Frazzle Rock

Do you ever experience a week when nothing seems to go right? You finally overcome one marathon problem, only to have another one pop up the very next day? Unfortunately, that describes my week perfectly. I am on the road, visiting Canada this week with Boss #2. We broke down before we even took off on Monday. Thankfully, the Hawker Beechcraft Service Center is located on the field. After waiting all day for a part, we were finally on our way to Montreal. I crawled into bed at 3:28 AM, rather exhausted but glad we had the problem resolved. I always take it personally when my My Baby breaks and is the one preventing the Bosses from getting their work done. The week progressed, with us experiencing minor breaks along the way. Other than an annoying stuck mic on my control yoke, making it pretty tricky to make radio calls to ATC, these problems have been bearable. I've been keeping a squawk list of things we need fixed next time we are down for maintenance. It simply went from bad to worse when we arrived at our destination last night.

After we landed, I was resetting the trim for the takeoff position as part of the After Landing Checklist. When the needles on the indicators weren't moving, we decided to investigate further and found that the pitch trim and rudder trim indicators seem to be having a temper tantrum. It's certainly a no-fly situation, since we can't go up in the air without knowing what the trims are doing on the airplane. It's been murder today trying to get wiring diagrams from Wichita (they wouldn't give them to us so I got instant help from our guys in Mesa) and tracking down a mechanic with United States Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) ratings who was willing to work on the plane for us. Even if we find what's wrong today, it's probably too late to get a part here all the way from Dallas (thanks, Customs). So we are stuck here until we can get it fixed, with anxious passengers constantly asking when they can leave for our next destination. We were supposed to leave hours ago.

The icing on the cake? After taking awesome pictures all week, one thing that truly makes me happy, I lost them all today as I uploaded them to my computer using a new method. So I can't even prove to you how silly this week has been because there is no photographic evidence. All ninety-four pictures...lost. Yep, it's been that kind of week. I'm kind of nervous wondering what's going to go wrong next.

Let's see. End on a happy note. Um.....the fall foliage is beautiful here in Canada. If you don't mind admiring the leaves on the ground.

Progress In The Making

I feel like I'm getting lots done on our new home. I have been at work the past two months, gone every week. So it has been difficult to continue with larger, time-consuming projects (like staining the rest of the cabinets in the house). However, when I have been home, I have been able to get a lot done. It's starting to look like something lived in, and if you can ignore the severe lack of seating in the living room, it actually looks quite nice. The plan is to shop for couches starting in January, since a lot of furniture stores have great sales after Christmas to get rid of inventory before the new stuff arrives in February. Though we might find what we like and buy it in January, it could take up to eight more weeks after purchase before we see some sitting situations in our living room. We will be getting two couches and two arm chairs for the living room, and a small love seat for near the fireplace in the dining room/reading nook. Only I would make a reading nook in a house! We will also slowly be searching for end tables, a coffee table, and an ottoman for the love seat reading nook. It's practically impossible to read without one's feet in an elevated position.

Though some rooms still appear empty, quite a bit of progress has been made. It's amazing to think we've had the keys for almost three months already! As the temperatures continue to cool to bearable levels, we will soon be heading outside to make headway on the plants out front. We were able to start a little yesterday morning, and it's even easier now to imagine no wild bushes taking over sidewalks! I doubt we will be planting anything this fall, which is the perfect Arizona planting season. Hopefully by next February (another planting season...we have three, after all), we will be ready to put some new greenery into the ground. The goal is low-maintenance desert landscaping that looks like a million bucks. Have I set my hopes to high yet again?!

I was awakened yesterday morning to the sound of the pool pump going crazy right outside my bedroom window. I didn't panic since it meant someone was out there cleaning the pool, and John indeed was getting rid of the remnants from our big storms this past week. After just an hour of cleaning, the pool was sparkling and beautiful. Too bad it was still a little too chilly to dip in! Because it's a diving pool and has nine feet of depth on one end, it's hard for the pool to ever get really warm. I just enjoyed the view for the day.

I am rather partial to this house. Rather partial, indeed. What do you think of it so far?