I arrived home Thursday, worked madly at the paperwork all afternoon Thursday, and all day Friday, and all day today. I am still not done! I am getting close though, only two piles left to process. These are all the bills and paperwork since last October, and it sure was piled high and deep!
Attila had two days off work last weekend. A rare event! We took advantage of it to drive down to stay overnight with Luna and Janus and the Grandbabies. We arrived shortly after lunch time, had a great visit with the kids. Janus was working, so when Luna drove off with the Grandbabies to a birthday party, Attila and I went shopping.
On Saturday morning I took a shower at the country house. It was grand, lots of hot water, lots of water pressure… until suddenly it stopped. Completely. No water at all. The water pump was not running. I called for Attila, but he was outside chopping wood. There was nothing for it but to get out of the tub, dry myself off, and begin to troubleshoot. Water came out of the bathroom taps, the water pump ran, no problem there. I decided then and there that we needed a new water pump. The one we have has been repaired with found parts, many times over. I think it is a good idea to invest the $300 in a water pump to sell the house. After all, most prospective buyers will turn on the taps to see what happens, they might even flush a toilet. We want a water pump that works!! So when we went shopping on Saturday, we were searching for a water pump. We found one that Attila wanted, bought it, bundled it into the car, and headed back to Luna’s house.
Shortly after we arrived back at Luna’s, she returned with the children. Then Janus arrived home from work, and took over the kitchen. He prepared a fantastic meal of BBQ pork chops, Caesar Salad, and home cut French Fries. We all wound our way up the three flights of stairs to the “family room”, where we watched the movie Madagascar, and ate popcorn. What a lovely time we had on Saturday! I was sitting on the floor beside Tink, who was very active. She would put her head on my shoulder from time to time. Then she put her head on my shoulder and fell asleep within seconds, literally seconds. I thought she was playing a joke, but no, she had fallen instantly asleep on my shoulder.
On Sunday Luna and Janus went shopping at Costco, leaving us with the Grandbabies. It was a lovely day, so we all headed outside, including Bim the dog. The children were busy making birds nests. They found toys that had collected water, poured the water into pails, added dry grass, mixed furiously, then used the device for flinging tennis balls for the dog to scoop out the mixture and set it to dry on the deck, to produce a fine collection of “bird’s nests”. When they needed grass, Attila or I would rake and de-thatch the lawn, and the children would collect the piles of dead grass we created. Imp was the chief bird’s nest maker, watching the process carefully, creating the perfect “bird’s nests”. Elf enjoyed riding his bicycle in the land behind the house, and cracking concrete “stones” using larger concrete stones. Tink helped her sister with the “bird’s nests”, and sat with Attila and I, in between us, arms wrapped around our shoulders. All three of the grandbabies played on the trampoline, even persuading Attila to give it a bit of whirl.
After Luna and Janus returned, we packed our things and off we went on our journey home. We will see them all again in a few weeks time, as we are having a family dinner at the country house, and they are driving up for it. Shortly after that they leave for Ireland. I didn’t know they were leaving before school is out, so that was a surprise. They are in the midst of packing and planning, getting ready for their temporary stay in Dublin. It is quite an adventure for all of them. They invited us to visit, but sadly Attila can get no time off from May to September, so we won’t be able to go.
Tonight Attila is starting into the projects that have to be done before the house goes on the market. He has torn out the main bathroom floor and has half the new floor installed. I have been carrying on with the overwhelming paperwork, and doing dishes. Soon we will call it a day, sit for a chat, and then head off to bed.
Mist is getting used to me being here again. She frequently comes over and meows at the top of her lungs, which she does because she is deaf. I stop whatever I am doing and spend some time petting her. When satisfied that she has had enough attention, she heads for my easy chair, which she has claimed as her own, and has another well deserved nap.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
10C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Monday 27 April 2015
Condition: Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Visibility:16 km
Temperature: 9.7 C
Dewpoint: 1.4 C
Humidity: 56%
Wind: NNW 17 km/h
Quote
“Live always in the best company when you read.”
