Grayson Returns From Camp

My G-rex is back home from Camp Classen in Davis, Oklahoma, where he spent a week swimming and crafting and all that camp stuff. He says he had a really good time.

It was so much easier dropping him off this year. Last year we left him with this sad puppy face. But this year he got to the cabin early, so he had his choice of bunks, and he was settled in and greeting his cabin-mates when we left. He barely thought to say goodbye.

I'm a bit frustrated with the camp because they failed to put him in the "Horseshoe Club" – the equestrian program I requested and paid for. I got a sad letter from him on Wednesday saying that his counselor had told him he was not in Horseshoe Club. So I called the camp and they assured me that he was on the list. I asked them to please check to see if he was actually showing up at the corral, and they told me they would do so. Of course, I never heard back from them.

I thought - well, maybe he wasn't on the counselor's list because we signed up late, but he'll be on the Horseshoe Club leader's list and they will have been looking for him. No. No, they just put him in another elective, so my boy spent the first day at camp crying because he didn't get to do what we told him he could.

At least they let me apply the money paid for the Horseshoe Club to his next year's camp. But I was steamed at them. Enough that I had to just walk away so I didn't embarrass Grayson by chewing their heads off. There were these two fat ladies who clearly didn't care that Grayson hadn't gotten the experience I had paid for, and barely bothered to say "sorry" in an offhand manner to me. Why are they working for a summer camp if they don't care about the kids? I felt the red curtain coming down, so I got out of there.

Grayson says it was a disappointment, but didn't spoil his experience, so I try to put it away. Breathe. Relax. He doesn't need me to be the Momma Bear over this.

He did at least get to ride one day. Here's a picture of him with his horse, "Tess." He loved riding, and my folks and I have promised him we'll take him to the riding stables here in Norman, and maybe get him some lessons, if they're not too expensive.

This week he's a latchkey child, hanging around the house on his own while I'm at work. It's the first time I've left him home alone for an extended period. I go home and check on him at lunch and make sure he eats something besides Cheezits. But I can tell I'm going to have to get him engaged in something else. I'm afraid he'll just hang around in his pajamas in front of the TV all summer, otherwise. So I'm sniffing around for things for him to do at least half the day in August.

The Unparallelled Joy of Air Conditioning

Oh Frabjous Day! I have air conditioning in my home again! Sort of.

Saturday I was informed that the receiver in charge of my house would not be replacing my defunct air conditioning unit. Instead, they would be putting in three window units. Great. I admit I was less than enthusiastic about this solution, but, since it was an unlivable 90 degrees in my house, I am more than willing to take whatever relief was offered.

Today, the long-awaited units were installed, and my house is cool again (if somewhat noisier). The dogs spent all day snoozing in the cool.

The other fabulous news of the day is that I got my chipped tooth fixed. It was driving me nuts, and I cannot adequately express the relief I felt when, the repair completed, I touched the back of the offending tooth with my tongue and felt... nothing. AH! Sweet relief from the compulsive rubbing of the rough spot that I have been unable to keep myself from doing virtually every waking hour since the tooth chipped last week!

In celebration, I stopped at Wendy's to get a Frosty on the way home. And this CHICKEN was parked under the sign. Yes, it's a real, live chicken. Well, of course, I got out of the car and made a complete ass of myself attempting to catch the chicken. What I thought I was going to do with it once I caught it, I'm not sure, considering the fact that the last chickens in my home were murdered by Roxy. But I tried. I chased it under the car and around the car and finally gave up and left it back where I found it, parked under the menu sign in the drive-through. I hope she finds her way home on her own.

In Which Grayson is on You Tube

Grayson occasionally gets hold of the camera and makes videos of himself. Mostly these are perfectly tedious, unless you happen to be his mom and think he's adorable no matter what he does.

Recently, however, while at his dad's house, Grayson created something that actually made me laugh out loud. It's partly because it's funny, and partly because he's so obviously in his own little world during the making of this video that it provides some insight into the peculiar workings of his nine-year-old brain. I would post it here, but you can view it on YouTube, and that way I don't have to upload it. So check it out:

Handzilla!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK7gHb1zSbU

The Plot Thickens

The Adorable AC Repairman returned today. He's the one who came a few weeks ago to change the filters and fill up the freon and chastise me for having a piece of furniture in front of my intake vent. He returned today to fix the water leaking from the condensation pan.

