Survived

Tom called and said he was coming home Wednesday. I knew there was no way I could get the kitchen done in time. I had been to my girlfriend's house to cut the table. We ended up not waiting for her husband to be free to do it after work and just get it done, time being of the essence. I wanted the kitchen as presentable as possible before Tom got home.One more day would have been wonderful, but that was not going to happen. As a result I had to admit to him over the phone I had done one of my projects.

"What have you done?" He asked. " I took out the twin towers in the kitchen." I said. Not much he could do over the phone and it gave him time to think about it on the drive home. He hadn't liked the towers either. I told him I had found maple chopping block. When he saw it, I had the shiny side up. He preferred the raw wood underside of the table top. He liked the towers gone. He noticed right away the crookedly hung cabinet on the wall. He said he would fix it, after lecturing me on the quality of my work. I knew that was coming, but I survived any real anger as he liked what I had done. I am pleased to be in budget still.

I spent $30 at Habitat for the Humanities buying cabinet doors to cover the raw openings. They did not have anything in light Beech color that matched the kitchen so I went with four white doors, two for each side. I am not thrilled with the results. I think I might go down to home depot and look at sheet panels before I attach anything just to see if I could do better. Might even swing by habitat and check again to make sure I didn't miss anything. Riley was with me when Istopped there, so I was a little pressured for time.

Riley being with me was an accident. I had dropped him at summer school for his English class and told him I would pick him up at 11:30, in a little over two hours. I had the opportunity to play with my nine holers a round of golf durring that window of time. I would be done right around 11:30. Riley wanted me to pick him up earlier. He called at 10:45 to tell me he was done. I said I still had three holes to go. He said he would walk home.

Summer school is at the other high school in town. Not far, but in another neighborhood Riley is not as familiar with. As a result when leaving the school to walk home, he turned the wrong direction. When my golf round was done at 11:30, I called him to find out if he made it home. He informed me that no, he had not made it home. He was at a restaurant on the south side of town, totally on the wrong side from where we live. He had gotten himself lost.  He had turned the wrong way leaving school. I had to laugh and agreed to come get him.

 Here we were, planning to send Riley to New York City for a week to hang with my sister. He  catches the plane that night, and he can't even find his way home in his own home town. I called my sister to warn her not to lose Riley as he was very directionally challenged. It is something his drivers Ed instructor mentioned to me also, Riley doesn't have a very good sense of where he is to where he is going. He gets lost.

Since we were going right by Habitat on our way home I made Riley wait for me while I browsed, trying to find a cheap way to fix the cabinets under the counter. I know I can make something work, if only temporarily.

I am pleased Tom likes the kitchen even in this torn up phase. He is taking a couple of days  off, so he might even be able to do his expert work and make it look decent. I love the improvements. Now that he knows, I am not as rushed and can perhaps put in the corner shelves that I wasn't going to take the time to do.

Trevor arrived home from football camp. He told me he gave a Freshman a concussion during a tackle drill. The other boy had been smack talking that he was better than the older players, Trevor wanted to show him different. One coach reprimanded Trevor for being too rough on his own team mate, the other coach complimented Trevor on a great tackle. I wasn't sure how to respond. It is football, but I don't like the thought of Trev getting that mad and taking it out on another person. At least he kept it on the field.



 I dropped Trevor off at his summer school class this morning, at 7:30am. We swung by Starbucks on the way so he could buy himself a Strawberries and Creme drink with his left over camp money. He said there was no where to spend any money at this camp. The bus drive wasn't long enough to need to stop for a meal on the way. He will call me in two hours for a pick up. I am hoping there is no conflict as athletic practice is also a morning class that starts next week and runs all summer. At least Trevor will be keeping busy and these are all free services to the students.

Riley and his friend spent so much time playing the x box in the basement this week, that the wall plug they were using overheated. Riley came up from the basement to inform me they had popped a circuit breaker and would I please reset it for them as the x box and TV had gone dead. I went downstairs to check it out. I didn't see a popped circuit in the main box, so I went into their game room to see what was up. They showed me  the four way socket on the wall was hot to the touch. We are talking kitchen stove hot. You couldn't leave your hand on it.

 I said they had fried the line and that this would need their father to look at it before we could fix it and that they needed to sit there and wait until the wall cooled down before they left the room just in case there was a wall fire going on. I didn't want the house to burn down by leaving the room with a potential fire in the wall. I took the cover off the socket to see if I could see flames. I was pretty sure we were OK, but I didn't want anything smoldering in the wall. I told the boys that all that x-box usage had burned out the electric wiring, which seems to be the case. Tom will be looking at it today.

We had wondered if the original owner had done some of his own wiring and it seems to be the case. Too many things were plugged into the same line, the circuit didn't pop as it should when the line over heated, instead I think the socket fried itself. I may have to replace the old sockets with GFCIs, which should solve the problem in the future. These are individual circuit breakers right at the source. Great for kitchens and bathrooms, and boys' game rooms with too many things plugged in and going too long.

Lots going on this week. Riley arrived safely in New York and was met with out incident by my sister. Riley woke us up in the middle of the night to let us know they connected, per Tom's request.
Tom was very worried, but I had faith Riley would pay more attention in a strange city, out of his comfort zone, than he does at home.

Riley wasn't even upset at getting lost in the morning. He knew where he was, he just didn't know where the house was from the restaurant. He knew I could find him. He wanted to know if we could eat in the restaurant since we were already there. Just go with the flow, that is how we roll.