Just Like Normal People

Most of you know by now that I am a chef.  I've been one for about 14 years.  Before that, I worked in a camping store.  If you know anything about either of those professions, you must guess that they are both essential on the weekends, those two days a week when Normal People don't work.  For almost 30 years, I've worked at least on Saturday, usually on Sunday, and mostly on both.  This past week, my boss gave me permission to officially start having both Saturday and Sunday off, for the foreseeable future.
  So, this WEEKEND, I did things Normal People do!  I hung out with my friends, dyeing warps (well, maybe normal people don't do that, but my friends do!), doing laundry, working in the yard...  You get the idea.  One of the first things I did was change my sheets.  I always have, um, help when I do this.  Here you see my assistants waiting for that thrilling moment when the top sheet gets unfurled over them in a big blast of wind.  They live for this moment every week.  They let me get the sheet, blanket and quilt straight and tucked in before they tunnel their separate ways out, leaving my once-tidy bed rumpled.
   Then, I paid attention to the leaves in the front yard.  Leo came out to help me, camouflaged from any neighborhood dogs that might walk by.  As a former desert dweller, raking the leaves has not yet lost its charm, though I will admit that my first year in my house, a boy came by to ask if he could rake my leaves for me and I couldn't help think, Why?  Are they bothering anyone?  I thought they were beautiful just lying there.

But I bought a leaf rake and did it myself.  This year, I didn't save them for the compost bin, because I haven't decided where it's going to go yet.  I just raked them out to the street, where the city workers will vacuum them up later.
   I also started to till my vegetable garden in the backyard, but I forgot to take a picture and it's too dark now.  I only got 1/4 a way across it before my arms gave out.  Those tiller commercials where the woman in the perfect gardening outfit with the perfect make up and the perfect smile never tilled that @#$%$#@ Bermuda grass before.  I'll have to finish it next Saturday.

  This morning, I took my painted warps out of their plastic bags and rinsed and washed and rinsed and hung them to dry.  Aren't they beautiful?  I love them!  I love dyeing!  I'm going to buy a starter kit from one of the yarn companies and keep painting warps!
  If you paid attention to the beginning of this blog entry, you couldn't help but notice that I have three cats, though, and maybe you're thinking, Did she really leave that out all day with those cats?  When I came back from washing my hands after I'd hung them in the kitchen, Weft was under the rack, batting at the loose ends.  In fact, if you look closely, you can see him under the rack in this photo.  So the whole thing went out on the front porch to dry.  The colors are a little less vibrant now, but so lovely!  Thanks again to LouAnn for hosting, and everyone for the wonderful food and excellent company!
Happy Dyeing!  And weaving!
Maggie