Nothing too exciting to work with this week. That seems to be something of the “new normal,” but what can ya’ do. I’ve been on a sort of self quarantine lately, which greatly limits my already scarce social interactions. No, no, not quarantine because of THAT, just some other unrelated health-ish issues. They’ve left me pretty much feeling like just sitting on the couch and sulking. Well, and watching the Royals games, which is pretty much the same as sulking.

Aside from cooking lots of dinner, about the only thing we did all weekend was work on our new gazebo. It was a Costco order, and hopefully will provide some much needed shade in our back yard. The reviews online are generally positive, with an oft-repeated caveat that the set up is somewhat difficult. Uh yeah, agreed. We worked on that darn thing all day Saturday, and the better part of Sunday, and still don’t have any shade. We have a structure, but the roof got the better of us. It just won’t go together. As is always the case with these stupid “some assembly required” projects, it just doesn’t go together like the pictures, or at least my interpretation of the pictures. I don’t see how it even could really, it’s impossible. We took turns climbing the ladder in the 98 degree sun trying to put the puzzle together, but finally gave up. We think we have a new plan, but that wasted Sunday kind of knocked the wind out of us for the time being. I hate putting that stuff together. I have a friend who claims to enjoy it, which I think an indication of deep emotional troubles. None of it’s fun, from a simple desk assembly to this behemoth. Good grief, the parts list for it is five pages long! I spent over an hour just sorting the B’s, A1’s, J’s, M2’s, blah blah blah. At this point I am considering just strapping a large blue tarp over the top and calling it good.