White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Saturday morning was actually quite tame. More enjoyable actually, since we started bringing the kids to swimming on Wednesday nights instead of the crack of dawn on the weekends. Getting breakfast made and herding the kids out the door nearly ended up in tragedy every time. No, this is preferable. Of course, Jake ended up in our bed again last night so when I extricated myself this morning, the Mrs and the Elder Son of Catastrophe immediately spread out to fill the newly made available space. Fine. I'll just go tend to the lawn-nemesis hounds and relight the fire in the wood stove. Once that is out of the way, it's on to breakfast: a pound of bacon, loaf of toast, a chain of sausages and whatever other vittles I can rustle up. Nothing is off the menu except scrapple. Even I wont eat that stuff.

Last night, I had to finally cave in and bring the car into the mechanic's. I just could not deal with the intermittent issues with the electrical system. I was fairly certain it was the battery, but just did not have the bandwidth to go out of my way to pick up a new one and install it. Of course, it that was not the problem I would still have to bring the car in so I just weighed the odds and figured it was best if I assumed the worst case scenario. After I dropped off the car, I had to walk to the Day Care/Child ReEducation Camp which was about a mile or so away. No great feat except for the obvious lack of sidewalks anywhere in suburban Philly. The shoulder of the roadways look like something out of Mad Max ... refuse and wreckage strewn about. All that was missing was gangs of scavengers.

I eventually made it to the semi-run down plaza that the swim club is located behind and I make a pit-stop at a warm little store on the corner. It's a candy-store (one that I imagine my kids will be visiting in the future) and picked up a few pounds of jelly beans. Some for the Mail-Person, some for my coworkers, a few for the kids, the Mrs and Myself. While I was there, I had to set down a cache of mail we had received that consisted mostly of Greeting cards, junk and a cell phone bill that is paid automatically via CC. In my anticipation of sugar-madness, I left the mail sitting on the counter. It did not hit me that my absent-minded behavior was so blatant till I had met the wife and we were already in the manor with our coats and boots off. Nutz. Hammer my way back through the rushing river of traffic like a red salmon scraping its way past bears, rocks, falls and other insurmountable obstacles.

Flash back to Saturday morning. I'm waiting till the Mrs is done with her shower before I leave the kids in front of the tube to scrub off the last remains of a nights sleep. Not more than 7 minutes into my warm, relaxing shower, the Mrs barges in and proclaims that the contractors that I had set a meeting with for 1000 had arrived. Fifteen minutes early no less. That NEVER happens! Well, while they survey the property (I've disarmed the mine field as well as the cyber attack drones) I quickly throw on my work clothing and dart out to meet them. These are the guys who are going to install my solar attic fans. We talk briefly and they note that my description AND evaluation about where the fans should go is right on the money. It takes all for 75 minutes for them to install the fans while I was putting up more lights on the eves of the roof. They were quite happy that I had a ladder all set up and that the slope of the roof was low enough for them not to need to tie themselves off. I had shoveled off most of the snow on the roof when I was putting up lights so that was an added bonus to them. No sitting in snow while it melted and invaded the clothing with semi-frigid water. Not that I've had to do that while trying to attach lights while staring down at the thorn encrusted bushes 20 feet below. Yeah. Anyways, they wrap up their work and I lay out the Thousand Dollars the units cost me. Good thing they have a great track record and significantly bullet proof warranty. One step forward on the fight to reduce our power consumption ... now where it that pamphlet for the heat pump/fuel cell/solar panel installations.

Speaking of power/gas consumption, I had to restock the wood brackets. It looks like we will have enough wood to last us for 10 more weeks. Hmmm, that will get us to the end of February but I'm not sure it will be enough. I'll probably have to order some pre-split/pre-seasoned stuff from the Guy on Buck Road. One more month (4 weeks) should do it. The alternative is a bit expensive actually. I would have to rely on natural gas to heat the house in that last month of winter and we all know how much of a tight-wad I can be about that! Yeah, I balk at paying a hundred dollars for heating gas but lay out a thousand for a couple of attic fans. Sheesh. I lay out serious dinar for food or gifts and all but I just can't sand paying for electric, water and gas.

Yes, spending money. When I picked up the SuperSaturn and drove it off I did not blink twice about the battery installation it required. Yes, I ruined the battery. The triple draining and then the cold-snap did it in. Chris the Mechanic could not get it to hold a charge. Damn. I've got to stop doing that. Having to replace the battery every two years is not acceptable. The Mrs, Tyrannical Twins and I stopped off and transferred the cargo/personnel on the way to the Seliga's house. She was going to do some 'Last Minute Shopping, Part XIV' while the kids went MAD at our guest's home. Needless to say, their pets noticed a disturbance in the force before we got within a mile and hid in their concrete bunker at an undisclosed location. We were there from 1400 till some time around 2300 hours. The kids were actually quite nice and did not set anything on fire or drink all the liquor. Of course, this acceptable behavior came at a price. Some time in the wee hours of the morning, Alexis woke up in a coughing fit and we had to immobilize her so we could give her a dose of cough syrup. I nearly lost a finger! She spent the rest of the night sleeping in our bed where the Mrs would normally be. She even got the part where she sleeps in the middle and jams her knees into my back correct. Something that is passed on from mother to daughter I guess. Since Jake woke up a bit later due to all the commotion, the Mrs retired to the futon with him and slept blissfully till mid-morning. Family Bliss, eh?

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# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 1:10 PM