monday morning madness

Written at 10:11 this morning.

Today is normally Frank’s day off, but as usual, they asked him to come in. No problem for us, we love the automatic time and a half for every hour he gets on these days. However, yesterday started earlier than normal and was busy as usual, and I would have enjoyed cuddling with my sweet man for one morning this week, but nonetheless, duty calls and we answer! (Actually, the alarm goes off at 5 am and he gets up and goes to work…) I wake up at 7 and its cold in our little home. I know the furnace was set to come on, but clearly it did not. It surely is not 73 degrees anywhere in our 31 foot length of living space and I search for slippers and pad down to the commode. I race back to the warm quilt in my empty bed and attempt to nestle into a slumber to no avail. At 7:30 I call Frank. “Honeeeeeeeeey!” Click. I really hate AT&T and their awful, call dropping service. I call back and we check in about the furnace and work for the day. Sounds like he may get some good hours. After we hang up, I get distracted by face book for a minute (or ten) until I can’t take it anymore and decide since the furnace isn’t coming on, I may as well just be cold outside, taking a walk.

It’s a beautiful Texan morning, albeit colder than most mornings I’ve experienced here so far. (And by far, much warmer than it is back home in Prineville this morning!) Speaking of home, I decide to text my father, who I believe can fix anything, about this annoying furnace situation. He starts firing back a few questions like, do you have propane? (haha! We do-- but still, good question!) Hungry, and in an effort to keep the healthy kick going this morning, I start some oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. I decide to cook my oatmeal in the microwave because it will be faster, so I follow the directions and start trying to find the owners manual for our trailer on the laptop, in hope that some more light will be shed on the furnace situation. After a few minutes, I got up to retrieve my oatmeal and discovered an oaty, goopy mess all over the microwave. Great. The paper towel is literally cooked onto the rim of the bowl. Awesome. Guess I will be cooking the old fashioned oats the old fashioned way after all!

The owners manual won’t open on the computer because the file “may be in use in another location or is corrupted.” Again, awesome. The oats are simmering as dad calls to do some more “hands on” trouble shooting. I start fiddling with the fuses, noticing there’s a read light on next to one of them. As I try to pull the fuse out, the red light turns off and the furnace turns on. I touch the fuse again and the red light comes on and the furnace turns off. Hmmmm… After a few more minutes of searching for a pair of pliers, taking a bite of oatmeal, then hunting down a screw driver, grabbing another bit of oatmeal, then fetching the flashlight, another bite of quickly cooling oats, the furnace starts working correctly. Dad encouraged us to have our batteries tested anyway, just to make sure there isn’t anything wrong with them. We hang up, I finish my oatmeal, and sit down and decide to write about it. My morning now seems a bit silly to write about after having done so, but I think there is something comforting in knowing that we are not alone in our Monday morning madness. I have no idea why Mondays need to be difficult for most of us, but they live up to their reputation all to often, don’t they?!