Sunrise, Sunset

Some people are morning people. 

Like me.

Up before the crack of dawn, they roll out of bed wide awake.  They tend to see more sunrises than their significant others still snoozing away in Dreamland. 

They're often outside in the predawn and can feel that moment when the sun breaks over the horizon and the temperature mysteriously drops another 5 degrees. 

They're awake to see the suns rays create diamonds with the morning dew.

They're also the ones who "peter" out first.  Yawning by 7 pm and dozing by 8, these folks never see the ball drop on New Years and are disinclined to "meet for drinks after dinner".  "Party" is not in their vocabulary.

And then there are the folks who struggle to wake up in the mornings.  Some like to sleep in, some are forced by life to get up at their appointed hour, but neither are happy about it until they've poured several cups of coffee down their throat over several hours in order to "wake up".

SM is like that.

Oh, he's usually up by 6 or 7, sometimes 8 am.  It's not when he "gets" up.  It's when he wakes up that matters. 

As in sparky. 

Ready to go. 

All cylinders firing and able to think, converse and function.

That's usually around 10 am.  Since he starts so late in the day, he often works till late in the night.  Most often I'm in bed when he gets home.  True, I'm often in bed by 9 pm, but still...We're on opposite schedules is the point I'm trying to make.

Quiting time for me is around 4 or 5.  For SM it's around 7 or 8.

Saturday morning SM is up by 6 am.  I leave him alone for an hour while I walk the dogs and start some laundry.  By 7 am, I'm sitting beside him on the couch, making easy morning conversation, my own caffeinated beverage in hand.  We decide to start on the kitchen reno first.  There's a lot on the to-do list. 

Replace the rotted cabinet floor.  Pull out the sink.  Install the new one.  Replace the faucet.  Should be pretty straight forward but it never is, is it?

By 7:30, the sun is up and I'm making SM breakfast.  Biscuits and an omelet with onions, green peppers and turkey sausage.

He still looks tired. 

He's blinking. 

We're clearly not going to be starting anything anytime soon.  So I fill up the dishwasher (assuming that I'm not going to have a kitchen sink for awhile) and turn it on. 

SM wanders back to the couch with his second cup while I head outside to wash windows while they're still in the shade.

I keep my eye on the clock but leave SM alone.  I'm estimating his usual start time.  10 o'clock.  That's when things will start to happen.  In the meantime, I've got stuff I can do.

Sure enough, SM gets sparky around 10.  I start working inside so I can be near enough to help, but far enough away to stay out of the line of fire. 

He starts disconnecting and draining lines and I start my "surgical assisting".

"Towels"  SM says.  I hand them to him.  "Channel Locks..Flashlight."  And so it goes.

Mid-day we get to where we can "dry run" the sink.  We pick it up and put it in the hole. 

Of course the hole is too small. 

So I pull out the instructions and see that there is a cardboard template to size the sink hole.  Our hole is about a 1/4 inch too small all the way around.

Figures.

"What would you do if this was a granite counter top?"  I asked SM.

"You'd have to hire a guy to come out and re-cut it, I guess."  SM says.  "Or stick the old sink back in!"  He says laughing.

"OK...So how do we re-cut this one?"  I ask.

"We use the router (?) but it won't work on the back part of this because of the back splash."  SM goes and picks up his cellphone and calls his brother who is in construction who tells him he'll need to go to the hardware store to buy "the gizmo."

The hole is finally enlarged but it's after 4 now and I'm starting to peter out.  Construction dust is everywhere.  SM is in full work mode.  The sink gets in.  But it doesn't come with drains.  WTF?   And we're also thinking we should probaby go ahead and replace the 12 year old garbage disposal while we're at it.  So do we go back to the store today to get all this?  Or wait till tomorrow?

I'm ready to clean up and call it a happy day.  SM is ready to keep going except for one little thing.

The Buckeyes come on at 8 pm.  And SM has already sacrificed much of his college football Saturday in order to install a new sink for his Beloved. 

Aw. 

It's not his fault everything got more complicated than we expected.  Are we surprised?  Heck no.  We know for a fact that ANY home improvement project we undertake will take twice as long and cost twice as much as what we intended.  That's just a fact of life around here.

I assure SM that I can live without running water in the kitchen tonight.  We clean up by 6 and crash.

It sure is nice to know that a weekend has 2 days in it.  We'll need it.