally fixed the water softener that hadn’t worked in a month or so.

While at John’s last night we saw an ad for Furniture Row… no interest financing until 2010. So Elise and I went furniture shopping this afternoon. We didn’t find anything.

Next stop: the grocery store and finally home. For dinner I made a hot & crunchy fried trout with habanero garlic tartar and a late summer sauteed vegetable salad.