Remember how my side porch was crumbling and then I patched it up? Well, enough time passed so I was able to paint it Monday night (I had to etch and prime prior to doing this). Anyway, it turned out pretty good. You wouldn’t even know it’s falling apart now.
Edit: my mom was the one who told me about the book.
This was a pretty great thriller written by the author Loreth Anne White. I guess she usually writes romantic suspense (whatever that is). I won’t get into the plot, because I’ll end up giving something away–it was a pretty complex story. One problem I had with it was that I couldn’t keep the characters straight–there were a bunch of them. But I liked it enough that I added another one of her books to my wishlist. All the ones I looked at were well-reviewed, so I’m hoping the next one is as good as this one was. It would be nice to have another go-to author.
I’m not positive how I heard about this author, but Stephen King often talks about books he’s reading in his Twitter account. I usually take a look at his recommendations to see if it’s something I might be interested in. Apparently this one was just that.
My rating: 4/5
I am off work today and had to run to a locally owned store for some supplies this morning. I was greeted at the door with a message that said “face masks optional” and wasn’t happy to see that. In Pennsylvania, masks are, in fact, required (granted, there’s currently not a penalty if you are caught without a mask, but do your civic duty and wear the damned mask). I was happy to see all of the shoppers had masks on. However, not a single store employee had one on. I probably should have left, but I got what I needed and went home. I will not be shopping there again, though.
Cases are skyrocketing in the south and west and it’s just a matter of time before PA’s numbers go back up since no one can seem to follow the rules. That’s the thing about this disease–believe in it or not, but it’ll get to you eventually. In fact, PA’s numbers are currently creeping back up after hitting all time lows just a week ago. I know the governor has taken a lot of slack for his actions during this crisis, but PA is the 5th most populous state, yet we are 8th for COVID-19 cases. That’s a win in my book.
I vaguely remember hearing about the sexual harassment case that this movie was based on, but had since forgotten the details. In fact, if you would have asked me if Megyn Kelly was still on Fox News, I would have incorrectly said yes (because I’m not the kind of person who watches Fox News). That said, this was a pretty good movie. It had Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and up-and-comer Margot Robbie.
My rating: 3.5/5
One of the pine trees in my side yard got way bigger than expected so I had it removed today. This was an “in progresss” photo. I was half tempted to leave it like that–it looked like a palm tree. Haha. Sadly, I will now have to look at the neighbor’s house through the gaping hole that was left by the tree.
And, this problem’s only going to get worse. I have three more pine trees on the side of the house and they all might need to go at some point. There’s another one out there that is the same variety as the one that was removed today, so I’m sure it will also get too big. I planned on having it removed this year, but since it was so much smaller than the other one, I figured it could wait a while longer (it’s the other tree shown in the picture). The remaining two trees are of a different variety, so we’ll see what they do.
I plan on planting some ornamental grasses at the top of the pond area so I don’t have to see the neighbor’s house when I’m enjoying the pond. When we planted arborvitae in the back a few years ago, we also temporarily planted some grasses in between them to fill in the gaps until the arborvitae could take hold. Well, the arborvitae are looking pretty good, so I could certainly move a few of the grasses.
Ideal Tree Service, who trimmed my deciduous trees last year, took care of this in short order (they were here for less than an hour).