Patio Thoughts

Woke up with my alarm. Listened to a Bach double-header because the second piece was the Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, which is my favorite Bach piece. (The Echo Spot will keep playing Bach forever until I shut it off.)

I'm looking at Bee Balm for the front yard. Some of it is sold out already. Garden porn! And I'd like a blueberry bush. Would I put it in the vegetable garden or someplace else? I'll look for a good spot when I'm out with Bella.

Well hmm. The best place for the blueberry bushes is in the garden patch between the house and the patio-to-be. I roughly paced out the patio, and I'll need to get rid of the picnic bench to fit it in. And between the patio and garage, my vegetable patch will be long and narrow (unless I can put it on the south side of the house, but I think that there are gas and sewer lines there). I could really use some design software. Any recs? Also, the back part of the garden of the south side of the house gets shade in the afternoon, so I need plants there that can handle some shade.

I used a stick to mark the width of the patio-to-be. Bella took it. I got another stick. Bella took that one too. I finally got a piece of wood and she left that alone. But only until she went out again and ran off with it :) I have some stakes somewhere to mark off the area, but she’d probably run off with them too. Remodeling with a dog.

I found some fire pit tables with lids for the patio. And I'm mulling over awnings. They would be nice to have, but would add expense. I'm looking at a manual SunSetter awning. I want it waterproof though. Actually I think that I want a permanent aluminum or metal awning something like this. I think that I want concrete pavers for the patio itself.

I thought about hiring a landscape architect, but they probably would come up with cool designs that are $$$$ expensive.

Our presentation at work was kind of glitch-ridden (the link to the webinar didn't work, people got confused about whose slide was whose, etc.) but it's over for another three months. The vendor of the library computer system that we use releases quarterly updates.

I desperately need food. I need to submit a Walmart order to get the food that I had ordered yesterday but didn't receive (ordered).

I'm yawning again. I might blow off the investing Meetup tonight. I found some courses on Coursera about investing.

I tried the latest harness on Bella after cornering her in the bedroom. She clearly does not like harnesses. It’s clearly the right size but needs to be tightened. I gave her some of her favorite treats. She started trying to chew it and I took it off of her to tighten it. We’ll try it again tomorrow.

I got a collar on her, but she had gotten into the collar and chewed it so there’s a tear in it. I’ll use it to train her but won’t rely on it, of course.

Got my food in. Bella took great interest in it, but I told her that it was Purina Mommy Chow.

I’m turning into my mom, who said that she couldn’t get stuff done at night. Or I’m being lazy. I started the feeding process with the cats. I’m going to go to bed soon and get up early.