Happy New Year!

Ah, my family.

Not my nonna, but it could be any of my Aunts, my father or a grandparent!

Binged on The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

I binged watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
I LOVED IT!!!
I read that it is up for a few Golden Globes. 
Apparently, a lot of people agree with me then.

This was watched by me in the wee hours of the morning.
Rick and the dog were snoring and I couldn't sleep.
So I went downstairs and thought I'd see what all the buzz was about.
I thought the 1st episode was okay so I watched the next. 
Okay, it's getting better.
Before you know it I had watched it all and had fallen in love with these people.

I loved everything about it. I could relate to all things except the rich upper west side parents. I had the working class parents in the burbs.
This Jewish family is my family. 
The only difference is my parents are Italian.
So many similarities though I think it would shock most people.
Just shows you we are all the same really.

The things her father expected of her were things my father had said to me many many times in my youth. You see to my father college for women was a waste of money. He would say to me that college was for women to go find a husband. It was not for education. Females didn't need an education he would tell me.
Amazing to me that he thought that way. 

This takes place in the mid to late 50's.
This bright, smart, funny, beautiful woman is ahead of her time.
She thinks she had it all until her husband comes home and tells her he is leaving her for his secretary. 
He is unhappy with how his life has turned out, or so he thinks.
She is feisty and wants everything a man does. Society won't let her.

On a shallow note - I love the clothes she wears.Swing coats to die for. But the gloves killed me. I remember having to wear clothes to go shopping downtown. She pushes a baby stroller in heels, dress and gloves with her bracelet over her gloves like my mom did. 
How silly that all is to me now. 

But back to the story. 
All of the actors are top notch. Her mother is a hoot and overbearing. I would have been miserable if I had a mom whose sole thought was one must be skinny and pretty to live a good life. But the comments on the baby's big forehead did make me laugh.
Here is what the internet says about the show below.

It's the late 1950s and Miriam "Midge" Maisel has everything she has ever wanted -- the perfect husband, two kids and an elegant apartment on New York's Upper West Side. Her seemingly idyllic life takes a surprising turn when she discovers a hidden talent she didn't previously know she had -- stand-up comedy. This revelation changes her life forever as she begins a journey that takes her from her comfortable life on the Upper West Side through the cafes and nightclubs of Greenwich Village as she makes her way through the city's comedy industry on a path that could ultimately lead her to a spot on the "Tonight Show" couch. 



I hope you get an opportunity to watch this comedy. I don't know that men will enjoy since there is nothing that blows up but tempers and no bloodshed or violence. Rapid fire speech,yes, not rapid gunfire. 

Lunch

It started with all these damn steroids I had to take for this mass in my right eye. Then mix in the holiday food, booze and my overindulging.
I have gained 18 lbs this year and feel like shit.

So what do I do? Go to the grocery store. Yeah, that man and dog who lives with me still want to eat. How dare them! 

Being only 5'1" 18 lbs is like 40 on a normal height person. 
I am walking from the parking lot into the grocery store and I feel this lump on my side towards my back. It's my side back. 
I am in horror thinking, dear Lord that can't be a fat roll could it? 
Oh my God. I am now freaking out. I have a back roll from 18 lbs?

As I walk this long walk to the store I am playing this over in my head.
I will not eat more than ice and breathe. 
I can now feel this back/side fat each time I swing my arms.
Oh Lordie.

I am walking through the veggie aisle and all I can think is this feels like shit. I need more veggies. Back fat won't survive on veggies!!

Then while standing in the long line at the deli counter for Rick's goodies I got a bit warm.
I am assuming that because I am  now18 lbs fatter I am just a big fat sweaty pig.  Oh Great. This just keeps getting better. No Margaret, your stomach did not just growl. You can never eat again woman! Do you feel that fat roll? No food for you!

