Driving, Visiting, Watching

I drove over to Jackson, Michigan yesterday to meet D2 and pick up GD2. She is the last per-schooler in our crowd, She is four. She’s a youngest child, and it’s obvious. She used big words, and has big ideas. She knew it was a long ride to Grandma’s, but she was resigned to that,  and I hardly knew she was in the car. She needed to visit so she could accompany me to Sesame Street Live tomorrow.

The road conditions weren’t much, but I took my time and it was fine. I think I need to wash of the headlights on the van, the salt has coated them and the drive home was a little dim.

GD2 likes to “Watch”. Really, any old show will do, but right now she likes the old Howdy Doody shows I bought out of a bin for $1 each. This morning we did puzzles, and played with paper dolls, and ate, and dressed and so on.

Last night wasn’t so much fun. Papa had not finished pouring the cement platform for the washer, dryer and laundry tub when I got home. He had used up most the redimix he had, and D1 was headed to he local home improvement warehouse to get more. I changed into the cruddy old clothes I used for the previous day, and helped. At 9 p.m. the form was finally filled. Then, I vacuumed everywhere, stored the extras, and cleaned out my vacuum. it was a mess, with the cement and the snow providing a little moisture. Papa waited and the finished the cement. I don’t know if he’s completely satisfied with how it looks, but it looks better than the rest of the basement floor. And it will be covered by appliances.

Just so you know, I’m all for doing everything that we can for ourselves. We take care of our own lawn and garden. We clear our own drive in the winter, and I do all the cleaning, window washing and maintenance around here. We’ve mixed our share of cement, especially when we build our first house, thirty five years ago, and when we poured a new driveway here fifteen or more years ago. But I don’t recommend anyone stir up some readimix in a bucket, even though we have succeeded at what we intended. It was a mess, it was hard, and it’s a lot easier and faster to use a wheel barrow or something like that. a cement mixer is best, but we were’t pouring that much. I think the grand total was about 20 bags, one-third of a bag at a time in a five-gallon bucket. So, don’t do as I do, do as I say. Wait for spring, it will save a lot of mess and work!