Perpetual Ruminations

Saturday

Not so late tonight, and in better shape. I'm kind of surprised I made it through the last few days as well as I did. Very little sleep, hotter than fried frog freckles, and way to much on the stove.

So, lets break it down a bit. The last few days I've been up early, around 3:30 am for work. I work until 11:00 or so, most days, sometimes it's closer to noon when I get out, and weekends it's more like 14:00 to 15:00.

Normally I would leave work and come home, rest a bit, maybe even take a nap. I tend not to be a napper, but with the Lyme's I've been so run down that I have been taking naps. But, this go round wasn't normal at all. I had a day off on Tuesday so I slept in a bit. But, on Monday a person quit and left us scrambling to cover hours and got things all worked up again.

So, instead of relaxing on my day off, I spent it at home working here. I was going to study the drivers manual and go over to take my written test, but that all got pushed aside in the mess. Of course, having an expired license just added to the stress. There was no way I could take any time off or miss work, and it would have been almost impossible to not drive. Even so, with an expired license, I would really be in a jam if I got stopped for anything.

So, getting the test passed and having my license reinstated was a top priority for me. Only thing is, I knew I'd do better with a full night sleep and not so many problems to deal with. Instead of helping out in this area, my little brother decides he's bored and needs something to do.

He's been after me to go fishing and hang out, but I have not time and no energy. Working fifty hours a week on site and another twenty or so from home has me pretty well unavailable for anything. But, instead of support, he decides he will come down and do some stuff around here.

Now, that would be great if it worked out that way. But, knowing my little brother, I know that there will be no napping, and things will not work out proper. I was right, he decided the lawn needed to be mowed, which it did. Rhonda had it half done, but instead of doing the part she had not gotten to, he mowed over the shortest areas first. By the time he got to the tall area, the mower was not working right.

It was the clutch/drive wheel, wore out and in need of replacing. It still worked, but instead of finishing up, he pulled it apart and left for the night. Too late for me to nap at all, so I took the time to work on some paperwork and reports. I ended up staying up until almost midnight getting my work done, then slept for a few hours and back to work.

It's Friday, and I get off work, stop by my little brothers to let him know I'm going to take my test, and then I need to sleep. He wants to go look for parts for the mower, and messes around for a while. I finally leave, come home, change, and run over to take my test.

I figure I will likely mess it up, since I'm dead tired, but I hope to pass, just the same. I study my notes for a half hour then go in and take the test. A half hour later, I'm done, writing a check and have my license. I got 100% on the test, no errors.

Back home and it's now time to relax. But, it's hot so I turn on the air conditioner to cool the bedroom down. It doesn't turn on. I try the lamp, and it also is out. Great, it must have blown a fuse. So down the basement I go. But wait, the lights are out down there, too. Old houses and inadequate wiring. They must be on the same line, too.

So I grab a flash light, head down the steps and just as I step off the last step I flip the light on as I step into a foot of standing water. The basement is flooding from all the recent rain. Turns out, the sump is on the same line, too.

So, it's back upstairs, get a cord and run it from a working outlet and put on my waders, then head down to try and get the pump running. Always a fun thing to do, mess with electrical problems in a foot of standing water.

Well, even with waders on, I'm not going to try and change out a fuse in the main entry. But, I am good for plugging the sump pump into the extension cord and getting that going. An hour later and the water is down again. Now I can work on the fuse box and get things working right again.

After a couple of hours, I have the basement pumped out, the lights back on, and am about to tip over from fatigue. But, Rhonda will be home in an hour and I told her I would make supper. I cleaned up and started the chili. I was almost done when my little brother shows up, with parts and eager to put the mower back together and finish mowing.

Then Rhonda is home and soon we are all three eating chili, the yard is mowed, and I'm wiped out. Rhonda finished the chili, I got in here and wrote just a bit, then headed for bed after we ate. Oh, I should add that even after we ate and I explained I was going to bed, it still took little brother a good half hour to get going.

So, I got about three hours the night before, four last night and today... You got it, back up at 03:30 and try and stay awake and alert. Of course, with the weekend, it's busier yet and I run my butt off. But, by 15:00 I was finally driving home.

I did stop and pick up some wine, a nice red, for tonight and tomorrow. Even though we are short on help and will have to work, it's our anniversary and we should have a little celebration. Now, it's time for bed, another day over.