I take off my fleece coat. As I get my left arm out of the sleeve I realize that I had a scarf folded in half and stuffed in my sleeve. 
That big fat roll I thought I had on my back was my big damn scarf. Whew.
As I stand there in line I, of course, burst out laughing at my blonde moment. People looked at me and I didn't care - IT'S NOT A FAT ROLL, IT'S JUST A SCARF !!

So, What's for lunch?

Snowmageddon in Pennsylvania

My hometown has been all over the national news and morning shows over the holiday.
63.8 inches of snow and it continues to fall as I type this.
So much in a short time that they made the national news.
63 inches. I am only 61 inches.
Erie Pennsylvania is used to lots of snow.
Reason number 2 why I no longer live there.
It is just like Buffalo only a smaller city so less news coverage so you may not know.
But it's on a lake, a big beautiful Great Lake - so lake effect snows are normal.
Thunder and lightning in a snowstorm are also normal around those parts.

When Rick first moved to Erie he heard "Thundersnow" for the first time.
I was with him and he jumped and said, "Hey that was thunder"
Being ever the smart ass I responded, "Very good Rick"
He kept saying, "Well that isn't normal."
Well, actually it is here. I never knew it was rare. 
We heard it a lot during a storm growing up.

"They," say it should stop around 6 ft of snow. I sure hope so. Crazy huh?
My sister got trapped and when she tried to leave her boyfriends she got stuck. She was pulled out of the ditch with the ole chains and then her windshield wiper broke off. Whiteouts with no wiper are not good.
She couldn't see anything and turned back in a whiteout, white-knuckle drive. fun, fun, fun. She has been trapped there for days.
She didn't even get to see her children on Christmas or her entire family. 
She is still not home.
I have another sister who couldn't get out of her house to be with the family for Christmas. 
Those stuck at my parents home include my niece and her hubby who came home for the holiday from Florida no less. But they have been a great help in getting the shoveling done for them. It is a nonstop effort.
My parents have a snow plow service. But they had nowhere to put their cars in the driveway. It was all a big ole cluster. Then when they got a good portion of the double driveway clear the plows came through and left them an enormous pile of snow at the end of the driveway to get through. 

I said to my niece, you have food, toilet paper, booze - enjoy being stuck in the house. You said you missed the family - boy are you ever getting caught up. 
Besides, leftover lasagna and prime rib ain't so bad!
I predict a baby boom in 9 months 😁

My neighbor asked me if I was going home for the holiday as she was packing up her car to go to North Carolina on Thursday to be with her parents/family.
I said I don't go north in winter. She gasped, "Not even to see your family at Christmas?" 
Yes, I saw her judgment all over her face.

I explained that we did that once and got stuck there for days. I saw the family in late August and I will be back in spring/summer. Driving through the mountains to go north isn't so great either let alone what I find when I get to the northern-most part of Pennsylvania.

I knew she thought I was a terrible person to not go home.
Then last evening as I was coming around the corner with Izzy she and her hubby and kids were getting out of the car. She and her husband stopped to chat with me. She said, "I really thought you were being a bit dramatic about getting stuck in Erie due to inclement weather. But seeing this all over the news I couldn't help but think of you. You weren't dramatic at all. I couldn't wrap my head around that amount of snow"  No shit!

I knew she didn't understand as most don't. I get it. Until you get stuck up there, live there or visit in winter, you don't know. I had to be at work down here. I imagine if I got stuck up there I'd be there for 3 weeks. 
Then I would be on the news. Murder or suicide or perhaps both. 
C'mon, weeks stuck in the house with my family would do me in.

Last night a good friend sent me a private message from FB. He is stuck in upstate NY with his mother and 2 older brothers who love Trump and hates gays. (my friend is gay). So, of course, my friend who doesn't love Trump or love listening to his mother tell him every 5 minutes how lonely she is was about to crack. All of his suggestions, like staying with him, were met with I could never do that I just prefer to whine to you and give you guilt about my loneliness.
Okay not her exact words but she was adamant that all of his suggestions were horrible except him moving back to his childhood bedroom. 
He wrote to me to vent. I did not tell him I was chuckling. 
He said writing to me was his sanity at the moment. 
I was laughing at his stories as I read them to Rick.
He said he has gone through a 1.75L of vodka over a couple of days as well as shoveled for days. He wants to get home (Delaware) Thankfully his mother has wi-fi because watching Faux News was not his thing. 
He was going mad and he felt certain if he can't get out today he will walk home.
I was laughing at his stories but honestly, that is how I would have felt too. I hope he gets out safely and soon. 

