Morning Notes

It's about a quarter after seven now, Wednesday morning. I got up very early this morning -- I had difficulty sleeping last night for some reason -- and did a little bit of reading. I just read the introduction and the first couple of pages of Team of Rivals, and so far it's not bad. I didn't know that Lincoln played handball!

I also made breakfast this morning. Making breakfast is something I enjoy doing -- it doesn't take a lot of talent, it doesn't take a lot of effort, but it's almost universally appreciated. I say almost because sometimes my daughter will come out and look at my offering, then indicate that she really would have preferred to have something else. This morning I made French toast, which I had made yesterday, but this time I remembered to put butter in the pan prior to cooking, which usually results in a softer piece of bread that is better able to accept the butter and syrup. As it happened, we also had a shaker out with cinnamon sugar on it, so that made it pretty good too.

We're going to have a fair amount of work done on the house in the next six months. We need to have some electrical work done -- replacement of an outside socket, and having someone look at our circuit breaker box -- and we want to have the air-conditioning output in our kitchen improved. Because of the orientation of the house, on hot summer days, it becomes a fairly warm room. We're also thinking of having some work done outside -- I would like to replace the grass in front of the house with something that is thicker and more foot friendly -- and we want to have some damage control done on the weeds in the back, which are getting out of control. We're also thinking of having my daughter's room painted, although that's probably something will do ourselves, as we can. We're not sure when that will be.

Just did some two-handed stretches -- grab my left hand in my right, reached down and then up, and almost over my head. Felt good.

It's a little bit later now. I had had the whole house fan on to draw in some of the cool outside air, and after breakfast I suggested that we go for a walk. We live in a development, which means that there isn't a lot of pretty nature to look at, but the walk is pleasant nonetheless. Plus we get the chance to just talk, which is very important to me. My wife observed years ago that if I don't get the chance to just talk with her, just casual talk, nothing special, I get grumpy. She's absolutely correct.