Another Perfect Weekend of Wonder and Joy
Not to brag, but my family had a perfect weekend.
First, I woke up Friday night smelling something burning--always a terrifying experience. I bolted into the boys room--it wasn't there. I checked the basement. That's where it was coming from. I woke up Justin and took the boys to my parents house while he investigated. The fire department kindly came over. They couldn't find anything, either.
The next day, a furnace guy came over. As soon as he walked in, he said, "That's electrical."
Justin's first thought was that it had to be my fault. See, our dryer broke last week, I've been hanging wet clothes all over the basement so that they can dry in the damp, cold air. Our basement isn't finished, so we have a rudimentary light switch, with some wires running up the bare walls.
"Do you think you might have touched the wires with the wet clothes?" he asked.
"Maybe."
So he changed out that switch.
Meanwhile, determining the dryer to be unfixable, he went out to buy a new used dryer. Now, I was a little tired from being up all night the night before. So I was talking to Justin on my cell phone about the dryer and dropping off a present to Richie, who was at a birthday party I'd forgotten about. While crossing the street in the car, I didn't jog far enough to the left. Instead I grazed the curb and popped a tire.
I needed to make some French food for my uncle's birthday party that night. So the kids and I walked to Aldi's, got the groceries, and acted like the tire incident never happened. Except that I had to tell Justin because he was on the phone with me and heard me say, "Oh, darn," or something like that.
When Justin came home, I was making blue cheese balls. Johnny was making chocolate chip cookies for an extra credit assignment at school.
"Welcome to hell house III," I said.
"How fast were you driving?"
He knows I don't speed in the city. I think it's a jackass thing to do. Kids walk to school in the city. Mothers push strollers while holding toddler's hands in the city. It is no place to speed. So that's my little public service announcement.
"I was going like 10 miles an hour."
"The wheel's all bent."
"Well I barely hit the curb. The tire was probably on the verge of popping anyway."
Justin laughed like he was on the verge of insane laughter.
But life goes on. Justin put a doughnut on the car and we went to the party and had a very nice time. I'd only brought one thing and everybody else had brought thousands of things, so I felt bad. But seeing how I can't hang clothes up to dry or drive, I think I did well for my mental capacity.
When we came home, the burning smell was gone.
Sunday morning, J.J. woke up having a bad asthma attack. Which was the worst part of the weekend. After a few breathing treatments, he was fine. But it bothers me because the reason for the attack was a slight runny nose and cough. We've been doing a bunch of preventative stuff for his asthma, but how do you prevent someone from ever having a cold? You can't.
We went to 7:30 Mass. Well, we missed Mass but had to sell discount cards for Cub Scouts and SCRIP gift cards for the PTA. So we went to the church, where an elderly woman came very close to hitting me with her oxygen tank because I didn't have a Target gift card for $35, only $25. Johnny sold one Cub Scout discount card, so we have 19 to go.
That afternoon, Justin found the reason for the electrical smell, a lightbulb in the garage had burned. J.J. and I cooked all day, because there was a bunch of stuff I had to cook for. J.J. likes cooking--especially breaking eggs. I just hope the recipe called for 1/2 a teaspoon of egg because that's how much made it into the bowl.
Justin hooked up the new dryer, which only cost $100. With the cost of fixing the wheel, which broke while talking about the dryer, it's a little more, but still less than a new dryer.
You probably think I'm being a smart alleck when I say we had a great weekend. But I'm not. Our house didn't burn down. If it had, we would have smelled it and gotten out safely. (There was no smoke, so no alarm went off.) J.J.'s medicine worked, as always. For some kids, it doesn't. I popped a tire, but did not get in a wreck. The church lady stormed off rather than hauling off and hitting me. And finally, the dryer wasn't that expensive.
We flirted with disaster all weekend, but in the end calm prevailed. Now, that's a weekend.