I was going to send this to him but decided it may send him over the edge.
But I did send it to my family members up north. It actually makes me a bit sick to my stomach when I saw it. Been there - done that. Never again!

All I know is it's almost over. The dreaded holidays & the snow for a few days anyway. All I know is that my diet is due. I feel like crap and look like crap. So back on the saddle  - but I will wait until after New Years because it is my anniversary and I will have a cocktail. Can't do that and diet. But I am ready. You know it's time when you want to diet. 

I hope you all had a wonderful, peaceful snow-less holiday.

It's almost 2018. 

Christmas

Merry Christmas 
(to all who celebrate Christmas.)

I wish you all a happy and peaceful holiday!

Risque

I don't work today. YIPEE!

Last evening a neighbor stopped by. I will not be using her name since she asked me not to. We will call her Susie instead. We opened some wine and had some goodies and laughed all darn night. She mentioned stopping by because her children were with their dad so we said sure, wear your pj's if you want, be comfy. And we all were in sweats and comfy clothes with slippers. There is nary a decoration in the home of these scrooges but a candle that smells like a Xmas tree. That candle she found very funny.  The fireplace was on, there was a table of goodies and a few bottles of red wine. It was nice. But the laughter was the best. My goodness we laughed until my cheeks hurt.  And we laughed about the most stupid and juvenile of things. 

Here are 3 phrases that Rick, myself and Susie went on about last night.
The first one was 'Wet Signature'. 
Susie is refinancing her home. 
She was telling us that her mortgage person sent her an email that day and said he would need a "wet signature"
Well, my perverted husband went somewhere else in his mind.
Sadly he didn't keep it just in his mind, he made a comment. 
That comment had Susie and I howling with laughter because if we were being honest, that was where our mind went to. Only thing is my husband has no filter and he just blurts shit out without thinking. You can tell he is no longer in HR.  

Susie stated that she was afraid to write back and ask what the hell a wet signature was.  She went on, "I'm a teacher I should know right?"  
Well, I'm not a teacher and I sure didn't know what it meant. 
So off to google we 3 go to read the definition of a wet signature.
Here is what Google had to say about it - 
A wet signature is created when a person physically marks a document. In some cultures, this is done by writing a name in a stylized, cursive format (or even a simple “X”) on a piece of paper. Other cultures use name seals to the same effect.

Now, why couldn't he just say he needed an ink signature and not a digital signature? Rick was close in his real guess so 1 for Ricky.

That brought us to the 2nd one. When our neighbor brought up the wet signature Rick asked, "is it anything like Wet Work?" and he laughed. But again she and I had no idea. In unison, we ask, "What the hell is WetWork?"  
I shouldn't have asked.
Google said - Wetwork (Russian: мокрое дело, tr. mokroye delo) is a euphemism for murder or assassination, alluding to spilling blood.

We did not ask how the hell he knew that. Score 2 for Ricky.

And then he blurts, I saw on Margaret's doctor slip where it said Wet Mount, so what the hell is that ladies? We giggled because we knew where this pervert was going.
We explained that it is done to find infection even if you never say anything to your doctor about one it is just part of the annual exam. But ole Rick didn't believe us so he googled it. He kept saying, yea that is what she says but I don't know...
Wet mount. A sample of the vaginal discharge is placed on a glass slide and mixed with a salt solution. The slide is looked at under a microscope for bacteria, yeast cells, trichomoniasis (trichomonads), white blood cells that show an infection, or clue cells that show bacterial vaginosis.

