Well That Was A Waste

Well Brother came over today but not until after 11am, no where near the 9am he had claimed for last weekend's visit that never happened. He brought nephew RL with him. Basically it amounted to sorting out comic books for an hour which is good because that means many of them went with Brother where they belong. Woo-hoo, more room at last!

We then went out to the attached garage so he could see the state of things. He then decided the nephew should mow the lawn. That killed at least another hour, closer to two. The nephew is too short to really easily negotiate the mower. I mentioned that it was nice but will probably take all afternoon so brother took over. He decided the mower was set to high and mowed it again! I'm thinking... there's fuck all good grass and I could knock this out in 20 minutes on any day. Anyway, he wanted the seeder fetched which I got with the nephew in tow. Brother then put out weed and feed which I know is old. Rain is due, apparently even tonight. It even rained last night which it wasn't scheduled to do. I haven't noticed the grass seed I put down having taken hold yet. Maybe it will soon. I don't really care. The nephew declared his hunger after I took brother on a tour of the rear yard and addition / sun room and explained its state of chaos. Brother said we'd go out to eat, his treat. That's fine with me. I fed on a 'spicy chicken sandwich'. Brother got a burger and chicken nuggets. I got through my fries in time for him to complete his meal. Now I know he eats too fast and Mother would caution me about doing the same but dang! It felt uncomfortable riding shotgun in the Zilla Mobile without Mother in the driver seat. That's the first I'd been in the car since it was taken to the shop for an estimate, about six weeks ago.

Anyway, we then wen't to the local home improvement store. I'd only wanted to go there so I could do a return on the masks and back support that Vegas had made me buy. Except I can't seem to locate the receipt right now. Anyway, we squadered a couple hours there while I showed him the different things I had in mind for the house, or that Mother and I had in mind. I did learn that Brother isn't sure we'll be able to sell this year. That's good that he understands it might just now come together. I also took time to review some of the topics I emailed him about just to be sure he heard as well as (presumably) saw them. Anyway, we looked at lighting and agreed on a new outdoor light (the realtor recommended we get a new one). We looked at other lights, the wallboard, for concrete patch, for concrete resurfacing, at carpet, etc. A whole MESS of things. And we agreed. That's good. I like agreement. I bought a new programable thermostat and some concrete patch. Tomorrow we're doing a post office run, a bank run and a trip to the other major home improvement store.

We then put stuff in the car, filling the trunk! I love the idea that things finally were moving out and I don't have to look at them again. The nephew has no sense of how much soap he needs to wash his hands. He had a ton of soap! I eventually turned off the tap and gave him paper towels at the home improvement place or we'd have been there for days. And then he did the same thing here at the house!

The thing is the house has soft water so his over use of soap foamed the sink! I walked by to get a pair of pliers and I had him turn off the water because it had been on so long and he had it on full blast! He whined 'but I still have soap on my hands' (again) and I explained (again) that he used too much soap and that particularly in this house the water is different and you need *very* little soap to do the job. Brother understood but laughed because they go through a bottle of soap twice a week and his water bill is sky high. I can't handle that. I'm very conservation minded and not just for fiscal reasons. Waste weighs on my conscience. That's probably from Father who would always go on about not wasting food or maybe Mother's very conservative use of lighting and artificial heating or cooling. That sensibility has served me well and yet I still chastise myself for using too much light or something. I still am annoyed with Vegas over his demands. He was pre-warned and gave no regard to those warnings with his perpetual use of powered air filters, demands for artificial heat, washing each dish as it's used rather than as a group and so forth. URGH! I thought Buddhists take a vow of poverty or something. Did I mention he bitched at the laundry detergent I had on hand? Good grief. I was able to provide him with something milder for his... denim! Yes, denim!

Anyway, the cat has come out of hiding. Good for the cat! I still feel bad for her, she'll lay on Mother's bed still waiting for her to return. *sigh* I'm not sure if I want to see going next door tonight or not. Perhaps not. I promised some tuna for the cat so I better get on that soon. All in all it was clear my brother didn't want to spend much time in the house itself with where he drifted and so forth.