The Adventures of Geo Beane: Day 17 of Renovations

Storms were hovering in the air today.

Once again, I suspected the worst. But no...

Humphrey packed us both up and we went together to the reno site.

"Rain is coming, Beans and we have to cut these weeds. The vines are climbing up the side of the house already, and if we don't tackle them now, tomorrow with the watering it will be a jungle out front."

My Humphrey has a way of exaggerating, but I was thrilled to not be left behind, even if it meant potentially being tied up again on the back stoop.

"Geo, since we're out together I'm trusting you to stay put here On the Grass. Got it? You stay On the Grass. And I'm cutting the grass and shrubs over here... Where I can see you!"

he said, wagging that finger again and walking off with the cordless weed-wacker that he had presciently charged overnight.

The thing makes a lot of noise and whirl, and while it got most of the job done, it was out of charge before completion of the entire side yard. It's a corner lot, and when Humphrey had said "out front" he simply meant the part that shows. In any case the actual "front" of the house was still looking good from when we had trimmed the hedges before actually closing on the property, so no worries if it didn't get a touch up this time.

"Hey! Coolbeans!! look at this!!" I bounded over to have a look and inquisitively peered at Humphrey's face trying to figure out what it was in the bushes that was so fascinating. I had seen an empty nest, no squirrels, no chipmunks... so what could it be???

"Not one, but two Lilac trees!" wow he was being generous. Humphrey pointed to one puny twig with three or four heart shaped leaves, and then to another equally feeble-looking compatriot with bifurcated trunk and maybe five leaves between the two.

"Guess the previous owners didn't know what they had out here. We're lucky Geo that they didn't cut these down... though really doesn't look like much pruning was done recently..."

"Aarrff!! wrarrff!! woo!" Humphrey was so delighted at this find and so was I. He had promised to get me a Lilac as soon as we got things settled inside and were actually moved in. He had also said something about planting a fruit tree this year.

"No worries, Boo. I will still get you a Lilac of our own. You can help me pick it out. We've no idea if these here are white, pink or purple!"

It started to rain, and we headed inside for some clean up. It wasn't a good day for varnishing or painting, but Humphrey slipped away during the day to still nibble away at these tasks.

There had a been a threat of going to visit relatives vacationing nearby. "At the cabins," Humphrey had said. But with the continued threat of thunderstorm, we spent a night in playing games instead at the old place. It didn't actually rain much at all, but we had a little outage in the internet or something and Humphrey was upset that he couldn't reach his favorite site online. Otherwise, it was a calm and quiet night.