Life Goes On

Leonardo de Vinci once wrote, "Nature never breaks her own laws."  I am not sure that his statement is totally true, at least as far as the natural order of seasons is concerned.  We awoke this morning to 49 degrees, an unusually cold temperature for Florida that reflects the unseasonably cold temperatures throughout the middle section of the United States.  I saw that Green Bay registered 14 degrees this morning, Wisconsin Rapids had 12, and Rochester, MN, was down to 9.  These cold temperatures are way too early for November 15, and I certainly hope they are not indicative of the winter to follow. If so, I mentioned to Rick that housing prices in Florida will probably rise as more Northern baby-boomers will say, "To heck with this weather.  Let's move South."

Yesterday was just one of those days.  In the morning, I took a wet rag and washed down the entire new shower stall to remove the last layer of grout film.  In doing so, I discovered a couple more problems: a ridge in the floor from the tile in front of the floor drain, and a tile on the top row that was scored but never cut, leaving a slight scratch half-way down the tile.  Our contractor Mike said that he will fix whatever problems we find, but we are leery of having anyone disturb too much for fear of making the structure weaker and looking worse.

We anticipated that Home Depot would deliver our fencing materials yesterday, so in preparation for that, Rick backed the vehicles out of the driveway.  The car was no problem, but in backing out the truck, he angled it too close to the mailbox, and the little hook at the top of the mailbox door scratched the rear quarter panel of the truck for about two feet.  Not good.  When he finally got the truck into position, I went to the mailbox and touched it.  The pitched slightly forward.

"Rick, we have a problem," I said. "This mailbox is really loose."  He walked to the mailbox and touched it to put it back into place. The whole thing ungracefully cracked at its rotten, termite-eaten base and fell over.

"Not any more," Rick said.  Then he walked away. Oh, good.  Now we had a scratched truck and a dead mailbox lying on the front lawn.  I carried the postal corpse into the back yard until we could find a replacement.

Soon after that, while we were out doing some errands including looking for a new mailbox post, a phone call told us that the Home Depot semi was on its way with our fence materials.  We called Steve who graciously volunteered to help us move the parts from curbside to the back yard.  Steve and Chris arrived before the semi did.  A huge semi pulled up, and the driver unloaded a fork-lift from the back.  Then he did us a tremendous favor.  He asked where we wanted the skid of cement bags (60 bags at 60 pounds a piece).  When we said the garage, he maneuvered the skid until he was able to drop and then push the skid into the garage. My back and shoulders thanked him.

The cement is fairly safe from thieves and raindrops in our garage.

He then asked Rick were he wanted the skids of fencing poles and panels.  When Rick said we eventually wanted them in the back yard, that wonderful man again accommodated us by driving the skids of materials into the center of our back yard.  No effort on our part... no strain on my muscles or on Rick's heart.  Steve and Chris just watched in wonder.  We really appreciated that Steve and Chris were willing to help, and we sincerely thanked them for taking time out of their day to come over.  In the end, everything was delivered with no time or effort lost on our part.

Three skids of fencing materials grace the center of our back
yard.  Oh, how I wish I could snap my fingers and have it
all installed!

After we were left with our fencing materials, Rick decided to call Home Depot to confirm that the cement mixer we ordered would be at the store by Tuesday.  The clerk informed Rick that the company from which they order the cement mixer had a fax machine that was not working, so they had not even placed our order yet.  Rick was furious.  He hung up from them and called the manufacturer directly.  The woman at the firm told Rick that he could order online and have it delivered to Home Depot.  She would wait for the order and be sure that it was expedited for shipment on Monday.  We should get it by Thursday.  OK.  That will work.  Rick placed the order.

However, that left another problem.  We now had two impending orders for cement mixers that were tying up over $800 of our funds.  We had been invited over to a neighbor's house for the evening, but Rick felt he had to go to Home Depot to cancel the in-person order at the store.

I went to the neighbor's home sans husband with an apology and explanation that he would join us shortly.  Our neighbors, Ken and Andie, moved into their home last May just before we left for Wisconsin for the summer.  During the time that we were gone, they made many improvements to their house, so I enjoyed seeing what they had done.  Rick soon joined us, and we had a wonderful evening enjoying their hospitality.  Rick even got their cat's approval when he jumped behind Rick on his chair and then settled for a moment on Rick's lap.  Babies and cats seem to like Rick, for whatever reason.  Maybe he smells good. We thank Ken and Andie for a wonderful, relaxing evening.

When we came home, we received an e-mail that said that Home Depot had cancelled both orders for our cement mixers.  First we had two, and then we had none.  Actually, the error was shared.  Their online ordering system only allows room for one address for contact information, so Rick naturally put down our Florida address.  The order would not go through because the charge card that we used is registered to our Wisconsin address and thus came up as invalid.  Shame on Home Depot for not having enough room for two addresses (especially with the snow birds down here), and shame on us for not putting down the correct contact address.  Rick again was furious.

This morning we decided to reorder the cement mixer and to try to send it to another Home Depot for pick-up.  No deal.  We had to have it delivered to the same store, but at least this time we put in the correct charge card validation address.  Rick said that he would try to call the manufacturer on Monday to see if the woman he talked to yesterday could still expedite this order.  Whoever thought that a cement mixer could cause so many problems.  Of course, now Rick is sputtering that it probably won't be delivered for two more weeks, and then we might as well not even start anything until after we come back in January.  Sigh.  We'll see.

The other thing we did today was to run the new shower to make sure that everything was flowing smoothly.  The shower head works fine, but the drain, which had not been used now for months, did not seem to drain properly.  Water started to puddle in the shower.  Oh, oh.  I dug out the plunger and we ran water and cleared the drain two times; thankfully, everything seems to be flowing smoothly now.  Apparently some debris, dust, or just an air-lock seemed to need dislodging in the drain.

A venture this morning to the Green Market downtown scored only bakery bread, and a delightful walk through a huge downtown art fair produced a few possibilities but a profound realization that our artistic tastes far exceed our discretionary funds.

Someday, we will have Gladys complete, but not today.  Finishing the bathroom must wait until Mike returns to fix what needs revision, and buying a new mailbox must wait until we can find what we really like.  Adding art will wait until be have nothing better to spend our money on (Ha!), and the fence will wait until our elusive cement mixer finally makes an appearance in our back yard.

I end with yet another quote, this one by Sir Paul McCartney, "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on bro,
La-la how the life goes on."