hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh dang - your truck adventures were so NOT fun! I hate to break down - hate when repairs are attempted on the side of the road (which sometimes is all you can do) and hate even worse when the rescue vehicle breaks down! Geeze - so much not fun you had! Hope the new part fixes it.

 

[flowerbug]

in this heat, getting under a car with gas fumes would probably kill me dead... hope the repairs work out!

 

[hqueen13]

Yeah, @flowerbug it was pretty bad for a while. I guess my BF is immune to it after all these years?!
Thanks FEM

The new part for the truck got here yesterday afternoon so he hasn't had a chance to attempt to fix it yet, so we'll see how that goes this week.
It's been SO HOT. And I've had so much farm work outside that I'm just not managing to get anything else done.
This weekend was pretty rough.
Friday was an 11 hour day in the heat. I did barn chores at my barn (turnout and mucking 3 stalls), then went to RO's and got the horses tucked into the barn for the day, and then went to Cowboy and Coyote before heading to the veggie farm. SR and I got the market set up, and then I'm so glad he stayed there because we got SO busy. We did just under $700 in the first hour and a half we were open. It was NUTS. The rest of the day was steady, but thankfully not as bad as the morning. I left there just after 3, and ran back to RO's to turn the horses out (stalls would wait until Saturday morning), then down to check Cowboy and Coyote, and then back to the farm to pick up my deliveries, and left to go out on the route. I didn't get home until 7:00, was starving, and so sweaty gross. I was a little annoyed that the BF didn't have something ready to go for dinner, but I was also exhausted, so my fuse was a little short.
Saturday we had a slow-ish morning, and got up and then I headed out to Cowboy and Coyote's, and then RO's. I mucked and then brought the horses in where it was slightly cooler.
The BF's mother started more drama at that point. She texted me about coming over to their house again, and I told her that I was too tired and wasn't able to come, and had to tell her NO three freaking times before she accepted it. I was really frustrated that she didn't listen. I also found out from texting with A (W's wife) that they weren't actually invited, but that then his mom called after I said I wasn't coming, and she was very pouty and was like well, do you all want to come? I was like WTH?! I got home, and the BF and I relaxed and napped for a while, and then he headed down to their house (I said I wasn't coming, not that we weren't coming), and I went to do my afternoon rounds. That took longer than I wanted, and I finally got home and made a little dinner and crashed. The BF finally got home and said his mom had completely melted down on him about the whole situation. She accused me of lying (and at the same time put the BF in a position where he would have to choose between supporting her or supporting me), and had a giant pity part for herself about the fact that no one wants to be with her and she's been purposefully excluded.
We didn't sleep all that great after that, and Sunday we got up and talked it over a bit more, and then I headed out to do my barn runs. That took me longer than I hoped, but I was moving slow from the heat. I got home and the BF had been working on getting a bunch of stuff done. We ate a little lunch, and he kept pressure washing the back patio, and then he got poured on when a pop up thunderstorm landed on top of us. That ended his work, and he came inside and got cleaned up. When the rain had slowed down a bit we headed out to do afternoon chores (it hadn't rained a drop down at my farms ). RO was back, but we swung over there for me to show RO how to rinse out Oliver's mouth, and he gave me what he owed me (which was a nice chunk of change!).
Then we drove down to Lowe's to look at fridges because ours is on the fritz. Found one we liked, and it turns out that they had it in stock, so it will be delivered next Sunday. We had to run back to the barn to put up a temporary fan since Storm's fan died and we forgot to grab the other one that I have since we left in the rain. We'll have to fix that properly this afternoon since it's still crazy hot.
While we were out and about A asked if she could call, and so we ended up talking with her and W on speaker phone as we drove around. Apparently they stopped by their parents house, and their mom pulled A aside and had a 40 minute conversation about all this crap. She said she really wanted to be friends with us, and A kindly pointed out that the only thing they have in common is W. She's 3 times A's age, and they share no common interests. Their mom literally can't comprehend that none of us want the same relationship with her that she had with her mother. I can't wait to point out that she doesn't have the same relationship with their dad's mother as she had with her mother, and that she is the equivalent to their dad's mom to us. So fun times. We'll see how all this shakes down, but I'm not really pressed to maintain the relationship if she can't work out some healthier boundaries.

 

[Britesea]

Wow. Maybe we're luckier than we thought that DH's family, as well as mine, have ostracized us. No drama, no horrendous holiday get-togethers, no pretending we're a big happy family.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh dang - family issues are so exhausting. Sorry ya'll have to deal with that.

