January 26, 2012

Outside Temp: 32 F (the wind has died down, a little.  Of course, the car door almost got pulled off when I opened the door, but at least I'm not worried about the house blowing away.)

What I cooked today:
Burgers and Mashed Potatoes: Somehow, on those days I go into town, I really feel absolutely no desire to make dinner.  But, of course, the family still wants to eat.  Greedy people.  We used the ground beef from Cascade Meats, for burgers for the first time.  Patrick was amazed at how good it tasted.  Who knew there was a such a difference in beef? 

Update:
We have plans for tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday, so I decided to make my weekly run into town today, rather than wait until this weekend.

Patrick's mom had something she needed me to pick up from downtown Great Falls.  Now, Great Falls has different sections, just like any town.  And the downtown area is an older area, that probably was big and new, about 50 years ago.  It's not bad, just older.  A few homeless people and a few kids loitering.  But not bad. 

So, I went to park my car about 1/2 a block from where I needed to go.  And then I realized it had a parking meter.  Hmmm, change.  Change is necessary when you park at a parking meter.  Change would be good right about now.  So, I put the car into park, pulled out the keys and tossed them on the dashboard, while I went scrounging around for some loose change.  There was nothing (or at least no money, lots of trash and misc crap) in the center console of the car or on the dashboard.  So, I went searching in my purse.  Knowing that I did this last weekend, at the game, looking for that extra quarter to get some just food from the concession stand, I wasn't surprised to find no change at the bottom of my purse.  I kept searching, in pockets that I don't usually use.  I felt my fingers close around a few coins, praying that they were not pennies.  Ahhh, nickles.  Whew.

I grabbed my purse and went up to the meter.  6 minutes per nickel.  Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, so I put my last 3 nickels in the meter and headed up the street. 

I got the things I needed and headed back to the car about 10 minutes later.  As I was walking up to the car, I patted my pockets, looking for the keys.  Nothing.  Hmm, maybe in my purse.  So, I reached into my purse, while I shook it, hoping to hear that jangling of the keys.  Nothing.  As I reached the car, I looked through the front windshield.  There were my keys, sitting on the dashboard, right where I'd left them.

Which made me immediately think of two different options.

Either a) Downtown isn't that bad of a place and what nice people are in Great Falls.
or b) My car looks so dirty and lame, that no one in their right mind would try to steal it.

I figure it's closer to b).  See, that's why I keep my car so dirty!

As I may have mentioned before, we sometimes have problems with the house were renting.  Lately, we have been having trouble with our septic system.  It started back in October, when the main bathroom started backing up, with water from the sink filling up the bathtub.  And the toilet stopped flushing correctly.  We've been using the master bathroom for the last few months, until we finally got around to calling a plumber.  (yea, I know, it's been 3 months... we are that lazy!) 

So, the last day or two, the master bathroom began having the same problems.  The toilet stopped flushing correctly, but would finally empty after about 10-15 minutes.  And the shower would stop draining after about 5 minutes in the shower. 

We finally decided it was time to call a plumber.  The company we called said it sounded like the septic tank needed to be drained.  So, the next question is the obvious one... where is the septic tank?  And can we actually access it? 

Patrick spent a few hours outside in the back yard, looking around for the septic cover.  The plumbing company said they could try looking for it, but if it was buried under frozen ground, we would be out of luck.  Most of the ground seemed pretty hard, but we didn't know if it was frozen, or just hard.  Fortunately, the e-mail we sent to the owner had a response, giving us an area to at least look in.  We finally found the tank cover, thank goodness!    Unfortunately, the plumber can't come out until Saturday.

So, until then, I've warned the kids, 2-3 minute showers, laundry is being done at the parent's place, dishes are being done in a filled bucket of warm soapy water, not running the water for 30 minutes.  There is no real way to stop from using the toilet, but I'm thinking of investing in a chamber pot... anyone know where I can find one?  (ewwwww.... shudder....shudder)

Right now, I'm trying (really, really trying) to see this as a humbling experience.  I will never take advantage of working plumbing again!  And it gives us one more reason to look a little harder into a new place to stay!