Does life ever seem as though it’s comprised of a neverending series of events designed to frustrate your ultimate purpose? Or, at the least, to insert various stumbling blocks along the way? And many times it’s the mechanical objects that take on the worst human qualities imaginable in an apparently intentional fashion to stymie whatever you’re trying to accomplish.
As we work our way through the checklist required for the upcoming six months of adventures, consider the following examples:
1. The new oven conspired with the outdoor lighting to malfunction. The oven issue involved a series of beeps at seemingly random times, possibly chirping displeasure over whatever was currently on television – except for the fact they also occurred in the depths of night. After a few hundred dollars and a new computer key pad (who knew ovens had such things) it appears to be somnolent. For the moment. At least the outdoor lighting was a silent malfunction, resulting from cut wires. Thanks, lawn service.
2. The bank that shall remain nameless who does not know how to receive a $10.43 cent payment. We are still battling that one. Who knew it would take over 30 days to release a lien for a home equity loan that hasn’t been in use for years?
3. The car that has decided to have a voice and buzzes out its grievances every time I go over one of our brick roads. This one is on going. I’m just trying to get used to it, and think of it as background percussion.
4. The pond project. A weeks long repair job to repair a leaking pond (that had already killed off our generations of tiny Lake Ivanhoe fish). Finally, a success story. After massive internet research, and several Ace Hardware trips, a product was found. Layers of scraping, vacuuming, epoxying, patching, stop, repeat, and finally we have a pond that appears to hold water. We’ll see. I’m not going out to catch fish in Lake Ivanhoe to transplant to it until the weather has become a bit more tolerable.
I’m sure I could add to the list. But right now my mind is on finishing up work – only 3 days left! Live-in house sitters assembled, S’s cat Boudin is ensconced in the addition as his summer residence, and Kira our own cat has been informed of the upcoming plans. First stop is London, followed by Rye, and then on to San Sebastián, Spain. But who knows what the next few days could hold – funny things always happen on the way out of town.