Monday, February 18, 2008

Getting Unstuck

Remember the movie Ground Hog Day ? Where Bill Murray is stuck reliving the same day over and over, and does all kinds of crazy things to get unstuck, but keeps waking up to find that once again, it's groundhog day. I've completely forgotten the reason for the disruption, or what he finally does to escape the insanity, but that's the kind of redundancy I've been dealing with lately.

The kids have been out of school since Thursday and won't be going back until Tuesday. (tomorrow - Thank God !) One, or the other of them has had an over night guest every night since Wednesday. Roy has been working alot of odd hours, taking service calls whenever they are available, so he has been in and out alot. I really haven't been anywhere, or done much of anything, other than trying to keep my house in some kind of order. The weather has been too yucky to get out and do much of anything. Since every one's regular routine is out of whack, they seem to wander around aimlessly, drifting from one thing to another, trying to find something to entertain themselves, and leaving a trail of chaos and clutter behind them. And eating - lots, and lots, of eating. My cupboards are looking kind of bare - or at least all the good stuff is gone.

While everyone else in this house is feeling bored and restless, I feel like I'm just treading water, doing my best to keep from sinking. Of course, I realise that Roy and the kids don't feel as responsible for keeping the house intact as I do; they focus their energies in other areas of their lives. Once they come home, they don't want to think about what they need to be doing, or what needs to be done. Still, it would just be nice if they would just learn to pick up after themselves, that would cut down on 50% of my frustration. But, I'm not going to make this one of my famous "bitch blogs."

Instead, I think I'll just touch on the highlights of these past 5 days in limbo. Uh . . . hope your expectations aren't too high. . . .
Let's see, okay, Thursday was the only nice day out of the five, I think we almost reached 60 degrees. (that's 10 C) So I took all the dogs for nice LONG walks. By the time I was done with all of them, I think that I had walked a total of five miles that afternoon. It felt so good that it took me almost three days to figure out why my legs were so sore and achy. Duh, it's been so long since we've had weather like that, I had forgotten how long I'd been cooped up inside.

As I mentioned, Friday morning I discovered that Nick had been transferred to Ottawa. When I called Saturday morning to get all the particulars of how they work things there, I found out that Ottawa jail ISN'T in Ottawa, Kansas as I had been led to believe, but in Ottawa COUNTY, Kansas - about 200 miles away ! So it sounds like weekly visits probably won't be happening after all. The good news is that Nick is fairly content there. It's a little, 60 bed facility, and they only have 37 guys there. So right now, they aren't over crowded and the noise and privacy levels are tolerable. Nick says that even the food is good. As a general rule, the bigger the jail, the worse the food. I doubt that their library selection is up to my son's standards, he can do some serious reading when he's in jail. I had wanted to get some money on his books so that he could at least get a pen and paper to write letters, but with the holiday today, I doubt the postal service will get the money to him in time for commissary on Wednesday. He'll have to wait until next week.

Sunday morning, we had about 2 inches of snow. Not really a big deal, but it made me happy because it meant that the dogs would quit tracking mud through my house. At least until it melts, and the temperatures get warm enough to thaw the mud pit in my back yard. YAY !! For three days, every time the dogs came inside, they were three inches taller than when they went out. But you know, I have to try to see these obstacles as opportunities to teach. The pups are finally starting to tolerate the whole paw cleaning ritual. I think that Phoenix, my ADHD pup, is actually starting to enjoy the extra attention. After he gets his paws cleaned, he goes to the back of the line so he can get a second helping of attention. That dog is just TOO happy.

Since I was given a break from paw wiping, mopping, and carpet cleaning, I spent most of Sunday afternoon cleaning out the garage that my husband trashed. (again) He keeps using the garage as a dump site for all the disorganized clutter in his work van. When he needs more space, he just backs up to the garage, and starts shoveling it out. Last time, he promised that he would clean it up. I patiently waited - 6 weeks, and it just got worse, so I had to deal with it while I could still find the floor.

Oh Lord, it's pretty sad when the "highlights" are pitifully dull. Well, I need to get things together for school tomorrow and it's getting late. It will be nice for life to get back to some kind of normalcy. I don't think I could handle another "day off" - it's too much work !

Hope y'all have a great week !
Love,
Susan

2 howled back:

Anonymous said...

It sounds as though you are somewhat content with the moment. That isn't such a bad state of affairs if you ask me.

-C

Anonymous said...

Chin up Possum - you are wonderful.

love mel x