Lessons learned/observations:

1. The best time to go to Home Depot is early in the morning. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. with a nightmare and a hot flash, so I got up, which is not unusual for me, but then Robert got up, too, and Harold, so we decided to do the hauling trip early. We needed boards for the upper structure. Home Depot at 7 a.m. is really chill, and we got everything we needed, but the only downside was Harold can’t come on hauling trips.
2. The Bus makes friends. We were sitting in what counts as traffic in Garvanza when a Metro Bus pulled up next to us. In the Bus you are at the same height as a city bus, so when the driver addressed me, we were eye to eye. “ Nice Westie! What year?” he asked. I gave him the 5 part harmony about This is my father’s Bus and he’s a 66 and I grew up with him and the driver said he’s seen us around. He lives in Eagle Rock and has a green and white 67 bus, but then the light changed and we lost track of each other. Still, it is nice to know that the Bus has actual Bus friends.
3. Today was upper structure for the warbly plastic and was a ton of measure, cut, find out you measured wrong, and use tools. I spent most of my time on pickle fork duty or taming vines. Lesson: Trumpet vine is very drought tolerant but it is also very tenacious when it comes to growing into shade cloth. Also, Robert wore Jim’s Tool Belt, which came in  handy and made us think of Jim.
4. The Pickle Fork: this is not actually a pickle fork, which is a tool used to a). extract pickles from a jar or b). an automotive tool that does something to remove something (brake parts? Rotors? My friend Bob once drove from Petaluma to his shop in Walnut Creek to get one to fix an issue with an ancient Volvo. I digress, but our Official Pickle Fork is a very long 1 by 1 staff with a foam coated u-hook screwed in at the end. We can’t remember why we created this, but it is the ultimate tool. Need to hang a flag or move some recalcitrant plant? Pickle fork. Need to hold up a 2 by 4 so Robert can screw it in? Pickle Fork. Need to poke Harold in the butt? Pickle Fork.
5. Speaking of Harold: The dog is suffering with the no walks because the parents are tired from carrying wood and concrete up the stairs, and today’s hauling run was a “No dogs allowed” trip, so this afternoon we set out to Ace for some blades (and accidentally bought a Pagoda for the pond). Harold didn’t realize that our Ace has a DOG section, and when the checker offered him a cookie I watched his head explode. Wait, they have cookies, too?