Another Crazy Day Where Everything Happens Simultaneously

Posted by Nuzzling Muzzles

I'm having another crazy day. I wake up every morning with a blank slate, or something pretty close to it, and before I know it my day is completely out of control. A storm is moving in, so I had to clean the stalls and clean all the water troughs in case the horses get snowbound in their stalls. But before I could step outside, my business phone rang. I contemplated not answering it, because all I've received are sales calls on that phone over the past year and a half that my photography business has been open. But, gut instinct ordered me to answer.

Good thing I picked up, because it was my first paying customer calling to set up an appointment for a portrait session! Yay! After chatting with her, I scrambled around to get things ready for her appointment. I realized that yesterday was the last day of our Nielsen Ratings survey and I was supposed to get our booklets mailed out to them today, so I ran around stapling and taping things, and then raced the booklets out to the mailbox. After that, I headed out to the barn to do my chores. I could have sworn that I started these barn chores around 9:00 AM, and it was noon when I walked into the house to take a short break while a water trough was filling.

There was a phone message from the microwave repairman saying he was having trouble finding my address, and his computers were down. Say what? I thought he was supposed to come between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM! I couldn't call him back right away because the water was about to overflow in one of the stalls. As I was on my way out to fix that, I noticed a van in my driveway. It was the microwave repairman! I ran outside and ushered him into the house, apologizing for missing his call and explaining that I've been out at the barn. I showed him the microwave, and started to run out to move the hose, but before I could get out the door, the phone rang. Argh!

It was the company that the microwave repairman works for asking if it's okay if he comes out early. I informed them that he was here, and excused myself to run out and move the hose. Fortunately, the brand new shavings in the stall were still dry and I didn't have to do any flood clean up. The horses were screaming at me for their lunch, so I quickly tossed them some hay, muttering under my breath over how everything seems to always have to happen at once. Noon is my busiest time of day and the worst time for people to call or show up at my house.

I then realized that I had to take down the poles and chains at the end of the driveway so that he didn't back into them on his way out. I excused myself to go do that, and he stopped me to ask for some towels to protect the counter top because he needed to set the microwave on it. I found the towels, then ran outside to move the poles. On the way back in, I discovered that I dropped a bunch of towels between the linen closet and the kitchen, so I had to clean those up.

The dogs started barking and I realized that I left them outside in the windstorm. I grabbed the leashes and brought them in, letting them greet the microwave repairman, and then shut them away in a bedroom with water so that they wouldn't get under his feet.

I realized that I made a mistake in balancing my checkbook the day before and had to correct it before I forgot, so I quickly did that and put together all the outgoing mail, but I missed the mail carrier by a few minutes, so instead I ran outside in hurricane-force winds to pick up the mail. Dust devils were circling all around me and I was getting pelted in the eyeballs. It took all my strength to hang onto the mail between the mailbox and the house.

I sorted through the mail and then realized that I was supposed to have a phone conference with my financial adviser today. I wondered if she tried to call while I was out at the barn and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I also worried that she might try to call right when the microwave repairman was here, and he would overhear our private conversation. The good news is that I received and email from her last night letting me know that the life insurance company went ahead and honored our claim despite the coroner not being able to determine the cause of death. That saves me from having to hire an attorney to protect my rights. I kind of wonder if my financial adviser told the insurance company that I would be hiring an attorney, and that's what changed their minds.

In the meantime, 12:00 PM turned into 1:00 PM as the microwave repairman kept making mistakes in repairing the microwave, and I was starving. I hadn't eaten anything other than a bowl of cereal since 7:00 AM, but I couldn't get into the kitchen while he was in there, because our kitchen is so tiny and he was struggling getting that heavy built-in up and down from its rack.

I was supposed to be working on my novel today, because the first two days of the NaNoWriMo 50,000-word challenge didn't go so well. I got ridiculously busy running errands during the day and didn't get around to actually writing until evening. Then I fell asleep before I could reach my target word count. Writing is difficult to do at night and on the weekends, because my husband is home and he likes to talk. It's hard to concentrate on writing a novel when someone is talking to you. I have to take advantage of the time when he's away at work, but somehow other things monopolize my time and before I know it, he is walking in the door home from work. Then I have to start dinner and whole 'nother kind of insanity commences.

I tried working on the novel while the microwave repairman was here, but he kept asking me questions, so I couldn't concentrate. He finally left and the first thing I did was grab a sandwich. Before eating, I thought I'd better test out the microwave. I was startled to find that the display wasn't lit up and I tried pushing buttons, but got no response. I raced out of the house and down the driveway to catch the microwave repairman. He came back in and fiddled with it a bit until he got the display working. He left again, and I remembered the dogs were locked up in a bedroom, so I let them out. I went into the kitchen to do something and realized I left my sandwich sitting on the couch. I sprinted into the family room just before Scrappy got a hold of my lunch.

That reminded me of another problem we've been having lately. We keep finding partial loaves of French bread on our lawns. There was one on our back lawn a couple of weeks ago that Scrappy was eating, and I suspected my neighbors threw it over the fence to make him stop barking. Then last night my husband let the dogs out into the front yard, and they picked up a scent. They followed a trail that led to another partial loaf of French bread on our front lawn. It's almost like someone has been picnicking on our property. This freaked my husband out, and he started locking all our gates. I've been telling him for years that I keep finding evidence that we have a squatter or Peeping Tom on our property, and he's always poo-pooed it, but now that he's finding evidence, he's all freaked out about it. If I weren't so dang busy all the time I could set a trap for the guy, but most days are just as crazy as today.