I Could Have Lived Without Today

Or maybe the calendar is mixed up. Maybe it was really this week with the full moon and Friday the 13th?

I woke up this morning to a few inches of snow covering everything in sight outside. Problem wasn't just the snow, it was the inch of crunchy ice underneath the snow. Oh yeah, I remember hearing it pouring rain outside late last night. Didn't realize we were to get more than just a flurry afterward. So I skipped my morning shower and went to the kitchen to get my coffee started. While it was brewing I went outside and shoveled the steps, my drive, and tried to scrape off the truck just a bit. That done, I relaxed over coffee and breakfast for an hour, then bundled up again and shoveled my mom's walk, drive, and cleared her car. I still have the back walk to do. Maybe. Maybe I'll just hope it melts. Yeah right, it only got to 30°F today.

So after the pleasantly cold and vigorous interlude surrounding breakfast, I finished up the fourth set of keys for this week and packed them up to ship this morning. Pete, my hippie shipper, greeted me at the door where he works and seemed thrilled to see me. He had made a CD recording for 'A'. A 1967 recording of Vanilla Fudge. OoooooohK. While I was there I got another leather peace symbol for my truck. Yep, a true hippie.

When I got home there was another box at the door. More keys! I carried the box downstairs to unpack them. Why, why, why, and why again? The keys were layered in the box alternating fronts to backs, sort of loosely packed. They had shifted and it was impossible to untangle the mess in an orderly fashion. I resorted to tipping the box upside down on the bench. The box is too small for reshipment. I don't have a suitable replacement on hand. I'm more than irritated and then I found that the keys had been numbered on the underside. What a mess to sort out having to keep flipping them over to get them in order. In the midst, the phone rang. I knew by the caller id that it was the tech responsible for these keys. He'd already phoned me three times before he even sent them! And this is a repeat customer - asking all the same questions again. So.....I answered the phone pretending I don't have caller id. He was calling to see if the keys had arrived. Aw gee, that's why they give you a tracking number! Mr. Tech! You know they arrived. You already checked. Stop bugging me. I'm already irritated enough with you. Although I was ready to let off some steam at him, I simply replied, "Yes, they are here. I'm just this minute unpacking them." "Thanks," he said and hung up. I'll just bet he calls tomorrow to see how things are going. Last time he did just that! My tongue hurts from biting it.

Onward with my exciting and rewarding day.

My mom decided that we should have steak and dumplings for dinner. She hates to cut up the meat and will treat me to sharing the meal if I'll cut the meat. 'A' had to be to work for 3 p.m. and I had grocery shopping and another errand to do after, so I got the beef ready and asked that my mom see to getting it started cooking while I was gone.

When I had finished my grocery shopping, 'A' found me and told me that one of her vacation weeks had not been approved. Seems one of her chosen weeks coincides with Fiesta in Gloucester. Not a time when they like giving vacation time. After she talked with her boss a bit, it may get approved. We'll have to wait and see.

Before I went home, I went box hunting. Tuck's, Rite-Aid, and Cracker Jacks. No one had anything that would work. I headed home to get to work on the keys.

I arrived home shortly past 3:30 p.m. Dinner was simmering on the stove. Smelling real good! I put away my groceries and went down the stairs to my workshop and found a rather large puddle of water on the floor mats. Oh crap. Where on earth was that water coming from? Just what I needed. I searched for the source, anticipating a call to our favorite plumber. More money out of anorexic pockets. Strangely, the water seemed to have dripped from the wiring to the stove/oven outlet. Huh? Back upstairs to look around. The floor was puddled with water all around the side and back of the stove.

MOM!

"Oh, the meat had just started to boil over when I left it for a minute, " she said. "I caught it just as it started over the side of the pot."

Ummmmm, I think not. The drip pan had overflowed down in to the inner stove top. That had overflowed in to the wall of the oven and was then leaking out two lower corners to the floor. The floor has a slight backward slope which guided the water to the wall and the floor outlet. From there it traveled down the exterior of the wire and dripped (or, by the amount, poured) from overhead, downstairs in my workshop, which now smells wonderfully of dinner. I swept a pile of sawdust over the puddle to soak it up.

Well, dinner was delicious.

Not much work got done on the keys and no box to ship them back.

'A' hasn't heard any more about her vacation.

But, YAY, no plumber!