So after all this "wet" jargon we decided we needed a better topic. Susie said, nothing grim like politics though. We all agreed with that sentiment!
The TV had been on this whole time and after we said no more wet talk, a tv weather person said something about a wet cycle. And like 4th graders we all burst into laughter. It could have been the 3 bottles of wine but seriously folks this was crazy.

Such a nice holiday scene right?
Ah, We are all going to hell.

End of the year

Last of the memes for the year.

This one had a caption that read: Daddy had things to do.

c'mon how damn cute is that?

😀 

sadly this one is too true for me.

I was very very young and have a very vivid memory of my father telling me that Santa loved the plate of Pizzelles (Italian anise cookie) but he preferred beer or whiskey. So with the help of my mom, I got a beer from the fridge and did so every year after. That became our tradition. I just assume my Dad knew Santa.

Cough Syrup

I saw this all around the web as 'Grandma's Cough Medicine.'

Could this have actually been used back in the day?

It is hard to believe these ingredients were used.  

My goodness, I think you'd forget you ever had a cough.

Alcohol, marijuana, chloroform, and morphine. 

Yep, that ought to knock the cough right out of you or knock you out. 

Either way...

Lost Family

As readers of this blog, you all know the story of my husband meeting his birth mom in the 80's and how that was not an Oprah Moment!
Then last year he met 2 sisters after he did his Ancestry.com DNA. These sisters are his half-sisters and they have the same father. Sadly his father had passed from an accident in the 90's so he didn't get to meet him. I do think that would have been a much better reunion than the one with his mom.

Now having said all that you can probably understand why he watches these shows like Long Lost Family.
I hate these shows.  I don't think they are realistic and they are so over the top dramatic and sappy I tend to laugh at all the crying. I rolled my eyes each time this woman said her life has been incomplete and she hasn't been able to be successful because she doesn't know her real parents. Seriously you are putting all your life's mistakes and choices on the fact that you are adopted? Come on!! 
So everyone raised by their birth parents are successful and make no mistakes in life? 

The last one I was in the room for while Rick was watching was a man who cried through the entire episode of him and finding his sister. He cried when the woman came to his house. He cried telling her the story of an infant he held and the next day it was gone. (his sister) He cried at the woman telling him she found his sister. I mean the man never stopped crying...the ugly cry no less. Rick would say, Oh no, he's gonna blow. And sure enough, he was back to ugly crying. I honestly believe the show plays this up. I think a few times when they showed his face ugly crying it was the same as the one before. I think this is all done for drama and not so much to help these people.

There was a woman who gave up a son and now he is looking for her.
She is found and they ask if she wants to meet her son. Her unenthusiastic response was sure yes, why not. Her reason for giving up her child is she never wanted kids. She still has no kids she said it wasn't her thing. Now, this boy is hoping for a mom response and hug. He got a hug. They sat and chatted and that is all we know. I'd bet the house that boy did not get what he wanted. Rick said that her body language spoke volumes and that poor kid was in for a world of hurt. I hope not but it didn't look good to us.

I think they should show you what happens AFTER they meet these people who they think have filled a hole in their life. All that crying and then a year later you will probably see 50% still keep in touch and 50% don't speak to one another. 

TLC could do a couple of update shows so we could see how that young man realized that this was not his mother, the woman who raised him is his mother and that woman who didn't want him still didn't want him. Of course, the crying man and his sister still keep in touch but since they live so far away they mostly talk on the phone and the crying has slowed down. (yes, these are my updates)

When people are looking for long lost family members it is an emotional time. If they not only found their family members but gave them some sort of help in dealing with the reality of it. The two hosts have been in their shoes so they really could help them. I imagine that wouldn't be enough ugly drama for the show though.

I really don't think that while these folks are on the hunt they are very realistic. It's all rainbows and unicorns for them.
They think their life will be complete once this person is found. 
As most say, it will fill the void in their life & the hole in their hearts.
But these people have been raised differently than their blood family. They may have a completely different view of the world. Is blood enough?

