Lights out

As a mentioned in the last blog, we had some odds and ends to pack before the big move. As I began packing and doing 2 final loads of laundry the gas man came to turn off the gas. I assumed that Eric had arranged it so I invited him into our utility room to do his thing (as Bentley and I waited outside...smart thinking huh mom?....I DO learn from my stupid mistakes!) Silly me, I didn't realize that the dryer was powered by gas. So with two soaking wet loads of laundry, I hopped in my truck and meandered down to the laundry mat. Wow...what an experience. That's a whole part of life that I gratefully don't get to experience. With a sweating, packed house on a boiling Friday afternoon, I decided to wait in my air conditioned car while the clothes dried. And conveniently located to the right of the "mat" was a bar. So as the mostly Hispanic women and children labored over the laundry, their husbands cooled off in the bar after a hard day at work (shown by their attire). One friendly 50 something Hispanic gent saw me in my X-terra sitting impatiently and said "hola". After some small talk, he then kindly asked me to join him for a beer. I declined but I can now cross that off my wish list (getting hit on at a laundry mat that is).

On my way back to the house with my somewhat dry laundry, it began pouring so hard that I considered pulling of the road at times. It didn't let up for an hour or two so that precious packing time again went to waste. Then we took a short time-out to join Dave and Michelle for dinner and a little jewelry shopping at my favorite store (As Kindred Spirits).

When we got back, Dave stated "Well at least the power didn't go out" (without knocking on wood!). A few moments later the power flickered and then the whole block went out. Thanks Dave. As Eric felt his way around the booby trapped house looking for a lighter and candles, he managed to walk the entire plank of my 5 foot Bar Harbor Panoramic that was bubble wrapped on the floor, popping bubbles all along the way. as I yelled out some profanities. Eric described the experience as levitating. After a long candle-lit investigation, I agreed. What a lucky man. Needless to say the night of packing wasn't as productive as we had hoped and we awoke the next morning with a lot of packing and a little cleaning to do.