The day ended with less than at its start

Today was a very big day, especially for the littlest member of this household: Leo was shorn today and is now ready for summer (photo above). As I did last time, I bought some dog treats at the pet shop where the groomer is so that I could bribe him to start forgiving me for inflicting that on him. The strategy even worked—eventually.

After I dropped Leo off, I went to Mitre 10 Mega home centre place/store/whatever just down the way a bit. I had eggs benny for breakfast at the Columbus Coffee there (NZ coffee cafe chain, with locations in Mitre 10 Mega locations; I mentioned Columbus Coffee in a post in 2016). After that, I had a wander around the shop and realised I hadn’t been there in months—maybe not since the mask-mandate ended (some people still wear them, btw). I bought a cultivator (that claw-like thing I’m holding in the photo at the bottom of this post) and a new hammer.

I needed the cultivator to work on clearing weeds (a bigger projected than I expected—I thought I’d be done and would have posted about it by now). The hammer—well, I somehow misplaced my hammer, and I know from experience that the best way to find a misplaced tool is to buy another one. Actually, some years ago, Nigel and I noticed that the currently missing hammer’s head was getting loose, and we needed a new one (the handle is plastic or fibreglass or something, and it’s difficult to get the head to stay seated once it starts coming loose). We never got around to it. Today was as good a time as any. However, since I don’t use a hammer very often (so far, mainly to hang pictures), I bought the store’s own brand because it it was inexpensive and (at least) good enough.

They decorated the Christmas Tree at
The Base shopping centre while I was there today.

After the filters were changed last week, and since the laundry area was emptied out, I decided to hang the shelving system I bought ages ago for the wall above the machines. This, too, was supposed to be a quick project that I thought I’d have posted about by now. This, too, didn’t work out that way.

I had all sorts of time delays, the garage was hot and humid many of the days I did have time, and I kept running out of things, like wood screws long enough to hit the wall studs, wall anchors, etc. I had plenty of those things, but I had to stop and find them.

It got worse though in that once I was finished installing the shelves, I didn’t like the result. I need to make some adjustments, so this project is also delayed further. Honestly, if I’d had any idea these projects would be so fraught, I’d have done a series of short update-style posts. Maybe for the next project.

At any rate, I also got some storage containers for the shelves in my laundry area (and filled two of them so far), and figured out some of what I’ll do to modify what I installed. I think it may not be until next week that I’ll have time to finish the project. Or, not—I really should just stop trying to guess when these sorts of projects will be done.

After we got home, I took the photo of me below, and it was around that time that I noticed that Leo would sometimes just stare at me, and that’s because he can actually see me now that his fur is trimmed away from his eyes. This evening, I let him outside after his dinner, and I watched him through a small window in the lounge, with the blinds tilted open as they are during daylight. He raised his head and froze, looking directly at me from around 10 metres away, then came running back to the house and came back in through the door. That’s never happened before. The lighting must’ve been just right.

At any rate, I actually got a lot done today, though there’s less of Leo than there was this morning (and less in my bank account…). Leo also seems to have forgiven me. I guess the bribery worked.