(Sunday Paper, Year IV, Issue 19)

I told you recently that, if faced with figuring out a new technology, I’m never afraid to jump in and push some buttons and figure out how to work it.

I’m discovering, as I navigate the yard work in a way I never really have before, that the same is true of my groundskeeping.

I think I used to be afraid of the permanence of a gardening change - what if I can’t undo that action?

Lately, though, I’m finding that sometimes the necessary change might mean getting in there and digging something up by its roots.

The yard is progressing. It’s not completely where it needs to be just yet, but we’re getting there.

As you can see in the picture above, in addition to ripping up weeds and bushes (that happened in the front yard, but still) and getting poison ivy all over my arms and legs, I am still thinking about the patio I’d like to build back there.

I don’t mean to be redundant, since I told you about the yard just a couple of weeks ago, but there are a couple of things I thought it was important to update you on. As you probably know since I mentioned it last week (or since you were here, since 90% of my readership was probably at my house), last week we hosted a party at the house. It was the first time in a bunch of years we were able to do that, mostly because I did not feel great about the state the house and the yard were in for that span of time we kept people away. And like I said, while we’re not there yet with the yard, we’re at a point where I don’t mind having people over and enjoying the yard right now.

And - this part is very exciting - it looks like the patio will have to wait. Well, that’s not the exciting part. The exciting part is we’re getting the yard fenced in very soon. And that means soon after we’ll be looking at getting a dog. But because of that, I think there won’t be enough in the budget for me to play around with the patio for a bit.

And, what’s more, despite the reading I’ve been doing, I don’t know how to make the patio. So the financial delay will allow me to continue to clean up the patio area (still so much glass!) and to bone up a little more on how exactly one makes a patio in one’s yard.

Since the party I’ve kind of relaxed a bit on the yard work…but in just a week there are weeds popping through and there’s more work to be done. So I’ll need to get back to it.

Ironically the weather has been nicer this week when I didn’t plan on working in the yard than any day leading up to the party when I was back there all the time.

I seem to work better when there’s a deadline - like having the party in the yard forced me to make sure the yard was presentable by that first weekend in May.

So I’ll create some more little milestones to make sure things are getting done back there.

I’ve already started to see if people want to come back around the 4th of July.

Or maybe, just maybe, it will be to make sure it’s pretty cleaned up by the time we get the fence installed.

Because we wouldn’t want a four-legged friend walking around in the glass. (Or poison ivy.)

Writing

*Got back to the teensiest bit of creative writing this week. Nothing crazy, but it’s a start. Also made a discovery about my work habits - on Monday the weather was supposed to clear up and it kind of did much later than I expected, so I was unproductive in the morning as I waited to see if it was worth going for a run when it got warm. And then I didn’t have time for the run or the work before picking the girls up from school. Tuesday was nice from the get-go and I got my run out of the way early and was productive the rest of the day. Shocking that this creature of routine needs to have a clear idea about how he's going to spend his day, huh?

Comedy

*See, this is what I’m afraid of when things get crazy in May - that comedy will fall off. I did not get out at all this week, and I need to do better, even though dance recital rehearsals start this week…BUT I did have the May edition of Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’ Saturday night and that went remarkably well. It was another sellout, and oh man, all of the comedians delivered and it went so well. So I guess if I have one show in a week and it is the one I produce and it goes super-well…well, that’s a win.

Nothing on the docket right now, but I’ll work on that and when I line stuff up you’ll certainly be the first to know.

Running (or What Kevin Helped Me With This Week)

*On Tuesday I did go for a run, as I mentioned above. Did 30 minutes, which was pretty breezy until the last five minutes or so for some reason. I think the reason might be that the end of the run of the 30-minute route I run is pretty much all uphill. The good news is, the past couple of springs/summers that hilly stretch is where I decided, “Nope, not running again the rest of this summer.” And this spring I just got a little tired. So, I guess it’s trending in the right direction.

Saturday morning I took advantage of some nice weather and did 45 minutes. That was pretty smooth - felt really, good, actually, for a run that long. The hardest part was getting started. I originally planned on running as soon as I woke up, but I relaxed, had my coffee and ate breakfast, and then finally screwed up the energy to run. (Perhaps the breakfast provided the energy.) I am hoping to do an hour Monday morning…we’ll see if the weather, work schedule, and motivation all align so that can happen.

Notes

*I’m not sure how I’m going to make this work, but I put out the call on Facebook this week: I really enjoyed that birthday countdown last year, and I had no such thing planned for this year…but I had an idea this week and if you want to participate, there’s still time. When you think of me, what’s a memory that comes to mind, or a favorite story? I might turn those into some sort of countdown leading up to my birthday if there are enough to string something together. We’ll see. E-mail me, Facebook message me, whatever. I was going to kind of let the idea die and then I got a couple of nice messages so I’ll see if I can make it work.

*Twitter: @jsucich, Facebook: John Sucich. I should do a better job of plugging those, but this is where we’re at right now.

*Avengers update: One thing I knew about the Marvel movies before we started watching them last week was that every once in a while one of them would be ending on TBS or TNT when I was about to watch a sporting event. So I took a look at the guide on the TV and found The Incredible Hulk on TBS this weekend…the next movie we were about to watch. So I DVR’ed it and that’s how we’ll spend Mother’s Day.

*Oh, right, Mother’s Day. Maybe that’s what I should have written about today instead of poison ivy. Oh well. I love you, Mom, and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this…basically 99.9% of my Sunday Paper audience, I think, is moms.

*(Which is remarkable. I appreciate you reading. It used to be that 100% of my audience was moms…because it was my mom. One reader. So thanks to everyone else who’s been tuning in.)

*I have a sneaking suspicion next week will be our first guest post of the year - the girls will be taking over in June in recognition of Father’s Day, but with recital craziness next week, I think I’ll be handing the Sunday Paper reins to a writer friend. See you in a couple of weeks.