Yes, we are still kicking down here in Central Florida!
Not sure when I’ll be able to post again, it might be a few days, or even longer…
You know that old saying, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all!”, well, my family takes that saying to a whole new level! Cop a squat and let me tell ya about the last month, here at Hammock House.
It all started with our DSL being out for few days, because someone had cut a cable. And then my laptop started going freaky on me, with the display going blank, or so I thought! When the light hit the screen just right, I could see, screen didn’t go blank, but actually just went super super dim. But why? Well, I found out it was because of overheating. Wait a minute, it is February - can’t be overheating, right? Well, After all our wonderful cold weather (although I cannot say that I’m particularly happy about all our plants dying!) Florida is starting to warm up. Why would that effect my laptop? I’ll tell ya why - because I used it out on the porch. No, not the outside porch, but the inside porch - where there is no insulation whatsoever. So, there are basically two temperatures on the porch. Freezing or Melting. It was great for the laptop while it was freezing, but that time is now gone, we are in the start of the melting stage. Sooooo… this means that the office that I’ve put off rearranging, now has to be ready so that I can use the laptop, instead of the big PC all the time.
Not looking for anything fancy - will be using a door on top of two file cabinets for a desk - but it’s the having to rip up the old carpet, padding and those stupid tack strips. I’d like to smack whoever invented those things! Well, right after he or she patches all the holes in the concrete that ripped off when prying out the nails driven in. Yes, the concrete apparently is very blessed. :o) The bad part about doing this myself is that it is killing my knees and back - the good part about doing this myself is, I am cheap labor! :o)
So, I am still working on ripping up carpeting and prying up tack strips, while trying to move old desks from one side of room to the other, because we still need a computer running, to pay bills! Can’t move the desks out into family room, because 5 bookshelves and all of their belongings are out there, from when I moved them out of office, so that I could have a place to move the old desks to, while I ripped up carpeting and pried out tack strips. See how this vicious and cruel cycle works?
But, what does DSL being down, laptop freaking out and tack strips have to do with bad luck? You my lucky friend, just have to be patient, cuz we aren’t done yet!
So, DSL came back up finally, I’m trying to get office done so that I can work in there, on laptop which is now not working right, which means that I am having to move everything around, so that I can pull up the old carpet (no, leaving it was not an option - 18 years old and even Ed Begley would admit defeat with this carpet!), so that I can get the door up for the desk, while still having a computer up and running so that we can pay bills.
Crap, DSL is out again. Four days go by, still no DSL. Six days, no DSL. Eighth day, I grab my cellphone to call Tech Support, open the phone, uh-oh, I don’t think that cracking noise was a good thing. Go to close the lid to see what cracking noise was - oh crap - lid to phone broke. I really do hate when companies use plastic for hinges and stuff - it never lasts. So, now, I have no cellphone, until I can replace it. But I digress.
Go inside to office, move paperwork that is piled high, because I don’t have the file cabinets in office right now, because of having enough to move from one side to the other, so nothing is being filed and I can’t find my phone!! Oh, there it is.
Call tech support - what do you mean DSL is not out? Yes it is, has been for at least eight days! Access number was changed? When did this happen? Oh, emergency change. But, why would that have anything to do with DSL, I don’t do dial-up? Okay, I didn’t it would, so at least I got that part right, but that still doesn’t help me, because DSL is still not working!
Well, we ran through everything we could, nothing, nada, zilch. Sure, have a supervisor call me tomorrow - I’m not messing with it anymore tonight, I have a desk to move again.
Did I happen to mention that I’ve been moving the desks around the room as I pull up carpet and tack stripping? Let me just say here and now, thank you God for giving us whoever it was who invented those gliding thing-a-ma-jibs that go under furniture! I’ve moved queen sized beds, big maple armoire, file cabinets that were still filled, desks and more! Anyway, today, I figured out why our DSL has been out, you see, amongst all the desk moving, carpet ripping, struggling with the tack strips, fretting about bills not getting paid online, cellphone breaking and laptop freaking; I apparently slightly touched the phone line that plugs into the phone jack. And I do mean slightly touched, you see, the little clip thing at the end of the phone line has a piece that sticks out, and that is what keeps it in the jack, well, it broke a couple of years ago, and me being me, taped the line in the jack. Hey, it’s worked for at least 4 years like that! Yup, all of this because I bumped it and it jiggled.
So now, carpet is 70 percent gone, tack strip and concrete(!) is pulled up where carpet used to be, cellphone is still broke, laptop is still freaking, have to go through an obstacle course to get to kitchen or a chair in family room, but bills are now paid and DSL is working!
Oh, did I mention, I have an ear ache, broke a tooth on a unpopped popcorn kernel and thank goodness we are in Florida, because I just do not know what I would do, if I actually went a whole five months without finding a friggin’ scorpion in either the house or in the garage.
Sigh.
If it weren’t for bad luck…
Oh yeah… Happy St. Patty’s Day - from this partly Irish gal!
