Ironing & mopping & landscaping

In addition to all the other stuff I've recently acquired, I've bought an iron and ironing board. I don't know what happened to my old ironing board — the last time I remember seeing it was about 1999. The iron I had then is probably still around, stuck in a box packed for some previous move and never reopened.

I set up the new iron and board this afternoon and ironed ten shirts. These are the first shirts I've ironed since — well, since 1999, I guess. I have sent shirts to the cleaners off and on over the years, but that seems sort of like overkill now that I'm retired.

I don't know why ironing makes my back hurt, but it does. It feels good to accomplish something, though.

I also mopped the kitchen floor this afternoon. A couple of years ago, I bought one of those big commercial size mop buckets — the yellow ones with the heavy duty mop wringer on the side. It worked well enough, but it was so big, clumsy and heavy it was a pain in the ass to use. I'm now using an old 35-lb. cat litter bucket for the mop. I guess it's Tidy Cats — the square yellow container with the red or blue lid. I have to empty it halfway through and refill it because it doesn't hold very much water. But I can snap the lid down to keep it from sloshing when I carry it outside, and it's much easier to maneuver. In fact, I can just carry it instead of having to steer it on wheels like the commercial mop bucket.

Meanwhile, KelleyO has been out in the back yard during the day working on the landscaping. I'll say this much: she's not afraid of hard work, unlike some people I know. Me, for example.