Holes in the Roof...

So the very afternoon after I blog about 'keeping on the sunny side', there is a storm. One of the neighbor's trees crashed onto our roof, and as it broke off on the edge of the roof, that bloody tree also landed with the precision of a Golden Knight onto the air conditioner. Now there are three necessities for survival in Georgia and two of them are air conditioning. I'll spare you the description of the hysterics I was in while on the phone to my landlord. Suffice it to say, it took more than 2 martinis to get me calmed down. Meanwhile, rain is pouring into our den. Soaking the nicely stacked piles of blue jeans waiting to be crafted into quilts. Dripping onto the TV and all of Big Sarge's 'gaming gear'. And (horror of horrors) the rain completely destroyed my couch. The couch that a family member gifted to us 7 moves ago. The one that needed a slipcover to disguise its fugliness, just so my guests wouldn't run screaming from the house. The one that was so heavy, it required 4 soldiers bribed with chocolate chip cookies to move it. And after they moved it, I still felt so guilty, I offered beer as well. THAT couch. I don't know how I will go on.



The good news is that after living 11 days in a hotel, Izzy, Bullet, and I are back in our house with a brand-spanking new air conditioner. The GREAT news is that Big Sarge came home for R and R for this. Also great news- we've got renter's insurance, so I can replace the fugly couch with one that goes with my 'French Country' den. The not-so-great news is that while the roof did get repaired (nearly 4 weeks after the damage was done), the ceiling in the den has yet to be repaired. Contractor Dave says he will be starting work on it next Monday. I'm starting to be concerned about the mildew... Hope he brings a HazMat suit.





Big Sarge always tells me that the same things will keep happening to me until I learn the proper lesson from the circumstances. Kind of like Groundhog Day, I guess. I think the proper lesson to be learned from this is grace under fire. I could have gotten very angry with so many people- the rental office, Mother Nature, the neighbor for having a dead tree, myself for not saying, "Screw it, we're moving out!", insurance adjustors, Contractor Dave. And to be perfectly honest, at times I did get more than a trifle angry. But the trick is not to let them see it. Rise above. We're better than that, us Army spouses. We can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But if the honey doesn't work, I hope we all have someone in our lives who can bring the vinegar in our stead.