What else I've done with my day...

I've managed to wash 2 loads of laundry (special item coming up---praise GOD!!!), do 2 sink fulls of dishes (maybe 3 or 4 more---all pots and pans now :-S), pick up the living room after putting P to bed, put P to bed (I think if I miss the really easy 8 o'clock bedtime, then he's guaranteed to fall asleep by 10:30 if we go in after 9. Let's hope I didn't just jinx that!), finally put away the groceries, and go through several blogs while blog hopping---plus get supper excited each time I found more comments.

Remember, I'm a COMMENT WHORE and I admit it.

Let's be boring and review my list. This is more for my benefit than yours, so you can skip to my elation and praising God. It's a good thing, trust me, and you'll agree with me. :-)

more dishes - yup, 2 sink fulls
Vac - nope, tomorrow
Fold clothes in dryer - nope, but the path is clear
wash more clothes - yup
Review and pay bills - yup, 1 online (the car insurance), 2 in handwritten checks
Make dinner list - yup, but it will need some adjusting because I have the chili (dad's birthday dinner now) on the list, and that won't happen until next Friday
make up grocery list - yup
Go grocery shopping - yup. And only spend $80.06! Which for me is a good thing, since I've completed what I wanted, and got some extras (popcorn, more fruit than I anticipated, hot chocolate for the kids, etc). And I got garbage bags :-)

Tomorrow I plan to:

Vac
Stuff and bag Penny Savers (maybe when I had planned to arrange the innereds today---while Blog Hoppin')
Degarbage the futon
Sort and toss stuff in the fridge
More Dishes
Sort cabinets (this can run all weekend. Because I don't want to overwhelm myself)

I feel good that I got the washroom done. Now maybe when the landlord looks in that door, he won't see a mess...not that he has said anything before, but you know, I'm really worried about what he might say about the house when he just shows up like he's want to do (I prickle any time I see a truck like his. Dead Beat Slum Lord. Hey, that might just fit!), so I've got to start making this place look better. He doesn't violate the law, but I worry. I saw a truck that I thought was his. Might not have been, but it got my butt in gear in the washroom.

So...for the Praise.

Now, I've got to give you some backstory. When my mom thought she was on her deathbed, when she was REALLY sick, not totally with it, when she was down in Erie, she assigned certain items that she had from her parents to my sister and I. One of the things she gave me was a watch that I didn't really remember, but that she had gotten from her mom. Maybe when her dad died, since he died after, but the watch had been her mom's. My mom's mom died when mom was 18, and so I never met her, but I always wanted to. Any time I have gotten something my mom says was her mom's (there was also a wooden crochet hook, which is still around here someone, that mom said "here, this was my mom's" years and years back, when D was still little, way before mom had her knee surgery), I've always cherished it (hey, I might not know where the hook is, but I know it's safe-ish). Unfortunately, not long after I got the watch, somehow I misplaced it in one of my bags for college. A few months back---maybe August or September---it showed up in the bag I still have down here (the one with wheels went upstairs way back, and THAT'S the one I thought I had lost it in. But I had searched quite a bit through both.). Wind her up, and the watch still worked. I ended up wearing it quite a bit, and one day mom saw I was and commented that she was happy it was being used. There were a few times I had washed dishes with it on, and took it off when I realized it was still on my wrist. I'd put it on the sill right there in front of the sink. Take note: this is where I THOUGHT I had put it this last time. But, it would still work...I guess, now that I think about it, that makes sense because it's an old watch, and you wind it, not use a battery for it because it's electric.

A day or two ago, I realized I didn't have my watch on, and I forgot where I had put it. The last I remember was, like I said, I had taken it off and put it on the sill in front of the sink. Or at least taken it off while I was at the sink. But it wasn't on the sill. And it bothered me when I thought about it, because I couldn't figure out where else it would be. But I think because I was still in my funk, I didn't look hard for it.

Fast forward to about 45 minutes ago when I got up from here to put away the groceries, do that last bit of dishes, and take out my nightgown. Out falls the band, without the watch face.

Yes, I gasped just like that.

I fell to my knees, and started pawing through the rest of the clothes in the dryer, crazy to find where the rest of it was. The face thingie---the plastic bit that protects the face---it fell out next. The workings of the watch were no where that I could find in the dryer.

All the different permutations of the disarray the watch could be in ran through my mind.

The workings would all eventually fall out, a hand here, a spring there, a gear in the lining of my shorts (oh great, another tenth of a pound added to my weight when I go to weigh in on Tuesday).

What.am.I.going.to.tell.mom???

"You're going to hate me, but...."

"You're going to be pissed..."

"You know how I've been wearing Grandma's watch...."

I got to the end of the load in the dryer. I sat the rest of the way down on my butt, and looked at what I had out in front of me, and the basket with the rest of the stuff. Still, the thoughts ran wildly through my mind. Mom's unimaginable reaction (really, I knew she might be mad, but then it's old and it's bound to eventually die, right? No, it's old and it's a good watch....she'd be upset.), the pieces I'd find.

I pawed through the basket, searching the few pairs of pants and shorts I have. Nothing.

Then, the heavens opened and the angels sung.

That only really happens when I pause for a moment when I walk into a library alone.

There it was.

Just the workings of the watch.

Will she still tick?

Is that a burn spot where the 2 should be?

How about at the bottom?

I wound her, and the hands started to move. But it stopped when the second hand hit the minute hand, which was pointing nearly perfectly at 12. It showed about 10:30.

I fiddled with those 2 hands, and it moved again. But stopped at the minute hand again. And I realized I had to push it back and not forwards.

And she works smoothly.

But she's in pieces...



Well, we'll figure out how to put her back together, at least I don't have to tell mom the truth awful news.

Then, I played with her a bit more....



Woo hoo!! Crisis averted. Now only I (and my blogging friends) know the truth.

But you know, I did want to bring it to a watch maker anyhow, to see if it needs any work. It's from an amazing company---look closely and you will see it's a Bulova!

I think if I play with all that a bit, I might have a great 55 Flash :-) Finally. :-D Oh, and at least around the 2, what was there is just lint from the dryer :-| Guess a lot of the old things are better than the new fangled electronics. I'll look more into this watch later, I've been meaning to anyhow.

Now, I NEED to get to bed. It's well after 1---I wonder if T will come home at his lunch break again tonight? I'll tell him about all this too. But I need to get sleep, because P insists upon pulling my butt out of bed at 8:30, sometimes 7:30. Really, he goes "mom, up." Too cute....

And remember.....I'm a COMMENT WHORE...



P says---please leave a comment for my mommy. She just won't feel like she's good enough if you don't!!! And she'll start looking just like me...

Just had to do it. He looks TOO CUTE!!! It's an old picture...he's a year older than this now...:-)