Mixed bag

We found a source for parts for the washer, thanks to Mimi's reference. Last night Superman ordered what we need. He told me the part should be here within 3 days. The instruction manual to install the part will be here in approximately 3 weeks. I see a potential problem here. Aside from the obvious, let me just remind you that Superman is an engineer. A Georgia Tech graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Yes, mechanical, as in machine, as in washing machine. If you think "Well, then, he should be able to figure this out with no problem," then you are very naive.

If you have been following this saga for any time at all, you will know that I love my husband very much. He is a wonderful man with many talents and abilities. However, when he attempts a project like this without benefit of an instruction manual he frequently breaks more than he fixes. Not always, mind you, but often enough for me to be nervous about this turn of events. Because he is a guy, and worse, an engineer, he will be sorely tempted to fix the machine before the instruction manual arrives.

Updates as the situation warrants.

On a closely related note, we are running out of clean clothes. I'm writing this at 7 a.m. and Sproing is getting ready for school. He cannot find a pair of pants that he's willing to wear. His distress is loud and dramatic. I can either do the pioneer adventure thing and wash clothes in the bathtub (fun, fun, fun) or load stuff in the van and take another trip to the laundromat. Either of these choices is marginally better than a root canal.

Peace has been restored to the home. Everyone just left for school and work.

Sproing had a traumatic morning. In addition to not finding suitable pants, the poor young'un has outgrown his shoes. He has two relatively new pairs of athletic shoes, neither of which fit is feet. He's been asking for new shoes and I, seeing that he has two pair in perfectly good condition, have brushed his requests aside. Superman discovered this morning that the poor boy can't get his feet into the shoes. Ah, I see the truth of it now. His feet are growing very quickly if he outgrows them before he can destroy them. We usually buy the Wal-Mart specials, cheap and not well made. They don't last long. Note to my childless readers: shoes are a major expense when raising children. 

We made it to October! This is very exciting. I mentioned that August is interminably long. September is hopeful, but much of it is uncomfortably warm. In October, the hope of September is realized. Cool temperatures! This morning the cup of water I got from the cold water tap in the bathroom was actually cold. In the summer we get warm water from the cold tap. Almost but not quite bathwater warm. (In Macon, GA the "cold" water is plenty warm enough for bathing, but way too warm to drink in summer.) Throughout September the cold water has been getting somewhat less warm. This morning, though, it was comfortably cool. This is one more reason fall is my favorite time of year.

In relaying my story of embracing the gay the other day, I realized that I was a fag hag of sorts in college. Well, technically a "fruit fly" since my guy friends were not of romantic interest to me. But I'll use the fag hag term in the general sense. I had a couple of guy friends, not close best buds or anything, but fellas I hung out with a lot. As I look back on it now, my retro-vision gaydar is maxing out on these guys. They weren't out, and I have since lost track of them so I don't know for sure if either of them has admitted to being gay, but oh, it's so obvious!

Shortly after graduation Superman and I were involved with a Bible study group in one of the big downtown churches in Macon where we lived at the time. I remember two guys, both of whom were very outgoing and musically talented, who I now suspect are gay. Neither of them was as obvious as my college buddies. I can't remember the names of my college friends, dad-gum-it, but I do remember the names of the guys in the Bible study group. I did a search yesterday for both of these men. I found references to both. There is very little information on one of the guys. The other one, T, I also found very little about, but in one source there was a profile. In the entry for "spouse" was the name Gene. As in Eugene, a guy! Yes! Superman laughed at my accurate gaydar. This is hardly proof, but it seems significant. I'd love to contact this guy and see what he's doing now. For that matter I'd like to talk to the other old buddy, too. The contact information I found was sketchy, and the phone calls I made based on the info were both wrong numbers. 

It's been a busy week so far. I can't remember most of what happened, but I know I have been busy. I took Sproing and Diva to their soccer game Monday night because Superman was sick. He usually takes them. The excitement of the game sometimes gets to me. So do the crowds. And the bugs and humidity. I'm a wuss. But I went and watched the game. The kids' team won, and Sproing kicked in the first goal. It went well.

Tuesday I did something, but can't remember what. Yesterday was the lunch with that women's forum group that I first attended last month. It was good, very thought provoking and stimulating. I learned a lot about various community services offered in the area. You know how I love to learn things. :)

And I have been trying to get here to write about it since Monday. Something always seems to get in the way. I got up early this morning so I could have time to write this. I can't quit you. Don't want to, either! I just get busy sometimes.

