Electric courage

June 3, 2013

Shooed dad out the door this morning and sent him to the gym for a workout. I needed time to create a holding space for his household goods in the kitchen. Kitchen gadgets galore. Everything came out  of the cabinets, cupboards, and recess of the drawers to fill the counter tops from one end to the other. Forewarned dad that he would have to make hard decisions about paring down his things. Loaded the laundry in the washer, scooched up the stairs to the bathtub to wash up. felt like a new woman when finished scrubbing down.

Got a few calls in to the utility company, this morning and afternoon, to beg them to finally connect our electric and gas service. Round and round from one unhelpful representative to another. As I describe my situation-on crutches, unable to hold a flashlight or candle to walk through the dark house, no fuel to make a meal, no refrigerator to house food, no means to drive a car to purchase groceries and no method of laundering clothes, they surely absorb the exasperation. Makes for a mighty bleak picture. Even still, it took chastising the agents to get me to the next level of management, to find a way to send out a worker to the house, to flip the magic switch. Couldn't be that difficult since they flipped it to the OFF position last week. I inquired as to which agency has jurisdiction over the utility companies. The state of MN, Frances assures me.

In the meantime, the new kitty peed on my bed and it soaked through to the mattress. Although Taelor stripped the sheets and swabbed at the stain, she was unable to run the load through the washing machine downstairs. We determined the appliances are actually shared between the units and it is the landlord's accountability for the utility bill. Oh, Dan's going to love that! Now he will be forced to either put his name on the Exel Energy bill and figure out how to charge the individual units, or purchase another set of appliances. It is MN state law that ensures the bill is paid correctly.

Dad finished the cat post and brought up the final product for me to admire. A work of art. He manufactured the bedroom furniture, his office desk and file cabinets, night stands and island in the kitchen, coffee tables, sofa and love seat, etc. A man of many talents. I aim to be skilled in a craft one day in the future. Up until now, I feel accomplished when I pound a nail straight into the wall to hang a piece of art.