Fat Kitty has had enough of her Queen Elizabeth collar, and is strutting her stuff in her new domain, free of the collar and free of Carlotta. Carlotta is pissed off because she can no longer hide under the bed, waiting in ambush until Fat Kitty cannot hold her bladder any more, and has to leap down from the bed and make a mad dash to the poopy box. Carlotta now paces back and forth in front of the new barricade designed to keep her from her hated enemy. Meanwhile, Molly, in the throes of her illness, slowly moves about the house trailing drool and slime like a snail. She is very unhappy because she has always been fastidious about doing her messes outside, and she keeps going to the door to be let outside to drool in the yard. 
Meanwhile, out in the yard, specifically the swimming pool, the Barracuda pool cleaner has stopped working and needs a small part replaced. The part in question, the 'diaphragm', costs probably fifty cents to produce. At the pool store, I walk up to the cash register with the 'diaphragm' in hand , and the clerk says, with a straight face and no lubrication for what he is about to do to me, "that will be thirty eight dollars please.".
These are just some of the things that happened yesterday at my house. It wasn't a typical day, yet it wasn't really all that atypical. It just isn't the way it's supposed to be. This is not the promise I made to myself when I sold the hot dog stand and hung up my tongs. I'm supposed to be sleeping until ten in the morning. I'm supposed to be puttering around in my pleasant garden on a fine summer day. I'm supposed to be having a workout at the health club in the afternoon. I'm supposed to be enjoying cocktails and the company of friends, on a lovely Florida evening. That, is what a typical day is supposed to be.
Well it's not all that bad. At least one of those things I envisioned has been fulfilled. I do enjoy the cocktails a few evenings a week, and I don't necessarily wait for the company of friends.
Meanwhile, out in the yard, specifically the swimming pool, the Barracuda pool cleaner has stopped working and needs a small part replaced. The part in question, the 'diaphragm', costs probably fifty cents to produce. At the pool store, I walk up to the cash register with the 'diaphragm' in hand , and the clerk says, with a straight face and no lubrication for what he is about to do to me, "that will be thirty eight dollars please.".
These are just some of the things that happened yesterday at my house. It wasn't a typical day, yet it wasn't really all that atypical. It just isn't the way it's supposed to be. This is not the promise I made to myself when I sold the hot dog stand and hung up my tongs. I'm supposed to be sleeping until ten in the morning. I'm supposed to be puttering around in my pleasant garden on a fine summer day. I'm supposed to be having a workout at the health club in the afternoon. I'm supposed to be enjoying cocktails and the company of friends, on a lovely Florida evening. That, is what a typical day is supposed to be.
Well it's not all that bad. At least one of those things I envisioned has been fulfilled. I do enjoy the cocktails a few evenings a week, and I don't necessarily wait for the company of friends.
Nothing personal, but "gym", "garden", are these some new things you just took up?
ReplyDeleteYour stories of life in Florida do not measure up to the mental picture we northerners have of the "retirees"! Shorts, black socks and sandals, driving a golf cart madly through the subdivision with a drink in hand....is that you Alan??? I guess you'd need to move to a "special" place to avoid the woes of homeownership!
ReplyDeleteYou are "head of household" and that is what comes with the territory.
ReplyDeleteIf is leaisure activities you want simply make them your priority. If someone complains, give them the status of HOH.
Peggy: It is called the "Mr. McGoo symdrome" those typical Florida retirees have. hehe
ReplyDelete