The Hits Keep Hitting

I think I’ve gotten to the point this summer that I’m done complaining. It seems the more you complain the more the universe wants to mess with you. What’s the phrase? “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”? Yeah, well the universe is greasing me up real good this year.

But hey, we’re all alive and (relatively) healthy. My daughter’s health woes from July seem to have subsided thanks to some dietary changes. We’re still in the process of moving her back home but have made some serious progress in that regard. I had a 4-day weekend last week so the plan was to get crunching downstairs and get things ready. We rented a dumpster in order to clear out some big items in the basement and get the floors cleaned and get a space ready for the kiddo and her dog. Unfortunately life enjoys the element of surprise, as Friday morning my wife went down to the basement bedroom where her sewing stuff was at. She figured she’d get some work done on the quilt she’s making, then we’d get her stuff moved upstairs. When she went into the room she noticed the floor was wet. I went in and looked around and saw that the pressure tank for the well had a slow but consistent leak.

By how much of the floor was soaked I’d say this had been going on for at least a week. Fortunately this was in the basement and not water leaking upstairs, but still it was a mess. We quickly cleared everything out of the room and assessed that it was a pipe leaking and not the tank itself. I was able to get a plumber out to the house in less than 30 minutes and he said it was an easy fix, but that we might want to replace the pressure tank as well since it was nearly 30 years old. I asked what the average life span was for a pressure tank and he said 10 to 14 years! He’s seen them last as long as 20, though. Well ours was literally living on borrowed time, so I said just replace the whole thing.

$2,000 later and it was fixed. Unfortunately I still had wet carpet to contend with. I borrowed my dad’s wet/dry vac and went over the carpet at least 5 times. By the end I was hardly pulling any water, which I thought was a good sign. That was until I reached under the carpet and realized the padding/underlayment was still completely soaked. It was holding that water like an industrial-sized pair of Pampers. After hours of working on that floor I ended up getting the Stanley knife and cutting all the carpet and padding out and hauled it out to the garage. Not what I wanted to happen, but I knew all of that would start mildewing and then eventually mold. So now the room is dry but carpetless.

You win some, and you lose some. But sometimes both can be correct. If we’d not gone down in that room when we did the damage could very well have made it out into the main area of the basement. We also could have gotten the aforementioned mold and started to get sick. The many crap scenarios are long and scary. A remnant piece of carpet will fix this one, and relatively cheaply as well. As far as calamities go, this one was minor.

Besides Friday, the weekend wasn’t all too bad. Saturday night the wife and I went out for dinner, then went and saw the musical Grease at the Wagon Wheel Theater in our hometown. I’m not one for musical theater, but I can appreciate the time, hard work, and talent that goes into a production like that. Besides the extremely large woman sitting two rows in front of us with her phone open and perched on her stomach playing pimple popping videos for everyone behind her to see, it was an entertaining show. The place was packed with season ticket holders(extremely old people), so that nice cool air-conditioned environment quickly rose to an uncomfortable boil. But I only found myself daydreaming about it all being over a couple times. Most of the time I was fascinated with the performances.

Sunday my daughter and I went and saw the film Weapons. My favorite movie of the year so far, it’s one of the most bonkers horror films I’ve seen. Maybe since Cuckoo. Zach Cregger, the writer/director, wrote and directed the great Barbarian from 2022. His follow-up to that was nothing short of amazing. Creepy, sad, gross at times, and also very funny in parts. Even if horror isn’t your bag, this movie is still enjoyable on a mystery and cinematic level. The cast is brilliant, the twists are bonkers, and ultimately it’s an allegory and grief and loss.

Then on Sunday night my wife and I drove 90 minutes to Sawyer, MI to see jazz guitarist Jeff Parker play at a little wine bar called Out There. Sitting next to Red Arrow Highway, this spot is small, quaint, and very intimate. We sat in a small room with about 50 or so other people in tiny wood chairs and watch the great Jeff Parker play guitar improvisations, as well as cover the great John Coltrane(“After The Rain”) and Neil Young(“The Needle And The Damage Done”). He played for maybe an hour and then he was done. It was truly an honor to see him so up close and personal, and to see him summoning magic from thin air with nothing more than a semi-hollowbody Gibson and an amp. I wish I liked wine, but I really don’t. A libation would have gone well with the evening’s vibes.

On Monday it was back to work in the basement. Started the morning by hauling in a bunch of old paint cans and broken electronics to the recycling center in town. After I got home I got to work on dismantling the 30-year old couch that we couldn’t get out of the basement. When it made it down there the basement wasn’t yet finished. Just concrete walls and floors. The music studio was finished but that was in a spot away from the stairs. We had the dumpster, so I was going to deconstruct this piece of furniture one way or another.

After about an hour I had it down to it’s skeletal remains. Weird taking apart something that still has life left in it. Felt kind of bad, really. We didn’t want it anymore, and tried like hell to get it out of the basement so my son and his girlfriend could continue to get some good use out of it in their new apartment, but Geometry and Physics won out in the end. And so did a box cutter, hand saw, and claw hammer.

By 4 pm both my wife and I had our work spaces together and looking pretty good. She even had started the slow, meticulous assembly of her quilt. I’d gotten the music room back to its former glory. I know how a creative space for making music and for writing is essential in the creative process. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing more important than having a space in your home for your creative endeavors. A spot you can call your own and feel the freedom to create and “make things” at your leisure. I can tell how important it is for my wife. Her space upstairs is cozy, intimate, and inviting. Mine is honestly much larger than I really need at this point, but who knows where the road might lead. Maybe I’ll start jamming with someone again. I’ve now got the space for it; drums, amps, guitars, keyboards, and lots of vibes. I’m excited to see where it’ll take me. Seeing Jeff Parker last Sunday inspired me to work on some guitar loop experimentations. And with the drums at the ready some full-on band sounds might be coming soon.

Overall, things feel slightly elevated than they have been in the last month and a half. Things feel like they’re on the right track after that feeling of mental and emotional derailment that hung over us for most of July. My buddy at work has returned after a three month medical leave and that helps the mood at work greatly. Our son and his girlfriend have settled nicely into their new place in Indianapolis, and have already gone to the movies and dinner with our oldest and their partner. It’s great knowing that the two kids of ours that have moved away are only 10 minutes from each other. And with our daughter and her pooch moving back in shortly we’ll all be together. Away, but together.

I guess that’s how the closest families do it. We all eventually grow up, move out, and move on. Yet despite the miles and hours in-between us we keep things tight. And when we need some help we come together and help each other. Regardless of illness, mechanical failures, job woes, relationship woes, or just the general bad juju that sometimes likes to pop up, the closest families stick together. I’m still a little sad at how quickly it’s all gone by, but I’m so happy to see how these kids we raised have turned into such caring, giving, funny, and thoughtful adult humans. If I leave this earth with a legacy, I’d be thrilled with that legacy.