We're Sweating in the Winter

Here is the hand of a friend of mine who owns the Dublin Underground.

OMG, kids! What an end and a beginning to the year and decade I just had. If it is any kind of foreshadowing to the year I'm going to have, it will be much like the roller coaster my life has been up to this point. So, I guess I should be ready for it then, huh?

New Year's Day was very nice. I gave myself the morning to actually lie around and read. Yeah. When does that ever happen? Then I finally got cracking and tried to take care of some stuff and start in on the kitchen. My kitchen is the project I'm most afraid of. It is big and messy and high maintenance. So, I'm just going to have take baby steps with it and do one wall at a time, and then sort all the extra weird, stuff (which includes mounds of papers) I have yet to unpack and am not quite sure where to put. So, on Friday night I started with the wall behind the stove, that was filthy and greasy and was all lined from cracking paint. It was quite a chore and after I finished it, I decided to just go to bed.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that I didn't have any water. Apparently, it got very, very cold overnight and my pipes froze. Shit! I tried to fix the problem myself. I had some heat tape I turned on, and then spent a couple of hours with a hair dryer aimed at the offending pipe, before I called in reinforcements. My friend G. came over and brought a space heater, which gave my arm and our hair dryer a rest. Then I wrote a status update on Facebook about my pipes. I have no idea who gets on my Facebook page unless someone leaves a comment or mentions that they were on there, so I just assume that it doesn't get much traffic, but after I posted that, I was overwhelmed by the comments, the texts and phone calls from people with great suggestions. My friend's husband is an engineer and very thorough and sent me probably 20 texts about what I should do. The crazy thing was, that an hour after I followed his instructions, my water was back on. Hurray!

My friend G. wanted me to go have a beer with her, because she is going to Belize with a bunch of our other friends on Thursday and it could be a couple of weeks before I see her again. Since it was well below zero outside, I offered to drive her and a couple of other people. When I got out to my car, I realized that one of Stinky's friends must not have closed her door all the way and the dome light had been on all night and day. Great. Obviously, my car wouldn't start. G. was trying to think of options, but I had given up for the night. I figured if things were working against me going out and it was THAT cold, I should just take the hint and stay home.

It turned out just fine. Stinky went out until ten and Coadster went to her dad's house. I had a lovely evening listening to music, drinking a couple of beers and reading. I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I really loved it. I was glad that I had a lot of comic book knowledge and had taken a class on Caribbean literature and culture in college, so I got most of the references. I thought the last chapter in particular, was amazing. Now, finally on to Reading Lolita in Tehran.

On Sunday morning, I got a text from a friend making sure I was still okay with my water situation. I assured him I was still good that way, but mentioned my dead battery. He was nice enough to offer to help get my car started, and even pointed out that my back, right tire was low. Now that I have a garage, I don't really check my tires that closely. Anyway, it was so great to have it all taken care of and run all of the errands I hadn't been able to run the day before when I was afraid to leave my house because I thought my pipes might burst.

So, as always. Shit happens the way it does, and I am truly blessed with wonderful, caring friends. If that's the way this year will go down, then I'm one lucky, lucky girl.