So Far....

Well...the new house is still very new. So new that I'd really rather not share pictures just quite yet. I have a very particular idea in my head of how everything should look and since there are still boxes piled in the garage and furniture still to be delivered and pictures still to be hung...you get the idea, right?

It's certainly a work in progress but I want it to have progressed a little bit more before I share pictures. Honestly - bare walls and random pieces of furniture aren't that thrilling anyway!

What is thrilling is living without the things you take for granted....and where this post is concerned, that means an electric can opener..cable TV and dependable US Postal service! Oh TV! I'm not sure yet when TV will return and so perhaps I'm pining for it a little bit more than I normally would? Who am I kidding? I love to watch TV and being without it for almost an entire week has been slightly torturous! 

I'm getting ahead of myself...as usual...

Dinner - Brought to you by: Determination

I like to think of myself as resourceful. I'm not MacGyver or anything...but I can handle some things...sometimes. Vague enough for you? I offered to make Seven Can Soup for supper on Monday night and when my Mom mentioned that the can opener had yet to be un-boxed, I waved that off and said I'd just use the handheld can opener. It was fine! Totally fine! Only five of the seven cans had to be opened with it and I'm tough - it was not a big deal.

I got home and set out my cans, just fiddled around a little bit and let some time pass because I was waiting on my Mom to get home from DC (airport run)...and planning to have the soup ready around 7, at 6:30 I set out to open the cans and start the soup simmering. What should have taken about five minutes tops proceeded to take thirty. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. Y'all - I never want to see a manual can opener again.

I don't know if it was defective (although given that my Mom attempted to use it Wednesday night and promptly threw it in the trash...) or I'm just too conditioned to use things that are easier...it was a fight from the very start. I would hook the thing onto the side of the can, give it a turn...and it would make it perhaps a fourth of the way around the can and stop. After battling it out with one can, I just figured that can had been particularly finicky and happily set about on can number two...which is picture above.

The next thirty minutes were nothing less than a sheer battle of wills: it was me versus the cans and I was going to win! I uttered prayers, mumbled under my breath, wiped sweat from my forehead and may or may not have stuck a finger or two into the jagged open edges of the can(s) to try and pry them open. In hindsight, I see that was a risky move...but I'm still here...no blood was spilled. Supper was made. Some of the beans looked a little strange after being shaken and prodded out of the random holes in the lid of the can...but we all ate...and I have never been so happy to see an electric can opener in my life!

Success!

Now - for the most important thing - TV! I'm just kidding...sort of... I mean; y'all, the Nationals are currently playing for October. You know, the post season? The playoffs. They've won three of the four games they've played so far this week (Sunday-Wednesday) and I haven't seen a one. Cue all the tears. I know you're really feeling for me. If ever there were a need for the hashtag "first world problems" this would be it.

The news on the street (literally - my Dad stopped on the street corner and talked to our neighbors) is that Comcast had a monopoly of sorts on the cable in the community but our corner of the community was not yet developed enough for them to have reached out to set anything up. What?!? Honestly, how do people make it without cable and internet? Inquiries have been made and apparently it's coming very soon...but soon does not = TV. 

It's weird to sit around with no background noise. I suppose from my time living alone in my house, I always had the TV on...even if it was only for background noise...and so I now find it so strange to not have it! I knew if I was going to start un-boxing things, I really needed some form of entertainment to help move things right along...and so on Tuesday night, I was seized with some sort of wild determination to get my TV and DVD player hooked together somehow. I might not have cable, but I would be able to watch a movie or TV show on DVD by God...I was going to do it! So...Tuesday night I plopped myself in front of my TV, pulled out all the cords and untangled them, thoroughly investigating what would need to go where and attempting to plug red into red...yellow into yellow...etc and so forth... 

There was one end of a cord that I couldn't find a plug for anywhere. Not on the TV. Not on the DVD player. However, everything else plugged in and after some maneuvering, I thought I'd stick a DVD in and see what I'd accomplished. Considering I had a random cord that wasn't plugged into anything...I assumed I'd committed an error somewhere along the way but I crossed my fingers, whispered a brief "please Jesus" and flipped the "Power" switch. And Lo - a miracle occured, the TV popped to life, there was sound and picture and it all worked and was such a crowning moment of acheivement for me that I screamed "I DID IT - I DID IT!" so loudly the neighbors might have heard. It was a sweet, sweet victory indeed.

I still have no clue where that one cord goes though...

Oh mail...

Last but not least...the super reliable US Postal Service. Eek! You see; I suppose I like to challenge the system, I'm a rebel like that. So on Friday night I discovered a book called "The Washington Nationals A-Z" and I felt that I needed it...so I clicked "purchase" and was assured it would be delivered to the new address on Monday, September 12th. Easy peasy! Done and done! I could always use more random Nationals knowledge to spout off to people who (for the most part) don't care.

Sunday morning  I heard the delightful little "ping" of my phone and saw a message telling me that my package from Amazon had been delivered! It was odd because...well, it was Sunday. And it wasn't supposed to be delivered until Monday. I figured Amazon was on it's game and so I marched out to the front porch expecting a box.... There was not one. I walked down to the mailbox expecting a box.... There was not one. I'm fairly certain I looped the house because the message said the package was left "on or near your front porch or mailbox" and as this is a new house...I wasn't sure where they might have left the package. Long story short - no package.

I waited until Monday had come and gone and sent a sweet little email to Amazon about how I'd not received my package. Honestly - it was a sweet email - that's not sarcasm. They assured me they'd send another one toot suite (my words, not theirs) and it would arrive on Wednesday. No harm - no foul. It's all good. So, on Wednesday I got another little text saying my package had been delivered...but by the time I got home, I'd forgotten about it potentially being the mailbox and just assumed it would be inside. It was not...but as I was setting my purse down, the doorbell rang...

A kindly neighbor was on the porch with a package - it had been delivered to her and she lived at 102 Emperor Drive...as opposed to our address - and she wanted to give me my package and introduce herself. We all chatted a minute and I thanked her; opened my book and checked it out, went on about my business. Later in the evening I went out to take Watson on a walk and remembered my Mom mentioned she hadn't checked the mail...so I popped open the mailbox. Do you want to guess what was in the mailbox? A package from Amazon, containing the exact same book! Ha!

So - anyone want a copy of "The Washington Nationals A-Z"...any takers?