a spiced life

Our little family is actually taking a summer vacation this year (a rarity in itself). This also marks the first time that we've taken a vacation with just the three of us that didn't revolve around either a work trip or visiting family. After much debate (and several foiled plans of visiting family or tagging along on work trips), we decided to bite the bullet and go visit Puerto Rico for 9 days. Thank you stimulus check! (Would spending our check in Puerto Rico count as boosting the economy? It's a US territory, but I don't know if their economy figures into the overall US economy. Anyone know?)

We're scheduled to depart early Fri. morning, and last Fri. afternoon, the big guy found out he needed to travel this week for work. Mon.-Thurs. night. Shall I repeat that we leave first thing Fri. morning? It's OK. I can deal. We did laundry over the weekend and made detailed packing lists. I can handle this. Then the Tuesday from Hell struck.

First, I go to drop the little guy off at his daycamp around 9:45 so I can make it to work by 10am for a client meeting. We get to camp, and the place is empty. No one is around. I should note that we usually don't get there before 10:30 on most days, so 9:45 really is an early record for us. So, kid comes to work with me and hangs out in my cube while I attend my three meetings that morning before lunchtime. We drive back out to camp around 12:30 and the group is back, so he stays (they went to a movie and left earlier than normal. Thanks for calling Mr. Camp Dude!).

Second, I had already RSVP'd that I'd play in my company league volleyball game Tues. night before I found out Big Guy would be out of town, so I drove back out to get Little Guy and drove all the way back to my office where the games are held. We played; we won, and had a great time. Then I find out that my purse is locked in the car, and of course it contains my keys, wallet, cell phone, extra bottle of water, snack for the boy, yadda yadda. Amazing coworkers let me borrow a phone, where I tried in vain to reach anyone who could possibly swing by my house and get a spare car key. Those same coworkers then took me and the boy out to dinner while we waited for roadside assistance, and stuck around the parking lot while we waited some more. Two hours later I'm back in my vehicle (dude, it took 45 seconds for the roadside assistance guy to break in and pop the lock!!) and finally on my way home. In a huge twist of irony, my mother in law is at my neighbor's house - two of the same people I'd tried in vain to reach. Oh well.

I finally get the boy into bed well after ten. To cap off the evening, I head to the basement to check on the furnace since I can hear a strange noise echoing through the return vent. Open the door to the furnace closet and the floor is covered in standing water. MIL is still at the neighbor's house, so I run back next door and bring her over (we bought the house from her, so she probably knows more about furnaces than I do). Well, after much standing around and looking at the water and condensation covering the ducts, our keen scientific minds decide that it might be the dehumidifier. We empty out everything being stored in the closet, mop the place up, and decide to see what happens tomorrow.

Well, that was yesterday. Today the floor is re-soaked, the condensation has returned, and I've turned off the AC while at a loss of anything else to do.

So here I sit, a bit past midnight and putting off going to bed. This evening was a mad race of getting the boy fed, heading to the library to get vacation reading, cleaning the floors, two loads of laundry, dishes, cleaning out the fridge and labeling leftovers, dealing with the furnace flood (again), oh yeah, and maybe I should pack.

I just want to go to bed and put this awful week behind me. Yet, there's still so much left to do that I can't sleep. Blogging probably isn't the right choice either, but at least I can vent here. Besides, I need to wait for that load of wash to finish.