Today 2.0

Have you ever had your yak mess with your entire day? Yeah, me too. Today for instance. I don't think he meant to ruin my schedule, he is not that way. Probably didn't know any better. Nonetheless, he changed my whole schedule.

I had planned on writing entirely different stories. I didn't tell everything about my birthday story. Birthdays to me are no big deal, but this one was kind of nice. I received a text and a call from my cousin in Indiana. He was the cousin who was closest to my age growing up. He is still the cousin that is closest in age but we quit caring about that so he is just my closest cousin.

The next call came from a guy I have known longer than anyone that isn't a relative or sibling. I have known this guy since we moved to West Lake St. when I was four years old. We have been friends ever since. Well, there was a while we didn't really talk because of the orange guy with the hot wife. He called to wish me a happy birthday.

Maybe the most special call was from a friend of mine from the neighborhood. He doesn't live in the neighborhood anymore. His wife and he moved back to Knoxville a couple of years ago and we seldom talk. His impromptu call made my day. Miss you guys. I think you still read this crap.

The twins came "home" and it wasn't on the weekend. One of them brought pie. Cherry pie, which coincidentally happens to be Girl Twin's favorite pie. Try to guess which twin brought the pie. You're right, Girl Twin. I like cherry pie also, but hey.

That wasn't the only birthday pie in the house. We also had a key lime pie. Elaine's favorite. OK, I bought that one myself. I thought it was possible it was going to be a pieless birthday.

The kids and Elaine made sure I had plenty of gifts. The twins and Ivy had a great time with a new "toy" Elaine and Ivy gifted me, while I was watering the chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and guineas. Did I miss any?

For a day that usually means "another trip around the sun", this was a good day.

Our extra refrigerator is headed for the place where refrigerators go when they don't cool anything any longer. Yes, we have an extra refrigerator. This one came from Your Daily Fiber when we closed the brick-and-mortar.

Knowing what was coming Elaine and I started looking for a replacement. We bought the replacement after an extensive search at the Orange Depot. We paid for delivery, an ice machine, and disposal of the old fridge. Delivery was set for August 6th, yesterday.

I have learned quite a bit about delivering appliances to the mountains. Truthfully, stores don't want to do it. But they also don't want to let you pick it up at the store. No kidding they suggested we have the fridge be delivered to a house in town and we can pick it up there. Whose house? It doesn't matter.

Quick story. A few years ago, Elaine and I bought an entire appliance package from that big warehouse store. Not that one, the really big one. It wasn't long and the ice machine wasn't working. It was under warranty. The store made a half-hearted attempt to repair or replace the ice machine. Eventually, they just refunded the entire price of the refrigerator and instructed us to get it fixed ourselves. When we contacted technicians to repair or replace it, we were informed the ice machine are poorly made and we should live without an ice machine. Kostko and Pampung, if you are wondering.

In the afternoon of August 6th, Elaine called The Orange Depot wondering where our new fridge was to arrive. She was told the truck was there at 8:00 AM and could not get into our driveway. The truck left without contacting us and headed to their next delivery.

It may surprise you but I have a bit of a temper when things don't go as planned. It is a construction thing. Once on a construction site, I had a loud discussion with a subcontractor about how and when he was going to accomplish his work. I might have gotten a little frustrated. I walked outside the building and shoved the port-a-john with all my might. The port-a-john tilted and just before it tipped over, it violently tipped back on its base. A landscape laborer was in the port-a-john when I shoved it. The guy never liked me again. That's all right. You don't do construction to make friends.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the fridge was headed back to town. After literally an hour on the phone with The Orange Depot, I "somewhat" politely told them to keep the fridge. A quick internet search by Elaine and we were able to buy the same fridge at the other Orange Depot in town. It will arrive on August 23rd. They had better deliver it this time, or they had better stay out of port-a-johns.

Our crazy lives!

Monner