Ups and downs

On Friday night, my weekend was shaping up to look a lot like this:

Jack and I were feeling under the weather. D, who had been in San Antonio since Wednesday, was having trouble getting back because of rainy weather that would also complicate our plans to work on our new siding (caulking and painting are both on our DIY list for The Project) and keep us stuck in our two-room house all weekend.

But: My husband made it home, albeit just before 3 a.m. on Saturday, and was still up a short five hours later to drink the coffee I’d brewed and climb up the scaffolding with his father, our volunteer help for the day, to work in the dry places under the  eaves. My mother-in-law caught up with Jack. I made BLTs for everybody and felt useful. At quitting time, we went next door for burgers (inside) and my sister’s until-the-holidays sendoff. Ours was at least a spirited sluggishness.

Then we went home, where in the damp and the dark I realized I’d forgotten to dry our only set of sheets [left unpacked], which I’d washed at my mother’s. I missed my washing machine, and extra sets of dishes and linens.

But: D found an extra blanket and made the bed, and stuffed each pillow into a cotton T shirt.

On Sunday the sun still didn’t resurface, and we had to rain check a dinner+ play date with our friends, but we packed some more and drank hot tea and listened to damp-weather music and read books about how to tile a shower and a tub surround (both distant boxes to check off our DIY list), and I thought myself lucky to have a guy who matched my glum and sniffly can nothing go right? attitude with calm energy and ingenuity.

It’s made my dripping, gray day less bleak. It’s not raining on my parade (I’m not having a parade, anyway), and maybe it’s watering the trees for a bright-colored autumn. Or extending the summer green a little – keeping the grass growing higher, the goldenrod more golden.

It’s Best Shot Monday at Tracey Clark’s.