Life just can't more interesting, can it? Well, at least not until it gets to be something else. I like being someone else when I can be. Life must be the same way. Or not.
So how the hell is everyone? This has been a whacked out week or two, but none of you are surprised by that when it comes to me, are you? Didn't think so.
OK, so where did I leave y'all? (yea, yea--I left some of you in Cleveland, some in LA, some in CO or AZ. Wise asses!) Ah! The gloves-on-the-rebar-work-of-art, if I recollect. I'm still snickering.
The biggest chunk of news, or, as I've been 'schooled'-- Tarugo mas grande of news--there's actually form and function becoming evident at the build site/homestead! It still looks small as shit, and everyone still keeps saying what a BIG house it is, so I'm still, naturally, confused. Yes even naturally confused. (See how important punctuation is, oh students o'mine?) But it's coming along, except that now it has stopped.
Again, no expressions of surprise from any of you, I see. The Manana Effect seems to have taken root within y'all. I DO apologize! So, yea, there's a wall here that reaches the height of my elbow, many are at knee height and there's even one that's almost head high. No, I don't know why. Well, I retract that denial, I DO know why: it's time for the electrical installation to begin!
The electrician held us up a week (grrrrr!), then came and started the install on Tuesday of this past week, and came up Saturday a.m. around 7 to finish up. Good thing I was up and working, huh?
There's a myriad of punishing details that keep erupting like skin lesions that I won't burden you with, but let's just say that there's not too many people involved in this build that I can't blame some mistake, oversight, or tardiness upon. Except me, of course.
It's been 15 days of doing battle with Rex, Katje, and the lingering pneumonia; dentists, high winds and the electrical grid. And I wonder why I'm so dang tired all of the time! ~sheesh!~ Troubles with Rex got resolved tonight--weekly communication will solve our mutual disgruntlement. (One down, five to go....) Katje has been ordered to divest herself with anything that has to do with my house and its construction; and since I know she reads this blog (two, with four to go...) ~~Cough, wheeze, cough cough wheeze~~; still sick, but can breathe enough to not turn blue (three and three....) Got an appt. this week vs. the 9,029 days it would take to get into the other local dentist's office; this is a major achievement, it seems (4 and 2...) The winds haven't been too bad, as far as wind speed goes, but, dang that air is getting beyond chilly. ICK! (5 and one to go!) Ahhhh! the electrical grid. I believe it would be more accurate to call it the lack-of-a-grid (6/6!)
4:30 a.m. Saturday last: I wake up and find that there's no power to any gizmo in the Tin Can. It's below freezing outside and a good sized iceberg is making its way inside. I put on my ski pants and new Marmot jacket and fleece and mosey outside. Yes, I'm nuts. I go in and out of The Tin Can a few times until I decide what to do. No power means there won't be any water since the well pump won't work. No microwaving any food (that was a double-whammy situation as the microwave number pad has been too spastic for words and hadn't been dependable for a coupla days now), no lights, no internet, no charged iPhone, no nada! HOWEVER--I could bake cookies in my propane oven if I so desired. Ahhhh! But if I open the fridge more than a few times I may as well toss everything in there out. CRAP!
By 6 a.m. I'm out in the pre-dawn scraping silicone off the glass block we bought on eBay last year. I wave at a car that's going up the road--it's the electrician coming to finish up his install before he calls for the inspector to come out. No wonder the costs for the electrician is so damndably high--he works on Saturday! Double crap!! That done it's time to head into town and get some sustenance and milk and a new room heater as I've burned up two now. Yup--crap x 3. By 3 p.m. I'm getting cold, there's no news about the power outage or when it will be back on line. I start packing my laundry up and 3 bags of student work that needs to be graded and I make a call to La Mirada and hook myself up with a room. Life is looking up rugby shorts.
Nice big bed, wonderful posole (Mexican hominey with red chile--yummy!,) TV!, unlimited hot water and a generous and gracious hostess who can do nothing but shake her head at me and stifle a bemused smirk as I apologize for my lack of poor timing in needing a room for the night. What she must think!
So, with mounds of grading and laundry to temper my joy, I avoid most realities for a few hours. I try not to think of the 8 weeks behind we are on the build. I try not to think of how I won't be in the house by Christmas, or New Years, and by my reckoning I'm going to be 49 before I get to inhabit my own damn house. Heck, I've waited 48 years to have my own damn house, what's one more year, eh? I start calculating how many days and nights I'm going to be at my home-away-from-tin-can and what it's going to cost me. And none of it fazes me--it must be done, so therefore it WILL be done. So there!!! Plllllbbbbbbbbb!
Now we wait on the electrical inspection. The inspector is well-known in this county--well-known to be a total ass. He ALWAYS finds something wrong, takes DAYS to come on-site, and days to return to check on the 'fixes' he cited the electrician for. So, Rex is stuck, I'm stuck, the electrician is stuck and we wait. Calgon, take me away!
Oy vay! At least school is enjoyable. I truly missed my students. They're surprising me all over the place this year--total terrors are working hard, totally talented kids are blowing me off, but most of 'em are just plain fun and doing very well. It warms my three-times-too-small-heart and makes me smile. My students ROCK!
OK, so here's this installment in the form of brevity: THIS PAST WEEK TOTALLY SUCKED GREEN DONKEY DICKS!! (The first one of you, my loyal if electronically crippled fan base, to cite the book and the author from whence I stole that last lurid bit from gets to stay at the house for free for however long they want to!) [I can hardly wait to see what y'all's failing memories dredge up!]
I hope I didn't come off as too whiney....But, if I did, I'm sure someone will tell me about it manana!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment