String of thoughts
Man last night was not very restful sleep. I feel asleep early, before 10 I think. I got out of bed at like 1:30 to pee. I am finding I am developing old man pee syndrome. If I drink anything within an hour or two of going to bed I wake up in the middle of the night to drain the tank. I guess it is good that at least I wake up to go instead of pissing myself, the next stage of old age. Then I was awakened during the night when Nicki did one of her weird howling fits in her sleep. You would swear we have a coyote in the room, it is so bizarre. The rest of the night I was asleep but I was dreaming for what seemed to be non-stop. Dream after dream ripped through my head yet I don’t remember any clear details about any of them. Dragging myself out of bed this morning was not fun at all.
Last night after work I actually made an effort to be productive instead of my normal routine of tending to the dog, eating supper and then me spending the rest of the evening either in front of the computer playing WoW or in front of the tv watching reality programming. First I went out and watered the big planters in front of the house. One of the marigolds was already looking wilted so it was good that I decided to water. Then I decided to investigate a mower problem that Ali had brought up several times since I changed the blades.
Ali said that it wasn’t cutting well. She said in certain spots it looked like it was ripping the grass instead of cutting it and how there is a line of uncut grass that emerges from the back of the mower. A week or so ago she had asked me if it was possible that there was something wrong with brand new blades I put on. I scoffed at the notion and told her no, knowing that I installed them properly. However after this weekends mowing session, Ali again reiterated that she thought something was wrong. I considered that maybe one of the securing bolts was loose or something. So last night I decided to remove the deck and check things out.
I drop the deck, pull it out and flip it over. As I look at the blades I notice that the paint is worn off the back of the blades but the front cutting surface is unscathed which meant that once again, I had the blades on backwards. It’s amazing it cut at all since the back of the blade is rounded off. I guess it just clubbed the grass to death. I was pissed off. I installed the blades as I have other cub cadet blades, with the part number stamping facing down towards the ground. Well evidently since these blades weren’t exactly the right ones for our model of mower, that rule did not apply. If I put a little thought into the process and realized the direction the blades spin, (clockwise) I would have seen that they were oriented incorrectly. What a dumb ass. So I reversed the blades, reinstalled the deck and then took the tractor out for a prolonged test mow. It worked MUCH better.
One of the other things I did last night was take another picture for my Spartan bio. The silly one of me with a ribbon in my hair wasn’t nearly mean and “spartan” enough. So thanks to the miracles of digital camera timers I was able to take a new picture of myself last night, looking insane with anger. When I showed Ali and she was visually disturbed by it, saying it was “ugly and scary” I knew I hit the mark. In an effort to protect people from this scary image, I won’t post it online, instead you have to click this link if you want to see just how insane I can make myself look. You have been warned.
Yesterday Ali and I got into a little mini-argument regarding Nicki being left home and how it is affecting Ali’s work schedule. Ali is afraid to leave Nicki home alone until she does two number 2’s. I have told Ali that I think Nicki would be fine if she only does one number 2, that I think she can hold it until I get home. We don’t know for sure because we have never tried it. The point of the discussion was that Ali wasn’t getting to work until noon and in turn staying there until 7 or 8 at night. One of my goals of Ali working a light schedule was not for me to be a bachelor 3 or 4 nights a week. Between her working late, ballet one night and some times a group aerobic evening class, I could not see Ali before 8pm until Friday night. I told Ali I was willing to risk one dog dump inside the house in order to see if Nicki is able to go a bit longer between bathroom runs so Ali can get out of the house a bit earlier. So we will see what happens. Ali said she likes being able to start her day slow like that. I’m sure we will come to some compromise.
I got a voicemail on the way home last night from the garage saying the van was done but he wanted to fill me in on the details, whatever that means, I’m sure it isn’t good. We haven’t talked money at all yet except for the cost of the tires. I’m braced for yet another big bill.