Perpetual Ruminations

What Happened to My Day?

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away..."

At least when the day started, they seemed far away, but then life hit before my second cup of coffee.

I awoke early yesterday, put coffee on then opened the curtains to look out at the sunny morning. It was a beautiful but chilly morning. Even so, the heat of the sun was beginning to melt more of the snow and ice.

I poured my first cup of wake-up juice and settled down with my laptop to see what was transpiring here. But, before I could do much, the dogs got up and came to say good morning. Bellah needs some loving right away when she gets up, and Max has to sit on my lap for a few minutes, so I closed my laptop and directed my attention to them.

Next, they need to be let out to do their morning business, so I went to get dressed. It was much to cold out for my pajama shorts and sleeveless t-shirt. I took my coffee and went out to watch them sniff and inspect the yard, get distracted by the birds and squirrels, and to remind them why we went out.

Finally they took care of business and we returned in, just in time for me to refill my coffee. By now, my wife was up so we sat down to discuss what we would do for the day.  Before we could and after only a sip or two of my second cup of coffee, my wife's cousin showed up at the door. He drives truck, so he has packages delivered here for safe keeping until he can stop by and pick them up.

Yesterday, however, he also needed to take his private vehicle in for some work, and needed someone to follow him over and give him a ride back. Of course, he doesn't take it some place close, so by the tie we got back it was lunch time. After lunch he got a text stating his vehicle was fixed and ready to pick up, so again he needed a ride. This took until late afternoon since the vehicle wasn't quite ready when the text was sent.

When I got back, my wife informed me that we needed to pick up a few things from the coop store, which closes at five. We had a half hour to get there and pick up our items. One of them was salt for the water softener, which was getting very low. We also had some grocery shopping to do, so it was around dinner time when we returned home. I helped unload the pickup and took the salt in to fill the tank. That's when I discovered that we had a small water leak going into the softener!

Luckily, it was just a rubber gasket, and I had one on hand, but it meant shutting the water off to repair. Of course, it's plumbing, so nothing cooperated, and by the time I finished, with my wife's help, it was after eight. It looked like a late dinner, and unfortunately, we had planned for stir-fried beef and vegetables. I say unfortunately because it's a time-consuming meal to fix using all fresh produce. But, my wife and I jumped in and tag-teamed the task, and by nine thirty we were enjoying a delicious, but late dinner.

After, I assisted with cleaning up and dishes with the plan of logging in after we finished. But, and there seemed to be too many buts yesterday, my wife's cousin showed up as we were doing the dishes. He had been called from work to take a load out but his vehicle was acting up. His request, "Can I park my pickup here and get a ride over to work?"

It wasn't a problem except for the time it would take; He's supposed to have someone from the shop come get his vehicle, fix it right this time, and return it to his place of work for him when he gets back. But for me, it meant that I would be late getting back home, which I did around eleven-thirty. I hustled to get logged in to complete my five, but wouldn't you know it, the internet was down. I wound up tethering my laptop to my phone, which wouldn't be a problem except I haven't used my hotspot since last summer and couldn't remember the password!

After a few attempts I did get connected and logged in with about ten minutes left to get my five done which I was doubtful of. But I rushed, I typed fast (probably with many typos) and finished with two minutes left.