| My plan this morning was to write this column, finish an editing job, then get back to revising the short story I finished drafting a few weeks ago. And, oh, do the laundry. Here’s how the morning’s gone instead:
8:30 am . Dogs dig out of yard, despite electric collar on younger dog designed to deter escapes. Don coat and boots, get in car, follow them half-mile down road. Old dog hops right in; young dog wants to play. Leave her and drive old dog home. (Did I mention that it’s begun to snow?)
9:00 am . Drop off old dog, return to young dog’s location, play car-tag with her all the way home, then in front of house, until she finally dashes into garage and I hit the door-closer.
9:30 am . Search for electrical tape to fix broken containment wire. Mine has gone missing, so call husband to find out where his is. Turns out he used all of mine after his ran out. Tells me where to find surgical tape, which “should work.”
10:00 am . Head out to fence-line with shovel and surgical tape to patch wire at point of jailbreak. Temperature has dropped twenty degrees in half hour. Despite chattering teeth and frozen fingertips, fix wire and shovel dirt into hole under fence. Discover electric collar still not working, despite wire fix. Call husband, who, it turns out, is on a jobsite two hours north, but is leaving imminently because of snowstorm. He’ll stop by house on way back to office.
10:30 am . Back in office with cup of tea and sleeping dogs, sit down to write column. Fire alarm in office chirps. Old dog begins to quake like I put a quarter in. Get ladder from garage to take alarm down to change battery. Cannot unscrew covering but alarm shrieks in protest. Young dog begins to shake as well. Take both dogs and head to master bedroom at other end of house until husband arrives.
11:00 am . Put it a load of laundry. Alarm still chirping in office at other end of house. Decide to do yoga. Old dog hides in closet.
Noon . Husband arrives, takes down alarm, says it’s broken. He successfully removes battery, but chirps continue because of automatic backup. Husband wraps alarm in towel and puts in garage refrigerator. I insist he eat lunch before heading out to fix fence. Daughter calls to say that the bank account we share is mysteriously overdrawn. I head back into office.
12:30 pm . Husband fixes fence-wire—turns out there was a second break. I’m still on hold with bank.
1:00 pm . Husband leaves. Bank has disconnected me. I call back, and, while I’m on hold, sit down to try to finish column before I must leave for an appointment. Type one paragraph when bank comes back on line to say they’ll call me back. I head into bedroom to change. Bank calls back while I’m pulling on boots and says they’ll “look into” mysterious overdraft.
1:30 pm . I email Doris that the column will come later this afternoon. I’ll try to finish the edit job tonight. Maybe tomorrow I can work on that short story. As for the laundry? Maybe I can get the last load in before I go to bed tonight.
4:30 pm . I’m home. The bank made an error—and has already corrected it. All’s well that ends well. Happy New Year! |
