Today's Mail

Being unemployed and at home during the day, I look forward to the day's mail. Yesterday I got a few checks that I'd been waiting for, so it was a good day. Today, my mailbox belched up a couple of mixed messages.

Yankee magazine wants me to order my Christmas cards through them, with free imprinting. I think I'll pass.

A charity sent me return address labels along with a request for a contribution. Am I a bad person if I use the labels but don't make a donation?

And the Rick Renner Ministries from Tulsa Oklahoma sent me an envelope with the message "In the heart of the former Atheist Empire, God is working miracles!" emblazoned across the front. I threw it away without even opening it.

In other news, despite my protestations that I wasn't going to kill myself doing yardwork around here because my landlords do not appreciate the time and effort that it takes to keep their property looking this good, I spent three hours in the yard this morning (this is after the 8 1/2 hours I'd already put in since last Thursday) finishing up the resoration process.

See, the thing about people with money? The more money you have, the fewer brains you have.

They didn't notice that somehow the sprinkler system got mucked up, and they were wondering why the grass was burning off in early August. Um, hot humid weather and no rain?

So I've been out there raking up the dead grass, working up the soil, re-raking even more of the dead material, digging deeper to work up the soil, pulling crabgrass and clover, and generally breaking my back with this manual labor. I spread the grass seed today. Let's see what I have in a few weeks.