#or do without

   There’s a rope that has been hanging in the oak tree for a few years. It has knots along it to help with climbing. I want to take it down now and repurpose it, but the knots are very tight and stubborn. When I tried to untie some of them a couple days ago I got nowhere fast, and ended up thinking “I need a marlinspike.” Then, with the rope in both hands, I had a ten-second language-nerd space-out about how cool the word ‘marlinspike’ is and how tickled I was to finally be able to use it in a sentence.

   However, I do not have a marlinspike, nor are there any old-timey nautical supply stores anywhere nearby. It turns out, though, that you can use a small phillipshead screwdriver as a marlinspike with at least moderate success. I untied half the knots this afternoon, and I’ll get a step ladder and have another go at it tomorrow morning.

   It’s been a day of tidying up small projects, including some banking (yuk), a dress fitting for my daughter, grocery shopping (yuk), buying auto parts, and weeding. While we were out doing errands, with her driving to get more practice in town, a man stopped us to tell me her left brake light was out. We were able to fit that right in with the other errands, and my son showed her how to replace brake lights on an elderly Toyota. That may be the FASTEST any broken thing has ever been fixed around here.

   Now if I can just untie the rest of those darned knots. And mend one more dress. . . . . .

Fix it up

Wear it out

Make it do

I'm mostly broke thanks to a speeding ticket, so I'm trying to use up the food I have instead of buying more. Tonight's concoction: mixed beans with crushed tomatoes and herbs over brown rice and topped with parmesan. Also I did break down and buy some fresh spinach yesterday since I ran out of veggies, so I threw a bit of that in there as well. I wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be pretty good.