the gremlins are back

True to form, Stretch is gone so the gremlins have come to play. It's not a good thing to find your FREEZER dripping with water. It was everywhere...

So, now, instead of getting out of the house to do something fun with the girls, we're sitting in the house waiting for a repairman who will be here sometime between "now (it was 11 a.m. at the time) and 3" p.m. What a way to spend a beautiful Saturday.

Hmph.

Update: By 3 p.m., there was still no sign of a repairman. So I called the company our landlord has contracted for these issues. The snotty girl on the other end of the line said they'd called and left a message indicating that he was running late. Um, no, since I've been home ALL DAY and no one called and there were no messages on our voicemail. I asked what number they'd called. It was completely unfamiliar and probably either belonged to our landlord or the previous tenant. The other number they had was Stretch's cell phone (yes, the same Stretch who is in another state for the month). Then she offered to delete Stretch's number (which they also had not called) from their database. WHAT?! Oh, wait, of course, because it would be SO helpful to delete the ONE phone number with which you'd have any chance of reaching the actual occupants of the house.

Seriously, I can't stand idiots or people who waste my time. Oh, and the repairman finally showed around 4 p.m., spent about 5 minutes replacing a part and declared the fridge fixed.

If it's not one thing, it's another...

It looked like the maintenance workers on my base were having a party at my house today.

I had one van parked out front and three more parked in my back yard. One of them told me I was one of their favorite ladies. Yeah, sure. Of course, I know most of their names since they are at my house so often.

Yesterday, I had the leak. Today it was the heat downstairs. It wasn't heating. It was blowing cool air.

This is how the "built-in" in my powder room should (and usually does) look.

But, today, this is how it looked. They had to pull it out to get to a heating unit under the stairs. Lovely. After doing some rewiring, they shoved it back into place. Then they told me the heat pump for downstairs (it is in the backyard) will need to be replaced. They'll do that Tuesday, weather permitting. I'm not going to hold my breath. Oh, and I need to keep my fingers crossed that it will be compatible with the unit under the stairs (and behind my powder room built-in) or it will also need to be replaced. Oh, joy!

Deep breaths.

Update: It's Wednesday and I have a new heat pump. Eventually, late in the day, someone even came and picked up the old (rusted and rather scary-looking) one that had been sitting in my backyard. All I needed was for it to be on cement blocks.

So far, it doesn't seem like they'll need to pull the built-in back out again. Knock on wood. It seems to be working okay. I have new cracks in the plaster all over the powder room and also in the kitchen, but I'm trying to ignore them.

Argh! The house from hell strikes again!

The house is leaking...AGAIN! The nice maintenance man who came by to look at it and then later brought another dehumidifier for the back hall, said the repairs would probably need to be pretty extensive. Can it wait for me to get out of this house?

Yeah, the dehumidifier is huge and loud and is in the back hall right by the guest room. The drainage tube is duct taped to the floor in front of the guest room door to prevent tripping and the tube is snaked back to the shower in the guest bathroom. This contraption is supposed to be here all weekend. Oh, and did I mention that I'm expecting my sister, her 4 kids, her friend, and maybe one of their dogs to come for a visit this weekend?

The end is near... da da dum...

So I have the end of this deployment in my sights... well, almost...practically...maybe... *sigh*

I don't know if it's something in the air or the water or what; but things are upside down, inside out... basically, it's mayhem around here.

I spent all morning running around base and town, frantically running as many errands as I could while L'il Sis was in preschool this morning. I kept tugging at my shirt because it felt like it was choking me. I'd tug on it only to have it creep back up my neck. It wasn't until I was picking up L'il Sis at NOON that I realized I had the shirt on backward...ALL MORNING!

Then, there is L'il Sis. She's been on a tear like only a 3 year old preschooler can lately. If she isn't whining, she's screaming. She's been beyond defiant. Everything is a fight with her lately. Dinner has been a "lovely" experience. Even things she usually likes, I end up forking up and feeding to her to get her to eat. All she wants is "junk food" or "snacks." She actually told me, "I don't like healthy food, only junk food." I think they've been talking about the two at preschool a lot. The funny thing is that she actually does like a lot of healthy things. I guess I better remember to not call them that, though. L'il Sis has also been talking and asking about Stretch a lot more lately. So, I'm hoping that it's just that she's as done with this deployment as I am. Otherwise, maybe I really will run away from home as soon as Stretch is here and has leave. (Shh, no one tell him or he'll never take any!)

more gremlins

Deployment gremlins strike again! It seems a power surge killed our TV. The one we bought during our recent tour in Korea. It's a cute little flat-screen. So I called the insurance company (yay for renter's insurance!) to see what I needed to do. Following their instructions, I hopped on LG's website to find the nearest authorized technician to look at the corpse. Turns it out there is only one in the state and it is a mere 4 HOURS away. Yeah, that works for me. In some alternate universe, maybe.

Meanwhile, I borrowed some one's husband for the brawn to move our old boxy TV from upstairs to the living room (where the corpse resided). See? I can so ask for help! Okay, maybe it was the vision of me dropping the TV down the stairs, me falling down the stairs, etc., that prompted me to go elsewhere for the muscle power. Just slightly ironic that we were just talking about asking for help over on SpouseBuzz Radio the other night.

"Daddy is a superhero"

Big Sis had a writing assignment for school today. She had to draw a picture of a family member in the military. Then she had to write a story about this person including what their job is, why they are important (to the child and to our country). First, she drew the picture, labeled at the top with "My tall dad" then we set about writing.

I was afraid I was going to have to explain what Stretch's job is. The only problem is that I'm not always sure if I know, let alone trying to explain to a 7 year old. So, I asked her what Daddy's job is. She answered with "His job is to save the world."

Of course, I ruined it by asking if she really thought that was Daddy's job. She ended up writing this: "My dads job is helping peaple. I like that job. [Right] now my dad is saving our country. He is importent to my becase it is an importent job. And also becase he is my dad. I miss him and love him a lot. He is [important] to our country becase he helps America."

update on deployment gremlins masquerading as contractors

I'm quickly losing the capacity to be civil.

When people tell you that they will call you no later than ___ with information, shouldn't they do so? Especially when that information involves when they will be making pertinent repairs to your home? I would think so. However, the contractor responsible for repairs to my house failed to call me Wednesday until after 5:30 p.m. (AFTER I'd left a voicemail for him asking for the information). At that time, he left a voicemail saying he wasn't sure if they'd be here Friday (today) or Monday but he would let me know. Guess what? No phone call. I left a terse message on his voicemail this morning. Then I spoke to the maintenance supervisor. Mr. Contractor just called acting offended because he called and left a voicemail for me after my voicemail to him on Wednesday. I interrupted him and pointed out that in his message he said he would call back to let me know whether it would be Friday or Monday. He paused, realized his mistake, and apologized. His tone quickly went from one of umbrage to one of retreat with his tail between his legs.

Now, much as I love being right, I'd love this problem being resolved even more!