We got up at 5 am on Sunday March 22nd since hubby had a super early flight and I had to drive him to the airport. It was still dark and I was driving my car. Recently I’ve had one thing after another go wrong with my 22 year old car. Besides my brakes going out, I had my battery not hold a charge. I’d been starting it daily after it had been in the shop last and had it on a trickle charger. Hubby had been taking it to work once a week and everything was fine. Then I went around dusk to get a gallon of milk at the grocery (nothing else) and when I came out, it was getting dark. I put on the lights and barely made it home! The car was ready to die any minute. Then I was afraid to drive it again and the whole month of Feb. it was cold. Average of 14 degrees each day. Hubby offered to get a new battery but I knew the battery wasn’t old! When the weather got warmer, we took it to the garage again. This time it was the alternator for $350. Ok, the rollercoaster continues….Yesterday, about halfway home after dropping hubby off and the headlights go out. Then they come back on for a second and go out again. I wiggled it and turned them on and off and it kept happening. Luckily, we don’t live far from the airport and I know my way in the dark. I made it home safely even though I half expected to get pulled over by a cop. When I got home I realized I’d forgotten my purse and cellphone! Gah! I was so sleepy and had gone to grab my keys and purse and had only gotten my keys. I plan to drive it again tomorrow to get some soda that’s on sale at the store. I won’t be driving it at night if I can help it.
Yesterday was the first day with Greg gone. I’m used to him being at work during the daytime on Sundays, so that went fine. I did have to unplug/ reset the Directv which freezes up when you try to go up or down on the Playlist. The only thing I was looking forward to while hubby is gone is reading in bed. When I got back yesterday morning from the airport, I went back to bed. I couldn’t sleep but it was too early to be up. I noticed that the light on my nightstand that had been working the night before, didn’t work anymore. So yesterday I got out the ladder and climbed up to get a replacement bulb from the hidden storage above the kitchen cupboards. It wasn’t the exact same wattage but close enough. I took it up and put it in, only to find out it still wouldn’t give light. At this point I checked the cord. It was still plugged into a power strip on my side of the bed. The power strip was supposed to be plugged into the power strip on his side of the bed. It wasn’t. Nor could I reach it. So I pulled it and it came out on my side. I had to take out a ton of things that were stored under the bed. I went from one side of the bed to the other, laying down, trying to feed the cord under the Queen size bed. I even used something to push it. Then I went to his side and tried to reach it. After I did this over a dozen times, I realized my arms are too short and it would never work. The cord was too short to feed behind the headboard. I ended up running an extension cord from my side to his behind the headboard. It’s not ideal. When I talked to him on the phone last night, Greg said he must’ve unplugged it by accident when he unplugged his bi-pap yesterday morning. Then I took the new lightbulb out and went downstairs and got the old one and put that back in and it worked fine. I just hating wasting time like this!
I had all kinds of big ideas on what I was going to accomplish while Greg was gone. Yesterday I made homemade chicken noodle soup. Today I was going to make chicken pot pie. I was going to get a lot of items listed on Etsy and start a new shop just for vintage ephemera. Things like antique and rare books, greeting cards, postcards, Victorian Trade Cards, old letters, photographs, etc. After what happened today, I’ll probably mostly be resting.
Last night it started snowing. A freak Spring storm that wasn’t expected to leave much evidence. The local weathermen predicted 1.5″ while the national news guessed more in the 5-6″ range. This morning, I went out to shovel just a trail on the deck for the dogs and we had almost 7″. It snowed for several more hours since then. It’s 28 degrees out and tomorrow will be in the 40’s and Wed. in the 50’s with rain. All this is going to melt and I can’t entertain the idea of the basement flooding again!! All our snow had been gone and we even had one day last week that was 70 degrees. I had taken the dogs for a walk with no coat! I had shoveled a path to the backyard for the dogs and took some videos of them playing in the snow. Then I came in and went to the front and shoveled just the steps for the mailman.
At this point, my worry about the melting and rain made me paranoid about all that snow sitting on the flat roof above the garage. We don’t shovel it if it’s less than 3″ but this was so heavy and I can’t risk water coming in and ruining all our inventory in the garage. So I went up there and the dogs followed me. There’s a railing around all sides up there and they know better than to jump. They like to run around and look down from up there. Greg always lets them be up there when he does the shoveling. I haven’t done it alone for a few years. The last time I had, I had gotten locked out! It was before Mom had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I had tried to get her attention by throwing the shovel on the deck and yelling but nothing would work. That time I was up there alone and Greg was at work. The dogs were inside and I had climbed over the railing, onto the deck of the shed and then jumped onto the railing of the deck. Now we’ve got bowling pins on top of the deck railing. Plus I knew the dogs would try to follow me and they’d hurt themselves.
As you might guess, IT HAPPENED AGAIN. I couldn’t even believe my luck!! I had shoveled just over half of it up there and the snow was coming down hard. Ivy acted like she wanted to go in. I was going to open the storm door and let her and whoever else wanted in to come in. This time I had left the inside door open so I could look in. I went to open the door and it had latched! We keep it locked but you have to flick the latch down to open it. When I had gone out, it had relocked somehow. I was beyond upset! If the dogs hadn’t been up there, I might’ve just tried to climb down. But I had no choice, I had to get in. So I took the shovel, which was entirely PLASTIC, and tried to pop the window out. The shovel tore the screen up immediately but the window is plexi-glass so it wouldn’t break. I tried pushing it at the corners or pounding it in the middle. Nothing worked.
