The state of the household is... good, I guess. I mean, it's definitely good on the macro-level, but this week has been a bit rough. There were some parenting things that I won't get into, so as to respect the privacy of my children. (As I mentioned before, the older they get, the weirder I feel writing about them without their knowledge.) And also the closet thing I mentioned in my last post has turned into a colossal headache. What was supposed to be a few hours of inconvenience has turned into a week-long (at least) ordeal. We've certainly gone through worse -- like that time we had giant mounds of dirt in our basement, as workers laid down new pipes to stop shit-water from spewing onto our basement floor -- but that doesn't make this any better now.
What happened is the installation guys came over and started ripping out the old shelving, but they stopped because some of the drywall started to crack, and they got scared about causing damage. They told us we had to get a contractor to finish the demo job, plaster the cracks, and apply a new coat of paint before they would do the installation. Then they packed up and left us with a half-destroyed closet.
I specifically did not even want to get our closet redone -- in fact, I actively argued against it -- so it's safe to say I was pretty irked by this. However, I knew S was also very annoyed, and it's not like she planned for this to happen, so I tried really hard to bite my tongue and not show any rancor towards her for it. I mostly succeeded. I did make one comment, something like, "well, that's on you," when she was lamenting about how this was happening at the worst possible time. She really did not like that but thankfully didn't hold it against me for too long. I mean, look, if you push to do something that your spouse really doesn't want to do, and then that thing goes horribly wrong, they are allowed to make a comment about it. Plus, I wasn't wrong. S had to leave town for work again on Wednesday, so she really tried to thread the needle with this remodeling job and didn't leave much leeway if things went sideways, which, not surprisingly, given things frequently go sideways with these types of home improvement jobs, they did.
S, to her credit, immediately found somebody who could come out the next day to do the work for us. It's this guy she's used since she had a condo before we met. He did a few jobs at our old house, but he does kinda shoddy work sometimes, so we don't trust him for big jobs. But he's actually semi-responsive and reliable, which is a huge rarity for contractors in this area (maybe any area), so he was fine by me. Plus, it was an easy job. It's something even I, a DIY moron, could have managed, had I wanted to spend the weekend doing it, which I did not.
Anyway, the guy came and did the demo on Wednesday and finished the paint job this morning. He was supposed to do it yesterday, and he left me hanging when I texted him (note the "semi" part of the adjective "semi-responsive" above), but he apologized for it, so, whatever... no harm, no foul. The closet installation guys are scheduled to come back on Tuesday, so everything should be done by the time I return from my work trip next Friday. Let's hope.
In the meantime, however, it's a nontrivial disruption. We (well, I, S didn't have time to help before her trip) piled our clothes that were in the closet onto the bed of the guest bedroom in the basement, so I have to go down there and hunt through everything to get dressed. Also, our bedroom reeks of paint at the moment, and it gives me a headache to be in there for too long, so I probably won't sleep there tonight, and since our spare bed is currently buried under clothes, I'll likely be resigned to the not-super-comfortable sofa bed* in our living room. Oh, and there's a giant pile of boards and nails and other debris on our porch that we will have to get rid of somehow. Fun.
*Update: I did in fact sleep on the sofa bed, and it’s actually quite comfortable. The couch part is uncomfortable—the kids have warped the cushions through repeated misuse, so they’re saggy and mushy—but the bed part is great! We will likely get rid of it over the next year or so because we rarely use the bed, but now I’ll be sad to see it go.
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In other news, Biden gave his State of the Union address last night. I didn't want to watch it because I knew I'd just be filled with anxiety, waiting for him to make a major gaffe, but for some reason I turned it on anyway and actually thought it went pretty well. He definitely looks and acts like an octogenarian, but he was cogent and energetic and made a strong case for his reelection. His I'm the only sane option argumentation played just as strongly for me last night as it did four years ago. He upset a few people by referring to an illegal immigrant as "an illegal," but I don't think the bulk of the population actually cares. Probably some people even find it refreshing that Biden doesn't kowtow to the language police. Personally, I find a lot of these new progressive language rules pointless, pretentious, and annoying, but in this case I'm with the scolds. I really dislike the word illegal as a noun. It does sound
dehumanizing to me. But I'm willing to let it slide if the term slips out of an 81-year-old man in reference to an alleged murderer. Biden also mispronounced the name of the victim calling her "Lincoln Riley" instead of "Laken Riley," but unless you happen to know that there is an actual semi-famous person named Lincoln Riley, you probably didn't even realize this.
The big question now is, Will this performance actually help Biden in any meaningful way? And my answer is, I have no idea, but it certainly can't hurt.
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In other other news, New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz recently announced he is recovering from a stroke he had about a month ago. I'm happy to hear that he is alive and on the mend, but this one hit me kinda hard. In part, it's because I know Will personally, not well, but we've met a few times, and I've always found him to be a total mensch. But it's also because I can't help but think of my own parents and in-laws who are roughly Will's age (older, even). They all seem to be in pretty good health at the moment, but, as the saying goes, father time in undefeated.
Anyway, best wishes to Will and his husband (also a great guy). I will hopefully see both of them in good spirits at this year's ACPT.
Until next time...
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