Potty humor, but I'm not laughing

Oh yes, folks, there is yet more plumbing drama to document. When we last left our heroes, they were waiting to get the plumbing repairs completed so that they could apply to have the water turned back on at the new house. You may recall that the county turned off the water while we were waiting for our special order toilet to ship from Louisiana. Wednesday actually went pretty well with the repairs, but only 3 of the 4 toilets got installed Wednesday. The "special toilet" did arrive during mid-afternoon, but there just wasn't time to get to it. Since the water was already off, there was no great rush, so we told the plumber it was fine for him to go home and complete the work Thursday (he had been out most of the previous night on an emergency call).

Thursdays are simply crazy for me at work, so DH took half a day off and agreed to meet the plumber back at the house at 11:30. Everyone was on time, and the plumber set about unboxing the very large box that UPS had delivered the previous day. Then DH hears him call out, "we have a problem." As most of you probably know (though I did not until we started down this road), most toilets come with the bowl and tank as separate pieces. You can buy one-piece toilets, but that is not the standard configuration. I'm sure you can guess by now what I'm about to say.

There was only a bowl in the gigantic box, no tank. It had not occurred to my husband or the plumber to check the box that was delivered because it was easily large enough to hold both pieces. The sticker on the outside of the box said "1 of 1," so there was absolutely no reason to suspect anything was missing. When he texted me the news, all I could think was "tell me you are joking." But it was no joke, and I was not laughing. "They WILL overnight a tank at their expense, or there will be bloodshed" was my text response. DH set about calling the store and prepared to kick butt. I, on the other hand, reached the end of my strength and had a minor meltdown (at home, alone). I sat on the sofa and had a good cry for about 5 minutes. Loud boo-hoos, body racking sobs, the works. Then my work phone started ringing, and I had to be a big girl and get with it.

DH was smart to not keep me updated in real time for the rest of the story. I was upset and angry enough as it was. Had he kept me current on events as they unfolded, I likely would have snapped. Not finding the people on the phone to be very helpful (he could not get connected to someone in the actual plumbing department, despite several promises of "I'll transfer you"), DH went into the store himself. He ended up speaking with the original guy who helped us, though not the guy we actually placed the order with. When he pulled it up in the system, he says "oh, the tank is backordered." And you were going to tell us this precisely WHEN?!! They were ordered on Friday, they knew we were in a hurry, and we called Monday to make sure everything had shipped as promised. No one ever said a word about anything being backordered. "We don't know when they will come in. Do you want us to order a different toilet?" No, we can't wait several more days for that. Try again.

So he checks the part numbers. Turns out, there is a toilet in stock at the store that has the same tank part number. "You can buy that toilet, use the tank, then when your backordered tank comes in, you can return it." I THINK NOT!! That *may* have been a viable option if you had told us back on *Friday* that the tank for the one we wanted was backordered. But now, especially after we verified the shipping on Monday? Absolutely unacceptable!! DH looks at the guy very seriously and says, "No. I am not buying anything today. You will open the box and give me the tank I need. You do *not* want to have to speak to my wife about this."

They gave it to him.

The tank fit fine, and is now installed. Plumbing was finished late Thursday afternoon, complete with water upgrade certification. DH was first in line at the county water department Friday morning. "Service to your home will be restored sometime between Monday and Friday next week." Could you possibly be any less specific? But it's done, and supposedly, we will have water next week. And if the county doesn't get it turned back on by then, as promised, I think I might explode.

Are we there yet?

Currently feeling: absolutely frustrated

Moving the Move

Well, we will not be moving this coming Friday, Nov 13, as planned. Given all of the insane craziness of the last 2-3 weeks, that's probably not a bad thing in the long run. It's just frustrating, especially since it is largely our own fault. We did not get the water upgrades completed at the house in time to simply transfer the water service from the old owner to us. (I would like to point out that I was in charge of scheduling movers, DH was in charge of scheduling plumbing.) We (ahem) did not even get a plumbing assessment until last Friday, though we thought we had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done from our very thorough home inspection. Turns out, a few things were not mentioned, and there are several additional "recommended repairs" that it would be easier to go ahead and do while we are replacing the toilets (which we already knew was required).

The original plan was to have the assessment done Friday morning, purchase toilets Friday afternoon, have repairs done Saturday (no additional charge with this company for weekend work; part of why we went with them), and have water transferred on Monday. We wanted to be sure and transfer the water before it was cut off, since it can take "up to 5 business days" to turn it back on if it has been turned off. The kicker is that we didn't know exactly when the water would be shut off. We figured it was sometime around Wednesday of this week, give or take a day. The seller had agreed to Nov 7 in the contract, but he mentioned at closing that he had extended it into this week "sometime" to try and give us enough time to get everything changed out, which was very nice of him. Only he couldn't remember exactly when it was. But we (ahem) figured if we had the repairs done Saturday, we could take the certification over Monday and have service transferred by Tuesday at the latest. No problem. Except that one of the toilets had to be special ordered because the house is older and modern standard toilets are too big (deep) to fit in the master bath! And it is shipping from Louisiana (that's about 550 miles (890 km) away, for those unfamiliar with USA geography). It won't be here until Wednesday.

Great. Now we're racing the clock. Plumber has promised he can have all the work done Wednesday so we can go to the water department on Thursday. You can see where I'm going, can't you? When DH dropped by the house this afternoon to try and change out the shower heads, the water had already been cut off. If we'd had the repairs done Saturday, we might have made it. Instead, we have no idea when they will be able to turn it back on, even if we do go in first thing Thursday. It's possible we could have it back on by Friday, but Monday or Tuesday next week is more likely.

Now I don't know about you, but I don't really want to move into a house with no running water, especially not with a 5-year-old. That just seems like a very very bad plan. And knowing how government departments work in general, I highly doubt they will have the water back on in less than 1 business day. We could always go ahead with the move but still sleep at our current house, but do we really want to spend all weekend sleeping on the floor in an empty house? I don't. My parents were also supposed to come this weekend, but with everything else going on with their parents (see yesterday's post), they really need to chill for the weekend and relax, not come up here unpacking boxes. The logical course of action is to delay the move. It will also give us extra time to do all those little things (like ceiling fans and such at the new house) instead of having to bust our rumps to get done before Friday. We called the movers, and it was absolutely no problem to shift it out a week. "It happens all the time." So as much as I hate to put it off for another week, in other ways, I am relieved to have some of the pressure off. With everything else going on, I was really starting to feel like I was going to crack. New move date: November 20. See you there!

Currently feeling: bumped out, but not all that upset

Grandparental Scares

I have two grandparents left: my maternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather (Mom's mom and Dad's dad). Both have had health scares in the last week or so. I'm sure my mother is cringing at my layman's descriptions below; hope I'm not mangling them too badly.

My grandmother had some fluid removed from her chest that had built up on the outside of her lungs. When the fluid was analyzed, they found malignant lung cells in it. She saw the oncologist today, and they said that she does have some cancer activity at the microscopic level, likely a recurrence of the same lung cancer she was treated for back in 1999 (a type that nearly never recurs, naturally). Keep in mind, she never smoked! Given the tiny size of the cancer at this time and the current slow rate of growth, they do not see the need to do chemo or radiation at this time. Obviously, they will monitor her to make sure things don't start progressing rapidly, but if it's taken 10 years to just now start having symptoms, we all hope it will be many many more years before we have to worry about treating it aggressively.

Then my grandfather was admitted to the hospital Sunday with bleeding. He was very weak and had apparently lost a good bit of blood. They gave him a couple of units in the hospital on Monday to try and stabilize his blood count. The idea was to make sure everything was okay on Tuesday and send him home. Unfortunately, the blood tests they ran today were not satisfactory, so he got at least one more unit (that's the last I heard this afternoon) and will stay another night. Hopefully, things will look good in the morning and he can go home. He is almost 90 and gets very confused at night at the hospital. Due to previous experience with him being extremely agitated, one or the other of my parents has stayed with him overnight each of the past three nights. I'm sure each one of them is looking forward to being back in his/her own bed, hopefully tomorrow night.