That got me to put down the knitting needles and say to Rick if I just met my family would I like all of them? Rick laughed at that. He knew.
Can you sing the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other" Yea, that would be me with my family.

We love our families despite the issues that in others would make us turn away.
Hell, I have family members that I would run in the other direction if it was not that they are family. So just meeting them as the shine wears off I may think, gee I'm better off not knowing this person.

I know when Rick met his mom he was beyond the moon. Each time he met her he saw things that he felt were ugly. Each visit he'd come back with another ugly story.  By the time we spent a weekend with her I knew for certain that this was a horrible person. It took one more visit for Rick to figure this out. I so wanted to say, "Wake up and really see her" But I felt it wasn't my place to do that to him. 
I hoped he would see it on his own, but not in the way he did see it.
The day she told him that it was a good thing it was so difficult to get an abortion in 1955 or he wouldn't be here was the last straw for him. He got up from the table and went outside. I finally said something to her. She laughed. He came in and said let's go home. We left. After adding up her pathological lying and all the kinks in the armor he was done with her. He said one morning that if he met her he couldn't even be friends with her so why do I want this toxic woman in my life? So that was that. 

If this had been on that television show it would have stopped at the hugs at the meeting and seeing how alike they looked. But the real story is the story of how this person fits in your life now. That is the story to me. 
Rick has always said his parents are the 2 wonderful people who raised him.  But he did long to find his birth parents. 

I asked him the last time this show was on if he watches it because he hopes to see what he couldn't find with his mom? He said no, we don't know that they have either it's just that I understand that hunt and then finding them I guess.

Hmm...I still think the show TLC should make is the one a year later. That would be much more beneficial to all those looking. It would also be more interesting to me than this crying show they have now. 

If you just met your family would you be thrilled by them all?

3 Blades

I called my parents as I do weekly. 
I normally call on a Sunday morning but I had time this past Saturday so I changed it up a bit.
My stepmom and I talked about the holidays, her work schedule, dad and all kinds of crazy things.

At one point we got on the topic of ceiling fans. Don't ask how we did that.
I told her that when I turned off our ceiling fan after the summer weather you could see how dirty it was.
I told her that I mentioned to Rick that we need to keep that baby moving, only joking of course. 

I can't reach the fan even with the stool, I need a full blown ladder.
(12ft ceiling)
So Rick said he would do it. I gave him a wet and a dry cloth.
I told my mom that all 3 of the blades now are cleaned as well as the stem etc.
It looks great so if guests are here and look up, I won't be near as embarrassed.

She laughed. Then she said, "Wait you can't just have 3 blades, did you mean to say that?"  I said I have 3 blades, that is correct. She was now laughing and she is convinced that there are no ceiling fans with only 3 blades. Unless they broke off of course.

So now her line of questioning is about how small this fan is. Is it in the family room? Yes, I tell her. She continues to laugh. I am not sure why this is tickling her so. It is the same size just a different style I tell her. She asks if it looks right? Seriously does she think I would say no after I bought it and hung and kept it there? 

She said, "Peg are you drinking?"  No, I am not mother, it's 10am on Saturday morning.  She then said, "This is not the fan you had the last time I visited, is it?"
I tell her no I got a new one. She finds this so funny, she is still laughing. Then she asked me if it was supposed to have only 3 blades or did some break? I explain it is a more modern style than my last one. But she just keeps giggling. 

Now my ole mother is making ME laugh. No, there are only 3 blades, nothing broke. I said, "Oh no, you're getting as loopy as Dad you crazy old woman!"
That made her laugh some more. Now we are both laughing.

My mom is crazy. Don't even get me started on her bewilderment on how a fax machine works or for heaven sakes voicemail. That will have her in stitches and all of us shaking our heads at her. It's funny only because there is no way she can wrap her head around either.

Here is my crazy 3 bladed fan. See nothing is broken and it got cleaned.
Only 3 blades Ma. 

