THIS IS WHAT I DO. I KNIT, I COOK, I SEW, I MAKE THINGS, AND I TRAVEL, AS OFTEN AS I CAN.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Summer is here, my eyeballs are sweating!

We were lucky a few weeks ago, we'd been getting lots and lots of rain, unlike the rest of the state.  Poor West Texas just draw a line up and down the state from Fort Worth they are drying up and blowing away. The whole state is in drought conditions, with this heat we'll be dried up in another couple of weeks.  The extra moisture from the rain just creates a sauna effect..... gaaaa it's muggy!
 Gracie is spending  most of the weekend under the deck.

SCHOOL IS OUT!!!! Friday was our last day.  Of course I still have two weeks left to finalize all kinds of paperwork, bookkeeping, personnel junk, keys taken up and re-distributed, re-writing all kinds of informational crap with the 2011-12 school year on it.  My girls in the office will be with me through Wednesday then they are finished and DP the principal and I will be on our own until the 16th.  We're going to work long days 7:30 - 5:30 so that we don't have to work Fridays!!!  That is if HR will let us.  I have 17.75 hours of comp time that I need to burn or loose, maybe I'll just take it! They are saying that they were not notified.... come on people!  Let's either ALL take the schedule that the Admin. Offices are using (compressed) or not!!!!   Why wouldn't we want to get it over with as soon as possible?  Hell, I'd like to work 6:30 to 6:30 if I could.  I'm there by 6:45 everyday during the regular school year as it is, and that's not added onto the comp time.

I'm looking forward to next year.... it's going to be a lot less stressful, because of just one thing.  I'm not going to say what that is but some of you know what I'm talking about and I'm thankful that I didn't have to walk out or go as far as slapping someone or in the words of Chevy Chase say to her "_____ you ignorant slut!!!" 

I have that song in my head...  "I gotta feeling....  oooo hooo...."  You have to rearrange the words a little for the next school year, kind of like I'm going to do to all the forms next week.   "Ooooo hoooo!   Let's do it! and do it! Oooooo Hoooo!  I got a feeling....  Don't have to smash her.....  Mozeltof!"

Work on the house is still going strong, the heat is about to kill Jody.  Did I mention that he's replacing most of the siding with cedar?  Well he is.  Word of advice, if your house was built in the 70's like ours was, you may want to inspect your siding.  Chances are if you live in North Texas, it's made from particle board.  Yeah that crap that swells up and turns to dust if it gets wet.  This is why we're going to cedar.  No we're not staining it, we're painting it, we have to caulk and the caulk won't take the stain, so painting it is and we are doing it all by hand with a 3 or 6 inch brush!  Yeah, priming (2 coats) and painting (2 coats).  This is why we only have to paint once every 10 years.  Brushing is better! 
He's replaced all the soffits I think that's what you call them with a vinyl perforated strip to allow air to flow up from the outer edge of the roof into the attic.  In a few years when we need to have the roof replaced we'll have them put a ridge vent the length of the house.  We also have vents in the gables to allow for air circulation.  Our house doesn't have a very steep attic so it gets really hot in the summer and adds heat to the interior of the house.  When we put the gable vents in a few years ago we noticed our electric bill in the summer went down considerably. 

Jeff wants to experiment with solar panels and he's about got Jody convinced to put them up.  Woo Hoo!.  Do you see that big beam looking thing sticking out of the wall?  That's a brace he's added there are two more when we add a roof to the deck in a year or so he'll tie into that as well as having poles to brace it on the outer sides.  I suggested the solar panels/deck roofing system that was shown on Living With Ed.  We'd have to cut this tree down though and I don't know if Jody wants to do that.  It's a butt ugly tree!  If Jeff is investing in the project it will be the most cost efficient, that boy is very frugal!

Gaaaaa, I'm sweating and the flies are attacking!!!  Gotta go now!   Have a great week.  Ooooo Hooo!
 Hope you get a feeling!

6 comments:

Margarita Mirasol said...

Wow! It's your summer vacation again! The 4th one since I've known you. How time flies! I love it when your vacation starts. Especially when I was just a lady of leisure, I just felt so happy for you. Now I just feel jealous. Just kidding.
Okay, not kidding.
Love the flower header.
It's getting warmer here, too.
Sports Day today. I tried to sneak away but all the teachers who smoke were right there, at the escape exit, I felt really awkward, said to Mr Smile that I had a cold, was just nipping to the pharmacy to get some medicine (like I'd spend dosh on medicine..yeah right) and he said, 'take the rest of the day off', so I did, and actually, I do feel a bit grotty, like a cold, but I know it's because I had some yoghurt and diary makes me feel like crap actually. Home now, yay, gonna have some wine.
Welcome to your summer vacation!

northern musings said...

I got tired reading your post! so busy! Have a great vacation - when it starts!

Acorn to Oak said...

Have a great summer! :-)

judith said...

Thanks ya'll. M, I remember the summer we 'met' like it was yesterday. You have got to come to Texas the next time you are in the states.
Sigga, just 5 more days... this week has been the longest.

THIS IS ME....ONLINE said...

Good luck with getting that schedule approved. It's a common sense thing and those are the hardest to get approval. Can't wait to hear what your news is for next year.

I really missed being in a school this year. So hard to get your foot in the door in a small town.

Don't miss the Texas summer though. Nor do I miss the electric bill for my 2-story house. I'm loving it here.

Have fun! Keep Hubby busy!

Godinla said...

School is out. Nuff said.

You lucky duck. Summer break is wonderful - butt ugly trees and rain notwithstanding.