It's never a good time.....

for a leaky pipe. I just have to keep reminding myself that it could have been worse. At least the dishes were all done.

My niece and her son were here from Arkansas so I had a family get together on Saturday. Late at night after everyone had left, I didn't notice the puddle on my kitchen floor until after I noticed that my kitchen drain seemed to be clogged. The dishwater from earlier still hadn't completely drained out. I put some Drano in it and when I came back to check, it hadn't done a bit of good, which is unusual. I then noticed there was a puddle in front of the sink. (hey....I had a lot of my mind that day...lol) I opened the cupboard under the sink and water was all inside there and was overflowing out onto the floor. I could feel it coming rather rapidly from the sink pipe.

I ran to get a bucket and hand-dipped the water out of the sink (cursing). I kept hoping that the Drano was mixed with enough water that it wouldn't burn my hands off. And I also wondered if maybe putting the Drano in there had caused the problem...I have PVC pipe under there. Since Drano comes in a plastic container.....I kinda doubt that it eats plastic. But when you're stressed, you think of all kinds of weird scenarios.

So today I made the call to the plumber that we use and asked the answering service if they could call me tomorrow so I could make an appointment with them. I can get by without my kitchen sink for a couple days. This month I have extra bills due and its a tight month. Of course.....it would happen at this time. But then again.....its never a good time to have plumbing woes. $$$$$

Never brag........

only show gratitude. The picture is exactly what it looked like yesterday afternoon as we peered out of the office building window. In all my years I really don't remember seeing such black clouds envelope an area the way these did. I was reminded of the movie, Independence Day, where the alien ship slowly takes over the entire sky over the city.

It was in the 90's and miserable. A nice rain was needed....but not a storm. As soon as the black clouds were visible from the windows, we started trying to get to the Internet to see what was going on weather-wise. Over the fire radio, we could hear the fire departments west of us going out on run after run for downed wires, trees, etc. We knew we were in for it.....yet there was this faint glimmer of hope that it may miss us. We've been fortunate in the fact that a lot of storms go south of us. Something had happened because we were not able to get to the Internet....probably lines down somewhere. So we just had to depend on our own eyes and listen to emergency services do their thing.

Within minutes it was as dark as night even though it was only about 3 in the afternoon. Then the winds and the rain came......it poured so hard that cars were pulling off the roadway. The phones started ringing with people asking if we were under tornado warnings. What? People still haven't learned to tune in to their TV or radio for up-to-the-minute notices. I didn't know much more than they did.....that it was raining and dark. And yes.....frightful looking. Now here is where the selfishness creeps into my being. In the back of my mind I was hoping desperately that I would not lose power. I have a freezer nearly full of food, plus that.....its NINETY SOME degrees out and I love....LOVE my central AC.

The storm whipped through in about 10 minutes or so.....just long enough to cause havoc in some areas. The sun was coming out as I dialed my home phone number. If my answering machine picked up, then I would know that I still had power. We had heard on the radio that a major intersection a little over a mile from me was down due to a tree on a transformer. YES! I silently yelled to myself....the answering machine picked up. I had POWER! I was already thinking of sleeping in comfort during this hot spell.

Through-out the afternoon I heard from several co-workers.....a lot of them were going home to no power. One lived about 2 miles from me. Just before I left for home, I called my house again and heard my own voice answer as the machine picked up. I had a smile on my face. I was lucky! But I know not to brag. I've lived long enough to know what happens when you brag.

It only takes me 11 minutes to drive home. I saw evidence in that 6 mile drive of the storm's fury. Lots of branches and traffic lights out. I pulled into my driveway, got the mail, and hit the remote to open the garage door as I got back in the car. Nothing. I hit it again. Still nothing.

You know us humans are funny that way. When something won't work, we just can't seem to give up. We always have to keep trying it....3 or 4 times before we finally accept the inevitable.

Needless to say.....since my garage would not open, that meant that I had no power. I parked outside my garage door and came into my house. It was still cool inside but I knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. Thinking about all the power outages in the area, it could be days before I would be restored. What about my food in the freezer. I do have a generator, but haven't the strength to operate it any longer....if it still works. Its been a long time since I've fired that puppy up.

