NOVEMBER 1, 2007 REPOST OF MY SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 A ME AND HOMER STORY.. 2ND IN THE SERIES.. "SO THAT HAS BEEN THE PROBLEM ALL ALONG!"

SEPT.22,2006 SO THAT HAS BEEN THE PROBLEM ALL ALONG!

For the sake of staying a little bit anonymous, we will call my significant other Homer. Homer is something else. He is sweet as candy, country as a mouse, and I love him dearly. But he is just a little bit, shall we say strange about his way of getting things done, and when he decides to do them.

Tonight it is storming. I mean they are having tornado warnings and the color weather radar is nothing but a big red splotch on the screen. It is not a good night to be outside. Or on top of the roof.

We have a small problem with a leaky seam over the front door of the mobile home. It has been this way now for at least 2 months, and every time it rains, he says I am going to get up there tomorrow and silicone the cracks in the seams. I always say okay, even though I am yet to understand how his calendar works, tomorrow is usually a never coming day in the future. I mean if it is not raining, it does not need fixing and when it is raining, you don't want to get wet right? Sure, right...... logic Homer style.

Any way tonight as the weather reports on TV are predicting it was getting closer to us, the more he comments that he ought to silicone those cracks before it gets here. I just smile and keep typing. I do that a lot , smile and type. It is the best answer to the situation every time. Well anyway, the lightning is starting, and he drags out the ladder and gets his caulk gun, silicone,8 ft. long piece of pvc pipe( homemade gutter cleaning tool) and the flash light. I continue to smile and type. I ain't going out there. I mean somebody has got to be available to call 911!  don't cha know. lol

I hear him up there clomping around, (if the seams weren't leaking before, they are now), then over the clomping sound I hear the roar of a unmuffled motor. My cousin, who is building a '64 chevy pickup, with Homers expert advice of course, roars into the yard and the truck immediately dies, and when you hit the key it just goes click. He and his new wife are in need of a jump. So clomp, clomp he climbs down off the ladder, which is about 8 inches too short for him to step down onto. So he almost falls, but catches himself and does double time to get the jumper cables and his truck. I come outside to tell them how crazy they are to be driving around in the dark on a stormy night in a builder of a truck. Remember I am the God mother of the family, being the senior member, so I have to be the voice of reason. lol  I am about as equipped to do that as I am to be the CEO of Trump Enterprises. But, as it is my responsibility to stomp on everyones enthusiasm, so be it, I gave it a try. They told me to shut up and go back to smiling and typing. I did.

I heard him fire up a few minutes later and then haul it out of the driveway. I will have ruts to fill in tomorrow, sigh. Then I hear the clomp, clomp again. I keep on typing and smiling.

About 5 minutes later, the sound of another vehicle that sounds like it is unmuffled, but is, can be heard spluttering and coming in for a landing. It is my stepson, and he is fast running out of gas. But , the stereo is turned up to a notch just below the space shuttle lauching, and the bass is making my pc screen tremble and roll. He is a thumper, Lord help us he is a thumper. So I hear," Dad, I need to borrow some gas money". I get up and start for my purse, I hear the expected words, " Hey, come and give Homer Jr. some money for gas." I smile, raid my wallet, go out, hand over my hard to get cash, smile, turn walk in the house to type once again. Smile just smile. Then I hear clomp, clomp, clomp. Varoom, splutter, put, put, and then he is off to the races, or the gas station......sigh, I smile. 

Then the room is lit up like a yard light, the thunder clap rattles the windows, and immediately a downpour that would drown a frog starts. I look up from the computer screen, and hear tap, tap, tap, on the sliding glass doors. I smile and open the door. He is on the roof, and hits me in the face with his pvc pipe gutter cleaner. He was using it to tap on the door. I forgive him. Slowly.

He says, " Hey come and hold the ladder for me, I am going to get killed up here. I don't think I should finish this now. I'll finish it tomorrow." I smile and put on my shoes.

I go out and he is flinging leaves from the guttering with speed like a guy who is driving the get away car! As is becoming the theme for the evening, added to the throbbing swelling nose I have from the hit with the tap tap pipe,  now I have a face full of wet leaves. You  know I really do care for this guy don't ya?  I smile.

I go over to the ladder and he clomps down to it. He says, "Can you catch the flash light?" Of couse before I can say anything the throws it down to me. I drop it, but it didn't hit me, thank goodness.  I grit my teeth, but I smile.

I am holding the ladder to keep it from falling when he sort of hops onto the top of it, remember it is too short by a good 8 inches. He just keeps dangling there and I say," I am holding the ladder come on down, I won't let it tump over." It is really raining now, and lightning like God is trying to short circuit the whole world. Thunder is crashing around us and it is very dark, lots of wind. Not a real homey kind of night.

He keeps mumbling something, which I can't understand, and well my patience has run its long course on this one. I say in a kind of loud voice," Damnit Homer, get on the ladder, I am not going to stand here all night!" To which he mumbles another reply, I could not understand. Still dangling 8 inches above the top of the ladder.  I repeat my instructions to which he says, and I got to tell you this is the other reason I love this guy so much, and laugh most of my days. He says to me in a very loud voice so the neighbors on the other side of the next road hears him, " I said I am hung  woman, and I don't mean I am hung like a horse either, I am hung on the fireplace vent and I can't work on getting loose from  that and answer you at the same time!"

It was all I could do to hold the ladder till, he finally got loose from the roof. I then lost all control, and laughed until I had to go and lay down my sides hurt so much. He was so serious, with the remark comparing his attributes to that of a horse, and he looked so ridiculous hanging there in the middle of the thunderstorm, with his hat on backwards, caulking gun stuck in his waistband in the front, legs of his jeans tucked into his boots, and the 8 ft. long piece of pvc piple sticking up out of the back waistband of his jeans. I compare it to a human lightning rod, although it has no danger of it damaging any brain cells if it does catch a bolt. lol

He has not given up on the idea of gassing the gophers,that I told you about in the previous blog. He has enlisted the help of several of his male friends, as well as my overly enthusiastic son. My son has a thing about blowing things up and is quite carried away with the possiblities of this adventure. I am leaving the house for the day. I think my insurance will cover the warfare damage, and well if it doesn't, hey Homer will fix it tomorrow.

lockerridge 

Thursday September 21, 2006 - 11:30pm (CDT)