"Bits and Pieces"

As I am wont (don't you just love that word?) to do from time to time, here are a few Bits of this and a couple of Pieces of that from the hodgepodge of thoughts that run through my mind on any given day....


1.  I lived in the state of Illinois for something like 30 (non-consecutive) years of my life.  Although all those years were in Chicago (which is almost like a state all by itself), I learned to sing the State Song...."By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois...," I know the State Motto is "Land of Lincoln", I know that Abraham Lincoln lived there for most of his early years.  What I did NOT know until our recent trip to Chicago, is that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is in Springfield, the State Capital.  How could I not have known this?  I lived there for 30 years and I never once heard about the Lincoln Library??  So consequently, I never WENT to the Lincoln Library!  Lincoln is one of my heroes and I still missed it!!  How is that possible?




2.  There is a phenomenon of the human body that I don't understand at all.  Well, actually there are many phenomenon that I don't understand, and come to think of it, the particular phenomenon I am going to write about (if I ever GET to it!) very probably applies to most species in the animal kingdom as well as humans.  So finally to the point, have you ever had a splinter that was rather deep and was impossible to remove without digging around in your rather sensitive epidermis until you bled?  But it remains stubbornly embedded in you! Or have you ever had a food particle get stuck "in" a tooth and no matter how much you floss and poke and rinse, you can't remove it.  You know that it is still there because it's the size of the Rock of Gibraltar, and it hurts every time you chew in that vicinity.  Still, it will not be moved!


In both of those situations, I remember my mother saying to me, "Just leave it alone.  It will work itself out."  And it generally did, eventually.


What I want to know though is HOW?  HOW does this not so little piece of detritus actually "work itself out?"  There are no moving parts in those areas that could be pushing out the strange intruder.  There is no freely flowing liquid that could swish it along with all the other waste.  There is no little teeny, tiny person sent in to do a search and rescue, no Navy Seals who make a daring raid to kidnap and eject said intruder, no handheld laser or phaser, or transporter (if you're into Trekdom) to break it down into molecules and recreate it outside of you!  


So how does it WORK ITSELF OUT??  Or is this another of those unexplained mysteries that drive researchers (and ME) crazy??




3.  It occurred to me the other day, that M-t-G is now 11 and going into the 6th grade.  I believe that I was in the sixth grade when I had my very first  "crush" on a real, live....(gulp)....boy!   Yowza!  If memory serves, at 11, Ratchlet too, began to be aware of boys as something possibly more interesting than dirt!  As far as I know M-t-G has not yet shown any interest in the male of the species, but that could (and probably will) turn on a dime any minute!  Oh boy!  Or rather oh, BOYS!   


Of course, our girl has always had her own schedule for when things happen.  For instance, she didn't walk until she was 18 mo. old....but then she just stood up and walked like she had been doing it all her life.  Sooooo, she may not discover boys until she's 18 YEARS old!!  Or it could happen next week!  


Either way, I'm pretty sure we'll all have to fasten our seat belts!




4.   After 46 years of married life, one  make that two grownups accumulate a LOT of stuff.  As I look at several rooms in our house, I realize that we are only one or possibly two Christmases away from Critical Mass!  Purging is desperately needed.....but not today!  I think I feel a headache coming on.




5.   Summer has already made its presence known this year.  We hit 95F one day last week.  As the heat looms for the rest of the summer, I am (once again) struck by the idiocy of our HOA (I'll blame them, because I'm not sure who else to blame!)  Despite being an upscale development with home values ranging from $250,000 all the way up to $2M+, there is NO community pool!!  Oh there is the pool at the Country Club, but it is restricted to use by members only....and membership costs mega-bucks!  There are somewhere over 400 homes in the "neighborhood" at least 2/3 of which have multiple children.  Some homes have their own pools, but many, many do not (including us.)  Most developments, even those at the low end of the economic scale, have a pool, sometimes several!  Yet we do not.  We pay a reasonable amount in our annual HOA dues, so I think most of us wouldn't mind a sensible increase if it were used to finance a pool for the non-Country Club set!  However, one simple phrase keeps running through my head as I think about this.  Does "FAT CHANCE" tell you anything??




6.   Have I ever mentioned that I love a pretty yard?  Lovely landscaping can make your home just sparkle!  Unfortunately, I have neither the talent, the money, nor the commitment, for making it happen where I live.  Sigh!  When we lived in CA, our yard was small, beautifully landscaped by the previous owners, and reasonably managed.  We had roses, jasmine, a couple of small fruit trees, and close to the front door, hydrangeas, a gardenia, and a gorgeous hot pink azalea!  In the eight years we lived in that house, I managed NOT to kill them!  Remarkable!  


