And now the plumber is here.

July has been one weird month. It’s been the hottest July on record in Phoenix – 30 days hovering at 115 degrees or more. I’m crabby by day 3.

When a person reaches a certain age, the body starts giving out. Pain management is all well and good. But sometimes you just get tired of the pain.

July was also when my husband’s temp job was expected to end. Will today be the day? He checks his phone every morning to see if the agency has called and told him not to bother going in.

Meanwhile, I see a glitch in my phone bill. While we’re taking care of that, the guy says he’s concerned about something else he sees. Oh? One phone on our family plan, which usually uses about 62 minutes a month, was currently at 520 half way thru the billing period – more than half the minutes that all THREE of us are supposed to share,. The phone user says the problem is solved, the girlfriend got her own phone. Except when the bill came at months end, she had used 1263 minutes. We took the phone.

Mind you, all of this is on the heels of my Mother-In-Law’s death. The fiasco with the Mortuary, who forgot to order her urn, continues. I called about adding dates to the marker, and the final bill. 5 weeks later, I’m still waiting to hear from him.

A molar cracked, and over time came out in pieces. Now I have a decaying root that my gums want to heal over. So I really need to have that pulled, but I don’t have insurance

And, in July, I took the cats to the vet. Three days after the vaccinations, I had feverish cats that were extremely lethargic. On the 9th day, they had stopped eating, drinking, visiting the box. Back to the vet. Blood work came back normal. My sister hit the internet, because my boyz were dying, and no one knew why. She found sparse info on VACCINOSIS, aka vaccine reaction. High fever, dehydration, severe joint pain, weight loss, not eating or drinking, hiding, asleep most of the time. We opened a kitty ICU. We administered unflavored pediatric electrolytes by syringe several times a day. Once a day we dissolved 40mg aspirin in it. We put a paste of calories and vitamins on their noses. We moved them to the middle of the room, forcing them to wobble on painful legs back to their hiding, because muscles were beginning to atrophy from weeks of inactivity. So now, a month later, they have only just taken a few nibbles of solid food. They are both fairly steady on their feet, but still don’t have the strength to jump up on anything.

Thanks be to God, July is over. We have a brief weather break (only 103!). It was very pleasant for my 1st time with Humane Borders, bringing refills to water stations. But the truck wouldn’t start, so I never got to go. In no way did I take that as an omen that August was going to follow July’s lead. Really, I didn’t.

But now the plumber is here.

Last Friday we noticed that the A/C condensation was dripping in a different place, though it didn’t seem breezy. Saturday we came home to find the drywall above landing to the upstairs apartment on the ground. Now water was dripping everywhere. We called the landlord pronto. He calls his guy, and his mom-in-law came over to meet the plumber. Plumber says it’s the A/C, and leaves. A/C guy takes a look, says it’s a plumbing problem, and leaves. I assume mom – in – law will tell Landlord. Mom in law assumes A/C guy will call Landlord. Ms. Upstairs assumes someone is coming Sunday to do something. Landlord assumes no news is good news, problem fixed. On Monday, there is water everywhere upstairs, and coming down the inside of our walls.

Soooo, at midnight Monday, we have a jet engine blower installed in our front closet and one in the living room (What? I said, we have a . . . .), along with a dehumidifier. There are TWO, count em, two, blowers AND a dehumidifier the size of a municipal water tank in our 8x10, one and only bathroom. Y’know what happens when ya tell an old lady it’ll be hard for her to get to the potty through the night?

I couldn’t sleep the night before, so started cleaning house. Weeks of kitty ICU had taken its toll. The place looked nice.

And now the plumber is here. Closet and bathroom contents are everywhere. Today they’ll be breaking through our closet ceiling to remove drenched insulation. We have a week of drywall repair and painting after the walls dry out.

It all just got to me, and I let the tears of fear, frustration and helplessness flow freely. I am grieving.

After a while, I follow my own advice, and start listing my blessings. Into its second page, I see that the good far outweighs the rest. And tomorrow, I will board a plane with my wonderful husband, and go meet our first grandchild. I suspect that my world will change the moment I hold him. I suspect I will feel true

Shalom.