Usually when I’m listing excuses at the beginning of the
year as to why I have not been writing as diligently as I should, it’s usually
holiday and occasion related. Boy, do I miss those minor reasons.
Last year, my husband and I decided to buy a house. We now
often wonder why. We liked our apartment. Management was excellent. Whenever
something needed to be fixed, they handled it right away.
Moving was stressful, but we have more room than before. And having a
home meant I could get a big dog. We could do stuff in the yard. Plant flowers, grill, etc. (None of that happened by the way.)
We had our first leak during the summer. It was easily fixed
in a day. The second one happened the week of Thanksgiving. It required the
plumber to tear up part of the flooring and drill beneath the concrete slab.
The next leak came on Christmas eve. This ruined the flooring in all the rooms
downstairs with the exception of one. The next leak was New Year’s Day. It was
repaired in one day. That repair lasted for five days before bursting again.
During a blizzard. Our heating system uses water to heat the home. So, we had
no heat. Again, I remind you that this was during a blizzard. At this point, my
husband, quite understandably, had had enough and decided we should replace all
the pipes in the house. Due to the weather, lots of other people were dealing
with pipe issues as well and it took a while for a plumber to be available. We
ended up staying in a hotel for two weeks. We had the board the puppy at a vet.
The cat spent a couple of days at the vet as well before we learned that the
hotel allowed pets to stay for free. We couldn’t bring them both as the cat
can’t stand the puppy. Also, the puppy tends to be destructive and she exceeded
the weight limits of the hotel. (She is a Newfie, after all. At her last vet
visit, she was 90 pounds.)
Repairs are going slowly, but the home is livable. We’re
just getting back into our normal routines. I’m writing, but I am often
disrupted with repairmen tramping through the house. I am rather disappointed
to not have anything finished at this point in the year. I might be later than
I’d like to be getting anything into publication, but I still have hope. I hope
everyone had a much better holiday than I did.
