I can't decide which I dislike more - the days when life is just one damn thing after another, or the days when life is just the same damn things over and over and over ...
Now, I'm not talking about my job, which is pretty much a combination of those two kinds of days. I knew it would be like that when I went in, and there's enough variety to keep it interesting, and I'm pretty darn good at it.
I'm talking about the time I don't spend at work. The hours spent in the arms of my loving family. The hours that went pretty much like this, every two minutes, all weekend long:
Mom, I need you to ...
Where's the damn ...
Mrow ...
Honey, can you come out here and ...
Why isn't there any ...
MROW!
Which is why I didn't get back here to post over the weekend. Honestly, a five-minute stretch without anyone wanting anything would have done wonders for me!
There's a good chance that some time in the next few days I'll be posting big signs all over the house that say, in large red caps:
THERE IS NO TOILET PAPER FAIRY.
THE MAID QUIT. DO IT YOURSELF.
DON'T PUT THAT DOWN, PUT IT AWAY.
I went to work yesterday morning secure in the belief that at least there I could pretty much know what to expect and get some actual work done ... Not so much. The phones just would not stop, the problems popped up like mushrooms after a rainy night, and the whole day's work was done in ninety-second increments between phone calls and frantic e-mails. By the time I got home last night, all I managed before I fell over was getting changed and stuffing a sandwich in my face. Today was a little better, but I'm not holding my breath for tomorrow.
On the home front, I just keep chipping away at things. Every time I walk into a room - any room - I look for one thing that needs doing, and do it. Wastebasket full - empty it. Cat bowl empty - fill it. Something out of place - put it away. Something missing - go find it. You get the picture. At the end of the day it doesn't seem as though I've done much, but by the end of the week there's a noticeable difference. Works for me.
I've booked a vacation week mid-September to have the old furnace hauled away and the new one installed. I'm optimistic about having most of the cleanup done before then - or at least enough of it that nothing will impede the installation process. The real hurdle will be getting the Big Guy's cooperation; he won't do anything during the week because he "worked hard all day" (so did I, son) and he won't do anything on the weekends because he "needs to get the truck running to haul all the crap away". Sigh.
Since this is a three-payday month, I'm also pushing the idea that the single-glazed living room window can be replaced this month - or at least, before October. I've even offered to use the third paycheque to pay professional installers. Of course, Big Guy is no end offended by this ... he and his buddy G replaced all the other windows in the house, and did a fine job. But the truth is, if I left it to him to install this one, I'd be waiting until about this time next year for him to "get around to it". Not to mention that his favourite time of year for big projects involving exposing the whole house to outdoor temperatures is ... the week before Christmas. I can't figure it out. Last winter, he decided on December 21st to paint the kitchen ... doors & windows wide open for days, during the coldest week in the recorded history of this area. Granted, December 2009 was not his fault - we'd had it on good authority that the roof could wait until April, which turned out not to be the case, and we had roofers up there ripping everything back to the bare rafters and replacing it all, right up through December 23rd. December 2008, he refused to put up the Christmas tree until the living room was painted ... I'm scared to even think about what he might pick as the pre-Christmas project this year. Probably the damn window.
And something that warms my thrifty little heart:
March 2010, after paying a $900 annual water & sewer bill, I decided to take advantage of the city's free water meter program, and had one installed. May 2011, I got the quarterly metered water & sewer bill ... and found that since were were no longer paying the city's "flat rate" but only paying for what we used, we still had - ta daa! - almost $300 credit. I got the August bill today - and we still have a $22 credit. I'm a very happy water-conserving camper tonight!
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