Memes I've enjoyed this week.

 Home is wherever Rick is.

 Oh so very true.

😊

Good Hair Day

Now I know as I write this you all are going to think I have lost my mind.
Perhaps.

Rick has always had this thing that kind of freaks me out.
Once when he was outside talking to someone he got close enough and put his hand on her and told her she had high blood pressure. She denied it. Days later she told him she went to the doctor and sure enough, she had high blood pressure.

One day while lying in bed having one of our marathon discussion he put his hand over my tummy and stopped. He looked at me and asked if it hurt there. I said no. He kept his hand hovering there and said, "you've got something going on right here." He kept his hand over my lower belly. I poo-pooed him. He said something about going to a doctor. Yeah right, what am I going to say? Oh, my husband feels heat here so something must be wrong. No, I don't think so.
About a month later after seeing my doctor for my annual female appointment guess what they found? An enormous tumor in my uterus, just as Rick had said.

There have been a lot of these types of things with him and his hands over the years. With friends, acquaintances, family and me.  I had just watched The Healer (awesome show!) and I turned to him and said, "Gee maybe you can be like the healer." I was just joking.

Then last night my head was hurting so badly it made me cry. "Betty" was acting up big time. I felt like my eye had a pulse. But it was the pain in my head and neck that was a 12 on a scale of 1-10 in pain. I was on the couch with a cold cloth over my eyes and I felt him come over and I took it off. He said just sit still and be quiet. He turned off the tv and he put his hand over the whole area. He stopped and then just held it there - not touching me - just held it over the area he stopped at and left it there for a bit. Then he jumped back. He had a heart palpitation. That snapped us both out of it.  He said it got very hot and it felt like a light electrical shock. But my head went from a 12 to a 5.
What the hell was that? 

I asked him why he stops where he stops.
He said he feels heat where he stops. 
Sometimes like an electrical light shock with it.
I do not tell him where this is at but he always stops in the middle of the spot of pain. I kept saying it was all in my head (no pun intended) He did it in another area as he moved over my head and damn if he didn't stop at the exact spot on my neck.

When he stopped he went back to watching tv in his chair and I went about doing things in the kitchen. I was shocked at how much the pain had diminished. If this was all psychosomatic fine - I felt better - whatever it takes.

But this morning my head is the same. I feel better. I am puzzled and befuddled.
All of those things. I don't care if this is all in my head, I am having a good head day so I am leaving it at that. Psychosomatic can be my new friend if it wants to be I don't care how I got here to a level of pain so low but I am taking it.

We've just always made jokes about him doing this shit but maybe it isn't a joke or a fluke. Who knows. By no means do we think he is a healer but he does feel something and he does always get it right. Even with acquaintances where he felt something from a touch on the shoulder and insisted she go to the doctor. I don't wish to share her medical issues with you all here but he was correct.

The good news is, not only don't I have a pounding headache, I am having a damn great hair day too. Could I be having a psychosomatic great hair day too?
Hey, we gals must have our priorities.

It Could Be Worse

Here is my morning by 8a.

Backstory - this couple had a really difficult issue with the fact that there were only 2 choices and neither was good. Her bathtub squeaked. She ragged on her husband daily that something had to be done he told us both. He did not wish to remove the tub since this was their temporary home for 1 more year. (not from this area) If he removed it they would lose a couple rows of tile around the tub on the walls which everyone knows will happen. He was concerned about the floor tile as well. No one could promise him that those wouldn't need to be replaced as well.  But more importantly, the condo bldg informed him that if he removes this tub some of the issues in the plumbing that have been found in other units will need to be updated.  That means big money issues with plumbing that will have to be brought up to code once the wall is exposed. 
So they asked for another option.
Fearing a full 20,000 remodel he wanted options. She only wanted it ripped out.

