One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

 

 Ever since we sold mom's house and finally closed in February, I have felt I am so close to having my own house ready to sell. But it seems like one thing after another happens to set me back.

Speaking of back, one of my setbacks was injuring my back on the day I had a little celebration with the kids to observe not an ending, but a new beginning. I ended up having two little parties as not everyone could come on the same day. It was on the day of the second party that I pulled a muscle in my back trying to carry some pizzas upstairs. They were the take and bake kind and were heavy and unwieldy at 16" each and stacked up. With my knees as they are, I require the handrail on stairs, and tried balancing the pizza stack on one hand. I obviously used some muscles that had long been in disuse, what with the pandemic and then general staying at home all the time. The pain was pretty bad and I had to walk very carefully, and not twist or bend too much.

I took a pain pill and tried to prepare things while moving quite gingerly. I noticed then the pizza guys had messed up my order! Grr. I had ordered the chicken and artichoke pizza without the usual bacon as my daughter won't eat bacon. I specifically ordered it through the custom menu so they would get it right. But, alas, the preparer took one look at the order and assumed it was the standard item with bacon and prepared it thus. In the end, the pizza place offered me a free pizza for another date while I sat and picked off the minced bacon bits before baking.

Then, I decided I would bake the cinnamon bread ring first before the pizzas so the pizzas would be hot when everyone arrived. Disaster! About 10 minutes into the bake time I could smell something burning. I ran to the kitchen and opened the oven which poured out smoke and the smell of burnt butter and sugar. The topping had run over the edge of the pan that is provided by the pizza place, and a mess was now smoking and turning to ash, and my oven seemed covered, sides, top, and, bottom in a sticky black residue. Oh yes, the smoke alarm went off and screeched for a good 15 minutes, though I had all the doors and windows open at that point. I managed to clear the smoke, stop the alarm, and clean up the worst of what was burning in the bottom of the oven. I managed to finish baking the cinnamon bread, which, incidentally, was really delicious, as were the other pizzas. And the party was saved. But my oven has yet to be cleaned now. I'm not really comfortable with the self-cleaning option that runs the oven at super high temps. But my back is still on again/off again giving me discomfort, and I hate to go through the physical gyrations of oven cleaning the old way. And to think, my oven was clean before all that.  

Oh yes, and the microwave chose that day to die altogether -- a thing it had been threatening to do for six months or more. I ended up buying a relatively cheap replacement from Lowe's that used the same mounting system as the old one, and my son helped me get it installed. It looks nice and works just fine, but if I were staying, I would have bought a nicer one.

Well, I gave myself some time off for moping over the setback. At the same time, gophers had awakened and were systematically ruining my front lawn. I had, I thought, successfully poisoned them after they made some dozen mounds near the front of the house over the winter. But now they have popped up further down, closer to the sidewalk, and there seems no limit to the number of mounds they are determined to make. I have just stared at the mounds day after day with no desire to deal with them. And it would seem ridiculous now to have the cable company come back and repair the damage they also did (for absolutely no reason!) in January, because the gopher issues make the other damage insignificant. And being in the same vicinity, they will require much of the same remediation. The grass was already looking very sad and weedy after last year's watering restrictions. Can it be saved?

I have bought some rapid grass seed, and some lawn soil. I've contacted my yard guy for a spring cleanup and I will have him do the remediation on the lawn, removing the mounds, putting poison underground in the burrows, raking and spreading the grass seed where needed, topping with a light layer of lawn soil. The only problem is my yard guy is getting busy and I don't know when he will be here. It's just like with Alberto years ago, and the guy I had after him. They start out new, with me giving them a chance, as they try to build up a business and clients. Then, after a few years, they get busy. Then they only want to work for the big guys doing big jobs for the big money and I'm left to find another new guy. *Sigh.* But I will endure with my current guy as I'm so close now and just need to whip the yard into shape. I don't want to break in another newbie. When I move, I will have a much smaller yard and it will be flat. I expect to be able to care for it myself and not rely on the yard guys much.

But the new house feels like a dream that I'll never achieve. So many setbacks, and it seems I can't stay even, let alone get ahead or get finished. So, I'm fighting discouragement and trying to do small tasks in the house and keep moving forward. This week, I hope the yard work gets done. I'll plant a few annuals for some color, wash the windows, and do one good cleaning through the whole house.

It feels like I may be approaching the finish line. But who knows what each new day will bring. Here's hoping.