So many little irritations this week getting under Mrs. HM's thin skin.
The utility company that had laid out giant metal poles a month ago to replace the wooden ones along the road I take from the Gas Station Chicken Store down behind the local high school, past the cemetery, past the Devil's Playground, and to the bank... started working on them Thursday. Such a random day and date to start this process. It's going to be a mess when school starts next week!
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The county or state highway department took it upon themselves to scrape all the old pavement off the long high bridge I must use to get to town. Of course I made plans last week to start taking a slightly longer route to approach it, because when they direct traffic, they forget all about our county blacktop road that comes out about 10 feet from the top end of that bridge.
Silly Mrs. HM! It's been two weeks now, and nobody is re-surfacing that bridge. A couple days ago they put up bright orange BUMP signs at each end, so you don't knock your teeth out going over the metal joints at each end traveling a normal speed. And sometime on Thursday, they patched the deepest holes in the bridge with blacktop. Good thing! One of them was so deep that it was only a layer of wire mesh between your tire and the deep blue yonder down to the river!
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A denizen of our enclave grew fed up (same as me) with drivers tailgating him out here on our blacktop and gravel roads. He dared put a comment about it on the enclave's Facebook page, relating how he was teaching someone to drive, and a speed demon blew past him in a non-passing zone. The speed demon had the nerve to reply that it's 2022, and SOME people really need to put on their big-boy panties and get over it.
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I haven't been able to deal with the issue that came in the mail last Friday, incensing me more each day, because when I try, my cell phone cuts me off when I get to the crucial part. Dang the middle of nowhere, and double-dang metal roofs!
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Something happened to my hip yesterday. Oh, don't think I did anything more strenuous than stand up from a kitchen chair. But it feels like my left hip is out of place. Like I need The Incredible Dr. Pol to put one of those circular wire splint thingies on my leg to hold it in place.
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At the beginning of the week, I left late for town, and saw a dark cloud hanging over Casey's. By the time I got to Country Mart, I had to sit 15 minutes waiting for it to slack off. Surely you didn't think I'd go without my $3 scratchers from their machine! I got my big umbrella out when the downpour slacked by half. It's not a golf umbrella, but bigger than a normal umbrella.
SWEET GUMMI MARY! I thought the wind had slackened, but I was almost Mary-Poppins-ed across that parking lot! And once inside, when I folded up my giant umbrella and tapped its end on the rug so as not to drip on the tile... it popped open! I folded it again, but it wouldn't stay! I'm sure I was entertaining, dripping wet from the waist down where the rain blew on me, my pants legs having soaked up puddles better than Bounty the Quicker Picker-Upper, wrestling that gargantuan umbrella while trying to scan a winning scratcher and fish the newly-boughten one out of the tray.
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Of course, a few bothers such as these are still less stressful than a single day of teaching...
5 comments:
I rarely take an umbrella because I know I can't manage it if it is windy and I don't mind getting a bit wet. I have an umbrella that won't shut easily because the little thing you push to open it, slips just slightly off centre and I have to remember to push it straight so the damn thing will close. My other umbrella is easier and both are big enough almost to shelter two people if they are my size or smaller.
What is it with councils and disrupting school traffic? Those poles surely could have been put in place much sooner.
It's also less stressful than spending a few days getting your classroom READY for the first day of teaching (which is this Tuesday--perhaps that will get you up earlier than 1:00 PM so you can chuckle at my expense ;)
River,
I have smaller umbrellas that will just keep my lovely lady-mullet dry, and my shoulders and shirt pocket if the wind doesn't blow the rain. I love my giant umbrella, but it's unwieldy in the wind, and now that it won't close, I might have to retire it.
Those poles have been laying along the road for a month. I don't know why the time gap in delivering them, and putting them in. I don't mind so much for myself, since I'm rarely in a hurry, and they DO have flagmen to control the traffic. I certainly won't go that route during school let-out time, though! The lines will be outlandish.
Also, I don't know why our bridge had to be scraped, if they weren't ready to resurface it within a day or two. It's not like we've had constant rain, and they knew the temps have been 90+ all summer.
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Sioux,
Are you in cahoots with Farmer H, Madam? Trying to deny me my beauty sleep? Would you want to inflict an unrested Mrs. HM upon Hillmomba? I didn't go to bed until 8:15 this morning. I'll have to do your expense-chucking BEFORE I go to bed.
But I DO wish you an uneventful school year, with a laugh and a small victory each day, while toiling in the trenches of academia!
HeWho usually snatches the umbrella out of my hand to hold it. Not that he is being gallant, he says I don't hold it high enough and proceeds to stick it high enough for our 6'6' son-in-law, leaving me getting as wet as if I had no umbrella .... which I don't!! Having lived in Minnesota a good many years, I will tell you there are but two seasons there, winter and road construction. At least they seem to be busy every day to beat the first snow.
Kathy,
That's one problem I don't have with Farmer H. The two of us sharing an umbrella would look like two hippopotami under a paper umbrella suited for a tropical drink.
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