We have lived in this house for 11 1/2 years and we inherited none of those beautiful flowering plants and my yard, while presentable (mostly), is certainly never going to be a contender for "Yard of the Month!"  It's times like this when I really wish I could just wave a wand, or twitch my nose, or do a little hocus-pocus and make the yard gorgeous with lots of beautiful blooming plants....and a pool!




7.   Have you noticed that there is a growing trend in blogging for writers "taking a break?"  This is a real shame, because most of those who take a break, essentially disappear.  Oh there may be a sporadic "update" that will appear, but in fact, they never really come back.  And their friends and fans are left wondering what happened and if those MIA are all right!  


The sad truth is that blogging is a very draining experience!   It drains your free time.  It drains your creativity.  It drains your stash of "stories."  It drains your excitement about having your very own blog!!  


And sometimes life just gets in the way!  I can understand that....we never know what obstacles will suddenly pop up  as we travel the roads we have chosen and some of them are just too overwhelming to write about.


However, as Ross and Rachel (remember them??) found out to our infinite amusement, "taking a break" really means the end of a relationship!  


So, even though I can understand why some bloggers feel the need for a break, I will try very very hard never to type those words in relationship to my own blog.  For it surely would be the kiss of death!!  Even though several days may separate my postings, I remain a committed blogger!  I'd never leave my friends just hanging like that!!  


Heck, I was raised Catholic, I'd have way too much guilt about unfulfilled promises!!  LOL!




And, there you have it, "Bits and Pieces" of life inside my head!!

"The Dangling Conversation"

It's been an interesting week. 

The final (I hope) installer/repairman is in the process of leaving.  I think that means that our new AC is finally finished, installed, complete, and up and running, without being jerry-rigged.  It appears to be putting out cold air.  They started on Saturday and today is what.....Thursday?

To be fair, we have had cold air, but the only way it could work was to have an industrial strength extension cord snaking it's way from the unit in the attic, dangling down to the nearest electrical outlet in the hallway outside my bedroom.  Very attractive.  

Well, the cord is gone so that's a big step in the right direction. 

Maybe I should start from the beginning.


Saturday morning:

Two young men arrived at 8:30 am, with the brand new unit.  Because they  had to shut off the AC completely, by 9:30 the house was pretty hot, so I packed up a couple of books, a big bottle of iced tea, and departed to spend a few hours ensconced in my mobile cool refuge, commonly known as my car.  They told us the whole process would take about 6-8 hours.  After periodic updates throughout the day from the Big Guy (who had to remain behind in what was his version of Hell), I ran out of places to go and went home.  It was almost 8:30 pm, 12 hours later!  They were still there. They hadn't even stopped for lunch, so I went to get them some sub sandwiches.  By the time I returned they were starting to get things cleaned up and packed up and we had a big ol' extension cord dangling from the ceiling.  Thus began "The Dangling Conversation".

According to what I learned, there was some problem with the 220v line in the attic, thus the cord to the working outlet downstairs.  It was ok though, we had cold air, and they said that they would have an electrician come out on Sunday to repair the problem.  OK, we were cooling off, so we could live with it overnight, right?

About 10:30pm the temperature had dropped to 79F inside and we were feeling comfortable again.  By 11:30 the temperature had climbed back up to 84F!!  What the......????  The brand new AC unit conked out!  We had nothing but fans again.  There wasn't anything we could do about it, except call the AC place (they have a 24 "hot line") to report the failure.  Of course, by that time, there wasn't anything that could be done about it until the next day.  So we went off to bed for another too warm night.

Sunday:

The repair guy finally showed up around 1:30 pm.  In a repeat of the day before, I grabbed a couple of different books and more tea and abandoned ship.  Surprisingly, it was only about an hour later that the Big Guy called to let me know it was "fixed",  I gave it another hour or so to let the house cool down again and then went home.  (I was pretty sick of my car by that point.)

When I got home, the first thing I saw was the dangling extension cord!  Arrrggghh! It was still there!   I thought it was fixed!!  Turns out that the reason it shut down was that there was a short caused by a twisted wire and that had been repaired, but there was still a problem with the 220v line and the repairman who fixed the twisted wire was not an electrician and he couldn't do anything about the 220 problem.  An electrician would come out the next day to fix it.  He didn't.

Monday:

No progress on the AC.  It was cool, which was good, but we saw no electrician, no repairman, no anybody and we still had the dangling conversation!  We also still had most of the mess, because:

A)  There was no point in cleaning everything up, until all the things were done and we would have no more visitors to our unbearable attic!

B)  It had been too warm in the house to do anything as sweat-producing as cleaning and putting things back to rights. 

C)  I was pretty much distracted by the next problem to crop up in our never-ending cycle of mini-disasters that plague us.

The Big Guy had gone off to work as usual and a little later, I was ready to leave the house on my standard errands and such.  Got into my car, turned the key, and got......a fluttery clicking noise that did nothing to actually start the car!!! 