First, I woke up Friday night smelling something burning--always a terrifying experience. I bolted into the boys room--it wasn't there. I checked the basement. That's where it was coming from. I woke up Justin and took the boys to my parents house while he investigated. The fire department kindly came over. They couldn't find anything, either.
The next day, a furnace guy came over. As soon as he walked in, he said, "That's electrical."
Justin's first thought was that it had to be my fault. See, our dryer broke last week, I've been hanging wet clothes all over the basement so that they can dry in the damp, cold air. Our basement isn't finished, so we have a rudimentary light switch, with some wires running up the bare walls.
"Do you think you might have touched the wires with the wet clothes?" he asked.
"Maybe."
So he changed out that switch.
Meanwhile, determining the dryer to be unfixable, he went out to buy a new used dryer. Now, I was a little tired from being up all night the night before. So I was talking to Justin on my cell phone about the dryer and dropping off a present to Richie, who was at a birthday party I'd forgotten about. While crossing the street in the car, I didn't jog far enough to the left. Instead I grazed the curb and popped a tire.
I needed to make some French food for my uncle's birthday party that night. So the kids and I walked to Aldi's, got the groceries, and acted like the tire incident never happened. Except that I had to tell Justin because he was on the phone with me and heard me say, "Oh, darn," or something like that.
When Justin came home, I was making blue cheese balls. Johnny was making chocolate chip cookies for an extra credit assignment at school.
"Welcome to hell house III," I said.
"How fast were you driving?"
He knows I don't speed in the city. I think it's a jackass thing to do. Kids walk to school in the city. Mothers push strollers while holding toddler's hands in the city. It is no place to speed. So that's my little public service announcement.
"I was going like 10 miles an hour."
"The wheel's all bent."
"Well I barely hit the curb. The tire was probably on the verge of popping anyway."
Justin laughed like he was on the verge of insane laughter.
But life goes on. Justin put a doughnut on the car and we went to the party and had a very nice time. I'd only brought one thing and everybody else had brought thousands of things, so I felt bad. But seeing how I can't hang clothes up to dry or drive, I think I did well for my mental capacity.
When we came home, the burning smell was gone.
Sunday morning, J.J. woke up having a bad asthma attack. Which was the worst part of the weekend. After a few breathing treatments, he was fine. But it bothers me because the reason for the attack was a slight runny nose and cough. We've been doing a bunch of preventative stuff for his asthma, but how do you prevent someone from ever having a cold? You can't.
We went to 7:30 Mass. Well, we missed Mass but had to sell discount cards for Cub Scouts and SCRIP gift cards for the PTA. So we went to the church, where an elderly woman came very close to hitting me with her oxygen tank because I didn't have a Target gift card for $35, only $25. Johnny sold one Cub Scout discount card, so we have 19 to go.
That afternoon, Justin found the reason for the electrical smell, a lightbulb in the garage had burned. J.J. and I cooked all day, because there was a bunch of stuff I had to cook for. J.J. likes cooking--especially breaking eggs. I just hope the recipe called for 1/2 a teaspoon of egg because that's how much made it into the bowl.
Justin hooked up the new dryer, which only cost $100. With the cost of fixing the wheel, which broke while talking about the dryer, it's a little more, but still less than a new dryer.
You probably think I'm being a smart alleck when I say we had a great weekend. But I'm not. Our house didn't burn down. If it had, we would have smelled it and gotten out safely. (There was no smoke, so no alarm went off.) J.J.'s medicine worked, as always. For some kids, it doesn't. I popped a tire, but did not get in a wreck. The church lady stormed off rather than hauling off and hitting me. And finally, the dryer wasn't that expensive.
We flirted with disaster all weekend, but in the end calm prevailed. Now, that's a weekend.
posted by Midwest Mama at 6:50 AM
1 Comments:
What a wkend - you poor things, esp the asthma attack - that has to be scary. The best part for me was that you all came and spent the night with us - I loved that. Are those scripts cards the ones you can use at stores and the school gets credit? If so, I'd like to buy some from him. love, mom
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