Wheel Deals

It’s a crisp day, much more like what we’re used to for this time of the year, and in fact it’s supposed to freeze tonight for the first time since last spring.

I’m out at the Cresscent Lake school parking lot, where I’ve brought Danny and William to ride. It’s not exactly what we had planned. I couldn’t find the training wheels for Danny’s bike (which used to be Tom’s), so Danny is riding a Razor scooter today (which also used to be Tom’s). William, on the other hand, is refusing to ride. He says it’s because of the cold, which has never stopped him before, but I suspect it is on account of the fact that I raised his training wheels to where they are supposed to be. He’ll get over it. But not today.

Yesterday I took Thomas out driving. I got more cooperation out of him, although it feels very weird riding in the passenger seat with my son at the wheel. I’d better get used to it, though; I have to go through it twice more in the next twelve years. Yesterday he drove Karen’s car, which he likes more than my van, through rain and darkness, and he did just fine. I came through okay too.

When we arrived home, the power was out, and Danny was very upset about the darkness. We went to McDonald’s in Alton, which had power, for dinner. By the time we got back the power was back on, but everyone was exhausted.

And then came this morning, when my iCal calendar said Daylight Savings Time started. Wrong! Congress changed that in 2005, efeective 2006, and although my computer’s operating system and Apple’s time server both knew about the change, my calendar of US Holidays did not. Neither did Tom’s driving instructor, who arrived an hour late for drive time with Tom. Needless to say, after Karen left for work at about 6:30, I didn’t go back to sleep.

Maybe tonight. Yeah, sure.

Trouble

I’m in Dutch with the wife. I tried to tell her otherwise, but she’s convinced that I am--I hardly know how to say this--a competent plumber.

It’s my own fault. Over the course of the year to date I have replaced the drain and faucet in the kitchen, the valve in the downstairs shower and now, much to my detriment, I have done what I never thought I would even have attempted: I replaced a water heater.

I couldn’t help myself. I was seduced by the lure of easy savings. Lowe’s wanted $340 to install the thing, three days’ pay. And the more I thought about it, after Karen suggested it, the more I had convinced myself that I could do it.

The problem is that I could. And did. And worse still, it works. Sigh.

So remember that we are soon building a new house. I already have been stupid enough to let my wife know that I can wire a house. Now she gets the idea that I can plumb it as well.

It’s not true! Really! Sigh

Rush, Rush, Rush!

Haven’t been keeping on on this blog so much because I’m spending the time working on other online pursuits. Updating the galleries (just added four new ones), for example, something which is long overdue, and overhauling GSBrooks.com to reflect what I’m actually doing now, as opposed to what I had hopes of finding the time to do.

“Pajama Game” is coming along very nicely. The numbers look spectacular, and I am actually holding my own as a dancer. We still have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, but we’re quite used to that at The Village Players!

Meanwhile we’re scrambling around to find contractors and settle on final details for the new house. We’ve decided not to go for the modular option. It doesn’ t save so much money, and it would force us to come up with too much cash up front. And besides, we get much more opportunity to do things our way and do things ourselves with stick building.

It’s keeping us busy, along with the jobs and the kids and, well, life. But it’s also giving us something very special to look forward to.