Arrrrrgh

We are here at the SSB.  Things have been, well let's say, interesting.

I will begin with the most recent first.  It gets better, you see.  The whole family laughs at G's sense of timing. When all the work is done - he appears asking if help is needed.  He also has the uncanny timing of wanting to be in the kitchen when I am trying to prepare food.  You will notice I did not say cleaning the kitchen, didn't you??  And no, he isn't just being loving.

When we were here last, at the Community Club meeting, it was announced that there were no host for this month's meeting.  I was looking around the room, not making eye contact with anyone when my darling husband announces "we'll do it."  Please read there - Karen will do it.

So we decided on a menu.  At the time two weeks ago, it was still unseasonably cold.  I thought King Ranch Chicken.  A moderately spicy casserole that is pretty easy to prepare, and everyone knows we have chicken now.  He decided we would play Bingo.  Guess who went to the dollar store to buy prizes.  Yep, none other than little old me.  Who checked the pantry.  Me.  Today who cleaned out the ice tea dispenser?  Me.  Who will make the iced tea?

So when I am ready to begin my catering for this shindig, who decides that it is time for him to clean the kitchen?  Yep - G.  Who had been sitting on his duff reading a book for two hours?  Yep, G.  He left me no counter room to work, and while after boiling the chicken, most of the work is chopping onions, bell pepper, dicing the chicken, and then opening cans.  There are three cans to open per batch.  And one bag of cheese. Just takes a lot of room.

As I was trying to load this meal into the oven (I am so glad I am doing it here - it is a large oven!), he waltzes to the utility room and begins to rummage through one of the cabinets.  As I take the cans to the trash can in there, (and where the noisy a/c unit is) he walks around the corner saying "we will set off bug bombs when we leave."  I stupidly ask why, and by this time he is in the bedroom, and all I hear is the roar of the a/c and the crashing of cans hitting the floor because I can't open the lid to the trash.

After disposing of the trash, I walk to the bedroom to find him in the bathroom.  His comment was "there are little blying bugs all over this house (and I will explain why in a bit) and a spider in the garden tub with the cat food.  Shadow would get fed there so Simone wouldn't dine on his food too.  Then he goes on to say "but I used Yard Guard to spray the spider and it went all over the place so now I have to dump the food and wash the bowls."  Really??  No kidding.  So it did what it was supposed to do.  For one little spider???

We will see what happens tonight.  The weather gurus keep saying that some severe thunderstorms could pop up over the Texas hill country tonight (it is only 100+ in town (Mason) so that is a good possibility.  We will probably get to load all this stuff (although I would love to use another descriptor) and when we get there to unload.  There probably won't be but three people show up.  So my five prizes will be mine, and I will have enough King Ranch Chicken for all the cowboys in the bunk house - if we had any of those fellas.

Now - what else has been going on.  Last week, our neighbor on the other mountain called.  There was a severe hail storm that came through on Thursday night.  He got into his "chiller" that is turned on when he has his hunters here and processes their deer meat.  He said the folks down from us have metal roofs.  They were beat up pretty severely.  My little SIL had a window broken, and it appeared we only had two screens torn.  Got off lucky.  I thanked him profusely for checking.  But of course, when he checked that gave him the perfect opportunity to come over to see what the fence builders were doing over here (the feral hogs are getting too close to the house, and they are becoming very aggressive).

We got here Tuesday.  G went to get some water because the neighbor said he turned it on to the house.  There was none.  While he went out to turn it on (we normally leave it off we have had the ice maker go nuts and flood the freezer part), I was going to turn on a light.  No lights.

I went to the breaker box and flipped the switch.  Nothing.  I told him there was more of a problem than the water being turned off.  We had no water because when they were pouring the cement they emptied the pressure tank - and it's pretty large.

No power meant no phone.  especially since we changed the type of telephone.  Our bill was about  $90/month.  That is really high for being here one week a month.  We went to Ma Bell with a system that is essentially a cell phone for the house.  It is a base receiver that you attach your phones to, and it has to be close to a window.  It is $30 before taxes and fees (that gouge!)  But that meant no phone.  So having all of our hurricane stuff here, I had a power supply that I hooked my cell to because it was going dead (of course), and we could call the power company.

There were many associated mishaps with all of the business.  I won't bore you.  Lets just say that G is as useful in mechanical things as tits on a boar hog!  The power company was here in less than an hour.  A hail stone knocked the fuse away from the transformer - thus no power for us and the hunter's cabin.

I spent the remainder of that day cleaning out the refrigerator. I was so thankful that things were still pretty cool - so they didn't stink - even after 5 days.  The little chest freezer really kept things.  There was still ice in it!

These are my tales of woe.  We have an hour before we leave.  I guess I will pack up all the things that need to go - you know I have to be the one - and we will hope for the best!