Delayed Post

When I sit down to my computer and hook up to the internet, one of the first things I tend to do is check Cindy's blog. Often, I find myself chuckling even over less than humorous events, because of the way she describes it. I also find I use laughter as a way to deal with events in my own life. I can describe the night the policeman came to tell me of my brother's death in a car accident. Trust me; there was nothing funny about it. But looking back on it, it is interesting to note human nature and subconscious actions. The policeman came after both my children were in bed asleep (maybe 9:30) and he pounded on the door. This was Nov 1 and my first thought was, "what high school darlings are playing trick or treat a day late?" Then as I looked through the peep hole and saw a police officer, my heart stopped. I instinctively knew "this is not good." But my first thoughts went to a troubled student I'd had the year before (now, why a police officer would come to my house at night because of this troubled young lady, I don't know, that's what makes you want to chuckle). I opened the door and the officer asked to come in. My protective instincts did not want anyone to enter my house while my children slept. But Hubby and I let him in. But only in the front room. I did not welcome him into my home. He knew I didn't want him there. When I think back and see me ushering him into my front study with only 2 desk chairs and only the light from the front hall shining in (no, I didn't turn on the light. Weird, huh?). It looks funny. By the end of the policeman's spiel I felt bad for him. He was very young and I bet he drew "inform the family" short stick.
Besides often giving me a good chuckle, Cindy's life helps me put perspective on my own. How can I complain about anything that happens in my house? It's all so 'normal:' lost homework, hormonal huffs, broken toilets, driving mishaps. The things that make up parenthood for the majority of us.
So I was going to blog about the inconvenience of having only 1 toilet for the 4 of us. Guess I'm a spoiled American, through and through. Tuesday, as I was getting ready for Bible Study, I noticed the toilet was "running." So, I took off the lid to the back tank and jiggled the little doohickey to make it stop. I couldn't get it to stop, so I tried bending the arm with the little plumb on the end. Well, I bent it to the point of breaking it off. Now, without that mechanism, there is no way for the water to stop at all. Our house was built at the end of 1995. The building industry in Florida was trying a new pipe system in homes...use PVC and rubber tubing through the attic of the home, instead of the work required to have it underground. The idea being repairs would be less expensive and easier. As part of this experiment, (or maybe this is standard today) our toilet does not have a shut off valve between the wall and the toilet. You have to go to the garage and turn off the water at a box similar to a circuit breaker box. There are rubber pipes coming out of a central box, each labeled for different spickets in the house. Now the problem arises because our garage is very small and when we pull our van into the garage (as we do each night) you can't get to the water main box. Add to this fact that I was doing all this fiddling with the toilet unclothed as I was getting ready to get in the shower! I have a toilet that isn't just dripping water, it's seriously running and each second I hear the water bill going "ching, ching". So I throw some clothes on, jump in the van, back it out of the garage and take 5 minutes trying to identify "master toilet." Somehow I manage to be only 5 minutes late to Bible Study. Not too bad.
Here it is Thursday and I still don't have a working toilet in the master bath. The fact that I haven't been home long enough to fix it could be why. Actually, Hubby and I went to work on it Tuesday night (after the swim meet) about 9:30pm. Halfway through we realized we needed a tool we didn't have. Too late to call anyone, but not too late for 24-hour Wal-Mart. Alas, Wal-Mart did not have what we needed. No problem, we'd fix it Wednesday. Wednesday morning I'm off to Home Depot for a big enough pipe wrench. On the way, the "tire pressure warning light" comes on. So before going into Home Depot, I check the tires. The rear right tire looks a little lower than the others. "I'll take the actual pressure when I get home," I say to myself. Coming out of Home Depot 15 minutes later and the tire is significantly lower than before I went in. I have 10 minutes to make it to my hair appointment (that is two weeks overdue) a few miles down the road. So, I hop in the van and as I'm driving, call Hubby and tell him all. Since my hair appointment includes color, cut and dry I will be there about 1 1/2 hours. So Hubby says he'll come change the tire while I get my hair done (told you I was spoiled). We have road hazard insurance on our tires through Sears, so I agree to head to Sears after my cut and take care of it. Hubby comes into the hair dressers all sweaty with greasy hands. He tells me that 2 of the lug-nuts are stripped. It took him forever to get them off and they are not totally back on. As we just had our tires rotated and balanced at Sears two weeks ago, he has the look of someone not happy. He tells me HE will go to Sears and I can pick him up there. So at pick-up time, I have our little Toyota Corolla and am driving to get the Imp and her friend, with the idea of picking up Hubby and dropping Hubby at home, the friend at dance and go back for the Singer at swim. As I'm driving, the Singer calls to say she's not well. So we got to drive the 10 miles from Hubby's work with 5 of us in the car. Thank goodness the trunk was empty and could hold the 3 backpacks, 2 gym bags, 3 lunchboxes, a briefcase and laptop.
No mishaps today. The Singer stayed home with a fever. No strep per the doctor. I went cropping late, but still got to do it. Picked up the Imp, got her to dance, and picked up snacks for the church meeting I'm running tonight, gave the Singer some Tylenol and TLC and now am determined to finish this blog I started on Tuesday before I fly out the door.
Hopefully I'll see my Hubby about 9 pm tonight.