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"The colors of life shift

within a fixed parameter,

movable blocks of shadow

and light, interchangeable

or not."































"Chaos is a friend of mine." ~Bob Dylan

"Chaos is a friend of mine." ~Bob Dylan
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

One of those Thriving in the.... days




Yesterday I spent a chunk of time playing with my blog, redesigning it.  Today I lived the new photo under the blog title.  It was one of those mad-world days.

Sears was scheduled to come today for the second time in a week to see why the pilot light on my 5-year-old water heater keeps going out.  Thank God for my  Master Protection Agreement with Sears on many of my larger appliances!  It's really paid off in recent years.  Anyhoo....  first go round the Sears person tells me that the water heater is one of those newer "closed systems" where the pilot light is controlled by sensors and a spark, not the old light- it- with- a- lighter type of yore.  Seems that's the current requirement for safer water heaters.  Mine was probably clogged with whatever from the attic and kept killing the pilot light.  The guy cleaned it thoroughly and told me to go up there and clean out the pan under the heater about once a month and it should be good to go.

Yeah, right.  Four days later, Sunday, no hot water.  As always when these emergencies arise, my good neighbor Mr. Larry comes over the gets the pilot light going again.  I call and set up another repair call with Sears and that brings us to this afternoon.  "Between 10 and 2 " usually translates into sometime after the allotted time. 

Today got off to an early start, 5 am to be exact.  Sam woke Connor and they proceeded to play computer games, complete with sound effects, yanking the entire household out of dreamland and into a waking pre-dawn nightmare.  It wasn't pretty, the reaction they got. 

At 9 am I have to deal with the garage door repair people who need to replace a beeping backup battery which is just difficult enough for me to defer to the experts, not to mention the costly battery that I can't run to Walmart or CVS to pick up.  That set me back enough to tick me off. 

Meanwhile,  I'm doing things around the house, waiting for the eventual Sears person and the boys are amping up both in volume and behavior as they play some online Pirates of the Caribbean game, one on their computer and one on Trish's.  It's getting to the point I'm having to try to tamp down the electricity in the highly charged room with threats of ....whatever I can think of within reason.   They are already on my you-know-what-list after the morning fiasco.   I'm also trying to dodge 3 dogs running around the house, under foot as they work out the newest round of toy or chew theft from each other.  Spanky is a little puppy bully and the other two bark,nip and chase him when they've had enough.  I have visions of the nasty fall I'm sure to take one day.  I'll be on the floor, hip or leg or arm broken, in horrendous pain, screaming for the kids to call 911.....  and the dogs will keep running around messing with each other, and the boys will keep doing whatever they're doing and no one will hear me or respond and I'll still be there writhing in pain, half dead, dogs barking at me because by that time they're hungry and the boys either still playing dueling computers or so amped up they've fried each other ..when Trish gets home from work.

Deep breath............ 

It's nearly 3:00 pm when Sears person finally arrives.  He arrives when I'm in the middle of trying to deal with a computer issue, naturally.  During the time he's working in the attic I'm back with the computer problem.  The dogs are outside in the heat barking at me and the boys are behind the closed door of Connor's room.  That last fact eluded me until after the Sears man left.  He's there about 30 minutes replacing a sensor or whatever on the water heater telling me that the reason it keeps going out and the reason it needs replacing is that there is not enough air flow in the attic to keep it lit.  Didn't they tell me that when they installed it 5 years ago?  NO, as a matter of fact, they never mentioned an air flow issue, nor did they tell me that this newly- required type of water heater wasn't maintenance free.  I needed to keep it dust free or lint free or whatever...  I should see about a fresh air system for the attic or the water heater.  Call a specialty plumber, they'll know what you need. 

$$$$$$$$$   ...that's what is flashing in front of my eyes as he's telling me all this crap.  My stress level is rising along with the heat outside, not to mention the attic.  He leaves, I let the panting dogs back in, and, again, fail to compute the closed door to Connor's room.  I go online and research attic ventilation things, groan and envision a large expenditure.  Then I call my trusty Mr. Larry neighbor and he comes over, checks things out and tells me I do have ventilation and it sounds like I should be fine for another 5 years, not to worry about it.  I relax and as I close the door behind him I finally realize that the boys are behind a closed door.....   It also registers that I'm hearing bumps and thuds. 

Connor's room looks like a hurricane ripped through it!!  The funnel clouds are laughing and throwing stuffed animals all over the room. Furniture is moved around to make a fort... it's a mess!!!  The boys are wired to the max!!!  It barely registers that I'm in the room yelling at them!!  I finally get through, Sam gets mad, grabs his mother's laptop and stomps out of the room refusing to help clean up the damage.  He slams his own room door for emphasis.  Connor and I proceed to wade through the mess and restore order to his room.  Bless his heart, this type of effort is not his forte.   He's about as useless when it comes to order and cleaning  as an umbrella in a windstorm.  This afternoon he gave me hope... :)

So, it was one of those days.  Both boys are peacefully sleeping in their rooms as are the three furkids, one on Trish's bed, one on Connor's and mine on the bed behind me.  I'm here at the computer (which is now behaving) writing this with "America's Got Talent" on the TV in the background.  Trish will be home from work soon and we'll have a good laugh about the day. 

4 comments:

Kelly said...

Just reading about some of your daily exploits exhausts me!! I can't imagine living through them.

Hope everything is good to go for at least 5 years on the water heater (and thank goodness for Mr. Larry!).

Love the new look!!

Marion said...

Pammie, you're a saint. I'd be in the nut house! I'm glad your Sears issue was resolved frugally. Love & Blessings!! xo

Marion said...

PS: I love the new look of your blog. It's wild, just like you!! xoxo

Debby said...

The new blog is nice. Gotta say, I couldn't laugh about that day until I finished crying about it. That might take me a little longer than it took you. :^D