Sydney Smith
1771 – 1845
It’s always something with houses, isn’t it? Since the house is not yet on the market, hopefully you’ll get to enjoy some of the benefits of the new water pump yourselves.
Sounds as if you had a grand visit.
It really is Wendy! The water pump is next on the list when the floor is finished, which will be by end of the week. I am trying to make peace with the house, calm it, baby it, pamper it a little, make it amenable so that the family that really belongs here will be able to sense the connection. It isn’t the house’s fault that we are in the wrong place, this house just needs people who are in the right place!
We had a grand visit! We won’t be able to visit again until next October at the earliest, and they will have changed a lot for having lived in another culture for six months!
Sounds like you had a lovely visit with Luna, Janus and the grandbabies! What a change it will be for everyone with them gone to Ireland, but what a wonderful chance for all of them to explore!
Would have loved to see a pic of Attila on the trampoline! 😉
At least the water pump had the good graces to cause problems now, so you could catch it before people started looking at the house.
Teri, Grandchildren are the big pleasant surprise of my life. I had no idea how wonderful it is to just love a child, without having to overextend myself every minute of every day. It wasn’t my children that overextended me, precocious as they were, they were wonderful girls. It was the ex and his relentless “vendetta” (his word for it, not mine) against me. It is a harsh and arduous task to raise children in a war zone.
But Grandbabies, oh my, what a joy to spend time with them!
This morning Attila suggested I shower before he left for work. He had removed the shower head and cleaned the pipe and the shower head. His theory was that something had stuck in the shower head.
Sure enough, when I was well into my shower, the water supply abruptly ended. The pump was not running, and this time none of the other water taps worked.
Attila’s new theory is that the water pump is overheating and would resume pumping water when it cooled down, which is what happened. Attila’s new theory led us back to needing a new water pump, which is the decision I made when the water stopped coming out of the shower head the first time, and the reason why we bought a new water pump over the weekend. I don’t really mind following while Attila’s theories play out, because he occasionally saves us a ton money, and more often than not the theory trail leads right back to my original conclusion and solution. It works for both of us.
So glad you had a lovely weekend!
I’ve been in the situation of showering along when all of a sudden the water stops coming! Only with us, it was the frozen hose outside in the winter of ’87 when we had no running water for 2 months and had to get our water from a hose hooked up to the neighbor’s house! Even that would freeze up and it seemed like it would be for those few minutes I was in the shower! Not fun! Good luck with the water pump replacement and the sale of the house…
As for Mist, I think you might need to obtain a new chair for yourself… and leave your old one for Mist… xox
Thanks Joan, it was a spring tonic!
Bex, what an unpleasant and memorable state of affairs! I hope it never happens to your plumbing again! I was only mildly inconvenienced, and the fix is within our immediate grasp, easy peasy.
So far I have not disturbed Mist, and have left her the chair. I did move it closer to the masonry heater, to maximize the warmth, she tolerated that much change without issue. I will only be here three or four weeks, not long enough to make it worth disturbing her habits, so I won’t.
Mist is enjoying the spring weather. Right now she is grooming in a sunny spot by the window. Good old girl!
Maggie, I most definitely know what it’s like to raise a child in a war zone. And I have a feeling you and I had similar roles in that sort of thing, always defensive and under fire.
Grandkids are fun but sometimes I wish they lived closer so we knew them better. Or at least that they were more mobile. I’ve been nudging SS29 to get his learner’s permit. Twenty-nine years old and he hasn’t gotten his G1, yet. I don’t know what’s up. He’s supposedly been studying for it for 5 years, now. Five years? I mean it’s not brain surgery. But he never gets around to taking the test, even though not being able to drive places is a hardship on them.
Hi Maggie,
I really can not imagine being that deep in paperwork and going at it for daze. I would flee screaming from the apartment.
