Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

Malcolm Forbes
US art collector, author, & publisher (1919 - 1990)

Mine certainly doesn't!  ability catch up to demand, that is!!!

 

Catching up a little :

 

We got a refrigerator brush and we brushed and vacuumed a lot of dust and gunk out from under the fridge.  Another serviceman came out. He didn't do a lot more, but he was much more helpful.  He said that there is a metal plate that prevents any rodents going up into the works where I thought one might have gotten.  He found no dead rodent where one could (and has) gone which is where we were poking and vacuuming.  He said the smell is from rat urine and that the first service man was not far off when he said it needed to be hosed down.  He admitted that hosing it down probably wouldn't do the job; the underworks need scrubbing.  I am going to try scrubbing it with the refrigerator brush dipped in cleaning solution.  – as soon as I can make time!

 

My options are – 1) somehow get it clean enough to eliminate the smell,  2) replace the refrigerator, or 3) live with the smell –popping popcorn does a fair job of covering the smell, but how much popcorn can one family pop?

 

It still seems very strange that the smell is worse when we open the fridge if the source is under it.  Oh, well.  Of course, we do tend to avoid that end of the kitchen unless we need something from the refrigerator.  We also tend to hold our breath.

 

Meanwhile –

 

Oh, yes, my DMV-is-going-to-suspend-my-license-because-I-have-diabetes appointment.  Went well.  Kaiser check my eyes with a wall chart thing – without glasses: right eye 20/60, left eye 20/25, both eyes 20/20.  With glasses: everything 20/20.  Ok, the appointment went well except the doctor deciding I was due for a mammogram.  At least she said I can wait a couple of years for an up yours.  I faxed the form in to DMV.  I am not sure, but I think they may contact me later for a hearing in addition to the doctor check.  Sigh.  We shall see.

 

Recently, I leaned slightly against my bedroom window as I was opening the other side.  The window, being old and decrepit, broke.   Also, the window in the someday-to-be boys' room is cracked – has been for years?  I figured we probably could replace the glass ourselves, but this seemed like a good time to replace the window.  For something more reliable, less brittle!, easier to open, better insulation, better looking, etc.   So, a week ago Saturday Andrew and I went to the Weatherite Window Showroom (as advertised on Armstrong and Getty).  David, the estimate guy, came and did an estimate the following Monday.  It took well over a week before Mike, the measuring guy, came and it may be 4-6 weeks bfore the windows are ready.  I am going to have both windows in the boys' room replaced and the broken one in my room.  That's as much as I can afford right now. 

 

To think that once I thought the boys would be in their room by my birthday.  Which year?   Now, I am losing hope for Thanksgiving.  Maybe David and Teresa get to use the sea room one more time.  Hopefully, we will move the boys by Christmas.  Everything tokes so long!  Of course, we have hardly begun to tackle the sorting of the mountain of stuff in the "family room".

 

Life is not all work, worry, and bad smells. 

 

Saturday, the boys and I went to Old Sacramento for the "Great Sacramento Duck Race"  (to benefit Special Olympics).  We bought a duck 013007, but I haven't gotten any phone calls, so our lucky spy apparently didn't win any prizes.  We had lunch at Roundtable Pizza – all you can eat salad and pizza lunch buffet, got chased off the Capital bridge for a boat to go through, and finally got to watch the Duck Dump at the up river bridge.  3 what looked like bulldozers or something dumped a yellow stream over the edge of the bridge.  Bathtub type rubber/plastic ducks, not live ducks, of course!  Once in the water, the ducks were held back by fire boats for a bit.  Who knows why.  They weren't really allowed to "race" on their own, but were herded by the fire boats – in between inter-boat water fights.  When the ducks got pretty much to our bridge, officials netted the winners – not necessarily the leaders ( ! The race is rigged, I tell you.) and the fire boats got serious about their water fights. 

 

We had a fire drill in our office building yesterday.  Hundreds of people pouring down the stairs.  Thoughts of 9/11.  I thought of the people who didn't make it out and how they wanted to contact their families one last time.  I thought about the brave firemen going up into danger.  When we got to the waiting area across the street, I sent a text to my children.  (Except for one or two whom I accidently tried to text their house phone – that doesn't work!)  Then, I relaxed and enjoyed the fresh air with my co-workers for a few minutes.  We cleared the 16 floor building in 15 minutes.  Pretty impressive, I think.  Of course, we knew it was coming.  However,  I don't think it would take us much more than 5 minutes longer if it was the real deal.  Maybe not even.

 

The fire drill made us late for our Accounting Class (held in our building).  We picked up the computer and projector and headed for the 14^th floor.  No one was there.  But we figured it was probably taking a bit for people to get processed after the drill.  We rearranged the furniture for our class, then decided to do some study group while we waited.  We ended up with the entire class time for study group.  Not one person from outside showed up, including the teacher.  They had known the drill was coming and no one said anything about cancelling class.  The teacher didn't post an announcement on Blackboard.  We didn't really mind.  We get more out of study group then we do from the class, anyway.  And we worked on Quiz 4.  When class time was over, we put the furniture back and returned to the office.   Do you think we will get credit for attending?  We did a sign-up sheet.

 

Oops, Break is more than over and I have some work to finish before leaving early to work on conference food for the weekend.