Pratfalls and Paint

With the laundry room finally finished, we discovered yesterday that we actually had some time on our hands to get out of the house and to rediscover the world beyond Lowe's and Home Depot. We wanted to visit the library, to pick up a few groceries, to run to the Post Office, and to do a little shopping. One of our destinations was to drop by Kohl's Department Store.

We have been hearing from Lindsay about the almost daily snowstorms, cold weather, and icy conditions in Wisconsin, and perhaps that made us too confident down here.  I really enjoy not having to deal with the snow and ice, but that did not stop me from falling flat on my face (quite literally) as I walked from the car to Kohl's.  Kohl's has a large inclined area painted yellow to accommodate the elderly and those in wheelchairs.  What I did not notice was that the yellow area extended beyond the gently sloping concrete to also include a curb bordering that incline.  So I plowed forward, totally not seeing the curb, and tripping with all of the grace of a giraffe on roller blades.

For those of you born pre-1960, remember how Dick Van Dyke used to trip over chairs and fall, all arms and legs going in every direction?  I imagine that is how I looked when I took my fall. The title of this blog says "Pratfall," and that is not really accurate since a pratfall denotes someone falling on her behind.  Nope.  Not me.  I fell flat on my face, managing to twist my back and skin my knee before my palms. then chin, nose, and eyeglasses made contact with the concrete.  My wrenched back gave me most of the pain last night, and bless the makers of Aleve for helping me sleep last night. My knees are still skinned, my glasses are terribly scratched, but at least my back is better tonight, so my dignity, I think, will be the only casualty of this fall.

I have to admit that I rolled out of bed a little stiff this morning, but that is OK since I did not have to rush off to work.  We decided to go to the grocery store this morning, and that was a very wise decision.  We picked up the few things we needed for Easter and got out of there before the families with 16 people coming over for brunch descended on the place.

We brought the groceries home and then headed for Largo since we got a call that the tile we ordered for the front porch had arrived.  We were surprised because we had only ordered the tile on Monday.  We picked up the tile, more thin-set, and more Latte grout, stopped at the drug store on our way home, and still made it back to Gladys by 1:00 p.m.

One of the purchases we had made for Gladys was a palm tree shaped doorbell by Michael Healy.  If you are not familiar with him, look him up on the Internet.  We have a maple leaf doorbell in Wisconsin, Lindsay has a Lady Bug bell on her house, and we could not resist the palm tree for Gladys.  Unfortunately, the original door bell for this house had very short wires which meant that the palm tree was very awkwardly hanging without a solid base.  Rick decided to take a wooden plaque, paint it to match the house, and solder new wires through the wood so that the doorbell could sit recessed into the wood.  I know that sounds confusing, so you'll just have to wait until the completed pictures to see the results.

Rick paints the first coat of Honeysuckle around the doors.

See, I work too!

Rick soldered the wires, mounted the primed wooden base to the wall, and then decided that he needed to paint the white primed stucco around the doors.  We have only one gallon of the paint ("Honeysuckle") that we want to use on Gladys with the intension of bringing down 8 more gallons when we return in the fall.  If we buy the paint in Wisconsin, we can save almost $250, so that is worth hauling down.  However, we have enough to get started, and that is what we did today.  The pictures tell the story better than I can.  I actually made Rick take a picture of ME working since most of the pictures show him hard at work.  I DO help; however, I am usually the one who is behind the camera.

The "door wall" is painted the first coat of the final color.  The bedroom wall (to the right in the pictures) is now primed with a stucco masonry sealer. Tomorrow we will put the first coat of paint on the wall next to the door where the doorbell will reside, and we will paint coat one on the bedroom wall.  A second coat of yellow Honeysuckle on everything probably be as far as we go this year.

Rick took this picture of the completed paint
job around the door.  Typical man!  He could have
picked up the ladder and paint before he took
this shot!

Next fall, we will finish putting this new yellow "party dress" on Gladys.  She then will start to look like she is ready for the prom, and if I can somehow afford a few flowers for her, she might start to look like the grand old doll we know she can be.