I Rule!

Yesterday as I was heading out the door with Chichi to her usual Wednesday program, I ran into the hot guy who installed our irrigation system last year. When I say hot, I mean hot, and not just someone who is 'not bad' under the conditions of spending all of my time with children, longing for the company of grown ups. Since I was heading out, I was going to miss out on my opportunity to observe him at work, which was the first of my series of unfortunate events.

Just before I jumped in the car, I realized that I hadn't yet turned on the water supply to the irrigation system this year, which meant that I had to run back into the house with Chichi, which ignited a tantrum that set the mood for her entire day.

Next, I zipped down the stairs to the basement, where I quickly opened the valve to the irrigation system, stood there for a minute to make sure it worked, and then ran back up to gather Chichi, and took off, leaving hot irrigation man to tend to his business, with no one there to offer him a glass of lemonade. Sigh.

Upon returning, I heard the vacuum running, which meant, praise the universe, that it was cleaning lady day. Sadly, the vacuum obscured another sound that would have been a good thing to actually hear. That being said, I made no notice of the sound even after the vacuum had been shut off. The cleaning lady had heard the non-vacuum, mystery sound, and attributed it to the furnace, since it was coming from that direction. Due to my hearing impairment, I am prone to tuning out such background sounds, figuring that it was a neighbour's lawnmower that my hearing aids couldn't seem to tune out.

It wasn't until the cleaning lady pointed out some weirdness going on with the water pressure that I finally made the connection to the rumbling sound that had been playing in the background of the house for several hours. I ran down to the utility room to check out the valve that I had opened for hot guy earlier that day. Somehow, in my hurry to stop Chichi's previous tantrum, I missed that the bleeder valve for the irrigation system had been open. Water had been spritzing into the utility room for about 4 hours, which was evident by the ankle deep wading pool that I had created. Pity the drain in the floor had been plugged up with lint.

So today I spent a couple of hours ripping out saturated carpet and under pad, and convinced myself that I was being productive.

A Hair Raising Story

You know how some people pre-clean for the cleaning lady? I've been known to do that, although more recently I've said, 'screw it', and let my cleaning lady see us for the pigs that we actually are. I can't seem to maintain this same level of apathy for the dog groomer though.

Taz needs a grooming like nobody's business. There is a problem though. I haven't actually brushed him in about four months. Dogs like Taz should be brushed every week. This problem started when both of my dogs started a shed cycle at the same time, and I only managed to make the brushing time for my other dog. That left Taz to be neglected, until I recently decided to take him to the groomers due to his odor. I figured that I'd give him a couple of brushings first, so I wouldn't appear to be the lousy dog owner that I seem to have become.

Upon sitting down to brush him the other night, I noticed that he was so matted behind his ear, it seemed as if he had another ear growing there. It took me about half an hour to remedy that. Then I started working on his 90 lb body for a while. It honestly doesn't look like I've made a dent in terms of clearing out the shedded fur that is still stuck within his unshedded fur. That aside, there was a growing pile of fur on the floor, that was at least the size of a cocker spaniel by the time I gave up for the night. I guess I have a few more sessions of this before I can book him an appointment at the groomers.

The downside to all this is that despite my doing my best to contain and dispose of the mini-Taz that I created from all his stray hair, my house is littered with dog-hair tumble weeds that generally blend in with the floor, but catch my eye every time a door opens or someone runs by. This is unfortunate because now I feel this obsessive urge to pre-clean for the cleaning lady.