Taking the Good With the Bad, -or- You Think You Had a Bad Day

Well, not that bad of a day.... I didn't wake up to find Oscar the cat curled up on my bed. Surely you heard or read about the nursing home cat in Rhode Island who snuggles up to dying residents. taff began to note the cat was the first to know which patients would go to the "Pearly Gates" next. They say he instinctively comforts the dying. My mother in-law, who despised cats, would have had a different interpretation of the cat's behavior. They were all suspect. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/07/26/cat-death.html


No, we just had a series of small challenges yesterday. Tuesday after hearing the bleak weather forecast of the most uncomfortably hot, humid weather of the summer coming our way, husband Jon said, "Let's go to Bayfield". After googling Bayfield's weather and seeing about the same prediction as we were getting, we revised our plans and headed up the north shore of Lake Superior a cooler spot.

We stayed at a newer inn on Lake Superior called the Cove Inn near Beaver Bay. Nestled on a quiet cove far from the highway, it is our new favorite hotel on the north shore. We walked on the trail by the rocky shore and pulled on sweatshirts to relax on the deck. Perfect escape from the heat. Nice relaxing respite. When we checked in we filled out the usual registration card with name, address etc. The question about car licence number stumped me again. Jon has had his SUV two years and neither of us can remember the licence number. I doubt if anyone at a hotel has ever checked to see if the cars in the lot match the info on guest registration. This clerk said what they all say when I admit I can't remember the plate #, "Don't worry about it. Just describe the vehicle". Good. I wrote, "cobalt blue, Mazda SUV". The next morning Jon woke up laughing. "Remember that question about our licence plate?" he said. Then I got it. We had driven my car. Hopefully the night manager of the inn was not out in the lot scratching his head wondering where that extra gray sedan came from. Strike one.

The room that was available when we checked in did not have air conditioning. (They rarely need it.) We were fine with that because the temperature was in the 60's in mid afternoon. My husband likes it cool and found a fan to put in the window to draw in the even cooler night air. In the morning, after his remark about neither of us remembering which car we drove, he also pointed to the ceiling fan in the room that neither of us had noticed. We laughed. Usually one can cover for the other. We better watch it or we will begin to hear our kids say, "What are we going to do about pops (and mom)", Rodney Dangerfield's line about how you know you are losing it. Strike 2.

We didn't drive far yesterday on our return home before hitting extreme heat. Duluth was hot. It was 96 at home with high humidity. Thankfully we had a thunderstorm as we were arriving home which brought cooler, drier air. When we walked into the house it was stiffling hot. We had left the A/C on. Not a good sign. No air was moving. This is a new air conditioner. A call to the installer directed Jon to the problem--a blown fuse. Strike 3, but not too bad.

Strike 4: I forgot to water potted outdoor plants before leaving. They did not do too well in 96 degrees. The good news, I have very few container plants this summer because it is difficult to leave home in the summer without someone coming to water them.

All in all it was a nice couple of days for our little escape and there was no cat on the bed this morning either. Have a nice day.