Attack of the Reptiles

We are still plugging away at painting the deck. It's been a rainy week here, giving the painter a little reprieve.

Yesterday Ronnie Dale barged into the house to ask, "Are you going anywhere today?" 

I said I didn't think so, why? 

It seems he was lying on his side, painting the underside of one of the benches, and he was visited rather closely, next to his head actually, by a cute little green lizard. His request was for me to quickly get to the hardware store to purchase some lizard killer. He announced there are millions out there, and he wants them all dead! 

"But llizards kill bugs," I reminded him. 

"Then get something that kills bugs too! Anything!" 

"But they won't hurt you!"  They're cute little creatures about 5 inches in length.

Ronnie Dale doesn't care. I'm afraid that he wants everything in the general vicinity that slithers or crawls on four legs to be pretty much dead. I reminded him that we have three dogs that would be affected by this lethal potion. That little reminder managed to change his focus, and I was able to talk him back into sanity. But, with the deck only half done, I have this fear that I may be the new painter in the house. I'm beginning to hate lizards.

It's a Rainy Day in Georgia

We live in north Georgia, where the Chattahoochie meanders, and the kudzu devours small buildings and cars parked in overnight parking lots. Our water source is Lake Lanier, but last I read it was at least 10 feet below full pool. It's been quite some time that we have had a water ban on,  

Now, let's just be right up front here and tell you that Ronnie Dale was a sergeant in the Army. Specifically, he was a gunnery sergeant in Viet Nam. What this really means is that Ronnie Dale is "by the book". So, if he wants to wash the car he goes to a special car wash that uses recycled rainwater. Ronnie Dale would never, ever break a rule. This fact is absolutely, positively an alien notion for me, and consequently, he and I lock horns often about it. 

Ronnie Dale insists on a  clean car. So, this morning, while I was breaking rules and sleeping in until 10 a.m., it began to rain.  And he, who usually complains about the rain because it gets his car dirty, especially when it rains when he "just washed the car yesterday", pulled the car from the garage out into the elements. The rain usually lasts about two minutes here, But, wait! It'll rain again in fifteen or so.

When I got up, Mr. Clean was strutting and smiling and so very proud of himself. Seems that when it stopped raining, Ronnie Dale pulled the car back into the garage, got out his cherished chamois, and wiped down the car. Smugly he reported that, due to his genius, the car was washed for the week. And at no cost to us.

All I could do was shake my head at this man who could squeeze three cents out of a penny. I had to admit, though only to myself, that it was a reasonably smart thing to do, if you care about having a clean car, that is. But, who are we kidding? Only a nut would believe that car wouldn't get washed at least another time before the week was over.

Pay Attention, Man!

Our Ronnie Dale has been such an outdoor fellow since he retired. In all our married years, forty-two so far, he hibernated indoors because of his allergies and asthma, and I did all the outdoor work which was absolutely fine with me. I loved mowing and gardening. Now, in our retirement, I'm no longer physically able to do the work, and his asthma seems to be history and his allergies seem to be better. Wouldn't you know that God would work that out for us?

We have a huge deck at the back of the house, complete with screen room, and it has needed some attention. Tired of the treatment oils that didn't seem to be working, (I really don't know what they call that stuff), we decided that painting it would be just the thing. We picked out some very good paint, two colors, one for the rails and one for the deck and benches. The Spring rains finally stopped, and we were ready to begin. Hubby and I spent the first day successfully doing much of the tedious work of painting the rails. There are a lot of rails.

So, bless his heart, Ronnie Dale went out to continue the painting process on the deck yesterday. He got quite a bit done on the railing right outside the kitchen window. He was out there quite a while, and I had things inside to do. He really likes to paint, and I knew it would be good therapy for him out there by himself. When he came through the back door he was muttering and I thought I saw smoke coming out of his ears. 

"Have you been painting?" I had to ask something, and that's all I could think of to say. 

"Yes," he said with disappointment. "But the result was a little disappointing when I stepped back to take a look."

When he explained what he meant we both had a good laugh. But the scene we saw this morning was even funnier.

You see, just last week he had finished painting our guest room. When Ronnie Dale grabbed a paint can from the garage to paint the deck rails he did what he always does, he didn't read the label. And this morning, with the new day's sun shining on it, we had to laugh to see the pretty BLUE railing. He's not color blind. He just wasn't paying attention.

🤣