(Nearly) Back to Normal

We spent our first night back in the house last night.

We still have a lot of cleaning/organizing to do, but at least we can see normal somewhere on the horizon. 

Thinking about the last few weeks, I penned the following:

We recently had our home re-leveled

Because some of the walls became beveled

The drought caused a drift

Made the foundation shift

Our poor house was looking disheveled

 

We’ve been camping out in back

While contractors paint and patch cracks

The paint smell’s too strong

To stay in there long

So the trailer is where we hit the sack

 

We love our trailer when we’re on the road

40,000 miles it’s been towed

Oh, the trips on which we’ve gone

From Key West to Oregon

But it’s good to be back in our abode

Hot Stuff

Saw this picture on the net – a multitasking shopper was baking chocolate chip cookies on the dashboard of her car while shopping at WalMart.

I have never tried this, but on a recent trip I did manage to blow up a cigarette lighter. 

I left the lighter on the console, and when I came back to the car after about an hour in the store, I found a few shards of plastic on the driver’s seat, and the remainder of the lighter in the back floorboard on the passenger side.

Just a couple of examples of how ungodly hot it can get in a car on a sunny day, and yet we still hear stories about people leaving children and pets in their vehicles. 

Automotive A-C

I grew up in the air-conditioning business.  My dad, upon returning from WW-II was hired by the first air conditioning company in the city of Houston, so I was very interested in an email I received this morning:

Did you know????
The Goldberg Brothers - Inventors of the Automobile Air Conditioner.
Here's a little factoid for automotive buffs or just to dazzle your friends..
The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner.
On July 17, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees.
The four brothers walked into old man Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that four gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the
electric starter.
Henry was curious and invited them into his office.
They refused and instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car.
They persuaded him to get into the car, which was about 130 degrees, turned on the air conditioner, and cooled the car off immediately.
The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them $3 million for the patent.
The brothers refused, saying they would settle for $2 million, but they wanted the recognition by having a label, 'The Goldberg Air-Conditioner,' on the dashboard of each car in which it was installed.
Now old man Ford was more than just a little anti - Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg's name on two million Fords.
They haggled back and forth for about two hours and finally agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown.
And so to this day, all Ford air conditioners show
-- Lo, Norm, Hi, and Max -- on the controls.
I can hear your groans from here. Control yourself!!! I was sucked in, too!

Arson Is Beginning To Make Sense

Still camped out in the back yard, but we are in the process of moving some of our stuff back into the house.  We should be back in ourselves within the next day or two. 

Everything we own has been moved at least twice, and most things multiple times, as we empty rooms for the painters.  It’s actually harder than moving to a new house – at least, it involves more moves per item.

I think that if the house ever needs painting again, I’ll just burn it down. 

I’m not contemplating insurance fraud -  but before I would do this again, I would rather just burn it down, walk away, and start over entirely.

Hard to Post from Hell

Day thirty two of the home remodeling project.

Actually, they  only started last Monday; it just seems like it’s been going on forever.  Except for a few touch-up items, the utility room, kitchen, dining room, hallway and den are done.  They start on bedrooms tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we are moving furniture around, sorting and storing and throwing stuff away.  Yesterday, I delivered nine 33-gallon trash bags full of clothes and bedding to Goodwill. 

Still living in the camper in the back yard, and we will be until the end of next week.  Hopefully, by then things will be back to what passes for normal around here.

B’day Report

Managed to have a great birthday in spite of the turmoil at home.  Slept in the trailer, had breakfast in the house and went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.

All in all, a good day.

Thresholds

I could not wait until I turned five

Why, I’d be the happiest kid alive

Wait, six is better – when that is made

I’ll be old enough to attend first grade

Nothing much happened when I turned seven

Nine or ten, or even eleven

But if I just make it to thirteen

I’ll be a teenager – no longer a tween

Eighteen join the Army, carry a gun

Drink and vote at twenty-one

Thirty a real man, no longer a kid

They’ll take me serious – but nobody did

Black balloons at my birthday party

Over the hill when I turned forty

I might have retired at sixty-five

I didn’t, had to work to survive

Sixty-nine’s a good number, a very good year

But it’s going away in a few hours I fear

On the threshold of seventy- no longer a pup

Is this the year when I finally grow up?