But Wait! It gets better.

Last night I heard a very peculiar thumping sound from out back and I went out to investigate. The sound was coming from the outdoor fan unit of the AC. So I turned it off, waited a few minutes and turned it back on. Nothing. It was dead. So now we have a leaking condensation pan AND a dead fan thingumy outside. The temperature began to rise immediately and within an hour it was clear Grayson and I would be spending the night at my folks house last night... which we did.

Anyway, Adorable AC Guy did his best to fix both units today. He was there for more than two hours, went back to the shop three times for parts, and finally admitted defeat when something inside it blew up and shocked him. He showed me where a bunch of wires were all burned black and fused together. Yup. Definitely not fixable.

I called the lady who manages the property for the lawyer who currently holds the house in receivership, to tell her that it's time for a new unit and ask her how she wants to proceed... but have as yet received no response. It's going to cost an estimated $5800 to replace both indoor and outdoor units. Wow. Makes me glad for once that I don't own the property. That's the good news. The bad news is that the earliest they can install it is the end of next week.

Now, while it's admittedly a good thing that Adorable AC Guy will come back and be Adorable in my home again, I actually would prefer having air conditioning. Particularly since there are heat advisories for this weekend, with temperatures climbing into the triple digits. It's looking like I'm going to be spending some quality time with my parents....

Sure enough

Sure enough, I paid the Sears repairman $125 to come out and tell me the leak in my garage is coming from the air conditioner condensation pan, NOT my washing machine. Oh, and -- by the way -- your washing machine bearings are on their way out and when they go, it's gonna cost you around $800.

Have a nice day.

Chipped a tooth the night before last. On nothing. I have no idea how it happened, but suddenly there was a little sliver of tooth on my tongue and a nasty rough spot on the back of one of my lower front teeth. It's driving me nuts! I can't keep my tongue off of it. I spend every waking moment rubbing my tongue along the back of this tooth. And it feels funny when I talk. You know you're getting old when your teeth start to wear out.

Hope I can get it fixed soon, or I'll go stark raving mad.

Things Fall Apart

I believe I've broken just about everything that can be broken.

The lawnmower you knew about. That still isn't fixed. The up side is that a least I don't have to mow the lawn. The downside is that my folks are paying my cousin to do it, which is nice, but I feel bad about the money they are spending. We took it to the shop two weeks ago: Turns out you can't put gas with ethanol in it into a lawn mower. It destroys their engines. Who knew? Gas is gas, right? Well, apparently not. Lord only knows when the mower will be fixed.

Then my air conditioning went out. I called the landlord, or more accurately, I called the property manager employed by the law firm currently holding my house in receivership. She sent a very nice young guy out to repair it. Turns out the filter needed changing and I had placed a piece of furniture over the intake vent, causing the thing to freeze up.

Next I had a "leak" from water pipes under the house. Or so I thought. I called the property manager and she sent out a pair of plumbers who crawled under the house and clunked around. Within about ten minutes they were on my front porch, smirking. They had "fixed" the leak they told me. I asked how they did it so quickly. They told me they turned off the hose in the back yard. Yeah, I'd left it running. Just a little bit, but enough to flood the yard over the course of a few days.

Now my washing machine is leaking and I was almost afraid to call someone to fix it. If the current pattern holds true it's almost certainly some dumb thing I'm doing ... or failing to do ... that's causing the leak. And it costs $125 just to get the guy from Sears out here to look at it, whether he actually does anything or not. I called, however, and made an appointment for two years from next Thursday or something like that. In the meantime, I will just move anything susceptible to damp away from the washer and soldier on.

Seems like I've been stepping on my own tail a lot, doesn't it?

Grayson recently returned from his first week at his dad's new apartment. That first week without him is kind of lonely, but I know he's having a good time with his dad, and, as I learned last summer, I'll get used to and even learn to appreciate the "Me" time. Nevertheless, it was good to have him home, and we had a nice weekend, just the two of us. This week our task is to go through Grayson's STUFF and choose a couple of boxes worth to send with him to Gray's next week. That will provide Grayson with some toys to have at his dad's – now that he has a room of his own – and clear some space in his room at our house. He doesn't even play with more than half the stuff in there, anyway. I could probably make it disappear and he'd barely even notice.