Ms. Got Rocks by Jacqueline Colt Page A

tonight while it was cooler.
    Walking around the attic, Rocky spotted a piece of plywood. She knew she could use that if she could get it down the stairs. Looking up, Rocky saw the late afternoon sky in several places through the roof. She could probably patch those from the inside, but decided to table that until Devlin told her what was possible. It was not going to rain any time soon anyway, but there was no point fixing the windows and having a lace shawl for a roof.
    Wrestling the plywood downstairs and with the hammer, saw and nails from the truck, the plywood was now replacing the missing window glass in the living room.
    The kitchen was not cleaned and the front steps were not fixed by the time the sun set.
    It was apparent to her that she was not as good at this as she had hoped.
    “Rome wasn’t built in a day, either,” she muttered to no one in particular and stirred her iced tea.
    The dogs were happy with dog kibble and scrambled eggs for dinner and Rocky opened soup and ravioli cans. Hunger made happy in this case.
    She was bone tired, but determined to have the kitchen cleaned before she went to bed and when the old kitchen clock struck midnight it was finished and so was she.
    The kitchen floor was going to have to be replaced in spots where it was spongy. Rocky decided to crawl under the cabin in the morning and see how bad it was. The linoleum was in sad shape, but she had no plans to replace it for the short amount of time that she would be living in the cabin.
    The last thing before going to bed was taking a few photos of the kitchen area. Jen would be itching to do a Trading Spaces make over for Rocky when she saw them.
    Rocky set her time frame. Work on the cabin for this week to get it habitable. Then send out the resume after a trip to the copy shop in Auburn.
    Also this first week, she would squeeze in going over the dredge and equipment. It may be possible to get the dredge in the water for the rest of the short gold dredging season in the Sierras. Next week, she would respond to resume hits and set up interviews.
    Rocky had not thought about Tony or the divorce all day. Her mind was clear and fresh with no flashbacks. Her body felt like she has been pounded tender for cooking.
    Saturday morning, Rocky went to town for supplies of dog food, milk and seeds for the garden that was to be. She had the cell phone pictures printed off at the copy store.
    The truck automatically turned into the driveway with a garage sale sign. Rocky found a good buy on drinking glasses, and the buy of the decade of two barely used camera tripods for the incredible price of fifteen dollars for the pair.
    Almost as exciting was a slow cooker, which would make dredging day meals a lot simpler.
    By Sunday, Rocky had mailed twenty resumes to major and minor airlines and charter services that were of interest to her. She also mailed a long letter and lots of pictures to Jen in Anchorage.
    The kitchen had new windowpanes and a door that closed and locked. The slow cooker was cleaned and made a big stew without heating up the cabin. The front screen door was hanging straight and fully screened again, it needed painting though, but that could wait.
    Margie brought Dad’s microwave and computer over from her garage.
    “Dad has a computer? The hermit of the twenty first century had a computer,” Rocky was stunned. Margie started to laugh with her.
    “That was after electricity came up the hill,” Margie told her.
    “Dev, what do you think, did he get electricity to have a computer or vice versa?” Margie asked.
    “I think it was kind of simultaneous, he had a really good gold season three years ago. He had the money to hook up the electric,” Dev was pounding on a windowsill to repair the split.
    “For a while, though, he swayed back and forth about needing the electric or not,” Margie added to the story.
    "Yeah, I remember that,” Dev took up the tale. “I think the clincher was when he went to the gold show in Las