Last week the ceiling fan on the porch broke--actually I went to turn it off and the cord came away in my hand. I called Coty, the electrician, and he sent Travis to fix it. Travis tried several solutions valiantly but none worked. I finally decided I was spending more money trying to fix an old fan, with peeling paint, than it would cost to buy a new one. I bought a new one, and Travis put it in Monday. He assured me Coty would send a bill.
Tuesday, the a/c went out late at night, so Wed. I called Andy Rhinefort, the a/c man, and he sent someone to fix it. A simple matter--a fuse. The repairman gave me a bill, and I assured him I would pay it on my computer right away. I did, only I paid the a/c bill amount to Coty the electrician. So this morning I had to call Coty and tell him what I had done. He laughed and laughed but finally assured me he was laughing with me not at me.
Then this afternoon I noticed, as I was unloading groceries, that my front passenger side tire was really really low. I try to be a self-sufficient female, but I have no idea what to do about a low tire--how to put air in, how to measure it, etc. So I called Jeannie who said putting air in was foolish, we'd go to her favorite hole-in-the-wall tire place. So we did, and as we drove in two mechanics watched us--and laughed and laughed. It seems that when I had the car inspected not long ago, I threw away the inspection sticker and put the back part on the windshield. So after they fixed the tire, they re-inspected the car, which cost me another forty dollars. Plus there were two nails in the tire. I said I felt really dumb, but the owner shrugged and said to me, "It happens." They were really nice people and have secured my future business--though I hope I don't have any soon.
To top things off, I got a notice of default in the mail today for the ticket my old Toyota got long after Jordan and Christian had traded it in. Christian and I scrambled and sent in notarized paperwork to testify that I no longer own the car. Who knows what happened to the paperwork? The city of Dallas thinks I defaulted, and of course there's no phone number where you can get a live person. Those that know me are still laughing at the idea of me getting a ticket on Harry Hines Bouelvard in Dallas--I have perhaps never driven a car in Dallas in my life! Another nuisance to worry about.
I'm assuming I've now gotten all my repair disasters and goofs out of the way and can go happily about my business. All the children and grandchildren are coming this weekend, so I'll be cooking. Today I cleaned the garage apartment--well, sort of but better than nothing--and put clean sheets on the bed. Somehow I've lost a bed pillow out there and am wondering if it got folded into the hideabed.
Meantime I'm trying to keep up with my desk. Tonight I finally finished the reading for the online class--a disturbing novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. I've reread the lecture on it but need to explore the outside readings. And I'm reading, bit by bit, the book How the Scots Invented the Modern World--preparation for the spring trip, but it's a dense book, and I keep worrying about how much of it I'm retaining. I wish I had my mid-twenties graduate school brain back. Still I'm fascinated by what I'm learning--how the Calvinist religion established our ideas of public education and the rule of the will of the people, how the Scottish Enlightenment shapes so much of our contemporary thinking. It's true--the Scots invented the modern world.
Lots of exciting things coming up--the kids this weekend, the next weekend the arrival for four days of longtime friends from Omaha, and then Jordan and I will take a weekend trip to Houston for Morgan's second b'day.
Life is good.
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