This'n'that

My teeth are so clean!  I love how my teeth feel after I've been to the dentist for a cleaning.  Yes, I saw the dentist this morning.  It's a lovely office, the staff is so friendly.  My dentist wasn't in today, so one of the other dentists checked my teeth.  I have a cavity, dammit.  I don't floss often enough. I go back next Tuesday to get it filled.  But right now I am full of teh happy for my dentist's office.  

It's beginning to feel just a little bit like fall!  Finally.  It is nearly cool today.  We're having a dreary drizzly day, the second in a row.  This is the kind of weather that induces me to go to bed.  It's a good day for napping or making whoopie.  Then napping.  We'll see what we can do.  Superman comes home for lunch.  Hmmmm.

Good news!  S got a job!  Yes!  He had an interview yesterday with the HR lady from K-Mart, and was hired then and there.  It's conditional on passing a background check; standard proceedure.  I'm thrilled!  He's thrilled.  C is thrilled.  There's a lot of thrill going on around here. 

 

I broke the washing machine.  S and Superman say that it wasn't my fault, that it just happened. On Monday I put a load in and started it up.  Evidently I got the thing too full or something, which is hard to do with a front loader like we have.  It seems to have gotten off balance though, and neither S nor I heard it.   S went back there to check on the washer's availability and found the dryer, which sits on top of the washer, was nearly knocked off the washer and leaning against the wall!  He put the dryer back upright, then noticed that the washer door was ajar.  The latch was broken.

It won't run at all if the door isn't closed, and with a broken latch the door won't close.  Grrr.  I called my washer repair man Monday afternoon, and he came yesterday evening and replaced the latch.  That's all that was wrong with it, just the damned latch.  This is the 4th latch that washer has had!!  The first two we broke by slamming the door too hard.  But everyone has been much better about treating in gently, so I don't know what happened this time.  The repair guy (yesterday's He-ro of the day) said he has never had to replace a latch on any other Whirlpool Duet washers, just this one. Strange. Gremlins or something, maybe.   Anyway, it works again (YAY!!) and I should be washing clothes right now.  Instead I am blogging.  

Do you recall when Manny's windshield cracked?  Well Monday I finally got a new windshield!  The window in the driver's side door shattered last week when I slammed the door too hard.  (Are we noticing a theme here?)  So we had to call the insurance dude about that, and Superman had them fix the windshield at the same time.  I have a new windshield with no big crack and no scratched and pitted surface!! It has been a joy to drive since then.  Sort of. Manny is having some starting issues.  Manny often has issues, you know.  He has issues with his windshield wipers, too.  Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.  So far they've always worked on high, so I'm not going to do anything about it just yet.  It'll do.

I got a text yesterday morning about 11:30 from Twitch.  It said to pick him up at 12:30, they were being dismissed early.  WTF?  No other info, nuthin.  I called the bus office to see what was happening.  The boss told me the power had gone out in the school building, not to worry, all was well.  When I get a cryptic text with news like that, I worry that there's some kind of hostage situation, or a dirty bomb, or a massive structural fire, or a major terrorist threat.  I'm a mother.  We do these things.  Thankfully I know where to go for info.  So Twitch got to come home three hours early yesterday.  He was very thankful because he was supposed to give a presentation in Economics class, and he wasn't ready for it.  Because of the power outage, he got a day's reprieve.  I'm not entirely sure he used it wisely, though.  He may very well not be ready for the presentation  today, either.  He is like that sometimes.  

It was pretty cool, actually, and I didn't have to worry about picking him up later in the afternoon.  We went out to Sonic for lunch, then came home and I took a nap.  It was loverly.  

 

I think that's about all I've got.  More updates as the situation warrants.  Film at 11.

Appointments and Disappointments

You know I don't get out much. This town doesn't have a very large or active cultural community. I've mentioned before that I would like to move away from here. My therapist is trying to get me to find the local community in which I can be comfortable. Her reasoning is since I'm stuck here for now, I might as well make the best of it. The best of it can be much better than what I currently know. The idea of attending Lander University is part of that plan. I have yet to fill out the application. I'm gonna do that soon, really. Ask me about it. Keep me accountable, please. That's one of my shortcomings.

A friend of mine forwarded an email to me yesterday notifying me of an opportunity to get involved in something interesting. It said:

Can you pass this on to anyone who might want to be part of our sewing team at the GCTheatre? I am working with some of our volunteer leaders and would love to have you involved. We are having a Volunteer Party and a short planning meeting at the Theatre tomorrow night (Thursday Aug 21) from 6-7ish/7:30ish. Please drop by if you can.

