Some Days...

On the plus side, I did remember to bring the 30 pairs of new socks to my friend at Pilates this morning.  She'll distribute them to the women who live on the street and find food and comfort where she volunteers. Those socks have been waiting to be delivered for a month; it felt good, finally, to send them on their way.

I was feeling pretty good about life in general this morning.  The bagel store had perfectly toasted lovelies to go with the lox and cream cheese I had at home. The line at the post office was just long enough for me to browse the card selection and select a smiley note for my grandson, who, his mother informed me, will be happy to receive mail addressed to him and him alone.

There were lots and lots of pretty new stamps to buy, and I did.

Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona, endangered animals with glossy, sticker like pictures, Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art, and some elephants and flowers just because.  The sailboats are for postcards.  After making my purchases I learned that the price of postage is going up once again, on July 9th.  I left the post office feeling quite smug.

The bagels, the stamps, and I then went to the library.  They were closed yesterday, a fact which was noticed but forgotten by me and by three or four other cars and their occupants yesterday at 10.  They reopened today, to a healthy crowd at 9:58am.

The new shelving that caused the closure is lovely.  So was the stack of books I grabbed.

I've started at the top.  Lessons in Chemistry has been on the NYTimes Best Seller list for 32 weeks. After 30 some pages, it was easy to see why.  The day just kept getting better.

And then.....

The last call you want to make in the summer in Tucson is to the HVAC company.  But TBG discovered that the air on the far side of the house, where his spin bike lives, was stagnant.  There was no cooling air coming from anywhere.

I pushed the buttons on the thermostat and called the HVAC company.  Tomorrow was the soonest they could come.  Our service contract would cover the trip charge but our warranty was for 1 year and that ship has sailed.  We were resigned to feeling good about tomorrow and not Thursday or Friday when the phone rang.  A technician was in the area and he cold come right over.

Smiles all around until he showed us the cause of the problem - packrats have eaten through the wires to the condenser.  They nibbled so close to the connector that a temporary fix was impossible.  The tech had no condensers in his truck.  He ordered one from our hallway.  We hope to have it installed tomorrow. 

For that, we will have to pay.

We'll also be paying Mr. Pack Rat to come out once again for a search and destroy mission.

TBG is spinning and sweating as I type this on the cooler side of the house.  I'm trying to decide if this has been a good day.  The sun came up and I was here to see it, so, by definition, it is a good day.  But the fact that our house doesn't work is disconcerting.  

We have a plan in place.  It's a good plan.  We won't be crushed by the cost, though we will certainly notice it.  

I ought to be able to read that and smile.  Unfortunately, anxiety seems to be my default position.  

I need to work on that.