If you have any good thoughts or prayers to spare, for my grandparents and my parents, it would be much appreciated.

Currently feeling: cautiously hopeful

Missing the Shot

We spent a lot of time at the new house this weekend trying to prepare for moving day. Luke loves the back yard at the new house and has begged each time we've gone to spend time out there, which is fine, as long as one of us can be out there with him. Sadly, that has not been possible with all the "inside work" we've been doing. But Sunday afternoon, we were unloading things from the car, constantly in and out the back door. At least one of us was out there more often than not, so we let him stay outside and run around.

One thing about Project 365 is that it has forced me to look at my world a little differently and to carry my camera with me everywhere. In fact, I usually feel like a part of me is missing when I don't have it. There are still occasional days when it doesn't cross my mind to take a photo, but those are thankfully rare. I am nearly always there, with a camera, waiting for the opportune moment. But this time, my camera was inside on the counter instead of on my person. At some point, as I came back outside, Luke was completely oblivious to my presence, so I got to watch him "just being Luke" for a while.

He was wandering around, his head thrown back, chasing leaves as they fell from the trees, smiling and laughing the whole time. I was moved to tears watching the pure joy on his face, something so simple and innocent on a perfectly stunning fall day. It was a beautiful moment, and I'm so glad I came outside at the right time to experience it.

As I went back inside, I saw my camera sitting on the counter. For a brief moment, I lamented the fact that I hadn't had it with me. I could have captured that beautiful moment forever. Wouldn't that have been great? Then I reconsidered. If the camera had been in my pocket, where it usually is, I would have been much more focused on getting the shot than on what I was seeing. The "experience" of the moment would have been lost. Yes, I would have the photo, but it would have interrupted the emotional impact of simply "being." Instead, I have a complete unblemished memory of a brief perfect moment in my son's life.

Sometimes it's better to miss the shot.

Currently feeling: blessed

Frostbite?

So you're probably thinking that "frostbite" is some sort of clever title, but in fact, I mean it quite literally. I think I gave myself frostbite this morning. I was using ice out of the ice maker to fill up a small cooler of drinks to take over to the new house. As I was reaching into the bin, my hand brushed the underside of the actual ice maker part. Suddenly, I felt intense pain on the back side of my middle finger (the segment closest to the palm). I thought I sliced the back of my finger open, and I really expected to see blood dripping as I pulled my hand out.

Instead, I saw nothing, which made no sense. Maybe I had just scraped it? I didn't see anything, and I couldn't really feel anything, but it still hurt quite a bit. I could provide no logical explanation. I continued to put ice in the cooler, carefully avoiding the under side of the ice maker, and went on my way. Within 30 minutes or so, the back of my finger started to hurt again, only this time it felt like a burn. When I looked down, I saw a red mark about half an inch long (1.2 cm) and about a quarter inch wide (6 mm). It sure *looks* like a burn. All I can figure is that I managed to brush the actual chiller coils under the part of the ice maker that physically makes the ice and quite literally froze the skin on my finger, which (as I understand it) is the definition of frostbite. It was only in contact for a second or two at most, but yowie! It hurt for several hours, but it has now subsided. It's just really bizarre to think that's what happened.



Currently feeling: frozen

Star Wars in Concert

My friend Charisse and I, though never having actually met face to face, have been "kindred spirits" for a long time. We connected several years ago over being the family of ministers (she married to one, I the daughter of one), which is something you cannot truly understand unless you have experienced it yourself. Even though we are different denominations, we have become very good friends.

We also have another love in common, though: Star Wars! So being the good friend that she is, she was kind enough to let me know back in July that Star Wars in Concert was finally heading to the United States. I remember reading about it many moons ago, but it was only in Europe at the time. I figured it was just a matter of time before it landed in this country, and sure enough, they started touring in October, but without Charisse's heads-up, I wouldn't have known to be watching for it. I would also like to thank my father for letting me "borrow" his American Express card so that we could get in on the pre-sale. We decided we would also take Luke. What better first-concert experience could there possibly be for our child who has been able to recognizably sing 3 different "Star Wars songs" for well over 2 years now?