Rick told him that nothing would be 100% if he couldn't access under the tub.
There was an access panel but the homeowner couldn't get it out. The male homeowner told Rick he tried as well as a plumber and no one can remove this panel.
Rick said he would try but if it can't be removed then he could do this other option (that I won't bore you with here )that has been very successful in the past.
However, he couldn't promise that because he couldn't see where the product was going without access. They could try it but he didn't want to commit that this would solve the problem.  

It appeared to work and her husband who was home at the time that Rick was there was very pleased. He also shared with Rick that his wife was a pain in the ass about this because she doesn't wish to do this -but she's also always like that. 
And they both laughed.

She called within 4 hours saying the caulking was wet. I said she may wish to give it some time to dry and she screamed, NO at me.  Rick went back to see her problem since he was going to be in Alexandria anyway. He got there - caulking was dry. This was a few hours from her call - so it magically dried. Nothing to fix and he left. She was still bitching that this was not her choice but it wasn't squeaking. (I know, why complain then if it solved your problem?)

Then yesterday she calls and says there is a slight area that needs more caulking. 
She went on, "And don't tell me caulking shrinks I am tired of hearing that shit."
Okay, I have never told her this so I am assuming her husband said this to her and she is taking it out on me. He probably told her not to bother us too with this trivial thing. Ah, but she did.

I told her we got lucky because Rick was in Alexandria right now and in about 3 hours he can be at your home to handle the problem. She said she had plans to go to lunch with friends so she wouldn't be home. I said I can do it again on Friday or Monday. She said and this is a quote, "You better do better than that because I can't do Friday and I am out of town on Monday." 
I said that I could see if any other customers were willing to move their appointment and I could make this work. I would call her by the end of business that day. She agreed that was fine.

At 3pm I called her and left her a voicemail and I also wrote an email. I told her I could fit her in tomorrow (today) at 11:30a and asked if that would work for her.
She never returned my call. I called her again at 5:15 before I left the office and it went to voicemail and I repeated my message. I spent a couple of hours moving people around to accommodate her so I was hoping this would work for her since originally I was told anytime this week.

This morning I called her because she had not returned my calls which for someone begging to have us come on the 13th you'd think she would have called me back. I needed to see if Rick was going to her home after his first appointment or not. She said in her typical bitchy way, "I stopped and bought myself some caulk and did it myself. My husband seems to think due to the unusual big gap we have it is our problem because it shrank. I believe all of that is bullshit so don't bother stopping by." 

Oh boy at 7:30a that just hit me the wrong way.
I said with a smile in my voice, Thank you, Susan, for calling us and letting us know you didn't need us after asking us to move other customers to fit you in. You have a nice holiday. I hung up before she could say shit. 
Rick heard me. He was shocked. He came over to the desk and put his hand on my forehead. I asked him what the hell he was doing. He said well in 12 years I have never heard you say anything like that to a customer. You said it so nicely I bet she is still thinking about it and now she's wondering, did she just diss me?  
I said I was sorry but I had just had it with her. She was such a royal bitch it was amazing. 

If that wasn't bad enough we got to our 8am appointment (at 7:45) and the homeowner removed the toilet before Gary got there, broke a pipe and water was everywhere and they had to turn the water off to the house. He called for a plumber and said to Gary, "I am going to be paying out the ass for this plumber aren't I?" Gary said he was so jovial considering all that was happening at his house.   For us, it meant we could not do his floor, walls, tubs and tiles so Gary called me and said, "now what?" Oh brother. So one of the jobs that he was doing tomorrow has no one living in the home and we have the combo to get in.  I said you have 3 bathrooms to do there, you already have the paperwork, just go there and do that job and I will let the homeowner know. So you have one less job tomorrow. 

By 8:15 I poured myself another cup of coffee and realized that I needed something stronger but it was only 8:15a I would have to deal with it.

So as I type this I am drinking coffee, dog at my feet keeping them warm. It is cold here very cold. It is beginning to feel like Christmas. Cold, brisk wind and sunny. It could all be worse. I think that is my motto for the day. Just smile because it could all be worse.