PlazaJen: Passion Knit

My poor husband. He had a rough day yesterday, and I can only hope that whatever planetary-star alignment thing he had going on has been swallowed up by a black hole and the crazy has moved on to another block, city, or continent.

His truck has been... finicky. It's got over 190k miles on it, and as many things do when they get older, has taken to making its own decisions here and there about what it will or will not do. Like start. Or turn off. It reached a point that he just routinely would hook & unhook the battery to co-operate with the truck's New Method of Running. But yesterday, the truck decided it would not play with the routine any more. And this decision took place in the Lowe's parking lot.

Now, as James observed, if you're going to have a vehicle breakdown, the place to have it is in the Lowe's parking lot. Three men immediately appeared to help, and they pushed the truck down an incline so he could get it into gear & rolling again. (As someone who is only knowledgeable about car styles and names, this is all very magical.) I was telling Beth about it today, and we were joking about other sorts of breakdowns, like what the best parking lots would be for those. I think a nervous breakdown would be best in a Target parking lot. Anyway, he has determined it's the starter, and is outside installing it as I type.

But that wasn't all. Last night, we had major storms - lots of lightning, thunder, rain. I went to bed a bit later, and it was challenging to fall asleep, what with the noise and flashes of light. And the dogs kept barking. Mostly Polly, but she'd get Suzy going and Tripper, who stays in his kennel & has the StopBark by him, just whined, because he knows barking=ultrasonic badness. At one point, James asked me if I'd heard the doorbell. I hadn't, and replied as much. But the barking continued, over hours. I started incorporating all the noise into my dreams, and finally awoke as James, beside-himself-crazy, flipped on the hall light and asked me where the doorbell chimes were. I directed him to the old ones, which he'd already investigated & ruled out, since it didn't have all the batteries inside. I then remembered that a couple years ago, I'd replaced that unit with a plug-in device. I found it, unplugged it, and went back to bed. Apparently, something with the storm was setting off the doorbell, which in turn set off Polly, who set off Suzy and Tripper (Bark & Whine). Suzy finally gave up, because that's how she rolls, but James said that at one point, Polly GOT UP ON THE BED to get our attention. (I have no recollection of this, as I was in my dreams wandering around complaining about "all the racket".) She's vigilant, my dog. I'll give her that. But man, we're both tired today! And the power's out at the office, so I can't check my email from home. I think I feel a nap coming on & a fresh start to the weekend in my future!