 

[hqueen13]

@Britesea that would be SO much easier, and rather tempting...
Thanks FEM
Last night I told the BF the snarky person in me wants to reply to his mom's text or call when she finally reaches out with "Oh, NOW you decide to come to me about this after you've discussed it and gossiped and accused me of lying to everyone except me for a MONTH+." The BF was like go ahead, I'm behind you on this one all the way. That makes me feel good, but I think I'll hold my tongue.
The other thing I'm tempted to remind her is that I walked out on my family at 19. I left college and moved in with my BF that I met online. They didn't know him, and he was 2 states away. Don't think I won't walk out on you, too, if you push me too far. I lived with him, and no family for basically 11 years. It won't be any skin off my back if I don't have family here again. It's been nice, but I don't need it at all. I've got amazing friends and people who support me, so I won't mind one bit.
I'm trying to have compassion for the situation she is in, but she's got issues that really need to be addressed by a counselor or therapist. She has no idea how to deal with her emotions or work through them, has no self confidence, and plays the victim all the time. She has never been independent in her life, never lived alone, and transitioned from she and his dad living in her parent's house, straight into the house his dad built WITH a newborn (my BF). So she's never lived in a house with only his dad or herself for her entire life. To say she has issues is an under statement. So who knows when this will get resolved, or how it will end up. I certainly won't miss the struggle of having to devote energy to interacting with them, but I don't want the BF to not be able to be around his family, either. He is at the point where he says he doesn't care, so I know this is really bothering him, too. He is angriest about his mom blatantly lying to him and telling him that he must believe her, which put him in a position where he would have to choose her or me. I appreciate his anger, though he has informed me that if I were wrong, he would side with her, which I appreciate, too. I told him I expected him to call me out on my BS, just like I would (lovingly) call him out on his.
Thus far, no word from them, so we'll see when she decides to reach out.
Did I mention we ordered a fridge? The fact that I haven't put much emphasis on that tells me how much of a non-event it is, despite the size of the purchase (we're paying around $1300, which isn't top of the line, but not cheap, either). We do have 18 months 0% financing, which is great, and makes the payments about $75. We have the funds, but it will just sit there waiting to be paid off. I'm not going to pay someone any more than I need to any faster than I need to if they're willing to loan me money for free. I'm looking forward to it, though, it's a french door with the freezer drawer on the bottom. It will be nice not to have to bend over to get stuff in and out of the fridge! Keeping everything frozen/cold will be a nice bonus.

Not much else going on, other than the usual. I stopped over at RO's this morning to help them get the horses in, and to work with some things with Johnny to get him settled more and used to regular routine stuff, like fly spray. He's a good horse and willing to try so that is good. Yesterday afternoon I had to go over there and calm SO down, she was freaking out and really wanted to send him back. I was like you've got to give him some time, he's barely settled, and he was scared, and in pain when he got here, and he's still not sound. She finally agreed, and that made RO happy. So we'll see where that goes, but I'll probably be around there helping out quite a bit to keep teaching him things.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh boy - the family situation is so not fun. I hope you can get it settled - but sometimes you just have to remove yourself from the craziness!

Congrats on the new fridge! It'll make your life easier for sure. I love the no interest deals!

 

[flowerbug]

be careful in this heat to make sure you get plenty of water to drink! having just seen someone go through heat-stroke it's not something you want to mess with.

congrats on new fridge too!

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks yall!!
And yes, @flowerbug I stay very well hydrated. I carry around a 24oz bottle with me that is the double walled stainless steel, and it gets filled multiple times a day, plus I keep a stock of Body Armor drinks in the house, and if I've been out working and sweating a lot I will drink at least half of one of those, too. My grandfather had heat stroke years ago, and so we all learned about staying hydrated not just with gatorade, but water, too.

It's STILL hot. And now it's back to humid, too. We have gotten a little rain, about 3/4" the other day, and then 1/8" the other night. Not enough to make the grass get good and green again, but every little bit helps.
The garden his humming along. It might be too hot for the tomatoes to ripen, but we'll see. They are starting to show up on the vines, and there are blooms everywhere. The cucumber is producing like crazy, I already gave my neighbor some, and I expect there will be more to give, probably now since I haven't looked at the plant in a few days. The zucchini is growing nicely, no blooms yet, and the beans are trying, though they don't look all that great. The onions look like they're close to ready for harvest, but none of them have blooms yet, and I don't know if you're supposed to wait until they get blooms on them or not. I suppose I could harvest them now, but I'd rather wait if I can. The potatoes are doing good, too, they're getting all leggy and starting to fall over, so they'll be ready soon, too.

I'm finally meeting my boss today. We'll see how that goes, and if he's ready on time. My top priorities are getting a new schedule/routine set up for meetings with him so we can keep projects moving. My next priority is discussing my pay scale with him so that it can better match my contributions to the company compared to when I was hired. I don't plan on asking for anything specific, but I want to make sure he understands where I started, the fact that I've barely moved from there, and that new hires are coming in above where I am currently.

Not much else happening at this point. The same old busy that it has been anyway.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm finally meeting my boss today.

Hope that goes well!