Tidings from Kingfisher, OK

Here I am -- back at my MIL's house in Kingfisher, America.  The house-jacker-upper people are here today along with the Heat and Air people.  The lawn has totally croaked from the drought and the remaining bushes and trees aren't far behind.  I have had the hose running in the "flood system" ever since I arrived this morning at 10 AM.  It is 3 PM now. 

I guess I better explain the "flood system".  My husband likes to use the kind of sprinklers that have long spikes on them, and you stick them down in the dirt.  Then you put another one in the dirt several yards away from the first one -- and then another and another.  You hook up a hose, and then 3 or 4 of the things are SUPPOSED to go around in circles in a retarded jerky motion.  I HATE them with a passion.  They NEVER work.  They never go around and they only jerk in one direction and not the other.  SO, when I water the lawn -- and when he isn't looking -- I just turn on the hose and put it in the garden and let it run until it FLOODS it with water.  Then I move it in another garden and FLOOD it.  Hence, the "flood system".

Sometimes I put on a single sprinkler that sprays way up in the air like a giant fan and goes back and forth and back and forth.  Jerry has a FIT whenever he sees me watering.  He isn't HERE today, so I am using the flood system.  I want the water to stay ON THE GROUND -- not up in the air evaporating into steam in the 105 degree heat wave!

While I have been watering everything I can reach with a hose, the house-jacker-upper people have been working on the side of the house even though the man in charge -- Wes -- informed me that that would not work because it wasn't the problem. 

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.  Why the *!*!* are they here then!?  He thinks maybe the front of the house needs to be jacked up now.  After that, I suppose it will be the garage or the shed out back that needs jacking-up!

There were four of these guys.  Two of them had to come INSIDE the house on the new carpet several times, and even though they honored my request to remove their boots, they made the termite guy look like Snow White!!!

As I was driving here this morning from my house in Edmond, I remembered that the AC doesn't work here.  We had to have it filled with freon twice last summer.  We were going to replace the unit, but the AC company never could figure out how much it would cost or when they could do it, so we put it off.  I called S&J Heat and Air while driving here to see if they could come here today since I would probably be spending the night.  I talked to Tanya.

Tanya said, "Oh, my!  There is no way we could possibly come out today.  We had 50 calls just this morning.  We have four men, and they are all out all day.  We couldn't possibly come until tomorrow."

Would you believe I got a call about 1:30 and the owner of the company, Craig, just came here himself about 2 PM, and he has filled the AC with freon, and it is cooling off wonderfully in this 80 degree house right now!  Thank you, God, for that!!!!  I would have had to sleep here tonight in a very hot house otherwise.

Before all the trucks arrived to fix stuff here, I had time to go down to Countrywood Living Center to visit Mom -- actually, Jerry's Mom, but I am much closer to her than my own Mother.  I found her sitting at a table putting a 500-piece puzzle together.  She had just barely begun.  I gave her a hug and sat down next to her, and she seemed to know exactly who I was.  The puzzle had a rifle and a dog in it.  I mentioned to Mom that Jerry had just bought a gun to shoot turtles with.  Then I suggested that we find all the pieces to put the dog together in the puzzle, and Mom kept saying it was a turtle.  Later, she asked me where Bernard was?  Bernard is her brother who has been dead for years.  I think she knew she knew me, but she wasn't sure WHO exactly I was.

In a bit, an older gentleman -- well, they are ALL old, aren't they? -- came over to the table and sat down with us.  He began looking for puzzle pieces with corn on them at my request.  I was helping them both put pieces together when someone announced that lunch was ready.  I told them I had to go, but the man and Mom both asked me over and over to stay for lunch.  I told them I hadn't called ahead.  They said they didn't care, they were taking me to their table.  One of the workers there motioned to me that it was fine, so I sat with them and ate lunch.  When I got up to leave, they begged me to come back again tomorrow.  I can't tell you HOW WONDERFUL it is to have someone WANT me to come see them -- even if they are old and half out of their minds!  I really enjoyed being there, and I believe I will go back tomorrow.

I better go outside and check my "floods".  If I don't check often here, I end up watering the neighbor's yards, and they aren't used to being watered.  People just can't afford the water bills in a drought.  We need rain so desperately.

So guess what I brought with me to work on while I am all by myself in the evenings?  Nope!  You said sewing, didn't you?  I do have a machine here, but I have moved all the fabric and notions out of here, and I didn't feel like packing them all back up for just a few days.  I brought my jewelry.  I have this laptop computer that I am typing on right now, and I can watch my jewelry class at Craftsy.com and make some jewelry.

This computer is giving me FITS!  It keeps freezing and my typing jumps up into paragraphs I'm not even in!  Hopefully, it will work better tomorrow.  Maybe it is because I am downloading a thousand updates.

Hugs, Joy