In addition to a live orchestra performing select themes from all the films with synchronized video of clips from the films, there is also a travelling exhibition of props and costumes from the films. According to the press release, many of these have never before left Lucasfilm to be displayed in public. I truly wish we'd had more time to look around. Everything was simply amazing in detail. We wandered around for a good hour before the show, and I still don't feel like we saw it all. At first Luke didn't want to even stand near the displays, so DH and I had some fun (hey, we've been fans since *we* were children!). Apologies for the blur in the first photo. I obviously didn't have the flash on (and then the next picture is a little over exposed because I didn't have it set right). And you know it had to be good if I am about to post a photo of myself with just me in the picture.



The local 501st was also there, so there were plenty of characters wandering around as well:



Still, Luke wanted nothing to do with them (other than admire from afar), until we stumbled on this!



It was a truly magical moment. I have never seen a grin like that on Luke's face in my life. Other than the obnoxious kid right behind him who pretty much flatly refused to get out of the way even after we had patiently waited our turn, kept (roughly) touching the droid, and whose grandparents had no desire to make him stop or *move* (ahem), I wouldn't trade it for anything. That was really the worst time we had with people (other than those who felt compelled to stop right in the middle of the already crowded corridors to tie their shoe or something). Generally speaking, everyone waited their turn and was very gracious and patient.

Once Luke had been near one, he was more comfortable being near the others.



They also had these large screens set up with different scenery, which I finally got him to stand in front of for a photo op (but only with Daddy). There were several others, but I correctly predicted that the droid battle would win.



But of all the amazing things they had on display, this was my personal favorite: three pages of John Williams's hand written score! It was the music for the droid battle from Episode I. Awesome!! How sad that there was not a single person near this display when I got there. Sure, it's not as flashy as the full jedi costumes or Han in carbonite, but these oversized pieces of paper were the real reason we were all there!



The concert itself was equally amazing. I knew from the start that this was something we simply had to take Luke to. The music of John Williams lights up his soul; you can see it on his face. (I recognize the signs well, he gets it from me.) I had chills and tears more than once, and sometimes simultaneously. Thanks, Dad, for letting me take the good camera so I could get some properly exposed photos.



The music alone would have been enough for me, but I'm not sure Luke could have sat still for a 2 hour concert that started *after* his usual bedtime without the visual montages that accompanied the music (Charisse, the second pic I took just for you!).



There were some pretty cool special effects as well. Luke was simply enthralled.



To say John Williams is a master of music and emotion is nothing short of a gross understatement. To combine that with the genius vision of George Lucas's universe, and you have nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece that has enchanted generations. Say what you will about the execution of the more recent three films, the actual story and the music are still both haunting and breathtaking. So thank you, Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Mr. Williams. You have given this family at least three generations of magic (starting with my parents), and I predict many more to come.

The force will be with us, always, thanks to you.



Currently feeling: R2 saves the day

Full Moon: A Conversation with Luke

On the way home this evening, Luke noticed the beautiful full moon hanging low on the horizon and looking especially large and lovely. I have to agree that his explanation as to why makes much more sense than mine!

Luke: The moon is really big tonight!
Me: Yes, it does look big tonight.
Luke: Why sometimes it's bigger and sometimes it's smaller?
Me (trying to answer honestly): Well, the moon doesn't actually change size. It's always the same. It just looks bigger or smaller sometimes, like an airplane up in the air.
Luke: But it's bigger tonight!
Me: It does look bigger tonight, but it's really not. When things look different than what you know is real, that is called an optical illusion. What you're seeing isn't really real. [NOTE: I didn't really expect him to understand, but I did want to start introducing the concept.]
::a silent pause of several seconds; I could practically hear the wheels turning::
Luke: Maybe the astronauts filled it up with air, or gave it extra food.

Currently feeling: appreciating my son's perspective on the world