My really awful, terrible weekend, not all bad news

Every now and then any of us can have a problematic incident happen in our lives but rarely do we have such a confluence of events happen that we become hesitant to take on even menial tasks for fear of a horrible outcome. That was the kind of weekend I just had. It started Friday afternoon when I was making some sugar water for the bees. The ten-pound bag of sugar was nearly empty, so I elected to just pour the remining sugar through a rolled piece of paper serving as a funnel into a gallon jug. With the uneven curl at the mouth of the bag I had an issue channeling the sugar into the funnel and at one point, the sugar flowed – rather freely – onto the counter. I wasn’t intelligent enough to move the jug into the sink to finish emptying the bag after the first spill, so I repeated the process and polluted the counter with sugar. I cleaned up what I though was the mess, but Mama discovered a lot more sugar on the counter the next morning.

Later that evening as I was following a recipe Mama had found for making seedless blackberry jam. I did everything the recipe called for, but it was a complete failure. The thin syrup that was produced was not at all what the recipe had promised. So, that was set aside to be reworked at a later date. Supposedly, we were not required to add pectin to the mix if it was boiled for a sufficient time. The time we were told on the recipe was not sufficient. Not overly bad so far.

Fast forward to Saturday morning after I had worked for about an hour on the stands I am building for Mama to sell to her Color Street peers. I got out the wheeled string trimmer and after trimming the fence line around our circular drive, I was trimming the weeds near the pole that holds our internet dish. For some unaccountable reason I trimmed too close to that pole and pulled and split the internet cable to the house. I certainly should have known better, but I was focused on the grass and not the cable. That will cost us to repair, and that repair will not happen until tomorrow afternoon. I attempted a repair but there are nine small wires in the cable, and I could see no way to affect the repair with what I had on hand to make the connections. So, we are without internet for now. Needless to say, I was a very unhappy camper.

Moving on. When I got the proper nail gun out to attach the “heel” to the stands I had finished, the nail gun would not work. So, I spent an hour trying to fix it and having barely gotten it back together after disassembly, I abandoned that and glued to pieces together. Hoping for the best until I can replace the nail gun. I have had my air nailers for over twenty years, and they have never failed me until that moment. All this time I was working outside in 100 degree plus heat, soaking wet and miserable.

The coup de gras came Sunday morning as I was cleaning my Fossil Hybrid watch to charge it. Lately I have had issues making the connections between the charge touchpoints and the prongs on the charger. I have cleaned the back of the watch in the past with Q tips to remove the dirt accumulated on those tiny ports from wearing the watch while I sweated, but this time the cotton caught something on the watch and pulled a spring out of the body of the watch, destroying the contact point for the charger. That was really upsetting, and it was the culmination of many other little things that had gone spectacularly wrong in the last forty-eight hours. I really like that watch.

Add to that Kobe being bitten by a poisonous snake while sniffing in the weeds as Victoria walked the dogs Friday evening and Julian, one of our bucks, not wanting to get up or eat Sunday morning and you can get a feel for the kind of weekend I had. Mama was very worried about the animals but Kobe, despite the swelling on her face, is doing well and greeted us with her happy growl as we got home from church last night. Julian is still a concern for us. Mama and I will look him over thoroughly this evening to see if we can spot something obvious that may be wrong.

On the bright side, I was able to untangle the wire Mama had inadvertently run over from the blades of the mower – although that took me the better part of an hour. I was also able to get several of the display stands assembled and will finish several more today. Mama has promised those for delivery this week. I tilled in the garden to remove some of the weeds that have invaded that area without destroying any of the plants we need to maintain. That little bit of effort on my part helps Mama and I get the weeds removed more easily than having to cut them out with the hoe. Also, Mama was able to buy twelve Bantam chicks at Tractor Supply for $1 each. Now we have thirty chicks in various stages of growth to raise and eventually integrate into our flock.

Mama is going to the dentist today to have a tooth crowned. She has been holding off for months, but we thought that now was as good a time as any to get the work done. It will be good to have the tooth repaired. From what we are being told, she will walk out of the office with her new crown in place. They have the resources to make the crown in the office versus sending off a mold of the tooth to a manufacturer.

That saves a lot of time but is no less expensive than the old method.