This has been, so far, a pretty productive day. Tyler and I took his truck to get the window replaced, then we stopped and had breakfast at Courtney's. It's such a luxury to have breakfast out... I had my usual omelette, of course. Ty had pecan pancakes and couldn't eat but half of them. For a growing boy he sure doesn't eat much.

So, we came home and started working on the yard... he mowed, I did the weed-wacking. The yard looks very nice. Then we went to the music store; I got a couple of e-strings, and to Big Lots, and we left Big Lots empty-handed for a change. We picked up his truck and came on home. I started washing the deck off, preparatory to staining it. I was about half-way done when I talked Ty into doing the rest of it. I went through the basement and the garage and got together all of the redwood stain that I've accumulated over the last two years. I'm going to mix it all together in a five-gallon bucket so it'll be all the same color when we put it on. Once we get the decking stained, we'll apply preservative to the redwood benches, railing and trim... after we build them, of course.

I didn't mention that this has been a beautiful day... high temp maybe around 85 F or so, nice little breeze, a few clouds floating around... just quite simply beautiful. One of those rare Kansas summer days that you can actually get outside and do stuff. We have to make the most of it... tomorrow will be about the same, but I have to go back to work tomorrow night, dammit, just when it's getting nice...