An Unexpected Day

Well, I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but we are having near record high temperatures here for the beginning of June. At this rate, I cannot even imagine what the weather will be like in August. Also, it will be a miraculous feat for our air conditioner (that we've kind of thought we'd have to replace every summer since we moved into this house, but it's still kicking) to continue cooling our home in this extreme heat without spontaneously combusting.

So, what with the 80% humidity and 100-degree temperatures, I've been opting to wake up extra early to do all my garden work, or even just water, while the outdoors is still bearable. It's much easier to wake up earlier in the summer since the sun starts shining a little after 6.

I kid you not, just as I am opening the back door this morning I look out the screen door and see a gigantic opossum (why is there an "o" at the beginning of that word?!?) meandering, without a care in the world, across the backyard and right under our shed. At just before 7 a.m.! In the broad daylight! It is huge!

Since I assume it was going to bed for the day, I continue on outside to do my gardening, but it just freaks me out to know a creature of that size is apparently living in or backyard under the shed! There is a waiting list for animal traps from the city, so I see a trip to the home and garden store in our near future. While calling to be on the extensive waiting list for an animal trap just in case (apparently it's a rampant problem in our city...or people are never returning the traps), I verify that if I do happen to catch the opossum I could just call and have someone else come remove it for me.

I'm not sure I look forward to the day I wake up to see a large opossum in a cage in my backyard...then again, better a cage than roaming free.

I really think the rodent issue should have been quite enough for my day and I needed to get going. But then while cleaning myself up (because, while 7 a.m. heat and humidity is bearable, it is by no means cool or refreshing), I hear the doorbell. I peek out to see a white pick-up and a few people in orange vests and decide to quickly make myself presentable.

(For a second, I actually think maybe somebody walking by saw the giant opossum in our yard, called animal control, and somehow got them to come out whereas I was completely unsuccessful in accomplishing anything other than getting my name on a waiting list.)

Good thing I decided to go out there! I find the crew all in my backyard measuring the ground, about ready to dig up our lawn to install some fiber optic cable so we can have super fast communications service from a company that rhymes with "horizon" and sends us mail every other day pleading with us to pay them more money for more services we don't need...or promising they can save us money. The crew then tells me someone else will be by later in the day to do the installation in the house.

Ummm. What? I politely tell them they must be at the wrong house, but the guy then produces a work order with our name and address on it. After a quick call to my husband to verify that this was not supposed to be happening, I again tell the crew that it must be a mistake and we do not want anything done.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that we do not have cable. We use that money to sponsor children through Compassion International and provide them with family gifts, like a house. Also, our DSL internet is plenty fast enough and our home phone is through T-mobile. We have no use for packages or bundles that will "save" us money on our phone and cable.

Turns out my husband finally got tired of all the promotional mail from the company that rhymes with "horizon" and called them just to see what kind of deal they could offer us since they keep promising they can save us money. I don't know. I guess he thought maybe they'd offer us free internet since that's pretty much what the deal would have to be to save us any money.

However, the woman couldn't compete with the low amount we already pay and John even told her exactly why we do not have cable. No confirmation was ever made that he wanted to sign up for anything. I think he used the whole "I'll have to talk to my wife" routine and the woman said she would call him back. He never heard from her, nor did he call anyone else about it.

But here is a crew to install our super fast fiber optic cable that we haven't asked for nor do we want. Thankfully, they haven't unloaded their digger from the flatbed attached to their truck, so I send them on their way and delegate to my husband the phone call to make sure no one is going to show up later in the day to try to install anything in our house.

After all that I still manage to leave the house on time, though I keep wondering, "what's next?"

I'm happy to report that so far, that's been it. No other exciting news or stories for today. Unless the sweltering heat counts, but I won't write any more about that today...I'm sure I'll be writing more about that than you ever wanted to know by the time September rolls around.