Spending days alone at work in the past two weeks decided the fate of July 5th and I asked for it off, burning yet another vacation day in my nearly empty bank. But with the drama at work, a 4 day weekend was just the ticket. So I only had 3 days to get through.
Mary called Monday night when I was at knitting with some news on the upcoming changes. I was happy to hear them but there was definitely awkwardness at work the next day. I was almost relieved when I woke up Wednesday morning to find that my AC wasn't working. Or rather the AC was working but the fan wasn't blowing the cool air into the house. With temps pushing 100 for the week, I had no choice but to take the morning off and call the HVAC company. They said they'd send someone in the morning so I decided I should call the appliance guy to come (way to maximize half a vacation day!) while I was waiting for the AC guy. My garbage disposal had been dead for a couple of months and the sink was now clogged, which also impacted my dishwasher. I had tried to fix it myself but failed, btw. The appliance guy said he didn't do garbage disposals but would come over and at least get it unclogged. He's worked on most every appliance in my house so this was a freebie. Nice.
He arrived before the AC guy and immediately got it unclogged but when he was showing me how to unclog it, he hit a pipe and the nasty backed up water poured out everywhere. We mopped it up with towels and he said I needed to call a plumber. As he was walking out, I asked him about a hot spot on the side of my freezer and he asked when I'd last cleaned behind the grill at the bottom. Cleaned behind the grill? NEVER. (I really need a home maintenance for dummies book. Does that exist?) Anyway, he pulled it off and dust bunnies exploded out of the opening. He said to get out the vacuum and left. While I was vacuuming under there, I decided I might as well vacuum the basement stairs. When I got to the bottom, I saw that the floor, which I'd already swept first thing that morning, was also covered with water so out came the squeegee. One thing was just leading to another. Sheesh!
That done, I called the HVAC company, which also does plumbing, but they couldn't send a plumber until early the following week so I said no thanks and called Ed, my friend's husband who is ever so handy. I explained about the pipe and he said he'd come that afternoon and see what he could do. During all this, the AC guy came, took the fan out of my furnace, went to his shop to fix it then came back and reinstalled it. With the AC running, I took a quick shower and headed to work. I left the door unlocked for Ed, who is a gem.
Fast forward to the end of the day. I walked into my cool house after swimming and found a note from Ed. Not only had he fixed the pipe (an easy O ring replacement) but he'd gotten the garbage disposal working again! The one everyone said was dead. I called him with a thank you and the promise of a pie for his efforts.
With 4 days off with burning hot weather, I had big plans for organizing things in the house. Having rifled through the desk looking for the name of the HVAC guy who fixed it last time (a friend of Ed's who ended up already having a job for Wednesday so I called the regular company), I had a laundry basket full of crap and another full of knitting projects. Not to mention the top of the desk, which was still covered. So I spent the day slogging through all that junk, ending with a clear desk and a recycle bin full of paper. Why do I keep it in the first place? I've gotta wonder.
Since it was the 4th, I decided to drive over to the lake for the city fireworks. This was the first year they weren't at the park at the end of my street but I decided I should go. Well, I drove over there and parked where they sent me and it was the most non-festive thing ever. People sat in their cars to watch and it was so far away across the lake that you couldn't even feel the booms. I might as well have been watching fireworks on TV. I left early to avoid the traffic and posted my feelings on the Saunders County Facebook page. While most people agreed, a lot of people got downright nasty. The ignorance (someone suggested I watch from a boat - as if everyone has a boat!) was nuts and I ended up ignoring most of the responses.
My neighbors were letting off fireworks until after midnight so it was a short night's sleep and I was tired on Friday. I managed to get a few things done and then threw on my favorite dress and ran some errands in town. When I got home, I immediately changed into my shorts for the rest of the night. Unfortunately I had gotten distracted and didn't hang up my dress so when I headed to bed early, I found it on the bed with a hole sucked in it by Gansey, my rotten bottle fed cat who nurses on things. I was devastated. The 2.5" hole was on one side of the front and could probably be patched but I spent hours looking at YouTube videos of how to patch knitted fabric (there are some HACK videos of people who know absolutely nothing about sewing!) and then spent another chunk of time looking for a replacement dress. Failed on that too. No one makes 100% cotton jersey knit dresses these days (this dress is 15 years old for sure) and poly/cotton will not work for me. It makes my skin crawl. So it was another late night. Grrr.....
I woke up tired and despondent on Saturday. I was in a funk all morning and so decided to head outside to garden in hopes that it would turn my mood around. It worked while I had my hands in the dirt but the funk returned as soon as I came back inside. I decided I'd take my dress to a professional to fix. The pockets were made from the same material so I'd sacrifice one for the patch. Even if it didn't look good enough to wear to work, I'd at least have it for weekend wear for errands and such.
Luckily the funk was gone on Sunday and I spent the morning neatizing the house, doing dishes and starting laundry. With the house all neat and clean, I couldn't help but start cooking. I had been wanting lasagna so started with that, complete with homemade red sauce, and went on from there. Strata for breakfasts, taco salad mix, turkey dinner casserole, banana bread, Ed's pie... By the end of the day my freezer and fridge were full of food but my kitchen was a mess. I'd deal with that later. It was time to get back to work and hope some of the drama had blown over. Time would tell.
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