I hate the feeling of being trapped and without a functioning car I was trapped in my house.  It sort of feels like claustrophobia and it makes me very anxious.  Obviously I wasn't really trapped, I could leave the house to be outside, but it was 103F and the idea of walking anywhere made me twitch! 

Called Mikey.  Called AAA.  Called Kia to alert them I might have to be towed in for repair.  Called Enterprise to arrange for a possible rental car.  Waited in the hot garage to flag the tow truck when it arrived.   All of which happened in good time.  AAA came and got the car started but their little computer said the battery was barely functional.  Time to get a new battery.  In the meantime I could drive as long as I didn't shut off the engine!     Oh wonderful, more time spent in my car to go to places that had drive-thrus where I could at least accomplish a few things....that limited me to Walgreens and McDonalds.  What fun....


Tuesday:

The Big Guy couldn't get my car started even though it had a charger on it all night, so he had to remove the battery, and take it to be replaced (under warranty supposedly).  When he got home he was livid.  The place that sold him the original (now non-functioning battery) would not honor the warranty until they tested the battery and tried to recharge it.  They pretty much didn't believe that it had been on a charger all night and that Mikey knew anything about anything.  So he was forced to buy a new battery, because they couldn't (read, wouldn't) go against their policy!

AC still working, cord still dangling, no electrician in sight....

Wednesday:

Sales guy from AC company came out to "inspect" the installation.  He was up there about 3 minutes.  Came back down and told us everything looked fine.  Well, except for the cord dangling from the attic, of course.  Still no electrician!  Evidently Austin only has ONE electrician and he was busy!   Right. 

Phone call that afternoon.  Electrician coming at 8:00 am Thursday morning.  Again, with the early morning visits!! 


Thursday:

I was awakened at 10:00 a.m. by hammering.  A lot of very loud and nearby hammering!!  There had better be an electrician out there making that noise or I was going to have a full-fledged meltdown.
Mikey told me it was, in fact, the electrician (who arrived at 9:30!), there to sort out the 110v/220v situation. He was up there for not quite an hour.  When he came down, he told us he couldn't find any problem with the 220 line!!  He rerouted something just in case that was a problem, but basically all was what it should be!  SO WHY HAVE I HAD A DANGLING CONVERSATION OUTSIDE MY DOOR FOR THE LAST F0UR DAYS???  Answer?  Unknown.

But it was done.  The house was cool, the repairmen were gone, everything was back up and running, we were finished with AC people climbing around.  It was OVE.... (What?)  Excuse me, folks, the Big Guy is trying to tell me something.......(What? Tomorrow??? What are you....)   [.....whimpering.....]

Well, I was wrong.  It appears that we are NOT done. 

It seems that when the installers were up there (way back on Saturday), they discovered that the heat/cool register in Mikey's office had no duct work connected to the furnace.  We've lived here 10 years and Mikey never noticed that this was a totally non-functioning register!  So they agreed to come back and install the required duct work.  And guess when they are coming!  Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.!!!   ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!  Will this never end?

Friday:

If the installers actually arrive and actually get it done today (and I won't believe it till it happens) that will mean that getting a new air conditioner takes:

2 Installers
3 Sales Presentations
2 Repairmen
1 Salesman/Inspector
1 Electrician
1-2 Duct Work Installers
6 visits to our house
5 1/2 days of Dangling extension cords
10,000 pieces of insulation floating around
1 Week (7 full days)

Sheesh!  Remind me never to ask this crowd to change a lightbulb!

And we are now up to 71 consecutive days of temperatures over 100F.  Like I said, it's been an interesting week.


Oh, by the way, we finally heard back from the battery place.  After attempting to recharge it for over 48 hours, they have found that the battery is no good.  No Shit, Sherlock!  That's what Mikey TOLD you!  They will be giving us a refund.    Maybe we'll use the money for a trip to the south of France!  HAH!

"Hot Fun in the Summertime"

Seems like everybody I know is just about to go, or just back from, or currently on....VACATION!   Well, of course, it's summertime and that's what you're "supposed" to do, right?   Go have some "Hot Fun in the Summertime"??   It's what we look forward to all year long.

Not too many people did the vacation thing for the last couple of years; the economy was just too iffy for "frivolous" expenditures.  So the stay-cation came into being, which is really still a vacation, it's just chopped up in smaller pieces and happens closer to home.

But this year it seems as though the traditional vacation is making a comeback!

Several of my bloggerbuds, have either been missing in action (and I assume they are  off somewhere having "hot fun") or have been posting little short tidbits about their trips.  It's sort of like the old teacher's first assignment each fall, "What I Did On My Summer Vacation",  but with photos!

