What a nice day this has been - just warm enough so we were comfortable working outside, and not raining!!! We even had a bit of sunshine, although it was filtered through clouds some of the time. Still, it made us feel hope that summer may still make an appearance before the cold weather and snow sets in again - however soon that will be.
     I was out on our deck for a few minutes long after dark tonight to see if I could hear peepers, but if they were out there, I didn't hear them. The geese down on the pond were making such a racket it may have drowned them out. It made me wonder how Scott and Geri Pelok and Jim and Gretchen Farnsworth get any sleep at night. I guess wherever you are you get used to the night sounds and sleep through whatever it is, but it can't be easy to ignore those geese - and I suppose the loons join in from time to time. I didn't hear them, but do hear them clearly sometimes, even up here on our hill.
     We got some pruning done on some of the trees today. Our big old hydrangea kind of took a beating under all the snow this winter and a big branch of it broke, so Fred cut out a lot of it, hoping to save at least one small section. The poor thing hasn't had any attention at all since we've lived here, and I don't think my parents did anything for it, so it had become overgrown and tangled. The snow weighed it down and now even what's left is bent over. I'm thinking of propping it up so perhaps it will be more upright - I'll wait and see if it decides to live.
     Today was not a good day in our household. We were both busy this morning on our computers and doing a couple loads of laundry. For some reason the washer refused to accept the second load. I tried different settings, but it would not go beyond bringing in a little water. Turned out that "little water" was enough to spill out of the door when I opened it. I was able to dip out most of the water and rescue the sopping clothes. Fortunately it wasn't a big load, so I washed and rinsed everything by hand in the sink basins. The hard part was wringing stuff out so it was safe to put in the dryer. I've always said wringing out all those diapers for three kids back in the day is what caused the arthritis in my hands. I knew I'd pay a price, but Fred was down resetting our mailbox post that got severely tipped during the winter, so I dug in and scrubbed and rinsed and wrestled through wringing out every piece of laundry, thinking all the while about how women did laundry that way for years - and the survived. They probably had painful arthritis, too, but today once I got going, my hands were ok. My fingers are pretty stiff tonight, but Tiger Balm helps, and I slathered that on while we watched American Idol. Tomorrow we'll see what can be done, if anything, for the darned washer. They are supposed to last 10-15 years (I Googled for that information) doing a normal load every day. We do two loads a week, and I think we've had it about 9 years. It's one of those super-duper LG monsters that's supposed to save on water, etc., etc. Right now, I'm not impressed.