You can't make this up (aka why we should have our own reality show)

This post can be filed under the "you can't make this up" category.  The day started like any other Thursday during the school year.  I began my carpool to work this week on Tuesdays and Thursdays in an attempt to get me home earlier and to get my colleague to stay at work later.  On our drive in today one of the questions we discussed was whether we would want children.  My response was that I have a pretty awesome life and am free to come and go as I please without them at this point.  Tonight was a prime example of this.  After being dropped off at home, the plan was to take a 45 minute walk to Nut Island. What happened was a phone call from one of my closest friends Ned that went something like this:
Me: Hello
Ned: Good evening how are you?
Me: I'm well, how are you?
Ned: I'm well, are you at home?
Me: Maybe, why?
Ned: Well, because you weren't anywhere else I tried.
Me: What do you need?
Ned: A drink, people are crazy
Me: I'll meet you at the Wharf

Fast forward 30 minutes where we meet at Wharf 88 and then proceed to the Farmers Market before settling in to prime seats at the end of the bar.  We are greeted by our regular bar tender (who we believe is named Brian).  We know many things about him, where he goes to school, that is he a single dad, what he wants to do after college, etc., but haven't exactly got the name thing down.  After determining that Fall sucks for drinks since people tend to put pumpkin in things and declare it a fall drink recipe, we order our regular summer drinks and an appetizer.  Everything is on track for a lovely evening, we plan vacations, talk about work, have some laughs, and then it happens.

Ned's eyes get big and I hear a little "oh look" and as I turn we see Brandi and Sandy.  These were two characters that we met several months ago -- Ned believes it was a year ago, it was really about 5 months ago.  They are regulars at the bar, but call themselves frequenters because regulars sounds too well, you know.  They sit down next to us and we chat about drinks, work, and that we never connected like we said we would since the last time we saw them.  Then I hear a "oh no" and as I turn and look I see Frank enter.  Frank is a regular at the Wharf and makes his way around to all the patrons.  He cal tell you why we know drink vodka and martinis, any number of things about Presidents and film trivia, and many other topics of no consequence to anyone.  The last we we saw him he insisted that Ned freed the Irish from persecution.

Brandi and Sandy insist that Frank is going to sit next to Ned, at which time he tried to take up as much space as he can at the bar.  This doesn't work and Brandi and Sandy let us know that Frank is in his 80s and we need to be more kind to him.  Ned continues to mumble "you can't make this shit up" under his breath.  At one point, our dinner comes, Frank, Brandi, and Sandy are all talking to us, and neither of us are listening to any of them.  I look at Ned and ask "Is he talking to you?"  Ned replies, "I think so, but I don't care".   Then Sandy and Frank decide to play trivia and begin loudly asking questions that come to their heads about various topics.  At this point another woman (maybe Susan) comes in and Brandi goes to talk with her while Sandy and Frank continue to quiz each other.

At the end of the night our bill arrives and Ned writes a note to our bartender that says:
"This was a completely crazy night at Wharf 88.  We love you!"  Brian had all he could do to keep a straight face while he ran our cards and returned the check to us to sign.  Ned (the extrovert) hugged all the folks on the way out, while I (the introvert) did a subtle wave and he promised Brandi and Sandy we'll catch up soon. The entire staff escorted us out when we left and were laughing with us when we made it to the parking lot.

And as I drove home to the sounds of the Frozen soundtrack I was reminded of the morning conversation where I stated that I wouldn't be able to have spontaneous adventures if I had to think of taking care of a kid.  I think tonight was a perfect example of that.

Well, that's one way to meet the neighbors!

So I was working from home, was getting ready to take out the trash and heard a loud crash outside near the house -- which I thought could quite possibly be my air conditioner falling out of the window - probably impossible but I worry about it nonetheless.  It was actually a piece of the neighbor's dead tree falling on the power lines to my house ripping the line to the meter from the house and dragging the power lines across the road - notice how it also fell right across the trash.

One of the neighbors called 911 -- it took the police about 30 minutes and another call to the non-emergency  number to arrive (apparently it was shift change time), I called the power company who told me they would put in an order but the lines to the house weren't their responsibility -- even if they were live wires -- they showed up after about 90 minutes.  By the end we had the police fire department, phone, power and cable companies all represented along with various neighbors who came out to watch the drama -- I live in a pretty uneventful neighborhood.  The most amusing was young girl (maybe 10 or 11) wearing pink pants, a pink shirt with a picture of Nerds the candy and a pink fedora.  She was assessing the situation and giving updates to anyone new who came out.  She also took it upon herself to write thank you notes (and took them around for us to sign) to give to the police and firefighters who were there which I thought was very thoughtful of her. 

In the end they had to turn off the power until the landlords could get an electrician to hook the lines back up to the house.  I packed up the freezer and fridge and headed to a friends to be cool for the night and to have power to do my hair int he morning - and at the very least I had to save my opened jam! 

When I got back this morning the power was on - although it looks more like a temporary fix (which may or may not be legal) rather than a permanent one.  You can decide for yourself from the pictures below.

We're HOT -- but not in a good way!

After leaving Norfolk, we headed to Fairfax Station, VA to see one of Kristina’s friends from when she was an undergraduate back in MN many moons ago. The traffic was horrendous and Consuela (the Saab) decided that she needed a break from all the travels and I watched with alarm as the temperature gauge went up. After pulling off the highway we used our 1/2 jug of water to try to cool the car down which worked for about 10 minutes. We considered buying coolant, but decided it wasn’t the right kind and tried to continue to Pep Boys. When the TomTom tried to make us get back on the highway we pulled into the Citgo/Piggi Mart to see what they thought and to strategize the next move. The folks at PRS Auto Repair said there was a hole in the radiator and that it would take at least $550 to fix it and not until Wednesday and they would need $350 in cash to even begin - at this point Kristina said "Remember Suze Orman said there'd be days like this". Needless to say we called the Saab hotline and found a dealer 9 miles away and made our way there. As we pulled into the dealership Consuela was very hot and angry and even lit up her ! sign to warn us that she was not happy. So arriving safely we left her there to be fixed and continued on our journey with Kenny the rental Chevy Cavalier. Hopefully Consuela will enjoy hanging out with her peeps at the Saab dealer and will be better soon. We made ourselves feel better by getting ½ price Cherry Limeades at Happy Hour at the local Sonic – yum – although they didn’t give us any cherries in the drink which bummed us out.