New landscaping (and a tiny John Deere)

So last Saturday, Metro Greenery brought the whole crew out and installed our new 'feature,' as well as two pallets of sod. Jackie Simpson, the owner, was extremely helpful in keeping the cost down while still improving our curb appeal. If you compare these photos to the ones after the storm, you'll see what a big improvement it is!

We decided we really have to have one more pallet of sod. It'll come next week.

And the new plants and grass mean that we have to water. And water. Twice a day for a few weeks, which just kills me, but not as much as paying for all this then letting it die. So we water. We have a sprinkler irrigation system that we haven't used, literally, since we bought the house in 1996. Surprise! It doesn't work!

Metro Greenery didn't have time to investigate, so I got in touch with Aaron Weldon of Well Done Landscaping (which I think is such a great name). I know him from a networking group. He came out himself, then brought his expert by, and they both declared our system to be beyond rescue. I had explained our situation (Rich got laid off, fixing up the house in case we have to sell, can't spend too much) and reiterated that we just couldn't afford to have a new system installed. Aaron suggested we get a traveling sprinkler as our best low-cost solution. I had never even heard of them before, but he explained that you lay out the hose in the area you want watered, and this sprinkler follows it, watering as it goes. Aaron not only pointed us toward the solution we needed, he also very graciously didn't charge anything to come out — twice. Very nice guy, and if we end up staying in this house (I hope!), we'll definitely be calling him to install a new system. Thanks again, Aaron!

So anyway, we got the sprinkler. Lowe's carries the John Deere brand version of it. So we have a tiny little John Deere, and it's the gosh darn cutest thing you've ever seen!

I still have to go out and deal with it (laying out the hose) twice a day for a while, but it's much easier (and the sprinkler is nice and low, i.e., more efficient) than a regular sprinkler. And, really, it's so cute!

The kind of thing old married people laugh at

Rich had a stress test this afternoon (his results were great, thanks for asking), and he had to fill out all the usual forms at the doctor's office. Along with other questions about medical history and conditions, there was a question about oral contraceptives. We speculated whether or not "oral contraceptives" would include him saying something so annoying to me that he got himself cut off.

We found that pretty funny.

A new yard tomorrow

We're having some more landscaping done (that's in addition to the azaleas and podocarpus we had put in a few months ago). Metro Greenery will be installing some sod and a "feature" in our barren wasteland of a front yard. I wonder if they'll pick up all the branches, too....

I guess the debris in the pool is still up to me, though. I'm betting that the temperature today, and not having an influx of cold rainwater, will warm up the water enough so that I can get in and fish out all the branches. Maybe with Seabreeze in hand. That'll move the process along. (Can you tell I'm ready for the weekend?)

We had a little wind and rain

Our front yard

Down the street

By Sprouts

Now their wi-fi connection isn't working...

...So I couldn't blog at Central Market at all! (And you'll notice I finally got rid of the "I Have..." title thing. Oh well.)

So I'm back in my office, trying to keep from being too bummed. Rich hasn't been out of work for long (he's actually still officially on the payroll for another three weeks), but is quickly sinking into...something. Not depression, exactly, because he seems pretty much okay. A little stressed, but not too bad. But I'm having to persuade him to shower, which is not good. And AmEx sent me an email saying they've lowered the credit limit on my business card, and I don't know why. Not that I need it to be really high, usually, but that's probably just an indication of my credit, and that also isn't good. Everything we talked about at Not-Net-Net this morning was depressing. Debbie's father's Alzheimer's. Property taxes and mortgages, and how the inflated home values in Tarrant County probably won't come back down to real-life levels for a couple of years. Losing business, the depressed real estate market. How it sucks being an adult.

So now I'm working on being determined and moving forward instead of deciding that it's five o'clock somewhere and Happy Hour is starting now.

I'll let you know how that goes.