Days Like These

Facts:  Song is out of town.  We scheduled the furnace to be replaced this week.

Presumptions:  The furnace company was supposed to come on Tuesday and replace the furnace and ducts in one day, starting at 8 a.m. and finishing at approximately 2 p.m.

Reality:

• It takes two full days.  They end up leaving at 6:20 p.m. on Wednesday.
• A City inspector shows up on day 2, and writes our project up for not having a permit.
• When I ask about the "ticket" Robert from the furnace company replies he doesn't think it's in the contract that they pull the permit.  Songer says he was told by Ben a permit would be pulled.  *plot twist*  Ben no longer works for the company!  

More Reality:

• I take Fitz for an outing in the orchard after dinner because the dog has been on leash when inside for 2 days because the furnace guys were working.  He runs around like a happy maniac.

• They are watering some of the trees, and his paws get muddy.  I rinse them off when we return, and find....
• KT is trying to take a shower but there is no hot water! Apparently, when they turned the gas off yesterday, the pilot light went out, and hence our water heater was not... well, heating water.
• I try to light the pilot with no avail. I follow the directions, I google how to do it -- no go.  I have to call Ray.
• I get off the phone and the kids are screaming.  I go and find Fitz rolling in the now small mud puddle that was created when I rinsed his paws off.  He's now covered in mud.

• Ray who seems a little annoyed graciously lights my pilot light -- in like, 2 seconds -- making me feel like a stereotypical completely incompetent woman.

To add insult to injury, we have apparently lost the wine opener, and I am forced to drink beer utilizing the opener screwed into the trellis.  Nothing like having to go outside every time I want to open a beverage.

Calling it a night. 

Mother's Day - 2017

It's literally been years, but I'm making the effort to blog again.

The girls are big, I'm working more and more, and we have a wild and crazy (newish) lab.  His name is Fitz, and he's just over a year old.

I love that I've been able to capture so many of our family's memories in this blog, and realized I've been missing so much not blogging the last few years.  Blogging provides a greater context and hey, I'm a writer, so the more background, the better.  You don't get that with the Facebooks and Instagrams.

Facebook and Instagram are for other people -- many of whom you used to know -- to keep up with what we're doing.  Blogging is for me and my family.  I think I'm going to stick with the latter.

Ever since I was a little girl I kept a diary.  I kept a diary all the way through undergraduate school.   I threw my diaries away years ago, but wish desperately I would have kept them.

There was one particular entry I wish I still had.  It was from the day I met Song.

I still remember what I wrote.  I was (still) pining over the loss of my ex-boyfriend who lived (literally) 30 feet across a cement path from me.  It was all about how much I missed him, how lonely I felt, how I didn't know if I'd ever feel that way again, etc., etc.  And, then there was one little blip about how how I met my neighbor's visiting friend, and how he might be transferring to UCSD the following year.  I said he was cute, and that I hope he did transfer down.

Well, wish granted.  And, *poof* 21 years later, here I am.

I cannot reiterate how much I wish I had that particular diary entry.  More than just sentimentality, I wish I had that entry to show my daughters that a lot of us go through heartbreak (there were, I'm sure dozens of nauseating entries about that ex-boyfriend in there).  So they could see  how blind I was to the fact that I had met the man of my dreams and had NO IDEA at the time.

I know they are young, but I think it would be valuable to show them today, so they could tuck it away in their memories, and hopefully remember it when someone breaks their heart.  I don't wish heartbreak on them, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that it happens to most of us and those with a strong constitution, and sense of self tend to fair better.

Today I had a lovely mother's day with my girls.  Songer was gone on a business trip.  They picked flowers from the garden, and decorated the house before I woke up.  I played soccer, we took the dog out, we ate Persian food, and we watched a movie together.  Barring Songer not being here, it was perfect.