Wow, Attila had two days off!!!!! Well spent with the Grandbabies, Luna and Janus. Sounded like a wonderful, memorable time. I am envious I will never experience this. I love to listen to other’s stories.
Okay, new water pump! That reminded me of when hubby and I lived upstate, NY and were living in an old, one room school house. Actually it was one large room, a tiny kitchen and bathroom with another very small room too. I think at one time it was a one roomer but then for rental purposes it was sectioned off. It had a wonderful mud room and huge windows that I will never forget.
Oh, where was I…..oh, it had it’s quirks. The January thaw when the creek that ran UNDER the house saturated our futon that was on the floor. We used that tiny little room I mentioned as sort of an Asian room.
Then along with the thaw came the wasps that fell out of the ceiling and the mice that invaded the kitchen. But the best, the very best, was the shower. Without fail when one was taking a shower the water temperature would go from hot to FREEZING. It was a real drawback. When we called the landlords and asked about it we were told “Yup, it does that”. We spent the winter there and then moved along.
How as the movie “Madagascar”?
The children making bird’s nest is too cute. Just watched a PBS documentary on “The Nest” and it was very good. I wonder if the children would like it?
Special purrs to Mist.
I liked, very much, what you said about the house and how you are honoring it for the next people who purchase it.
Teri, I thank goodness that those stressful days are over! As soon as Terra turned 18 the problem instantly disappeared, no legal grounds for lawyers to pursue. I never heard from the ex again. All water under the bridge now!!!
I long ago stopped trying to figure out the what, when, and why of the way my kids are living their adult lives. I expect them to do the same in return. I figure that they live in a different world than the one that I know, so I just accept that they are doing what they think best and leave it at that.
Nora, “daze”, yes, that just about covers the experience of paperwork mountains! I am through it now though, and have just one more web site to fix and then I need to turn my complete attention to giving this house a sprucing up.
Your old school house sounds like a real experience! It sounds lovely, but I would not like the cold/hot shower situation one bit.
Madagascar was fun! I rarely laugh out loud, but did quite a few times during the movie. I would like to watch it again sometime, as I missed bits of it here and there, as the Grandbabies are a grand distraction! I think a movie is pretty good if I can watch it all the way through, and not be offended by anything, which Madagascar managed to do.
The house is coming along nicely, I am focusing on the kitchen for the moment, mostly deep cleaning. With this lovely weather, and no snow, and no biting insects, I love it here. It is so calm and beautiful. I must keep the winter situation in focus though, I will not spend another winter here, and I do not want to live apart from Attila again… so this house is getting a lot of love for the next few months!
Maggie, I wait in joyful anticipation of SD turning 18, though I fear the drama won’t completely disappear.
I hear you about kids being adults and having their reasons to do things, and that’s fine – except when they expect DH to do 3-6 hours driving back and forth so they can participate in activities. DH is good at compartmentalizing and leaving things go but I really would like the family to be able to get together for things, without DH having to play taxi.
Teri, I hope your years of drama come to an end!
I was just talking to DH this evening about PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and how I never had an eye tic until a few years ago. Thank goodness even that has gone away in the last year, except for a few high tension times.
DH is such a special man. I just never bargained for what he had as baggage with his ex. My family was like yours, down to earth, practical farmers that worked hard and enjoyed their times together, so the difference is startling.
LOL! I must have come in the exact moment you were making a change, Maggie. I was sitting there staring at the root directory for a second, dumb-founded. Where’d she go? Hope she didn’t shut down her site! What’s wrong? And then, in the blink of an eye, it was all back again, though a little changed.
Teri! Glad you hung around! I had quite a time fixing the errors caused by skipping a step, thought I could do it from memory, and the step I left out was so little, little step, big problems. All fixed now, and back to normal I hope. You probably saw the root, then the stripped down version that appeared before I got the redirect working as it should. I had some of the coding in the invisible access file to rewrite before things would work as they should.