I had a call from my longest-running friend from Shaker Heights the other night. She called to tell me that Lake View Cemetery - where Cleveland's best go to be buried - is running a sale on plots, vaults, and, grave markers. The most enticing the brochure is that they are advertising their cemetery as the final destination trip you'll ever take.
"They are calling it the ultimate place for your end of life staycation," she remarked. I almost feel some days that would be more exciting than this endless loop we're in now.
Right now, the husband is on vacation and our staycation is blurring the lines of the days - they are all the same.
And we seem to have lost all concept of what day of the week it is.
Because we can't travel - my lungs and asthma, and his essential worker status - we are stuck here in Baja Towson, doing things around the house. And they are the things that no one wants to do.
Saturday, we pushed a couple buttons and the oven in the range went on automatic cleaning mode for four hours. The temperature was low enough that we could open windows, but by God, it was stinky and smokey. Still, after four hours the oven was pristine after a wipe with some damp paper towels, and you could see in the window.
Last Friday it was a new hot water tank. We said farewell to Bradford White - whose age the old people who sold us the house lied about. Bradford was not five years old as they stated. Bradford was 12 years old. At 17 he crapped out. Bradford's position was filled by A.O. Smith, and the money in the bank replaced by a giant void of nothingness. Mr. Plumber on the other hand made enough to make two payments on his Mercedes Van.
Yesterday, I worked on a project for a client (all these Slavic names and strange punctuation marks!) that I have to deliver this week, while the husband weeded the gardens.
Today the BIG news was that multiple things happened!
First up, the husband gathered all his paperwork up to get his real ID driver's license renewed. Per Maryland's Vehicle Administration, he lugged in his certified this, that and a current bill moved to the address. The MVA is where humorous control hungry people go to work and you never know if you are going to get a human being or Morbo who commands you to "Sit there and remain SILENT puny human! I will ask the questions!" while tentacles of bureaucracy move about in slimy squishy sounds. In this case - and SUPRISE! -he got a human being who looked at the reams of paperwork he brought to the only appointment he could get since last May, who gave a brief look and said "We good." He was amazed - ten minutes!
Secondly, the Husband decided it would be a swell time to core aerate the sylvan grounds of Staten Cookie. I only exist to help remove the rented beast from our truck and put it back. What I hate about this process is that for the next month our sylvan grounds are littered with dirt plug that looks like a convention of Canadian geese was held here. We can do it for $65. TruGreen wanted us to pay them $200. Anyway, it will take a month for these things to either be dissolved by rains or chewed up by the landscapers.
Neigh Katty is crossing the street as I type to come to get about $100 dollars word of iris plants that the Husband had to divide two weeks ago.
Tomorrow, it's the exterminators for ants, followed by the arborist's (Trees by Felize) to look at the birch trees. The cable guys show up on Friday to replace the dying cable modem.
And in NONE of these instances to I get to send you a postcard with the words "Wish You Were Here" because I know that isn't what you would find fun.
Alas, in this time of COVID, the days seem to blend together and together and together. No fun at all.
The days blend together and together, indeed - but "staycation" is still a vile made-up word, and there is no getting away from it...
ReplyDeleteJx
No fun, Cookie! But important stuff!
ReplyDeleteyeah, tell me about endless loop. spouse has been working from home since mid-march. I lost my job on 6/30 due to COVID; I am looking for work, but nothing yet. WTF are weekends/holidays? spouse is being told he can return to his physical office on 10/1, but that may get pushed back AGAIN.
ReplyDeletethe only day I recognize is monday, cause the landscapers stop by to mow the lawns (mine and my neighbors). and I hear ya about the asthma; I have that too. I only go to the grocery store. restaurant food is either take-out or delivery.
at least we are still on THIS side of the grass and not at the cemetery.
Every day is Blursday, but you reminded me of something ... I need to set the oven to a four-hour cleaning!
ReplyDeleteBlursday wins the Internet. The first truth I heard today.
DeleteFascinating. So many people are stuck at home, so they are reinvesting in their properties. I even took to gardening this year, spoofing up the boyfriends front and back yards. Good for you, keeping busy. And yes, one day blends into the next... if it wasn't for Friday cocktail hour, I would never be able to differentiate. Cute how the cemetery is marketing itself during times of Covid. Very Johnny-on-the-spot. And funny, too.
ReplyDeleteYour Staycation sounds eerily similar to ours! We just had a Water Softener removed that wasn't even operational, we just bought the Home in February, the Tech said it wasn't working then either by the looks of it and the Inspection SHOULD have caught that and didn't. Swell, so all Day for removal, replacement and the financing of a new one with an RO Unit, a house full of Young Technicians. One thought he was gonna cut holes in my Remodeled Home's Ceiling to snake his lines thru... he looked around our Home and noticed what we'd done to the place for 'Halloween' and how Cool it was that I had a Satantic Goat Head on the Wall. I told him it's not Seasonal Decor, we live like this 24-7 and 365. But that if NO holes were cut and he didn't trash our Home installing said Units, I wouldn't rescind the purchase and put a Hex on him. Standing there with my Dreadlocks piled up like a Voodoo Priestess the Granddaughter said she could tell he wasn't sure if I was joking or serious and wasn't taking any chances. They installed with nary a visible sign they'd even been here, going above and beyond and taking about 8 Hours longer to get the prepaid Job done, must have scared those Young Men shitless? *winks* We also have had numerous things Serviced and dropped some Coin on replacement parts for things older than we'd been told were in the Home... of coarse our Sellers were not the original Owners either and so perhaps they had to Guess at Age of everything or what they'd been told, they didn't own this long. At least everything LOOKS good.
ReplyDelete