The sound of rain gently falling around 5:45 a.m. made me realize with a start I'd left my rubber boots out on the front stoop, exposed to the sky. I also left my wheelbarrow full of weeds sitting out on the brick patio.

I already went through one wheelbarrow with legs that rotted because I'd left it outside one too many times. And they're not cheap. So I snuck outside in the dim early morning light to don the squishy boots and walk around back to dump the weeds and bring the wheelbarrow into the garage. Oh, I also left the garage door open last night.

That being done, I'm sort of "awake" now.

Didn't do a whole lot yesterday...let's see....In the a.m. I dropped off the final carload of miscellaneous art supplies (unassembled wood frames, sketch pads, hardware for picture frames, tracing paper, etc.) at the local middle school. There wasn't really enough here of any quantity to try to sell, so at least it went to a good home. Art supply-wise, I am left with about 25 16 x 20 glass panes (for picture frames) that the school won't take due to the likelihood of them breaking. And I can't ship all that glass, so will have to scout around for a local buyer. Like looking for a needle in a haystack.

After that, my dad came and we went to lunch together to take advantage of a birthday coupon from a local restaurant. We both enjoyed it. After that, we stopped by the wood stove store and spent a good amount of time there with the salesperson as my dad wants to install a wood-burning stove in his new apartment at my sister's. It'll run about $4,000 with installation.

Yesterday I also managed to sell my mom's old Singer sewing machine for $20 to someone I used to do editing for. She lives locally and will pick it up today. I had previously posted this on Facebook together with the beautiful cabinet my grandfather made and the drawers stuffed with sewing supplies, but no one seemed willing at that time to spend $90. I decided the cabinet was too nice to give away, so that's why I'm just selling the machine.

I also sold another smallish batch of yarn to an Illinois weaver, a few small cones and skeins, that will likely net me after postage and Paypal fees about $24.

Waiting on a check from a Boston weaver and her package is already packed up. Will net a little more from her, I think.

Trying to sell bits of yarn online can take a whole lot of time without a whole lot of payback, but I am making something and it does decrease my overall yarn inventory. I'm going to try a cone next, as I saw someone on the same site selling some rayon chenille for $15 + shipping.

Postage is really not cheap once you move beyond a 1-ounce letter, and I'm finding the tricky part is finding a box that perfectly matches the size of what you're shipping or you'll pay to ship air as they charge not only by destination but by overall size and dimensions.

Picked a few ripe tomatoes from the overlooked tomato plants, already dieing back from blight.

Discovered a small bag of frozen tomatoes left over from last year's garden, so I dethawed that and made a vegetable soup with it last night.

Oh, and one big accomplishment, yet seemingly so little, is I managed to stop procrastinating and OPENED the envelope I received a few days ago containing some medical records from my mom's visit to ER last May, in the seminal event that triggered her admittance to assisted living. I had wanted to appeal the denial of her claim for the EMS transport to hospital, which cost $665 without Medicare coverage. I realized that the reason they didn't deem it "medically necessary" was because that was the one time my mother called 911 because she had constipation.

However, looking over some of the doc notes and hospital discharge papers, they listed the diagnosis as atrial fibrillation, which my mother is on meds for. So it's worth a shot to make a copy of these documents and submit the appeal.

We really don't need that kind of big bill at all right now. How sad. My only consolation is that we shouldn't have that happen again since she's living at Maplewood and presumably they would only let her go for a true emergency. But anyway, it was very hard for me to address this all; i get so tired of paperwork and stressful administrative things like this and had to call the EMS people AND Medicare AND Maplewood (before I realized this occurred prior to my mom's admittance there..true to form, they never returned my call anyway, something I find truly, deeply disturbing because no matter who you're calling for what reason, they do this consistently.)