My oldest son turned 13 today. I already got it all. All the people going on about how "He's a teenager now, uh oh!"
Yea, he's been hungry and moody for awhile now. It's not like flipping a switch.
Birthdays that fall on a weekend, or on a Monday or Friday, they always turn into a birthday weekend. One event on one day, another event on another. Usually any extended family that wants to visit happens that Sunday afternoon, but still..
These kids are really milking it.
Years ago, I found these shoes I like. Just a simple slip on loafer I wear around the house. When they need replacing, I would find the same ones online and just buy them again. I had a good thing going.
Until something changed.
I bought a replacement. I tried mixing it up by getting a different color. They arrived, and felt oddly stiff. I thought it was just because they were new, but the feeling persisted. Until eventually they hurt just standing in place. Back they went. I thought perhaps this slight variant was different.
When my preferred color was back in stock, I ordered a pair. They had the same problem. No longer were they comfortable, but quite the opposite. Someone, somewhere, started cheaping out on the production line. Now I need to find a new shoe that's actually comfortable.
First world problems.
I like the holidays where you get the day off work. I don't work retail, so I actually get those (hey, I suffered enough working in hotels). For the other, random holidays, there is always a color.
Valentines day red, St Patricks day green, the orange and black of Halloween, I could go on. Or not, I think that covers it. Whatever.
I have my work clothes. I don't wear just my regular clothes, not with the various substances that might otherwise ruin them. I had a weeks worth of shirts that were, after a few years, wearing down. So I found a new shirt on Amazon. The look suited me, so I bought one.
Then I just bought four more. I didn't like having to pick what to wear, so I figured I'd just wear the exact same thing to work every day. Lots of people do it. It's been a few months and it's been working exactly as I expected. But this week, I discovered a problem.
The shirts are green.
Now that's not normally a problem, but I'm a contrarian. I deliberately don't wear the holiday color, but it's never obvious. I had a red shirt, but never wore it on Valentines day. When asked why I didn't, I would always look at my shirt and give a noncommittal shrug.
But St Patrick's day requires green. At this point, I've been wearing the same green shirt every day for several months. If I wore the same shirt, I would break my streak of non commitment. Otherwise, I could dig out one of my older shirts and be the contrarian I always was, but it wouldn't be subtle. No, it would be glaringly obvious.
I backed myself into a corner. No matter what I did, my coworkers had something on me. I took the high road, wore the green shirt, and just laughed at myself when they brought it up.
Go figure.
So back in the day, if an appliance broke, you'd have to call a maintenance guy. He'd come out in a day or so, diagnose the problem, figure out what parts need to be ordered (unless they, by some magic, had one in their truck), then a week or so later they'd have the part and it would be fixed.
For almost as much as the cost of the appliance.
Once I figured out what part needed replacing, I had it in two days. Problem is solved. The bigger problem, however, is the floor. The leak was under the dishwasher, and didn't show up until it filled in a part of the duct it was directly over. It had apparently been leaking a long time.
So now I need to have my kitchen floor redone. Sub-flooring, too. Gotta go deep with this one. The wife is going to love having new floors.
I have a problem.
This is the fist time I've owned a house. It's been just over five years, and various maintenance issues have been creeping up on me. Right now it's a leak in my basement ceiling whenever I run the dishwasher.
Yay.
That along with a leaky valve on the basement toilet (turn off the water to that toilet and it no longer leaks. The valve itself needs replacing, and the cutoff for it is... I dunno, somewhere else, this house is janky).
So yea, it's been five years. That's the longest I've lived in any one place outside the house I grew up in, so whenever an issue would come up, I'd just call my landlord and it would be taken care of. I'm at a point where either my comfort zone needs to get bigger, or I need to start paying someone.
