Crisis Averted and Other News from Party Central

The house got cleaned for the party I WAS going to have on Monday---more on that later---and the carpet cleaners showed up and I got all the furniture back where it belongs. Then all the electrical outlets in my kitchen quit working and I had to add going to a funeral visitation into my planning schedule this week. The person who died was the father of the son-I-wish-I-had so I couldn’t not go to give my condolences in person. I didn’t know the father well but I know his son and grandkids quite well, been to all the special occasions in their lives for the past forty-eight years. The son-I-wish-I-had is very religious and is comforted by his belief that he and his dad will meet up again in heaven. The heaven-theory doesn’t work for me but I’m glad it works for these people I care about. It gives them a sense of peace---that it's not over when it's over---and that’s all that’s important when grieving. Whatever works, works.

When you’re having a party it’s kind of important to have working outlets in your kitchen and the gods of things that can go wrong were working overtime to come up with this snafu. I tried the reset button on an AFCI/GFCI outlet plug in the kitchen but it wouldn’t budget and I checked the circuit breaker box in the garage but I couldn’t see any changes in there. Failing the limits of handyman skills involving electrical problems I called my brother and left a message saying I needed to talk to him sooner rather than later. 

I didn’t know my brother was down in Nashville, Tennessee, with his two stepsons and, he said, they were dragging him from bar to bar. He sounded like he was buzzed but he used to do a lot of electrical work so I was still hopeful my brother could help. Long story short the AFCI/GFCI buttons are designed not to work if the power isn’t coming to the line and he told me to go back out to the garage to look at the circuit breaker box in the morning when I could see it better and sure enough when I was standing in front of it a second time with good light I could see the little red square on the switch marked ‘kitchen.’ As per instructed in our phone conversation I pushed it right then left and went back to the kitchen to test the outlets. One worked the rest didn’t. Oops! I had forgotten my brother had also told me I might have to reset the reset button on the AFCI outlet as well as the breaker switch. My brother had asked me what I had plugged into the line and I told him that the last thing I had plugged in was a nightlight that made a poofing sound and turned the bulb black inside. “That’s enough to kick the circuit breaker," he said, “they're designed to be sensitive to keep you from getting shocked. Throw that damn nightlight out!” Which all goes to prove that a person with a good buzz on can still give great advice. Crisis averted. 

Another crisis I averted was accomplished when I decided I’d better figure out which knife in my arsenal would cut the crusts off tea sandwiches the best. Can you believe it, in my entire life this week is the first time I’ve ever tried doing that! I did find instructions online---don’t laugh because I learned about putting the bread in the freezer until firm. I had to experiment with timing the “until firm” part and I went through six knives before finding the perfect one. I felt like I’d just planted a flag on Mount Kilimanjaro; I even woke up the dog when I yelled out, “Yes!” when I had cut four perfectly square tea sandwiches. He was a happy camper, though, because Levi got to eat the crusts and filling that fell out of my experiment. 

 And then Mother Nature decided that since nothing else has worked to throw me off my party game she'd give it a try. The weather people started warning us about a "major ice storm" coming our way starting Friday night through Sunday night with snow on top of it for Monday. I have a driveway with a hill that's not safe for man or beast under those conditions, not to mention older women who could break their hips. So I called everyone to reschedule the party and, thankfully, everyone can come on Wednesday. I also reworked my menu to recipes that didn't require any last minute shopping, then I ran out to shop before it got hairy on the roads. Moving the party was the right thing to do for everyone involved. When the weather people talk about ice thick enough to bring power lines and tress down, you take it seriously.

My husband’s and my birthdays, our anniversary, the sadiversary of my mom’s death and my parent’s anniversary all fall in the first half of April and in past years they have collectively brought me down. But this year, with my birthday party planning to distract me---the first in many decades---I didn’t feel the punches of depression trying to beat the stuffing out of me. I haven't had the time for that!  ©