Every other day of my week sucks. It’s either a horrible work day (because every work day sucks beyond belief), or it’s a Sunday, which means completely dreading Monday.
Sigh. (I can’t even tell you how much I HATE my job. You’ve heard my rants, but it’s beyond the worst loathing of anything I’ve ever loathed in my entire life, and it sucks the life out of me to the point where “life” only truly exists on Saturdays. It shouldn’t have to be like this).
Leading up to this only good weekday is the remarkable fact that John is NOW RETIRED. Thursday ended up being his last day at Boeing, for a number of corporate-ish reasons, but also because he got word that the kitchen cabinets had arrived at the freight center and that if he didn’t pick them up by Friday, he’d be charged $15/day x each pallet (of which there were 12). So yeah, duh.
His first day of retirement was daunting. He’d rented a 26-foot truck that had to be returned by 5:00 p.m. The freight place didn’t open until 7AM in downtown Seattle, and they were slow in getting around to loading that truck (they were beyond hella busy, although he ended up with a loading guy who was extremely helpful and efficient, so John gave him a nice tip—who knows if they’re accustomed to that?) Then, it turned out that the truck itself was a DOG, with multiple check-engine lights flashing at him and it refused to travel more than 25 mph up any sort of incline. Jeeze. He had to haul the flat boxes of cabinetry from the pallets no more than 3 boxes at a time (for weight and sheer control), so he figures it took him over 60 loads from the top of the driveway down to the garage. His appliance dolly helped *somewhat* but in its own way was also was a pain in the butt. It was raining, the tires would sink into the earth, and the loads were varying and awkward. Or the tires would gnarl against the rocks. Down the hill with the load. Unload into somewhat but swiftly organized stacks. Up the hill with the dolly. Down the hill with the load. Up the hill with the dolly. Times at least 60. And it was a race. He knew from the get go, from the quantity, that his limited time frame would be a challenge. It wasn’t just “up the hill and down the hill.” It was DASHING “up the hill and down the hill.” No breaks. No lunch. It was get ‘r done and get back on the road (at 25 mph in many places) so he could get that damned truck back in time. In the midst of commuter traffic.
When he (dragged) himself into the house last night after I’d gotten home from work, I was alarmed. Never before had I seen his face look so sunken, so…old. That man was beyond exhausted. He immediately laid down for a nap, and even though it was a pretty quick one, I was really relieved to see how much better he looked afterward! Sleeping filled in those sunken places. But, oh my, he was so sore…
And then we drove back down to Harstine. At least the pickup has much better suspension than that huge rental!
Today he’s been working on assembling the cabinets. The drawers came in 3D, but everything else was flat-boxed, requiring assembly. It’s not not like Ikea assembly—it’s higher-end than that with dove-tailing and substantial framing. But still…assembly. It all started out well, but one critical section of the cabinetry (that has to be completed before others) was manufactured incorrectly and will require a replacement shipped PRONTO. Grrr.
Helen came to visit today! The weather sort of sucked (rained, but there were intermittent sunbreaks) but we were still able to hang out on the deck and flap our lips without getting too wet. There were a couple of dicey instances, but mostly A-OK. Even with blowing rain the temperature was very mild. It’s been a HUMID June. Overall I can’t complain too much, though, because June is typically very wet and it just hasn’t been. We had so much fun! The time goes too fast.
Like Saturdays always do.
