I don't know whether to describe it as a bell-curve, or as the ripples in a pond. If you read further down this page, you'll see the incredible number of people that came to my blog site. The funny thing is, my moment in the sun hasn't yet been extinguished. I think that will happen in a day or two - when Michele's blog is five or six posts long, and people pressed for time don't make it down to the "Site of the Day" link. Until then, I'll be experiencing heavier volume than normal. You all saw the numbers for Tuesday (137 hits, compared to the usual 9). Well, Wednesday was no slouch either (85 hits). I haven't checked today's total, but it will still be well beyond my average of 9.

My wife and I were supposed to go grocery shopping yesterday. Here's how it's worked lately. I'm out of work, so I really have no excuse not to help her do the shopping. Since going back to work five days a week (she used to only do four when I had a job), she doesn't take Wednesday's off anymore; but she still tries to use her "comp" time to get an hour or two headstart on rush hour traffic on Wednesdays. That means she gets home at around 3:00PM, and we can get the shopping done before 5:00PM - the time she would normally get home after a full day's work. Well, yesterday, we had arranged for the pool to be opened for the season. The appointment had been booked months ago - when I was still working - and ordinarily, the timing shouldn't have been a problem. After all, the crew was scheduled to be here before noon; and they've never, ever been late. So, when noon rolled around, and then 12:30PM, we were getting somewhat impatient. We finally called the pool place, and were told that the crew had become stuck at the previous work location - there was a tree in the pool that needed to be removed.

Here's my question... did the owner of that pool honestly believe the two-man crew would have the wherewithall (not to mention the patience) to extract a tree from the pool? We're not talking a fruit tree here, but a real tree. It took five hours to finish that job (instead of the normal 45 minutes), and when the crew arrived at our home just around 4:00PM, they were in no mood to do anything but the bare minimum of work. So, not only did we have to wait 4 hours longer than expected for the service people; but when they got here, they were not prepared to do a complete job. For example, when they got the pool cover off the pool, instead of folding it nice and tight, and putting it into a portable garbage container (together with degreasing agents and the appropriate amount of water), they folded it in a haphazard fashion, and stuffed it into the container with full-strength chemicals and no water. If my wife hadn't seen them do it, who knows what the cover would have looked like next year. As it was, it was a bit of an inconvenience to her to have to undo the package and add water. And just before the crew left, they casually informed us that they had been unable to prime the pump - and would leave that chore for us to do on our own. Priming the pump for the first time in the season is not trivial, so the fact that they had trouble doing it is not surprising. What is surprising is that they didn't try harder to do the work we were paying them to do. There's another gottcha associated with not having primed the pump. Without water flowing through the system, it's impossible to turn on the heater. Which means we don't know if there is a problem with that piece of equipment either.

Luckily, the people who run this company have an impeccable reputation. Although I was not impressed with yesterday's service, I know that if push comes to shove, and we can't start the pump or the heater on our own, they will cheerfully return - this time, with the right equipment and enough time to finish the job.

Anyway, since yesterday's schedule was shot waiting for the pool guys, we deferred shopping until today. Guess what - I didn't go to bed at all last night. So, when 8:00AM rolled around, and my wife indicated she wanted me to join her for an early morning grocery shop, I decided it was a good idea to get the shopping quickly, while I could still see straight. After all, I'm still not working, and it's one of the small ways I can support her Herculean efforts around here.

We just finished putting stuff away, I still haven't been to bed, and believe me, it is damned near impossible to read what I'm typing through a steady stream of tears. But, I wanted to get this down before dropping off for what will undoubtedly be the vast majority of the day.