What a week

Drama, Drama and more drama - just the way we like it!

and if we can get through this sefirat haomer without killing each other or fighting daily it would be a miracle.

April 15 - other wise known in America as Tax Day. We had all kinds of issues surrounding this - namely that after more than a year of cajoling, or nagging as it is called in the vernacular, we still got hit with the wrong kind of tax form and actually owed uncle sam $$$ this year - which is an unfortunate variation from our previous years.

(sorry to my kids' uncle sam-I didn't mean you-we're square!)

The day my dad and I were set to crunch the numbers, we almost burned the house down.

I won't name names, but a male member of my immediate family was kicking a soccer ball around in the back yard at Bubbe and Purpaw's house. Purpaw had already finished relaxing at the picnic table with his "stinky stick" (cigar for those not in the know and bigger than 3 years old) and brought in is computer and headphones for the evening. All of a sudden, the lights dimmed, there was a loud crashing sound outside, sparking ensued and there was also the sound of buzzing electricity.

The soccer ball had been launched precisely at the corner of the patio and the house where the drop-feed from the electricity pole fed the electricity into the house. Granted the wires were old and droopy lately - meaning they were low enough that my dad could reach them easily to disengage the sparking with a broomstick - which I don't ever recall being the case, even in recent memory. And this is a particularly vulnerable area since we remember a lightning strike happened exactly in the same spot, causing even more damage since there was a blue glow in the kitchen for awhile after that and the microwave was deemed the only casualty.

At least our electricity situation doesn't look like this :)

I went stumbling through the laundry room in all my largess to trip all the circuit breakers, to really stop the electricity from causing any further damage. Good thing I made my dad check it out because I had missed a few in the dark ;)

This incident was exciting enough to scare my usually unflappable daughter into hysterics and spooked my son pretty bad. Though they didn't relate the incredulous story to friends or teachers at school like I thought they might.
We did sit them down to explain everything in terms they could understand This after Puraw had called the city hotline to get the number for the electric company [my idea since all his bills were online with no way to access them] and generally calmed the ensuing hysteria down. and we had to make sure we didn't lay blame - because accidents happen, and all turned out fine (other than a few hours waiting on the elec comp to remedy the situation-which they did relatively speedily)

Then of course, the whole stress of the taxes made my husband crazy. He got the wrong kind of form - not his fault - even though I nagged him for over a year to make sure he had the right one. Then we found out that he wanted to have my dad crunch his numbers NOW (with no though as to what Purpaw was doing that night) so as to get the figure that he owed - as a result of getting the wrong form - back to his boss to prove why he wanted the other form. Then in yet another mistake that'll cost me, he took it upon himself to break it down for the boss, rather than just let the numbers speak for themselves.


The following day, I got an earful from my dad, at work, while all my co-workers could hear me, fighting over this with him (I didn't have a chance to shut my door, not that it would have helped much anyway)




It didn't matter to my dad that I wasn't the one to create any part of this problem, nor was the anger I got the brunt of directed at me for that matter, but it did raise my blood pressure and generally piss me off. And I made sure to tell that to my dad in no uncertain terms, as well as to make sure he was to take up the matter with the one he actually had an issue with. I think me telling him that this fight was accomplishing nothing other than to raise both his and my blood pressure is the part that finally got through to him and got him off the phone with me, hopefully to make the subsequent call to my husband (who later told me that my dad was nothing but nice to him that day. Yeah, sure - he had already got out all his yelling out of his system - at me!)


In fact, it raised MY blood pressure so much so that a full two hours later when I had a headache (which I didn't have at the time) and decided to check my pressure (in the Safety Director's office on my floor, after just about everyone else had already left) my pressure was still elevated to 171/96 [don't tell my dr, she'll put me on bed rest for sure]