I believe I'll go. I like to sew, am fairly good at it, and don't take the opportunity to do it very often. And I think this will be very good for me. My friend said "...if you don't already know her, bet you would LOVE [the artistic director]. She is really smart, funny & down to earth, like you!" This is about as much theatre as we have in this town. If I want to meet local gays, this is probably one of the best places to do it, eh? ;) More than that, though, it will get me out of the house, away from the computer, and force me to interact with people! (Not that you aren't people. I just need to see some other live faces occasionally.)

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Another harbinger of fall: spiders. Superman and the kids were cleaning up some of the junk in and near the back yard yesterday. They turned over a large piece of something and Superman found a huge black widow spider! He reports she was at least 1.5 inches across. He gently picked it up (with a stick, not with his bare hands) and relocated it to the very back of our lot, behind the old tool shed. I wish he had told me about it before he moved it. I would love to have taken a picture of her.

You may wonder why he moved her instead of dispatching with her altogether. Spiders can be very useful. They eat other undesirables. Black widow spiders are not aggressive, but tend to leave people alone as long as people leave them alone. And if we tell the kids there is a huge black widow spider behind the tool shed they are more likely to stay way from there. Hey, maybe I should "put" spiders in a few other places around the house, just to keep the younger ones away from my stuff!

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There seems to be a theme with me and Chicago. It goes as follows: I want to go to Chicago for some specific reason, but I am unable to get there. Yes, it has happened again. Superman and I were planning to go to Chicago the second week in September. There's a biennial trade show in town then, one that he's been to almost every other year since the 1980s. Every time he goes he says "I wish you were here with me, I (saw, did, ate, etc.) the most wonderful things!" This year was going to be my year to go. But alas, our plans are foiled again.

Part of the prohibitive issue is economic. You all know the story, and are living it yourselves. Gas prices are up, along with pretty much everything else. Yada yada, whatever. There is an even more pressing issue, though. Sproing. Oh, boy.

This is my lovely son. He is very special.

I mean that in a number of different ways. Some days he is short bus special. That's the way he's been acting ever since school started on Monday. Monday morning he woke up in a bad mood. This was not an ordinary "I don't want to do anything you say" bad mood. No, it was an "I'm going insane and taking you with me" bad mood. There was screaming, irrational thrashing, complete melt-down at the very idea of putting on shoes, for example.

And it keeps going. He was like that Monday after school. And Tuesday before school. And Tuesday after school. Yesterday morning Superman completely lost his temper after dealing with it for about half an hour. He (Superman) came into the bedroom, totally dejected, and claimed to be a failure as a father. Oh, do I ever know that feeling! I called Sproing into my room and had him sit on my bed. He couldn't sit. He sprawled, he thrashed, he dug his head under the covers. He was complaining of being too cold, of his finger being infected (it isn't, although he has a small but painful scrape on his pinkie knuckle. He then refused to let me put a bandage on it.) He thrashed around like a fish on the dock. Nothing I said could calm him down. I was very calm, addressed each issue he mentioned with a low, even voice. I told him I love him, offered a hug and a back scratch, neither of which he accepted. After about five minutes he said he wanted to go see Dad. I wouldn't let him out of my room until almost time for Superman to drive them to school. He flailed a bit more because I wouldn't let him loose.

Yesterday afternoon he was a little more under control. We talked calmly, and I told him how much I liked his calm behavior. Everything went well until we came to math homework. They are reviewing things he could do well last year, but his skills have gotten rusty over the summer. Since he doesn't remember exactly how to do it, he's frantic. It's impossible to help him when he gets frantic like that, because he can't hear a thing I say.

I'm not sure I am portraying his behavior adequately. When he does this thing, there is no getting through to him. He can't hear. Nothing makes any sense to him. It's ultimately frustrating! I fear there is something chemically or physiologically wrong with him. Twitch and I were wondering if he has a brain tumor or something. It's such strange behavior.

And I can't leave him with anyone when he acts like this. A substitute care giver would need to be a behavioral health professional to deal with this crap. Hell, I need to be a behavioral health professional to deal with it! (He sees his therapist tomorrow afternoon) We left Light in charge when we went camping a couple of weeks ago, and that worked out moderately well. But Light goes back to college this Sunday. Besides, Sproing was not freaking out like this two weeks ago. I'm not sure I would even leave him with Light right now. Light, I am positive, doesn't want me to!

We will talk to his therapist tomorrow. I plan to ask her if we should take him to the physician for a thorough check up. He used to see a child psychiatrist, but the only one in town moved to the Midwest this summer, so we no longer have a psychiatrist for him. I suppose we could go to one of the large cities within 100 miles of here. That would be a real drain, but we will do it if we have to. We shall see.

As a result of all this we will not be going to Chicago next month. ::Sigh::