Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2009. Mattie was home between hospital treatments and was playing outside in his frog sandbox. Mattie loved that sandbox and spent a lot of time in it, regardless of the weather. To this day, Mattie's sandbox is outside our deck in the commons area. Other children play with it, and all of Mattie's toys are inside the box. I remember shortly after Mattie died, I was mortified when other children came over to play in his box. Over time, I have had a change of heart. I am no longer mortified or angry, now I feel like Mattie's memory and his love for his sandbox lives on with other children.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 33,878,496
- Number of people who died from the virus: 607,415
Today was quite the day. We got to the house at 8:30am. At 9am, the plumber arrived and he was with us until 5:30pm. He had a big job, and returns on Wednesday for more work. He had to replace our hot water heater today and add a water filtration system. Which means that the water to the house was shut off for most of the day. I wasn't thinking too clearly, because I decided to tackle the fireplace today. Once we move in, we will get a professional to evaluate the gas fireplace. But I couldn't take looking at the junk in the fireplace. The previous owner burned all sorts of papers and junk in the GAS fireplace. Soot was all over the place and I wanted that cleaned out before the painters start on Wednesday.
I am not sure what I was thinking because I used my hands to touch the faux logs inside the fireplace. They were covered with black, black soot! Once my hands were covered in soot it dawned on me...... I can't wash my hands! There is no water in the house. I was frantic. Nothing was getting that stuff off my hands. Literally Peter came to help me by opening up bottles of water and helping me rinse my hands. Needless to say, after that ordeal, I went to find work gloves and proceeded to shovel out soot and sand. Yes sand! It felt like I was at the beach, there was that much sand. Not sure if that was originally for decorative purposes, but it had to go, as it was covered in ash. After shoveling, I vacuumed, and then the vacuum got dirty and had to clean that. It was a comedy show, except it wasn't funny. All day, I looked like something out of Mary Poppins, you know the chimney sweep people!! There was no way to get clean until I got back home to DC. Literally I walked in the door and headed right for the shower.
In addition to cleaning the fireplace, I cleaned all light switches, as each one was grimy and covered in dirt. Truly disgusting. I walked Sunny, dealt with the pest control fellow helping us manage ants, and then met with a contractor to create window wells for our basement windows. He and I both can't determine if wells every existed, as the windows are practically buried in dirt. Therefore, someone is coming over on Wednesday to dig a two to three foot trench, so we can see what needs to be done to safely seal these windows to prevent water from getting into the basement. Truly a manic Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday aren't looking much better.
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