One Bad Day

Preamble to the bad day.
C. A few nights ago the dog just kept waking us up and jumping up on the bed and shaking and panting and going crazy. Our son text messaged a friend about some tickets or something. Except that he has a new phone and has apparently programmed it differently from his old phone. Instead of texting the friend, his dad got the message. Our phones make a cute little beep noise when we have missed a call. The dog was crazy nuts all night long because SHE could hear the beep and it scared her. We could NOT hear any beep as the phone is on the other side of the house. Dogs have very acute hearing.

B. There was a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico that made landfall in Florida and the resulting storms worked their way up the continent. There were thunderstorms and much needed rain. The dog is terrified by thunder. She doesn't care so much about the lightening. It stormed all night. The dog was scared and jumping up on the bed and was shaking and panting.

A. Some trailing storms passed through with the resultant thunder and behavior from the dog. It has been eons since I've slept. But life must go on.

The day
Water aerobics: The class was very full with lots of people who were in great need of any exercise class and hadn't been in one for at least ten years. There were five regulars there. And eight highly irregulars. I was third in the pool and claimed my usual place. Somehow, in order to not be pissy, I moved so that Barb could have a spot where she just needed to be and it happened to be under my feet. I moved to deeper water so that Barb wouldn't be standing on top of me. But it irritated me some. Not too much, but some.

Wal-Mart: I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home hoping to find a few things I needed and/or wanted. Pickings were sparse. I'm not sure what they are doing to their produce section but there was almost nothing in it. I did get some milk. Why is milk so expensive this week? The price of that liquid fluctuates almost as much as the price of gas. It is nice to live in a place where I know almost no one. I went to the store after water aerobics and before showering. I looked like crap, but I saw no one who would remember me later.

Home again: I immediately jumped into the shower. By now my skin was itching from all the chemicals in the water. It felt really good to wash that icky stuff off. But I now remembered that my hair conditioner was running low and I had just come from Wal-Mart and didn't remember to pick any up. Not a horribly big deal. I walked into the kitchen and remembered that I also needed dog food.

Calling the HOA: We have opted to replace to the warping wood and screen enclosure to the lanai with a vinyl structure with huge sliding windows and true door. We own the house – not even a bank has a piece of this. However, we moved into the land of nosiness and the Homeowners ASSociation must give us permission to do anything. We got a quote for the new wall, sent in the appropriate paperwork begging for strangers to allow us to improve our house, and waited. And waited. While we were on vacation, the contractor called to see if we had gotten approval yet. The wall was ready and shipment dates were set. It took longer to get permission than it did to custom build the components of the wall. Friday afternoon was my first call to the Management Company that helps Wescott to run smoothly. Karen is our representative. She was out of the office but would return my call when she got in around three.

No call.

Monday at 10.45 I valiantly tried again. I explained that I was told that the file with our stuff in it was lost. (The company moved for my convenience and without my permission on May 18.) Karen was again out of the office but would be back in less than an hour and return my call. Since I had laundry to do, that was okay because I would be home to answer the phone.

I did three loads of laundry. Nothing bad happened there other than the fact that I had to do three loads of laundry. I never forgot it and let my clothes get crushed wrinkled. I remembered to remove all the stuff that really shouldn't go into the dryer before anything bad happened. The part that I had control over worked.

Shopping: By the time 3 PM rolled around, I was livid. I had stewed and fretted and fumed. Now I opted to give the problem over. Some give their problems to God and let go. Me, not so much. I called Dick and told him that I was finished. I didn't care if the over-priced wall ever went up. We could pay to NOT have a wall. But I was done. He could call, but I was leaving the house now. And I did.

I went to the real grocery store and got produce and dog food. They had a huge bag of the dog food that LC likes and it was very cheap. Great. They also still had cherries which I wrote about last year. And frozen yogurt. And nice cuts of meat. I got my purchases home.

As I was bringing in the melting frozen yogurt, my cell phone was ringing. I had conveniently left it at home. I picked it up. Dick wanted to know if I had left a phone off the hook. There was only a message that said that my phone was in use when he tried to call the house. No busy signal, just this stupid message. I tried all seven phones that are on the main floor. Nothing. No dial tone. I had used it to call out in the morning and have no idea when it broke. Too bad Karen wasn't in her office when I called.

Phone company: I got the groceries put away and then called the phone company. The phone book likes to hide the repair number. There is a whole page about when to call them and it has no phone number there. There IS a phone number to call if you don't like the service the phone company provided, but no actual number to call if your phone is broke.

That number is six pages further into the small print. After all sorts of useless information. I called and got into auto responder voice recognition hell. As long as I said YES to questions all was well. When I said NO, which is very difficult to mispronounce, it "did not understand" and repeated the questions. In that computer generated voice. Finally, it was discovered that there was something wrong with my phone. A technician would have it fixed by Tuesday, June 5, 2007 – stated in it's entirety with each syllable discreet.

Doorbell: The house was getting warmer as the day wore on and so I opened windows. I have not yet turned on the air. I have many windows and ceiling fans and it keeps the house cool enough for my liking. I had all the windows open and the fans on. Nice breeze and cool enough.

The doorbell rang and LC went nuts barking. There was the wall guy wanting something. I explained that we were not ignoring him. That we had been trying for days to get the paperwork from the management people and were having difficulties. LC ran out when I opened the door. The guy needed a plat, I assume for the building permit, and I told him I could get a layout of the house from offline. I asked him in and the dog was following. As he got in the house, the door blew shut with a slam and the dog took off.

No dog: It was now 5.30 and I was in the middle of making pizza. The oven was preheated, the dough was mixed and had risen. The dog never really goes anywhere. She wouldn't come when I called. I put the pizza together with interrupted screaming out the doors for the dog. After plopping the pizza in the oven and circumnavigating the house, I took the timer and got in the car looking for the dog.

Search: I went in the direction we usually go for our walks. There were two 10-ish year old kids playing on the next street. I had my car in the driving lane, not pulled close to the curb. I lowered the window and yelled out while both hands were on the steering wheel, asking if they had seen my dog. One girl was listening to my whole question while the other kid screamed "What are you doing?" about three times and then grabbed her and ran screaming. I yelled back, "You can't even say if you saw my dog or not?" and the mother came out of the garage.

She wanted to know what was wrong. I asked if SHE had seen my dog or could find out if the kids could tell me. She explained, like I was Blackbeard, that her children were not allowed to talk to strangers. (I don't think that both of these children were hers. One was of European descent like the mother, and the other of African descent.) I described LC and everyone finally decided that they hadn't seen her. And the mother again reiterated that her children were not allowed to talk to strangers. I will make sure that when I'm walking my dog and that fat little girl asks to pet her, that I will tell that she is not permitted to talk to strangers and run screaming in fright down the street.

I continued on my way around the block and there was another little girl, this time a teenager, who was petting a dog and had a bowl of water for her. I stopped the car and LC perked right up. She got in the car and I said thank you about ten times. I was so grateful. LC was a mess, shaking and ears back and tail down. She is so easily frightened.

Return call: Karen really did return Dick's calls and the paperwork was finally found, mostly. There was a piece missing in action and they had no idea why it wasn't mailed to us sooner. I would guess that it was connected with that May 18 move. But they would be emailing me with the appropriate documents so that we could put up the wall.

I am so glad that most days go better than this.