First up was the swap. I had volunteered to coordinate a sock yarn mini swap on one of my Ravelry (my fave website, knitting of course, for those not in the know) and had been steadily receiving envelopes of mini skeins for weeks. My goal was to get them all mailed out before vacation so I gathered all the envelopes and took them to the library for sorting. It sounds easy – taking envelopes of yarn, mixing them up and sending them out again. Nothing easy about it! I had a spreadsheet and thought I had it all organized but it got out of control so Andrea and I had to slog through envelopes multiple times. I was sweating and stressed but went right home and prepped all the domestic envelopes and had them out for pick up on Tuesday. The international ones, which would require customs forms and special packaging, would wait until after the 4th.
Fast forward to the 4th. I’d arranged for my
loveseat to be picked up by my trash company and big trash day was Thursday so
when I woke up at 5:30, I threw the ancient loveseat out the front door and
started cleaning and reorganizing the front room. Getting rid of that
monstrosity, which I’d bought in the 90’s when I got my first apartment,
completely opened up the room. Moving all the furniture left me cleaning for
most of the morning but I felt great when it was done. Then I went to make
lunch, opened the freezer and found melted ice cream all over everything.
Apparently my fridge was dying but being a small town, I called the appliance
guy and he came right over. After completely emptying my freezer, he told me my
fan was failing and he’d need to order a part. Luckily he was able to clean the
coils and get it running as best he could because I wouldn’t be home for him to
install the new one for more than a week. When he left, I went through all the
frozen food, chucking quite a bit of old, freezer burned meat and pulling other
things out to cook immediately. This was not how I’d planned to spend my 4th
but it was hotter than blazes so at least I was inside. My only plan was to
watch the city fireworks in the park at the end of my street but a huge storm
blew through just as it was getting dark so the fireworks were postponed
anyway. Sheesh!
Thursday was not a good day. I had spent time with my vacuum
sealer shrinking all the international packages so they’d fit through the slot
of doom and so could go as letters. I checked them at the Union post office
first thing in the morning and all but one were thin enough but then I couldn’t
find a way to buy the postage online so I’d have to go to the main PO after
lunch. It was Dodie’s birthday so we went to Bruegger’s, which is her favorite
but not somewhere I want to eat so we rarely go. While we were eating, there
was a baby bird – almost a fledgling – chirping on the window ledge with its
parents calling from a street tree. It clearly couldn’t fly and must have
fallen out of the nest so I picked it up and tried to put it up in the tree but
it flew out of my hands when it was inches away. It ended up on the sidewalk
and when we crossed the street, I could see that it had hopped into the road. I wanted to go back and try again but didn’t. I then watched it get
run over as I drove to the post office, which made me sad. Then the PO wouldn’t
let me ship the yarn as letters and made me fill out everything by hand then
wait while they entered it. It took forever and I knew the swappers wouldn’t be
happy paying the package rate. The icing on the cake was getting home to find
the trash people had not picked up the loveseat. See? Not a good day.
I was on the phone with the trash company first thing Friday
and they gave me the run around, first suggesting that it must have been too
heavy to load. I pointed out that if I, a 57 year old with a bum shoulder and bionic
knee, could lift it, certainly their big trash guy could. Then they said they
wouldn’t make a special trip just for me and that’s when I blew. I told her in
no uncertain terms that I’d arranged this with them specifically for the 5th
and it absolutely could not sit outside for a week because of their mistake. I
finally got a salesman on the phone and he assured me the owner would be going
out to pick it up. He also offered me a “will call” trash can where I call when
it’s full and they pick it up and charge me $20. Perfect! I hung up actually
happy after the first, miserable interaction (the office worker is an IDIOT! This
was not my first negative interaction with her.) And the loveseat was gone when
I got home. Nice.
I had to pack and get ready to leave but only had a single
load of laundry to do Friday night and got mostly packed so actually got to
relax on Saturday morning. Luckily Pie came in on Friday night (she stays out
24/7 all summer) so just didn’t let them out Saturday morning. Easy peasy. I
left the house at 11:00 and was at the gate with time to spare. Unfortunately
there was a delay in Chicago so I didn’t get in until 8:30. Deanne, who was
picking me up, had cancelled our dinner reservation but I was hungry when I got
in so she called and they fit us in. We ate outside at La Masseria in East
Greenwich – my hometown. The food was delicious and we had a nice time catching
up. I walked into Carolyn’s house at 11:00 p.m. It was a long day but that was
only 10:00 my time so I was OK.
The plan for Sunday was to do lunch and shopping with
Sharyn. After a leisurely morning, I called to confirm an 11:00 pick up
only to hear from Sharyn that she was having a serious medical issue. Very
serious but she was still at home. After forcefully suggesting she get to the
hospital (I think I may have crossed a line), Carolyn and I headed out to shop
on our own at The Christmas Tree Shop and 5 Below. When I called later in the
day, Sharyn’s son said not only was she admitted but she was in ICU. Yikes!
While I was concerned, at least she would be getting help. John and Bob came
over for pizza dinner, which was fun and required little effort. With my first
day having such a rocky start, I could only hope the tides had changed. Monday
we’d be off to the beach so I went to bed feeling happy and looking forward to more vacation fun.
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