Then the babysitter next door came out and asked me if I needed help. It must’ve looked quite a sight. Me beating furiously on the door with a shovel, one end and then the other. I even tried throwing my considerable weight against it repeatedly. According to what I’ve seen on tv, pushing your shoulder or bulk should pop a window out. Instead, every time I did that, I felt pain in my arm and left side. It was slippery up there so I couldn’t get good traction, even in snow boots. I tried kicking it but that didn’t work either. I told the neighbor I needed a ladder. She asked if the door was open and I said no. I had locked them both when I went up there since that was the last thing I was going to do outside. Then she stood and watched me for the longest time while I struggled. The dogs barked at her while I worked feverishly to no avail. Later I asked her if she had a hammer. She said she could look for one. I told her not to bother since I didn’t know how I’d get it from her. She’d have to throw it up there and it might hit one of the dogs in the head and hurt them!
I had my cellphone with me which is rare. I actually thought of calling 911 but I’ve never done it and don’t want to do it over something so foolish. I’d be the butt of a ton of jokes by the firemen and police. Mom would never hear me banging and would never come look for me. I decided to call the house phone anyway and on the message, call for her loudly and tell her to go in the hallway. Of course that didn’t work. Then I couldn’t see my phone, it was so bright out, I must’ve called my husband when I tried to hang up the call. I surely wouldn’t have called him since I knew there was NOTHING he could do. He was at lunch so could talk but just told me to do what I had already done. I let him go and went back to throwing myself against the window and jamming the shovel into it. It seemed like I could get a gap on the right side towards the lock but I couldn’t pry it open. I was afraid to put my fingers in there since it might cut them off! I tried putting the shovel into it but it wouldn’t work.
Suddenly, without warning, the plexi-glass shattered into a million tiny pieces. A few pieces were the size of a dime but mostly they were just a bit bigger than a grain of sand. It had shattered into a pile an inch thick on the landing and then all the way down the stairs. I reached into the empty space and flipped the lock on the door. I went inside being careful not to let the dogs in. There was so much broken glass, if I let them walk on it, they would surely cut their feet! So I reached through and lifted Ivy through the missing pane and carried her to safety. Then I went up and told Amber to come up to me and she did. I lifted her through and took her down. Then I got Elvis and took him all the way to the sunroom and put the leash on him. I had Mom hold him while she played on the computer. He cried for most of the time. He can’t stand to be away from me and I knew he wouldn’t stay away from the stairs without restraint. Overall, I was really proud of the dogs for how they behaved.
I was physically and emotionally exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sit down and get my breath and rest. I couldn’t though since I had to immediately vacuum up the glass! It took me at least 45 min. to do it, then I lifted the pane with the remnants out of the track and put it in a garbage bag. I had to vacuum with the wand and go over the area multiple times. Even so, I won’t be going barefoot anytime soon. After I was done with that, I wanted to rest but couldn’t. I had to go back out and finish shoveling! I was so overheated, I didn’t put a coat on right away. It was stupid so I went back and got it and finished. Then the babysitter drove up and said she was glad I got in. You and me both!!
By then, it was time to make lunch and get Mom to the bathroom. I managed to rest a bit after lunch but I’ve got a sore throat and my side is so sore. I don’t know if it’s stress on my heart or I tore some muscles from that. All I know is I’ve had enough excitement for the day, the week, the month and the year!
As for what else the next few weeks hold, hubby gets home late on Sat. March 28th. On Sun. he has to work but is going in early and taking 4 hours sick leave so we can go to his mother’s 80th birthday party. It’s up in WI so there’s a 2 hour drive each way. It’s at 4 pm so we can only stay an hour or so if we go together. Mom will be fine as long as I’m home to get her dinner that night. Hubby and I argued about this for at least a week! When he found out he was going away this week, I made him call his brother Dan and tell him when he’d be gone so he didn’t expect him to go during that week. At the time, he also told him he couldn’t make it on Sundays since he worked. The fact that they expect him to go, basically guilting him into it doesn’t sit good with me. He’s afraid of looking like the bad guy if he doesn’t go. His niece just had a baby (the first great grandchild for his Mom) on March 20th. So we have a gift for her and one for his mom. I told him we should mail them but he must want to go to the party. After not seeing me for 7 days, I hate the thought of not seeing him for another day if he went alone. So many unpleasant things, so little time…
Next Mon. is Ivy’s vet appt. for vaccinations and heartworm. If Greg can come with me, that’s great, otherwise I’ll take her alone. Then the next day is hubby’s dentist appt. Mine is the day after that which is also Greg’s birthday! The day after that we’re taking the other 2 dogs to the vet for their heartworm tests. So you can see how busy every single day is…
I just had to share the latest disaster that befell me. Let’s hope no one else has luck like that. I guess it’s all in how you look at it. Some people might say I’m a Superhero for rescuing the dogs but that title does not apply. I can’t even function in daily life without having ridiculous things happen to me…
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