Buzz is the word......

As I type, and as I've done everything else these last couple of days, all I can hear is the sound of two electric sanders. My husband and W (the handyman) are out on the roof, sanding their little hearts away as they smooth out the parts of the siding where the paint has chipped away. They don't have to do the entire second floor, just the places where the summer sun relentlessly scorched the paint.

They seem to be having a grand time with their sanding tools. Every once in a while, I can hear the blur of words from one to the other, then their laughs, then back to the sanding. I have the cats inside the house, sequestered in the TV room because all this blessed noise will have them finding new hiding places around the property. As it is, all three cats are underneath the sofa in the TV room. Three cats, who can fight over one particular chair in that room (It's mine! I was here first!) are now content to share the under-sofa space, to escape the sounds of the electric tools.

The chickens have not been happy either with these last two days of sanding noise. Prissy sat in her nesting box for two hours this morning, but didn't leave an egg. One of the hens also laid an egg while sitting on the roosting bar yesterday, and of course it broke when it fell to the floor of the coop. Only Scarlett has been vigilant in her egg-laying.... one brown egg every day, no matter what noises the guys are making with those electric tools of theirs.

From inside my sitting room as I type, it sounds as if I'm in a giant bee hive, with zillions of worker bees buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. Had this been the case, I would have already drowned three times in honey. I will be hearing this sound in my sleep.