Yesterday was going to be one of those days. I overslept (which actually isn’t that bad because I got extra sleep). When I got up, I decided to mow the lawn before I had to take Tayden to the pool for his “job.” I call it his job. He plays with the neighbors older two kids in the big pool so the nanny can take care of the little one in the baby pool. And it gets me to the pool to swim because I rather foolishly signed up for the Poseidon Challenge in Indianapolis on July 8. It’s a 2K swim through the canals of Indy. Some of my college teammates said I could cheer them on during the race. I, of course, took that as an insult and insisted that I would swim with them. And maybe beat them. Okay, I have accepted that I won’t beat them. I was a diver after all. Anyway, I have to log some swim time. Back to the lawn though. I thought I had just enough time to mow, then wake up Tay and get to the pool. Except that there was no gas in the mower and no gas in the gas tank we use to fill the mower. So, I went to fill the tank instead. And if I was even entertaining ideas of mowing, the rain that started pouring from the sky just minutes after I returned home told me that those ideas were gone. In fact, swimming was gone.

No problem! I have tons to do anyway. See, we were getting a new fridge delivered yesterday, so I had to empty the old one and clean it up for a neighbor to use in their garage. Of course, I didn’t know that the neighbor wanted it when we bought it, so we paid a $20 haul away fee for the old fridge. Live and learn. Actually, as you now realize, we didn’t really NEED a new fridge, as the old one still works. It may in fact work forever in its old white glory. Now, it will just work for someone else. The fridge came about when the microwave broke. Originally, I just pulled the kids’ college microwave from the garage and presto – new microwave. But, Taryn will need it in August, and it’s tiny, and ugly (if I’m being frank). So, Travis had had enough of it and finally bought and brought home a beautiful stainless steel microwave. We installed it in shockingly short order (no mistakes – shocking) and it was lovely. It even matches the new dishwasher we bought a couple years ago when the old one flooded the kitchen…twice. It was so pretty that Travis thought that we should get the matching fridge. It’s on sale after all. And so, that was settled. Then he came home with brochures for counters and had me measure the counters in our kitchen. Things are starting to get out of control over here. If we replace the counters, we will need a new cooktop (it’s built in) and a new sink. This is quickly turning into one REALLY expensive microwave. So I am trying to stall on the counters – there’s nothing wrong with green formica – until after I have a handle on the fall college tuitions. But Travis is a man with a plan, so we’ll see how that goes.

Now, back to the fridge. I empty the old one into a combination of the trash (what is the expiration date on that barbeque sauce??), and two coolers. We empty the freezer into our downstairs fridge, which has an inexplicably empty freezer. Then I force the kids to help me move it and clean it. By force, I mean I took their phones away until they did what I said. It worked. So the delivery person came precisely at the start of the delivery window. Awesome!! He comes in, we force the dogs onto the screened in porch and the cats into a bedroom, and he takes our front door off in about 10 seconds. It was impressive and disturbing. After he and his partner get the beautiful new fridge off the truck, they call me out through the gaping opening that was my front door. There is a giant gash on the back of the fridge. It goes through the insulation and who knows what else. There is no way I can take this fridge. It’s not a cosmetic thing. So now I have an empty, old white fridge in my entrance way with all the shelves and drawers removed for cleaning and two coolers of food. This is not great. They tell me to call the store to report it and leave with my beautiful new fridge that someone had stabbed. Now I have to finish cleaning the old one, move it back into the kitchen, and replace the food. Only to have to repeat the process later. Frustrating!! I finished cleaning it, but by that point, there wasn’t anyone left at home to help me move it back. So, pissed, I go out and mow the lawn. When I come back in, there are some kids back home, so we move things back into place, and I start replacing the food that had made the fridge so dirty, back into the gleaming white fridge. I really had no idea of my capacity to live with dirt until I took apart the inside of that fridge. It was disgusting. And I had been complaining to everyone that someone had broken a bottle in the fridge and wasn’t fessing up because there was broken glass in the fridge. I never did a whole fridge search. Turns out, a glass bottle of tonic water had frozen in that section of the fridge that always freezes, and broken. But I had thought that since there wasn’t any messy liquid to clean, someone had done a half-baked effort to clean up the glass and had wiped up the mess. Turns out, nobody broke anything and there was no spill because the tonic water was still frozen. But it solidified my suspicion that I am complacent on cleaning issues. And now, my freshly cleaned fridge will get messy until I can get a new new fridge. And for the time being, I will have two coolers, including one we call the coffin cooler because it is roughly the size of a small coffin, in my kitchen because the coffin cooler is too tough to put away. And hopefully I will be needing it in a few days. Oh, and I still have the broken microwave on the floor, because what do you do with a broken microwave. Actually, the delivery guy said he could take that in place of the fridge, but I have to wait until they actually bring me a new fridge.

And after all that, Trent casually mentions that he wants to switch cars at 9 pm. See, the Acura (with 200,000 miles) is squeaking really bad now, instead of just sorta bad (we are very technical) and maybe it shouldn’t be doing that long drive to the cottage where Trent is working this summer. Except, the white Subaru, which is the only car available for a switch, is overdue for routine maintenance, so a switch is impossible. And we all know that Trent has been whining about being stuck with the only car without air conditioning, so we are skeptical of his reasons for bringing it up. But then I remember that I drove the Acura last weekend and it was squeaking LOUD from the rear passenger wheel. So, after some colorful language about waiting until the last minute, Travis, with Trent’s immediate and attentive assistance, spent the wee hours changing the rear brake pads and rotors. Which I had to run to Auto Zone to buy, just making it at 9:59 before the 10pm closing. They love it when you do that.

And so, today, I’ll try to get a new new fridge and we will find out if the car stops squeaking (or if the squeak has nothing to do with the brakes). Hey, at least I got the back and side lawn mowed. Which is a good thing, since I didn’t swim or spin. It gave me a slow walk of over two miles. And today, I will spin or swim and maybe things will go a little better.