White Lightning Axiom: Redux

I nearly ran out of time to write about this weekend. I'm getting awful with time management here. I feel my Type-A powers slowly slip away. Might be a good thing, you know. Anyways, we stayed up really late on Friday Night. Late-late as in 2300 hours nearly midnight late. The Uber-Grandparents were coming down on Saturday morning to play with/tend to the Twins which would give the Mrs and I some bandwidth to go shopping for Family Tank II. I monopolized their visit to get a few things done though. Power washing the siding, picking beans, cooking, etc. I actually got the Pastoral Expanse mowed before they arrived so as to spare Hero Dad the agony of walking behind a roaring hot motor in the melting heat. Yeah, it is DAMN hot around here too. The lawn is suffering and I won't have the sprinkler available for use till the Ever Difficult Water Company turns on the meter that they have been threatening to remove for the last 8 months.

News Flash: I'm bending to the winds of change and I am allowing the Mrs to introduce a (gasp) non-domestic vehicle into our fleet. Yes, a Toyota Sienna. Upside: 85% manufactured in the US. Downside, I still feel dirty. No matter, I'm just happy that she will be happy ... and safe. Curtain Airbags and reinforced frame. When visiting the myriad of sales folk I let them know that MY parameters were AWD,ABS,Airbags (Front, passenger, curtain) and reinforced frame and sides. The space shuttle should have it so good. The rest of it was the predilections of the Mrs. And then there was the haggling. I'm awful at that so I left it in the more than capable hands of the Wiley Wife who lives for that sort of thing. Myself? The price is the price and if I do not like it, I'll go elsewhere. We only visited 2 places and I found that the second confirmed my dread of such folk. The first though was fantastic. We intend on visiting a 3rd this coming weekend but I imagine that our first hit will be our final choice. That, and the sales guy was a father of twins as well. Young guy, really fresh and charismatic in that he was not a purveyor of smarmy vibes.

Sunday was nice. I could bring both of the kids to church since I had back-up. In the heat of the day, we cranked up the powerwasher and Amish Dad crawled up on the roof to get those hard-to-reach places. A good activity on a hot day since you are constantly cooled by micro-fine droplets of water. A few other activities and then dinner by Super Mom. Grams can sure cook up a dinner that is fulfilling. Right before dinner, the Minister-In-Training Brother In Law came down from NYC to stay overnight. He was going to pick up the Father In Law who had stayed with us for the week and was bored out of his mind when the kids were at school during the day. Tis a shame that it took so long for the kids to warm up to him. Actually, it was Alexis who was stand-off-ish and Jake who would plaster himself to the nearest affectionate target. So when the kids were in the house, he had 'stimulation'.

Monday: All I can say is that we got a 215$ energy bill and had brownouts. It's going to be a rough week if this heat-wave does not crack soon. With the bill, we actually used 20% less electric this month as opposed to 1 year ago. The solar attic fans and the fluorescent bulbs are doing the job. Next step will be solar panels ... but I'm going to have to wait on that for a bit. At least until I get the car loan payments under control.

Technorati Tags: Family | New Car | Children | Heat Wave

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 6:09 PM