Wrinkly Bits
A Blog by Gail Cushman
Sometimes we just have to pause and take a breath, you know, do nothing! When I look back at the four months of 2025, I think I need to do just that! Cowboy and I have been going strong and we both anticipated that a month in Florida would calm us down, but it didn’t. Instead, we got behind. All those little things on our “to do” list birthed babies and the list now is twice as long as it was when we returned a month ago. Here’s what I mean and this is a true story:
I knew a woman who decided to buy a new bedspread for the guest room. She figured she could spruce up the room for $50, so she bought a new bedspread. An inexpensive way to make the guest room look new again. It was a blue velvet bedspread and so pretty. But when she put it on the bed, she realized that the old green polka dot didn’t match, so off she went to the store. She bought a set of blue curtains, with new rods and put them up, and now that everything matched and looked great. $50. She stood back and admired at her handiwork and decided she wanted a new bedroom lamp, because the old green lamp had seen better days, and new pillows would accent the new bedspread and curtains. Back to the store. Lamp $100. Pillows $50. The room was better, but something still wasn’t right. The old paint…you got it, pale green, so she went to the paint store and bought a gallon of baby blue paint and painted the room. Of course, she needed brushes, a tarp, and a small step stool, too. $150. Now it was matching, but with all the new stuff, the window sills now looked dingy, so she went back to the paint store and bought some white enamel to repaint the window sills. $25. The new paint really brightened the room up, but that ceiling lamp shade was dated and rather ugly, so maybe she should change it, too. $75. She did, and with the new light she noticed that she missed painting one of the window frames, so she brought the paint can back and started painting. The phone rang and she turned to grab it from the bed…and knocked the paint can to the floor, and the carpet now had a two-foot by three-foot splash of white on the blue carpet. $500. Grand total was about $1,000.00
This story must have a moral…but I don’t know what it is. But here’s ours, also a true story:
Last year we installed a pole and post fence, halfway around our property. It looks wonderful, and we decided to complete the other half this spring. The fence building guys came and gave us an estimate, which was reasonable. As we perused the property, eyeing where the fence would start and end and how many gates we needed, one of us said, it would sure be nice to have a garage for our boat and we both visualized a new RV type shed or garage for the boat. The problem is the hill where the fence will be installed. Hills are comprised of dirt and a whole bunch of dirt needed to be moved. Cowboy moved his tractor to the back of the house and started moving some dirt. Larry, our neighbor, saw what he was doing and said, “Hey, I can help you with that. I have a backhoe that will take that hill out lickety-split.” It’s a big backhoe.
And now the ground is somewhat leveled, but Cowboy just came in, covered with dirt, and said, “While we are doing this, we should add another lean-to or carport, because we’re gonna need a place to put that bigger tractor I’m gonna buy. We got a lot of dirt to move.” Cha-ching! Cha-ching!
