Pride of Ownership

So when I was a kid (and now that I think about it, as a grown up too) I used to love to hang out with my Grandma, Tessie. Tessie was such a fun fun lady, a real "firecracker." Back in her glory days (back before I was even a twinkle in anyone's eye), she used to roller skate and dance and have fun...truly innocent fun (compared to today). She didn't tie herself down to one guy and she hung out with her girl friends. She had a huge family. She was one of 9 kids, and adored each of her siblings. When I knew her as "grandma" she bowled and went to her senior's club once a week, had to go to every grocery store just to get the best price (a habit she picked up from the Depression, no doubt) and would do anything for those she loved. She went to some of my brother's book signings and actually told people they couldn't have the cookies we brought to pass out, unless they bought a book (I kid you not). Her words were "no book, no cookie." And she really would get offended if someone picked up Daniel's book, but didn't make the purchase. She was truly a great person.

And as fun as she was, back when I was a kid, there were some things I just didn't understand about her. For example, she used to sweep her driveway. That's right. She took out her broom (yup, the kitchen broom) and swept her driveway which was the length of her entire property. I used ask her why sweeping the driveway was on her list of chores (who would do that every week?) And her response would be, "pride of ownership." But sadly seven-year-old me, did not understand the meaning of pride of ownership.

Then my husband and I bought a house. And a few weeks ago, I found myself outside sweeping the driveway (with a heavy duty broom, not a kitchen one). It was a lightbulb moment...here I was, sweeping my driveway like Tessie had done so many times in front of her own home. And it actually made sense....I was tending to the home I love, thinking of my beloved Tessbabe and I smiled and said "pride of ownership." Sounds silly I'm sure, but something about it seemed so theraputic. And now, it makes perfect sense why she used to sweep that long driveway, week after week. :)

Ever have one of those weeks?

Have you ever had one of those weeks? You know...the week from hell. Let me tell you about my week, then we'll compare notes (misery loves company right?).

Last Tuesday (jan 11) my main computer that I do most of my film transfer orders on wouldn't boot up. Now I was a little worried, but not super worried, I mean I do live with a computer genius. He, of course tells me not to worry, what parts to buy (he even sent me the links to the places that had the best prices, not just the sites, but the actual listings themselves), and to bring the computer home and he'd take care of it.

The parts arrive on Thursday. The hubby starts backing everything up, just to be on the safe side...and OMG, it took days just to back up the computer. So since I couldn't use that computer, I saved myself some time and worked from home on Friday. Now, like I said, I live with a computer genious. He's got our home network, networked to my office network, so I can access stuff at work from my home computers, and vice versa, which makes me do a happy dance. But not on Friday....on Friday, the office network went down (or so I thought).

So I come in over the weekend to check out the situation after hubs does some diagnostics and figures out the problem is from the modem to outside the building, nothing actually in our office. I call my cable company, and they're like "oh sorry, can't send somebody out until Wednesday to look at it"...well that just isn't going to fly with me. I mean, I own a business, no internet, means no phone, and no way to process credit cards. So I make a stink and the guy is like, "okay, i put you on this expedited list, so you'll get a call within the next hour to set up an earlier appointment."

No such call ever occurred. I scoot into the office early on Monday to wreak havoc on the cable company. I call up and tell them that since i can't do any of my work, I'm going to call them every hour until they get somebody here to fix my cable. Low and behold, an appointment opens up and they show up at 11:15 to fix it. And what a surprise, the problem was outside, where they could have fixed it without me being here to wait for them.

So that's the cable problem taken care of. In the meantime, I slice my finger open on a piece of film...OUCH...and bled all over my office, LOVELY. Had to work on my landlord to fix the broken pipe outside causing a huge ice patch that I've almost broken my butt on multiple times this week, and hubby still didn't have the computer fixed. Apparently his idea of dropping it off at lunch time on Monday, meant 4pm....which i OBVIOUSLY should have just known.

Tuesday rolls around, and we have an ice storm. I go out in pelting ice and rain, clean my car off (it was blocking his car in), clean his car off, and shovel a path to the cars (along with throwing down salt) so he won't fall and re-sprain his healing ankle. What thanks do I get? He get mad at me because he got into a warm car with water on the seat....wtf? Then he comes home sick and wants me to care for him....ummm...NO

Today, I woke up late, had to shuffle our cars around in the driveway to get to work, just to come in to...you guessed it, a broken down computer....AGAIN....so I ask you... IS IT FRIDAY YET?