Because all of you have been waiting for this information, I know it: after on-the-ground reports and photos from brave people going to stores and much website browsing, it looks like the only THREAT LEVEL: PUMPKIN merch I'm buying this year are the black/blackened fuchsia/burgundy flowers. I'll be set for flower crown and hat decor supplies for a long time.

I'm sorry our weather here is beautiful, if not helping the drought situation. So I just went canoeing with my mother, which was very nice.

Mmm, canoeing.

I am trying not to melt by hiding in my darkened bedroom with a fan pointed at me, as is my custom. It is mostly working.

It's fairly warm and there's ash in the air; but it's gonna snow tonight!

I worked today, which was a good call, since there was no mail, I had a relatively relaxed day which let me catch up on a bunch of paperwork and organization-type things. Even better, the mail from Friday that I couldn't get done AND the mail from Saturday was distributed by the weekend people (usually not what they've been doing) so I didn't even have a backlog to slog through, just some packages that had accumulated. It was one of the nicer days (in stress) that I've had recently at work, therefore.

I was going to refinish my kitchen cabinets this weekend, mostly because they've been hideous since the day I bought my house in 2009 and lately with the zooming Mom comments a LOT on how worn they are. It's true...they are in decent shape structurally but were stained a reddish mahogany, probably in the 1970's, and not topcoated. So now they are partially covered in decades of grease and grime, but also the finish is worn off of the bottom corners from repeated opening and closing (and occasional cleaning.)

I am fully capable of removing cabinet doors, cleaning, sanding, priming, and painting. I have a palm sander and a spacious back patio area that is great for painting outdoors. It's hot and dry, so perfect weather for painting.

But y'all. Y'all. I haven't even bought the paint. And it's Monday, the last day of this weekend. This is a multi day project, even if I just wimp out and ONLY do the upper cabinet doors - and just clean up the framing and leave it dark.

I even have two (TWO!) gift cards for ACE hardware, so it's not like I need to spend any $$ to aqcuire the supplies, I just need to ovary up and drive over to a hardware store during a pandemic. On a holiday weekend. Yeah, that is SO NOT HAPPENING.

It's so overwhelming, I also still have two custom egg orders that have been outstanding since Easter (I haven't started on either) and all I want to do is re-read _The Starless Sea_, pet my cats, and maybe watch some TV. Oh, and do some eggs...but not the ones I already have guarenteed buyers for. Oh no, I want to play around with four adorable cockatiel eggs that were gifted to me last week.

So instead of doing anything productive, i'm hiding inside with the window AC unit in the bedroom cranking and making zero home improvement progress. Also, I've played 6 hours of Among Us so far this weekend. Because that's super productive. *headdesk*

E-O, can you just...replace the doors? I'm looking at refinishing hideous kitchen cabinet doors, and really, it can be done. I just don' wanna. They are seriously ugly and would require planing down ridiculously ugleee edge molding frames, removing knobs from the center of the doors, filling the holes, buying new hardware and installing it, and then painting because the frames and the door fronts aren't the same wood and wouldn't take stain the same way and WAH. So I'm holding out to replace all the doors. Meanwhile glowering at the ugly and intoning, "...soon..."

I know it's not true, and I know plenty of people are carrying on the best they know how and I salute them. But it feels like the world's on 'pause.' And the finger than presses play either brings on the fiery apocalypse, or sunshine, tweety birds, and butterflies (or whatever stands for normal in your brains). To quote Inigo Montoya, "I hate waiting."

I could, but they are actually flat front (no molding or detailing) and only have a couple layers on stain on them, so once they are down they will be very easy to refinish. The framing, OTOH, will be a major PIMA. eta: reference pic of my kitchen cabinets

Turns out to be a very good thing that I didn't have four large cabinet doors outside drying this afternoon....we're suddenly having a massive windstorm and apparently the winds are bringing in smoke and ash from a very distant wildfire in northern Oregon and southern Washington. The lighting outside is positively apocalyptic and everything in my backyard has been blown all over the place.

I love CA and all, but I really don't need CA weather in the PNW right now, OK? Can the west coat just get a bunch of nice cooling rain for a few days and maybe get some of these fires under control?

Well the weather is changing fast, and it's apparently snowing at Old Faithful in Yellowstone: [link]

Ya know, if this is the apocalypse, i am doing a terrible job at checking things off my bucket list.

Never have I ever thought about what I would do if I knew the world was ending and thought "cabinets. Yeah, totally home improvement projects."

ion: This whole pandemic situation has totally ruined orgies.