Please read this. . . by Geof Skinner

<strong>An idle mind: definitely not a good thing</strong>

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This week, in honor of warm spring breezes and falling asleep in the sunshine while fine-tuning my skills at napping on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we shall, once again, just kind of meander from here to there. . .

. . .sometimes, it's not a good thing to leave me with too much time on my hands. Fortunately, that does not happen very often.

However, when my little mind shifts into idle, it can make life at least a little bit more interesting, which is what happened a couple of times last week.

. . .if your journey through life involves the occasional use of old U.S. Route 51 between Anna and Cobden (or, if you happen to be coming the other way, between Cobden and Anna), you might have noticed that some work was being done on the thoroughfare. Now, the road is really smoooooooooth. 

While the work was being done, traffic, at times, was slowed pretty much to a stop. It was during a couple of those standstills that my poor little mind started to go on little adventures. Which explains the picture you see this week.

. . one evening, when I arrived home from The Paragraph Factory, The Other Half was busy in the kitchen. She was stirring some sort of concoction which appeared to involve some kind of sauce with mushrooms.

She was kind enough to ask if I would to have some of the sauce for dinner. I declined.

Sauces are not way up there on my list of culinary choices. The way I look at it, a sauce is hiding something that went wrong. When I look at my plate, I want to see my food in black and white, with no surprises hidden under a glop of something which usually cannot be identified.

. . .The Other Half and yours truly had a pretty busy weekend. For the first time since approximately July 2013, we had a warm Saturday followed by an equally delightful Sunday.

She spent a lot of time doing gardening things. She even made spots in her massive gardening operation for my six sweet banana pepper plants and six jalapeno pepper plants.

The 12 locations for pepper plants were identified by red stakes which she had placed here and there. The challenge for me: find all 12 of the stakes. Which, amazingly enough, I did. All 12 of the plants were successfully planted.

. . .for yours truly, the weekend also involved a visit to the roof over our humble abode, and the use of a genuine tool.

 A fairly small spot on our roof apparently is in need of some repair work. We determined the need for such work during one of the recent deluges which fell on Union County. One is not supposed to see Niagara Falls on one's porch. 

So, up on the roof I went. I had forgotten how warm a roof can get in the bright sunshine. The roof spot in question is now drying out and patch work is imminent. I hope.

The tool that I wielded was a genuine screwdriver. Somehow, I managed to use the screwdriver last Saturday without hurting myself or anybody around me. Life was good. 

. . .a pair of bluebirds appear to have set up homemaking in the house in our backyard. Same goes for a pair of wrens that are nesting in a birdhouse gourd which is dangling from a dwarf pear tree in the backyard. The pear tree is supposed to be dead. For a dead tree, it is quite green.

. . .enough for now. You have more important things to do with your life. Here's hoping that if you have some idle time on your hands, you find better things to do. Enjoy.

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In the "I almost forgot to do this" category: to a mom in Arizona – a reliable source shares that Villanova would indeed be a good place for a visit. 

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<p><strong>What happens when somebody with a camera gets stuck waiting to make his way through a traffic construction site? Something like this. Sad, isn't it?</strong></p>