November 29, 2015

Why Did I Say That?

Have you ever volunteered to do something that you had absolutely no intention of doing, and in fact had already told yourself you would not do? So why on earth did I open my mouth and actually volunteer to do it? Even while my lips were saying I would do it, half my brain (the smart half) was saying "No, no, no, I want no part of that!" But I guess the other half of my brain (the masochistic, stupid half) won, and here I am putting together quilt blocks that aren't square, aren't the same size, and some aren't even stitched together in places.



Well, I guess I do know why the masochistic, stupid half of my brain said yes. Making this quilt-as-you-go quilt was my idea. And it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The other ladies in our group became frustrated and wanted us to start meeting twice monthly to get it done. I didn't want to meet twice a month and thought I could get it done faster by myself, and that's when my mouth opened and those words tumbled out. So now I'm stuck with it.

I worked on it all day Friday and finally decided that some of the blocks were squared up so badly that the points wouldn't line up and wouldn't look okay even from the back of a speeding motorcycle, much less a galloping horse. So I made four more blocks and called it a day.



I'm not looking forward to putting the rows together either. And when I have finished this quilt, I will NEVER, EVER volunteer for anything else again!

******* In other news, Thanksgiving Day was pretty low key around here. Neither of the girls could come here and we had just been to see them, so we stayed home and so did they. We were going to go to a state park in the Texas panhandle and drive over to mom's house on Thanksgiving Day, but then a nasty three-letter word started appearing in the forecast: ice. The closer it got, the worse the forecast looked, so we cancelled. I cooked a small turkey and made a couple of pies and called it good. I actually enjoyed Thanksgiving without cooking and cleaning up all day.

It started raining Thursday evening, and that's when we had the first clue that something was amiss. If you have, or have ever had, a septic system, you know that bad things happen on holidays, birthdays, weekends, and rainy days. The only thing missing for us this weekend was a birthday.

Thursday evening, I turned on the dishwasher as Hubby went in for a shower. Afterward, when I was getting ready for a shower, I noticed that the toilet sounded funny when it flushed. So after my shower, I flushed it again just to see what would happen. What happened is that the water in the bowl got higher and higher, and just as I was about to grab the cut-off knob, it started going down. Whew! So I left a note for Hubby not to flush because the pump wasn't working. But in the middle of the night, I heard a flush. He forgot.

It rained all night, and when I woke up Friday morning, it was still raining. Hubby had already gotten up and when I searched for him, I finally saw him out in the yard digging up the septic tank. Now this isn't your normal septic tank with a little round lid on the cover. No, this is the one that the previous owner's broke by driving over it and now it had a solid concrete cover on it with no opening. To get to the pump inside, the whole cover has to be removed, usually with a winch on the back of the pickup. But after four inches of rain, there is no way the pickup is driving through the yard without getting stuck or causing more damage.

So there he was, kneeling in the mud in a pouring rain digging out the cover with a shovel so coated with mud that it looked more like a bowling ball on a stick than a shovel. Then he had to rig a block and tackle to get off the lid. He said it was so redneck that it even embarrassed him. But it was enough to see if it was the pump or the float and get it working enough to get us by until the rain stops on Sunday afternoon. At least we'll get by as long as we don't flush more than a two or three times a day.

Did you know that if you don't think about going to the bathroom, you don't need to go, but the minute you start thinking about it, you really need to go? And if you think about trying not to think about it, you end up thinking about it more and that makes it worse. So today we went on a day trip to Jacksboro to check out Fort Richardson State Park. There were quite a few people there, or at least there were quite a few RV's there. The people must have been holed up inside because of the rain. Fun times there.

Like it's so much more fun to dig up a septic tank in the rain.

14 comments:

  1. Yikes on the septic tank. Hope you get that fixed soon. You're right about when things go wrong. Holidays, weekends and the like. Spot on.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

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  2. I would never tackle the blocks from your quilt because of the partial or "Y" seams. Give me straight seams any day!

    Septic issues are NOT fun! Sure glad that I left those worries behind on the farm and now have city sewer.

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    1. Yes, the Y seams definitely made it harder, but it was not being perfectly square that caused the problems.

      There are times that I would really like to live in town with city water, short trip to a grocery store, and a free library membership. But we've looked at all the towns nearby and there is never a lot for sale or a house in a neighborhood we would want. So even though we are really tired of taking care of so much out here, we'll stay until something better comes up.

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  3. All I can say is "oh dear" about the quilt and the septic tank!

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    1. Thanks. The quilt is not so bad today, now that I have remade the blocks. But the septic. Ay yi yi. For some reason the song Mellow Yellow keeps going through my mind. 😉

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  4. oh, your plumbing mess sounded dreadful! but your quilt work is wonderful!

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    1. Thank you (about the quilt work) but it doesn't look that great in person. But I think now that it is salvageable so I feel a bit better about it now. And good new on the septic, at least as far as the pump goes. After the plug was pulled and everything cleaned up, the pump appears to be working. We won't know for sure until it stops raining.

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  5. Your quilt is beautiful, and I truly appreciate your craftsmanship, so I'm sure you'll do well with it. I am very impressed that your husband knows how to work on a septic tank, especially in the rain. Thanks for your visit and blessings!

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    1. Thank you. It didn't go together as well as I hoped, but by the time I finished, I didn't really care. lol

      I am extremely grateful my husband knows how to work on a septic tank. Of course he didn't when we first moved here, but after paying one company to do the same thing, he soon learned!

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  6. Hi! Your quilt work is very nice. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Hope you've been able to deal with the septic system. I agree, for some reason something always seems to go wrong around the holidays. For us it was illness this year. My Guy was so sick and of course there was no getting in to see a doctor as none had office hours on Friday. Good luck with your guild project. Hopefully it will come together well enough to pass the galloping horse test.

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    1. I think it passed the galloping horse test. My friend thought it looked fine when I gave it to her. I hope you feel better soon. Seems like the last person in the family to get the bug always gets it worse.

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