A mish-mashy weekend

With the weather all bright, sunny and cool all weekend - I found it very, very difficult to be inside on the computer. I consider this a rare sign of sanity.

Saturday was our day for multiple trips to home improvement stores trying to find cabinets and hardware for the laundry room. In between I worked in the yard some -- pulling mountains of weeds. Oh yes! Weeds!! One of our neighbors had been putting out enormous amounts of stuff for the debris trucks in preparation for moving out of town a couple of months ago.. and one of the things they discarded was a huge compost tumbler. I have never purposely made compost in my life -- but, then, having a huge compost tumbler seemed like it might motivate me some -- so I dragged it home. I've been stuffing it full of weeds and straw and leaves for days now. It's very exciting. I've been stopping everyone at the garbage can saying: "Wait.. can we compost that?" Dave was leary at first -- he was recalling our traumatic experience with the aluminum cans... but as soon as I convinced him that we could not compost aluminum he seemed to feel better.

By nightfall - we were back inside attempting to install the first of the cabinets. It was frightening at first -- but we felt better as soon as we got ONE cabinet on the wall.

Er.. so much better, in fact.. that we went to sleep immediately.

We really did plan on hanging the rest of the cabinets on Sunday -- but soon discovered that the 'c' clamps we would need to hold the cabinets in place had all flooded and were rusted shut. Dave got them moving again but then we didn't want to get rust on the new cabinets either. (At some point later in the day it occured to us that we could have used some sort of cloth between clamp and cabinet to prevent this.. but by then it was too late...) We opted to start working on the threshold for the laundry room door instead.

After what seemed like an eternity of cutting and sanding and Dremmeling a three foot long piece of threshold... we got it to fit into place. Then we realized that there was a dime-sized section of tile at the very edge of the floor where we had failed to grout. Dave ran outside to mix some grout so I could fill the gap while I worked on staining the threshold piece.

A very long time passed. I applied two coats of stain to the threshold. I weeded a section of garden. I helped Yvonne ride her bike and tried to show George how to sharpen a knife for whittling. The time to get ready for church was approaching when I found Dave outside - still stirring.

Okay - so we mixed too much grout.

Have you ever made instant mashed potatoes? If you have -- then you'll understand. You put some water in the pot... and then you add some potatoes - and then some milk. Then it's too runny so you add some more potatoes... and then it's too lumpy so you add some more milk.. and so on... Until you have fine instant mashed potatoes of the perfect consistency -- and enough to feed several hundred people. Well.. that's what happened with the grout.

We put a drop or two in place at the threshold and used the rest around our patio in the backyard.

At some point this week we will hang another cabinet -- I can just feel it... I know we will.

In the meantime - we're waiting to hear for news from the Mississippi Development Authority about when to apply for home grants. Originally, we were told that there would be a period for applying online before physical centers were opened to accept applications. Now, however, we are told that you will be able to do nothing but print out an application online to bring with you to the physical application center... and that all applicants must make an appointment to apply in person. Of course -- the future location of these application centers is being carefully guarded... and, as we understand it, will be subject to change throughout the application process. That sounds like fun!!

Further, the word thus far is that there will be four such centers in all for the entire Gulf Coast. This is going to make things really, really difficult for a lot of folks who aren't going to be in a position to travel long distances. But! There will also be a center set up in Clinton, Mississippi... I'm not sure why... I think someone took it literally when they were told to set up a 'central' location. (Clinton, MS is near Jackson, Mississippi... very near the exact center of the state and a good three to four hour drive away from most locations on the coast.) I'll just assume they know what they're doing at this point.

We all have a lot of practice with these application centers and the appointment-making processes (read: the 3 days worth of solid busy signals when trying to get through to the 800 number to make your appointment.. only to get disconnected due to 'high call volume' when you make it through....) after dealing with FEMA for months. I appreciate our local government trying not to disturb us with too much novelty at this point in our lives --- really, guys... familiarity is great and all, but you didn't need to model this thing after the FEMA & Red Cross disasters.

Do you ever get the distinct impression that someone out there tries to make these things as difficult as possible for a reason? You know.. that maybe if they keep raising (or randomly moving) the hoops we all have to jump through for assistance that a good chunk of people are going to just give up and go away? Yeah.. me too.

You're outta luck though, MDA.. We've got our hoop-jumping shoes on and we're ready to go.