Padd Solutions

After work tonight, I stopped and had a beer with Nate and his girlfriend, then took a quick trip to a 24-hour grocery store to pick up a couple things, since Walmart always seems to be out.

By the time I got home to jump in the shower, it was about 3:00am. I turned on the water and waited for the hot water to kick in... and waited... and waited...

Then I waited a little more, not wanting to believe what had quickly become evident - we didn't have hot water.

"Shit..." I mumbled quietly.

I walked downstairs to look at the water heater and noticed the pilot light was out. Thankfully I was able to quickly get it lit, but my problem was still obvious - I wasn't going to have hot water tonight.

Unfortunately, I have to shower before going to sleep. My choices were clear:

• take a cold shower
• wait until morning

Since the alternative was a long restless night, I chose the quick cold shower. While the experience wasn't fun, it certainly makes for a cool night.

At least Rebecca will wake up and think nothing happened.

I just needed a spiral notebook to fit in the front pocket of a button-down shirt. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently so, because the shelf was empty.

Walmart is clearly the devil. Every time I give them another chance, they blow it. When will I ever learn?

Their shelves are always empty - and it usually happens with items I need.

And thinking I can get in and out after midnight, also proves to be wrong. Of the 40 checkout lanes, they keep one open late at night. Tonight, I saw six separate customers trying to check out, each with baskets fairly loaded. If I found my single 62 cent spiral notebook, it would have taken over 10 minutes to get out of Satan's lair.

Furthermore, this past weekend, I was looking for a pair of non-skid work shoes, and Walmart has the type I like for $22. Unfortunately, I took my wife and mother-in-law on a trip across Denver to find them. Finally, I located my size at the fifth Walmart we visited.

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

I'll "live better" at Target.

Today I read a quote that sums up my life.

"Happiness is not the absence of problems, it's the ability to deal with them." - Steve Maraboli

Now I don't know who Steve Maraboli is, but using a quick web search, he seems to be a life coach or motivator.

But I like the quote - and I believe the quote. It describes (in very general terms) how I live my life.

From time to time, I run into problems, but I'm thankful to say they don't control my life. Unfortunately, I have friends and family who seem to let problems bring them down, and always seem to ask 'why this has to happen to me.'

They don't seem to realize their problems are no different than anyone else's. They aren't special, and problems aren't following them around like a dark cloud over Charlie Brown.

It's been my experience that not letting my problems become 'problematic', stress disappears. As a matter of fact, I'm blessed to say I'm 95% stress free. The remaining 5% acts as more of a motivator to accomplish goals than to bring me down.

I'm glad my parents taught me to "deal with it." Because of them, I know how to.

Today was a wasted day, which isn't completely bad. Lately, there've been a few days where I feel like I could use a nice day of 'nothing', and today I got it.

But there's so much work to be done.

Instead of preparing the nursery or buying baby items, my goals are to get the house ready for my parents when they get to town in early-to-mid August when the baby arrives.

The list is long:

• Complete the landscaping in the front yard, which requires three tons of top soil, new bushes/shrubs, and mulch for decoration.
  
• Concrete a path from our fence to the front sidewalk.
  
• Purchase and plant landscaping for the back yard, then decorate with lava rock.
  
• Buy patio furniture.
  
• Build a gazebo/patio cover in the back.
  
• Build housing for the hot tub we just bought.

Yes, we just purchased a 7-person hot tub. Check out Craigslist; they have the best finds. Completing the project, however, is going to be tough.

I will be hiring a person to hook it up, but it looks like we'll have to build a housing unit for the motor/heater/pump. When we bought the house, it had a concrete hole in the back yard where the previous owner kept his hot tub, and ours fits just fine - however, we'll have to build housing around it, as well.

I'm going to have to accept the fact that it will not be finished by August, which is a real downer. At the very least, I feel completing both the front yard and hot tub are my priorities. Everything else can wait.

I'm working on my paperwork for the new job, completing my W-4, I-9, 401(k) - the whole alphabet soup.

Colorado taxes me an extra $1,500 from my salary every year. And that doesn't include the other items like higher sales tax and vehicle registration that's already high.

I like Colorado - but not that much.

Thankfully I learned a long time ago not to focus on gross pay - it hurts too much.

I loved this pic of our little passenger. Cash started obedience training last week, and today we headed for week two.

As much trouble as he can be at times, we still love the little shit. It helps that he's cute as hell.

Driving in the car, he'll sit on the seat and watch the world outside the window. Too bad he won't stick his head outside like other dogs. I guess he's too scared.

Here's the progress report:









Notice Rebecca in the window of the last picture? She's happy - work's getting done.

A small portion of my front yard is completely finished. Greenery is in place, now we just wait for it to grow. So far, I like it.

Thankfully it's raining tonight, so that's going to help.

But as usual, the joy is short-lived. My next project is a little bigger. I have a 24' by 13' section of dirt that needs attention. We'll be bringing in three tons (that's the actual number, not an outrageous guess) of top soil to bring the ground level up in the valley, then plant hedges and add more red bark.

I'll be adding grass to the first seven feet because the area is just too big.

As you'll see below, the work area needs the attention. Originally it was full of rock with dead shrubs. As it is now, it looks better than it did a week ago - it was ugly.