Solitude Justified

Wife Happily In Panama Yesterday (photo by the fabulous Laury)

I finally spoke with my wife last night where she sounded absolutely beside herself in happiness surrounded by her family.  She still claimed to miss me but I think that was severely tempered by her joy at being with her beloved family and away from the cold weather. The Pana-Gals sounded off in the background asking about Buddy who had his head sleeping in my lap at the time and immediately perked up when he heard their voices.

She would have loved most of the weather yesterday which had temperatures soaring into the 60’s along with torrential rains.  We’d been under snow for the entire month of January but overnight it all disappeared, even the snow banks.  It was kind of jarring to get up and finds all this green around after so many days of the white stuff.  The winds did cause some damage in the area, lots of dead limbs in the road way and the car dealer across the street from my office had a canopy destroyed. 

I snuck away for a fun lunch with my son.  I am so glad that we’ve decided to keep up this weekly lunch.  He’s just fun to be around and yesterday he informed me that I was missing out on the new season a favorite show, Justified, which had started up again.  I had a firm talk with my DVR which I’ve come to depend on to track when new TV shows start up.  I then watched the first two episodes around cleaning up the aftermath of the Panamanian invasion in the house.

I also stopped by my favorite store – Sears to battle once again with their ineptitude.  I got sick up re-installing the auger belt on my tractor every five minutes and after semi-exhaustive research decided the belt must be over stretched and needed to be replaced.  But nothing is simple at Sears.  When I told the sales guy what I needed he said he didn’t know where to start.  I walked him over to a floor model of the snow blower and pointed to the belt that I needed.  He reluctantly got on the computer and found that they did have the belt and all I had to do was drive across the parking lot and find the well concealed Sears parts room.  I had him write down the parts number and set off in search of that mythical location. 

Despite their best design elements to keep it hidden I eventually did find it and ran into a truly great guy.  The parts guy was what you look for when you’re dealing with Sears.  They have some really talented people (usually well hidden) and the secret is finding them and having them solve your problem.  This guy was funny and was having a lot of fun at my expense when I showed him the part number I needed.  He told me that was not the part I was looking for and squared me away with the right (and cheaper) auger belt.  I let him go on and on and then I finally zinged him by telling him the part number was furnished by his fellow Sears “expert”.  He took it in stride and I’m sure did not contract out my near death experience when a new tire being downloaded from a truck that in true Sears form was blocking access to the parking area struck me as I walked by.  (I was the true idiot and should have looked before walking by).

 

Since this morning was rubbish pick up day I also had to organize the leavings of the frenzied packing of the Pana-Gals’ shopping adventures.  They say thieves check out rubbish to find out what houses have.  If anybody is checking my rubbish today, they’re going to think the house contains the mother lode of female shoes – we’re talking Imelda Marcos level here.

Backyard Sans Snow

Front Yard - Snow Gone Overnight

Destroyed Canopy Across from Office

Raylan's Back!!!