by Nasoosie » Sat May 26, 2012 8:27 am
GOOD MORNING SUE AND ALL!
Warning: this is long!
Thursday afternoon I hauled back here to my own house in the mountains, and was horrified and so discouraged to see what a house unoccupied for many months looked like! I was sick. The lawn was knee-high, bags of recyclables piled on the porch aong with wood chips and saw dust from the few days the kids did stay here this winter, mouse poops everywhere, plastic bins all over the house floors, filled with lord-knows-what they are trying to organize and help me sort through, dust piled so high on everything it was fluffy, torn-up-in-spots kitchen linoleum exposed again for the first time since my long-dead dogs were puppies and tore it up while I was at school, no refrigerator, flithy bathrooms from standing water, a washing machine that no longer shuts off the water coming into it, even when it shuts off, abandoned refrigerator sitting on lawn, tall grass going to seeed everywhere----my impression was trailer trash city! (Sorry for the expression----the only nice thing on the property was my travel trailer which I manage to get leveled and hooked up after a long battle with phones, Direct TV, outside house faucet leaks, getting my hand stuck in the vent fan over my stove while trying to pull the coaxial cable through the opening in there-----SIGH!)
The telephones, 4 of them cordless, lost their connectivity after the power pole burned and shut down all the power, and I needed a phone to call Direct TV for my service. Reading the phone manual written in chopped English, translated from Korean, or some eastern language, was a ball of fun! My daughter, the college professor, had tried for over an hour this past winter to restore them, and failed, so I tackled the job with some misgivings. HOWEVER----I finally did get one working, called Direct TV as my satellite receiver goes dormant after 6-7 months of disuse, and got a million choices, none of which I wanted, to opt for by pushing buttons. By the time I got a really nice agent on the phone I was at the end of my rope, screaming, and my patience (poor at best) was at an all-time taut, voice-stressing and yelling position. He immediately activated my receiver, and wanted to talk shop about options I qualify for with Direct TV----all I wanted to do was come out here to the trailer, turn it on, and bury my head and sob! I told him I hated my plan with them, as I don't like movies, sports, foreign channels,most of the music channels, and that I watch about a grand total of 10 of the channels EVER, but that now was not a good time to discuss this. He was on his way to Orlando, driving, and when he found out I had just come from there, wanted to talk more. Nice as he was, and calm as he was, I was just as not nice and not even close to calm, so he sensed it would be best to let me go!
When the kids got here, late in the afternoon, they found me sobbing and couldn't understand why. They felt as if I was accusing them of not keeping my house up, which, I suppose I was, in a way. But with a house of their own about 2 hours away, a new baby, Mandy's teaching job, Joe's courses he took to become a house inspector, stresses of it all, of course they did the best that they could after the lightning strike that caused all the problems. Joe called his friend to come and help him move the new (their old one, but relatively new) refrigerator off his pickup and into the kitchen. He battled with getting the water for the ice-maker hooked back up while Mandy hefted all the bins into the cellar and I took Orion out to the trailer here. I asked how on earth they could think this place would be ok for company and the first big barn party of the year on Sunday???? I told them it should be condemned and burned to the ground.
Amazingly enough, by late Thursday night, after hours of vacuuming, mopping, dusting, shucking stuff around, the house was able to have a place to sit down and relax!
They had to go to Plattsburgh yesterday morning to pick up Weldon and Melissa who flew in from Orlando and landed at 9 am. I stayed with the dogs, monitored the washing machine while I did a load of my clothes, a load of towels and a load of sheets, made the guest bed for Goog and Melissa, and tried to get the lawn mower started, which I KNEW would never go through this hay field lawn. No luck with my still sore ribs and all that pulling. After the other kids got here, things really got into motion, even though they had been up since 3am the night before! Melissa helped put the party food away in the now-working refrigerator, Weldon got a leak in the ice-maker line stopped, got my lawn mower started for me, got my motorcycle up and running, I managed to mow most of the lawn, totally amazed that it actually cut the hay, although the "self-propelled" mower is no longer self propelled, so today my arms are feeling like dead things attached to my shoulders. Joe got a call from his cousin who needed his help gutting and packaging his cow he just killed and was lying on his lawn (the kids get a cut of the meat for his help) and he had just gotten back from chain-sawing down a tree in his parents' yard and bringing the wood back here to the barn for the campfire on Sunday. In between and all around were 4 dogs who needed feeding, a baby who needed care, a party barn that still needs attention, burger patties to make, supper to feed us all last night.
As I sit here this morning, things are really looking and feeling pretty darned good! The lawn looks great, Molly's sore leg is oh-so-much better, Dinah and Mandy's two pony-dogs get along just fine, although she still has to be tied as I fear she will get on the trail of game and I will never see her again. I need to train her with the wireless fence collar as soon as possible. A few lilacs are still in bloom, the ones that didn't freeze, some apple blossoms are niceifying the air with their scent, and I plan to take a walk to the pond as soon as I get off here. I am told there is a moose on the property, lots of turkeys, turtles laying eggs in their dug holes on the pond banks, and I need to check the status of the blueberries. Perhaps I will not burn it all down after all!
Life is about learning to dance in the rainHappy travels!
But it's fun having all the folks around too. That's what the park is for.
