Tar-nation!

 We went up to the house-to-be today. I was tarring/waterproofing.  Sound familiar? That is because, initially, William and I tarred the joint where the walls met the footers. Then, for whatever reason, Tim decided to go around it and paint up 14 more inches. I honestly don't know why. That was the day that he exhausted himself to the point of having some pretty significant speech problems. Last night, he announced that he had been thinking, and he thought we should tar the concrete 4 feet up the wall, just for insurance against leaks. I privately made up my mind that I was going to do that myself, and so I did. I painted steadily for nearly 5 hours. It was cooler today, and the tar was thicker, which made the going more difficult. (Pro-tip: I tarred five feet up to avoid subsequent 'hey...you know, I've been thinking.' 

By the time that I was done, my fingers were stuck to the tar brush. My clothes were spattered. My arms were tarred up from dipping into the five gallon bucket of tar over and over. My sister and her husband came over on the four wheeler to see our progress. My brother-in-law noted that I was supposed to be tarring the wall, not myself. I invited him to step down into the trench and demonstrate his technique. I promised to observe carefully. (spoiler alert: there is no way to do tar anything without creating a mess upon your person). Anyways, I made up my mind that I was absolutely going to finish the job all in one day. It is such a messy job that I did not want to stop in the middle of it. So I got it done, and then I changed my clothes and tossed the old clothes straight into the fire. 

We ate a sandwich and were packing up to head home. It was nearly time to get William. A strange truck pulled up in the driveway. A fellow had just bought property down the road and was clearing it. He's building a house on a concrete slab and was interested who we'd got to do our concrete. He said, "I can't even get anyone to return my phone call..." (Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt.) We visited and Tim showed him the basement, and he was impressed. We offered to introduce him to Carrot Top some day. 

Then we locked up and headed home. A long hot shower felt good. I used nearly a whole bottle of nail polish remover to remove tar splatter from strange places. I mean, I was wearing long pants. Despite that, I had tar on my knees!

We had left overs for supper. Here we refer to that as 'grab and growl'. There was pasta bake and there was macaroni and cheese and there were the makings for sandwiches. Everyone helped themselves. 

I did a lot of thinking in the past 24 hours.  Since we have both retired, we are spending a lot of time together.  Tim gets joy from his houses. That brings meaning to his life. It just doesn't do it for me. I mean, I guess I understood the relevance when we were building towards retirement, but now we are retired. I don't want to talk about building. Renovating. What project is next. That seems to be all that Tim can talk about. I feel like a spoiled woman, but I don't want to talk about these things 24/7. The silent space between us grows and grows. 

Last night, the silence was especially deafening. Tim went to bed, and I sat in the dark on the couch. I decided that I am going to go back to work. I see that Head Start is hiring, and I really do enjoy working with kids. It would be a job that gives me the summers off. My work schedule would mesh with William's school schedule. 

This morning, I told Tim. He was shocked. I said it to him just as plainly as I can. He can use the extra money to hire someone to work with him. 

Late Edit: This sounds kind of gloomy. It wasn't meant to be. It's just that Tim is determined to follow his star. It's only fair that I follow my own. He's always been single minded about his projects. His focus is always there. What he wants to do tomorrow. Next week. Next month. 

I don't want that to be the sole focus of my golden years. 

In brighter news, for the first time, I successfully over wintered my geraniums. They are a vivid, deep burgundy red, which I've never seen before, and I do love that color. My sister kept them for me last year and propagated some new growth for her own. I kept them at home this year and tried it for myself, and both plants seem to have done well. I gave them a bit of a jumpstart by hauling them downstairs out of their southern window, gave them a good fertilizing and stuck them in the green house for a month. I'm excited to get them in their urns on the front porch. 

Also, I fixed my phone today, all by myself! No call to customer service needed. That made me happy too. 

Tomorrow is William's last day of school. Needless to say, he's a pretty happy camper too.