Knee surgery is on the calendar next month and now the ducks begin their involved lining-up process. And I need to be rather obsessive about keeping up the exercise to make sure the legs are strong for the recovery period. It helped a lot last time. I'll also focus on losing a few pounds.

The weather has been iffy here this week - two more days of possible showers restricts some activities (hanging out that next load of laundry, for one.) I can mow even if the lawn is damp. I'll be sure it is set on mulch so I won't kill myself like last week with the full mower bag.

Tiller parts will trickle in for the next couple of weeks and the new light bulb for the dryer has a two-week travel itinerary. The last dryer bulb lasted for 20 years, that's a pretty good run (even though it isn't on for more than a few minutes a week so it doesn't add up to a bunch of hours.)

Once the tiller is back in service I'm going to work on a few spots in the front yard to enlarge the flower beds. Turf is a waste of space, and there is half of the front that I can more or less isolate from the rest of the lawn so in theory, keep out encroaching grass and let it just be xeriscape plantings. This is a long-range plan, and with the understanding that in the future if I sell the house someone else might plow it all up and plant grass again. My aim is to make the landscaping both attractive and durable. (Too nice to get rid of.)