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December 31, 2005

Thank Goodness That's Over

Here is my top six list of things that I am glad to be done with (in no particular order):

1. Military paperwork. I called to check on my travel reimbursement that I express mailed two months ago and was told that it was missing a form so they sent it back to the Transient Personnel Unit (home of the most incompetent people in the Navy). When was I supposed to get notified about this? Oh well, the good news is that I am still due a nice chunk of change. Other good news: this is the last little bit I have to deal with.

2. Christmas. Yes, it is true, I am not a fan of Christmas. I stop just short of outright hating it though. This year was better than others because I actually got to be with some of my family for the first time in many years. Having kids means that there has to be a certain level of Christmas so after weeks of nagging, I put up the Christmas tree. A week later, we decorated it. And then we decorated it every single day because the kittens tore it apart everynight.






3. Sewer system hilarity. I was supposed to host Christmas dinner but a week before Christmas the toilet backed up. By the way, did you know you aren't supposed to put draino in the toilet? In case you didn't, it foams up and all over the floor while your four year old hops up and down screaming "mom! mom! The toilet is throwing up!". After I put half the bottle into the toilet (what? that is what the instructions said to do if it was a stubborn clog), I put the other half into the shower which also was not draining. Let me just tell you that an entire bottle of draino let loose makes your eyes water in every part of the house. Dad came over and couldn't get a snake down through it so I called the Swink brothers. Two old coots with drunken pasts who are now only working because one of them is on medication that means they need the money. They supervised as my Dad did all the digging. Couldn't locate the clog at all which meant the city had to be called to mark all the various lines running from the house so they could bring the back hoe. My dad brought a camp port a pottie and I promptly discovered that the urge to christen new bathroom arrangements is NOT limited to kittens but includes human boys as well.

The Swinks were back the day after Christmas and spent 4 hours digging up the clogged pipe which happened to be at the join between my sewer pipe and the city's pipe (guess who has to pay). Again, my dad was right down in the stinky mud helping dig. There has to be some kind of award for that! They discovered that the pipe was FULL of roots. Good news - my sewer system should be good to go for another twenty years. All three boys celebrated by using the facilities - on the third flush the toilet overflowed. Dad came back over and found that all the new clean out pipes that were put in were clear. Must be something at the toilet. The snake wouldn't go which meant the toilet had to be taken off the floor. You have to be kidding - did you see what is in the toilet? I sacrificed my soup ladle and ladled out most of the "soup". There is probably some decency law that prohibits telling what my dad pulled out of the bottom of the toilet (with gloves) but it begins and ends with a p. How on earth a little boy could do something that big is beyond me. We are all cleaned out now though (in all ways imaginable).






4. The oven. When I moved in, the oven did not work. I am not a big fan of the color and layout of the kitchen and plan to remodel it as soon as the funds magically appear so I decided to limp the oven along by having it repaired. The last owner said that he thought it was about 18 years old. Try 25 - I found the receipt for it in the manual. The oven repair guy said that parts of the oven weren't even legally hooked up anymore because a certain type of pipe had been banned. Anyway, it took a couple of weeks to get in the part and we were in business. It is amazing what you can do with all the equipment in your kitchen equipment graveyard. After a couple of blissful ovenful weeks we arrived home to a horrendous natural gas smell. With visions of the house exploding, I called the emergency city guy to come turn off the gas line to the oven (I had pinned it down to there after opening the oven door and nearly passing out with the nastiness of it). Once again, no oven. This time the repair guy said "maybe you should just get a new oven". Christmas dinner was carefully planned so that I was only cooking the stuff that could be done on the stove top. After Christmas, we found a barely used oven for sale so now I am back in business again.

5. Medical appointments. My medical insurance situation is up in the air thanks to my procrastination. I will have the military health insurance for retirees and family as soon as I figure it out. No problem though, because we are very healthy and don't normally go to the doctor. Murphy's law struck though and I have had to pay for three school physicals, an eye doctor appointment, a dentist appointment and an acute visit for Eli's strep throat. The frightening thing is that the other three of us have borderline sore throats too. I will be calling Tricare (the insurance folks) on Tuesday!

6. 2005. Without question, 2005 was one of my most stressful years ever. Two major European trips (Rome/Florence and Greece), my fortieth birthday, an unwanted retirement ceremony, an international move, buying a house, starting a new job in a new area of nursing, my exhusband's mental illness flare up, sewer systems, ovens, the holidays and illness.

I am really looking forward to stability in 2006. Despite the stresses of 2005, almost all of them have led to me building a nice little home in a great area of the country. Next year, my list will be much shorter because I want NOTHING to happen. I am wishing for one whole year of building a boring routine which includes recovering my finances! Then I want to start remodeling one room at a time in this old farmhouse (that should provide plenty of comedy in my life).

Happy New Year to everyone - I hope 2006 brings you peace in whatever you do.

Posted by DebC at December 31, 2005 11:16 AM

Comments

Posted by: joan M at January 2, 2006 6:59 PM

Posted by: mary lou at January 3, 2006 9:11 PM

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