I came inside and laid across my bed.....ticked off. Yes, ticked off. I could hear my neighbor's generator running. I could probably get him to help me, even though I really hate bothering people. All of a sudden the power came back on and I felt truly blessed. So far, it has stayed on but.....nothing would surprise me. Its going to be in the mid-90's again today, tomorrow and over 100 the next day. I hope the storms stay away but we all know.....extremely hot weather and electrical storms just seem to go together. They are predicting strong storms again on Friday.

Good news.....

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and my eye is improving nicely. The vision has improved remarkably. He was extremely happy about it....(not as happy as I was though). The very best thing was that I did NOT have to have another injection. That truly made my day.

So.....I go back in 3 months unless something unusual happens....then he wants to see me right away. I left there in a fog....for real because my eyes were dilated.....but I did notice a little jaunt in my 'get along'. I hope that I never have to go through that eye problem again.....and also hope that it never happens to anyone I know....or know of.

So today is Friday and its going to be a beautiful day. Tomorrow they are predicting the high's in the 90's again but its better than a blizzard any day of the week. Have a wonderful weekend.

I put it off as long as possible.....

but I finally had no choice but to go grocery shopping. I was out of bread, milk and (gasp) dogfood! So after work, I trudged to the grocery store in 87 degree heat.....walking uphill 20 miles. No....wait....just kidding about that last part. Even though I felt like I'd done that.

Now I am able to walk.....I just no longer do it well. With my bad knee and my bad hip (I know I sound like Grandpa McCoy) I cannot walk for long periods of time. So I opt for the riding grocery buggy. When these things work well, they are fantastic! I can get my shopping done twice as fast because they move faster than I can walk. That's when they work well.

Most stores only have 2 or 3 of them available. Some of them have definitely seen better days. A lot of stores have a problem with PARENTS letting their kids play with them (take them for a ride through-out the store, terrorizing small children and seniors on foot.) So, the problem with going shopping late in the day is that the buggies are basically pooped. You may walk in and find them all neatly lined up with their cords plugged in getting charged, but that doesn't mean that they have been sitting there more than 5 minutes. It seems like I have a greatest knack for picking the buggy that will die halfway through the store at the farthest point from help. I will usually have a full basket when this happens. One time a checker rescued me by bringing me another cart and we swapped out the groceries from my totally dead buggy to the other one.

Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to ride one of these things when its nearly dead? A snail moves faster. I'm serious. They barely move and you inch your way toward the front of the store so you can unload your groceries. Grass grows faster than these things move. But.....ahhhh when they are working well and fully charged.....you breeze down the aisles, the wind whipping your hair back as scenery of cereal boxes and canned goods whiz by. Why....just the joy of it makes you forget about all the high prices of the items being offered.

Unfortunately, today was another day in which I chose the buggy that died within minutes of me taking it. Since I wasn't getting a lot, I continued to use it and inched my way through shopping. The red light blinking and the beep beep signal convinced me I'd better forget the last few things and head for the check out. I must have been a pretty pitiful sight. No wonder that 3 year old was looking at me strangely. I don't want to think about it.

Ahhhh.....

my day off and I could sleep in a bit. I looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand and it said 8:45, which meant it was actually 8:15 because I have my clock set 30 minutes fast so I won't be late. (don't think about that statement too much, ok?) I stretched and decided that I would sleep in a bit longer.....after all, it was my day off and I had no plans.

I turned over and snuggled against the pillows and started to drift off again. At this point I heard a firecracker so loud and powerful that it actually shook the house. I mumbled to myself, shaking my head. Some people have no sense, I thought. Here it is, not even 9 in the morning and they are already shooting off fireworks. I hoped that it was going to be the only one for a while and then I drifted off to sleep. I awoke about 45 minutes later. I'm not quite sure of the time because when I looked at my clock, the face was dark. I knew in an instant what had happened. I put things together immediately..........I'm quick like that. The loud noise I'd heard a while before.....it was no firecracker, it was the transformer again and guess what? I had no power! And.....there was for sure a fried squirrel laying on the ground at the back of my or the neighbor's yard.

This is a never-ending war between us, the power lines and the squirrels in our neighborhood. The squirrels are always the loser,but we end up suffering because it knocks out our power. Sometimes the power company is not busy and they can get us up and running again within a couple hours......sometimes, its 5 hours. This time it was 2 hours.

You know when you are without power......it seems like everything you want to do involves electricity. I ended up reading a book without my morning coffee.

You can understand why none of us around here are fond of squirrels.....even if they do have those huge brown eyes and that cute fluffy tail.