I've been reading about trips to Indiana, Phoenix, Virginia, Washington, DC, Tucson, Savannah, Las Vegas, Florida, California, and Alaska.   Wait a minute!  How did Alaska get in there.  That's not much of a place for "hot fun"!

Well, that would be my Lil Sis.  She and my niece, have been on a cruise to Alaska.  They have done that several times and love it!  But they live in Phoenix, year-round, so "hot fun" in the summertime is the last thing they want!

Even Ratchlet, T.A., and Maddie-the-Great, just returned from what I've been thinking of as the "Grand American History Tour".  Because of M-t-G's intense interest in the history of the U.S., they went on a 2-week driving vacation to Gettysburg, Erie, Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg, with various other stops along the way.   Unfortunately , it was a gazillion degrees on the East Coast, so they, indeed, really had "hot" fun!  On Sunday, we saw some of the pictures they took.  From all reports, they had a great time  (except for the heat). They all learned all sorts of interesting information about this country, but they were glad to get away from the heat wave and come home.

Not to be left out, the Big Guy and I will have a short vacation in Galveston, compliments of our darling daughter.  With one big "except".  It won't be until September.  Somehow that takes it out of the summertime, don't you think?  Nevermind that "Some Like It Hot" (like me, for instance!)  In the interest of marital harmony and avoiding discord among nations, that's when we're going.

Those of you who know him, know that for Mikey, "Hot Fun in the Summertime" is an oxymoron!!  In fact, "hot" anything, anywhere, anytime is his definition of hell on earth. And believe me, he would NOT come anywhere close to having a good time.   Soooo, our vacation won't happen until after all the little kids go back to school, the college kids are off the beaches, the crowds are gone, the humidity drops, temperatures moderate, and the days have begun to shorten. 

Hmmmm, come to think of it, that sounds just about  perfect! 

"Sunrise Sunset"

It is officially summer!!  Whoo hoo!  Yesterday, June 21, marked the Summer Solstice, sometimes called Midsummer, sometimes Litha, and a variety of other names related to various ancient and historical practices, rituals, and beliefs.  Thousands gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise on this day every year and have been doing so for centuries.  Litha is one of the lesser holidays celebrated in Wiccan.  The Druids had a thing about the Midsummer moon, which they called the "honey moon".  They performed their marriages on this day.  (Guess you can connect the dots and figure out the whole honeymoon thing yourself, huh?) Shakespeare even wrote one of his most famous plays about this time of year.  

Being neither ancient nor Pagan (don't believe everything you hear!) I don't celebrate any rituals or practice any belief system related to the rising and setting of the sun or the moon. I don't get up in the middle of the night to be ready to greet the Midsummer Sun.  I'm already married, so I don't need the Druids to come fix that!  Nevertheless, this is one of my favorite days of the year. 

If I lived south of the Equator this would be the Winter Solstice!  That's all due to the rotation of the Earth and the Sun.  (Just don't ask me to explain how it works!!  I'm lucky I remember that much!)  Anyway, if I lived south of the Equator, this would be still be a lesser favorite day.  And none of that has anything (well....not MUCH of anything) with temperature.

Nope.  Its not the temperature, it is the amount of visible daylight! 

June 21 (or sometimes the 22) is the longest day of the year, and conversely, the shortest night.  Simply, more sun, and less dark!  (Except, of course, south of the the equator, where it is exactly the opposite.)  I look forward to this day every year.  I love the sun!  When the sun is shining I am generally a happier person.  So on Summer Solstice, I'm more likely to be having a happy day!  Even if it is a cloudy day, it doesn't matter too much, because its still light outside for a longer period of time.

When I think about it, it's a bit surprising that I don't celebrate any rituals or the like related to the sun, considering how I feel about it.  Not that I'm tempted to, you understand, but I can definite understand how all those ancient pagans felt!

The Winter Solstice in December (except south of the Equ....oh, I'm sure you got it already!  If not, go look it up!).  The Winter Solstice as I said, is the exact opposite:  it is the longest night and the shortest day.  That is not what I like about it exactly.  On December 21, it's true that we have the shortest day, BUT every day thereafter gets a few minutes longer than the one before until June 21 when summer appears again!.  I can live with that!

Of course, even if I vaguely understand about the northern and southern hemispheres, I have no idea what happens the closer you get to the Poles (either North or South).  I 've read that at the Poles, the days and nights can last for really wonky amounts of time, even all 24 hours!!  I don't really get that, but as it's really ABSOLUTELY FREAKIN' IMPOSSIBLE ....uhmm....unlikely that I will ever visit either Pole, I guess that doesn't matter.

So, I am glad to once again greet Summer, and especially the summer sun!  I welcome that early/late "Sunrise Sunset" thing with a happy heart!  Yes, June 21 is one of my favorites days.

.......Of course, it COULD also just be that my birthday is now only four days away!  Even if I lived south of the Equator!!!)