Friday Five: My Way--Hole in the Head

Jan has posted a Friday Five that I can’t play: She is dealing with freedoms because she has finally been freed from her sling after shoulder surgery. Then she offered a caveat to do what we would like.  I am going to do that because freedom is not what I am feeling today.  I had a tooth pulled yesterday and  discomfort fills my brain. I don’t feel too free this morning. So I am going to play Friday Five my way with “Hole in the Head” experiences today until it no longer hurts to smile.

1. Hole in the head: Tooth. I have not had to have too many teeth pulled in my life. Only one other, 30 years ago in my first parish. The oral surgeon’s office was right next door to my rectory so it was easy just to pop over. Evidently I have long wicked roots to my teeth. In both cases, I have given the oral surgeons a workout and consequently my face has swollen, my face and head ache and tomorrow I will have yellow marks looking like I have been in a fight.

2. Hole in the head: Memory. This getting older is a pain in the butt! I am forgetting things with such regularity that I am not sure what day it is—how am I supposed to know when The Good Wife is on? Or for that matter, the Super Bowl? I even forget where I have put my date book.

3. Hole in the head: Loss. I lose things with such great facility that I have to prepare to leave at least 30 minutes before I normally would so that I can find my billfold, my keys, my glasses, my shoes, etc. At present I have lost my phone. I have not seen it in a week. I have tried calling it and ATT tells me it is turned off. A friend has offered to see if we can get my I phone that I dropped in the toilet fixed, but will it work without a Sim card?

4. Hole in the head: Cats. When our beloved Mitzie our 19 year old multi-toed cat died shortly after we moved here, we decided to adopt another shelter kitten. Li’l Bit came to us at about 6-8 weeks. Our 8 year old Tyke was NOT amused! A year and some later, our lives have been absolutely turned up-side-down by a black and white tuxedoed four-legged tornado that can leap tall buildings in a single bound, terrorize the twice-the-size male (he screams like a wuss) and rearrange anything on one’s desk in a second.

5. Hole in the head: landlords. J and I have lived in church own housing most of our careers. It was always difficult to get the vestry to make repairs and we always were a bit hesitant to ask for help. But at least when we really needed help, someone would come over and help. Landlords, while they own the house, somehow feel offended if you ask them to fix anything. Last week the toilet overflowed. I plunged and plunged and nothing seemed to free whatever was obstructing it. I called and called and sent an email to my landlord who owns a considerable number of houses she rents. She didn’t respond until evening when plumbing rates go up. She didn’t tell me they were coming that night. So when I got home from my meeting; I found that the plumbers had come and gone. The next day they came again and found they were going to have to replace the toilet. The landlord said we broke it so we have to pay for the fixing. After the plumber finished, he said I owed them $500+. I said NO. The toilet was original to the house and was over 40 years old and part of the wear and tear of years of tenants. Finally I told the plumber to break up the toilet to see if there were any foreign objects in it that we might have flushed down it to damage it. In the front yard, he broke up the toilet and found 40 years of Texas lime coating the plumbing. I won this time! I think we are going to start looking for another place that has regular maintenance—if there is such a thing.