shade? what is its price?

I have been searching for a shade shelter for our big annual camping trip…searching does not even begin to describe the lengths to which I have gone to find the perfect piece of polyester, poly-oxford, poly-coated, poly-nonsense to provide our group of five families shade, rain, and hail protection while eating, cooking, and most importantly, while playing Rook.

My mom has had me looking for weeks, but we have put off making a final decision until we were certain we were getting the best product for the best price. We have been using a 10 x 10 with slanted legs for the last five years or so, but it is on its last duct-taped, missing pegs, ripped velcro, bent legs and it is high time for a new one. We wanted something a little bigger, a little stronger, and something a little less likely to take a finger off when you pull the legs out without watching where your hand is placed.

Oh, what a gargantuan task that is!

So many of the shade canopies have reviews that are complete opposites…some people saying it is the best shelter they have ever had, others saying it should be thrown in the trash upon buying it as it will do you more good there than it will standing up over your picnic table. It is a difficult, overwhelming mess to try to sort out what canopy will actually survive a rainstorm and 20 mph winds without snapping in half.

And the warranties? They all say they are warrantied for 1-2 years, but the internet is full of warranty nightmares where the companies are either impossible to get a hold of or they insist that the broken canopy isn’t covered because it isn’t defective, the user used it inappropriately, so says the companies…oh my, we so did not want to deal with that whole fiasco.

We just wanted to find a shade shelter that would hold up for more than the first few weeks, preferably for several years, through a rainstorm, mild wind, and repeatedly putting it up and down. We also wanted it to not break the bank.

This is a seemingly impossible task. Shade shelters simply don’t exist that do all these things. Shade shelters only exist to put up for a few hours when there is no breeze to ruffle their feathers, not a single raindrop to put undue strain on top, and certainly not for a repeated use.

After a whirlwind packing weekend so I could get to Wyoming by Monday night and to the dentist in Salt Lake by Tuesday morning, I realized I needed to use my time in SLC to find my mom the shelter of her dreams.

Nine hours, multiple cross-valley trips, at least 30 stores, and who knows how many phone calls to my mother brought me nothing, but an exhausted Keziah, blurry eyes, and an encyclopedic knowledge of every shade shelter in existence.

I did make it home with a Kelty Canopy House that was on sale at Target. The thought of having a shade shelter that weighed only 7 lbs and could fit in my beach bag was so intriguing that I drove clear to Timbuktoo on the far side of the Salt Lake valley to snag the last remaining one within 20 miles. But, when Blythe and I set it up this morning we found it was sized perfectly for anyone under the age of eight. Adults would need to go elsewhere to find relief from the sun and rain.

This morning, I have spent hours searching the internet for the Coleman 12 x 12 Straight Leg Instant Shelter that mom decided she wanted. It is sold out pretty much everywhere, even on Amazon. Luckily for her, I am an internet detective and I found it at three stores. The cheapest is Sunny Sports where we picked it up for $169 with free shipping, a bargain since when it was available on Amazon it was $179!

Now she has decided she would also like the 10 x 10 in the same brand and style, so I have been calling Targets all over the country to find one (they are on sale for $125 this week). Most places are sold out, including the Target out in Timbucktoo where I found the Kelty Canopy. I, now have three on hold in Colorado and one on hold in Idaho and am trying to work out which family member I can beg to pick one up for my dear sweet mother who has the simple goal of playing rook without getting wet.

After we use them for two weeks in the Wind Rivers, we will let you know if we made the right choice or not. Then you can avoid the above mentioned mess.

p.s. This does not even include the fact that I DID buy a 12 x 12 Regency last week in Pocatello and miraculously got the 60 lb. monstrosity into my vehicle, but I had to take it back because it had such terrible reviews of collapsing on the first use during a mild rainstorm, or the fact that I had the Coleman 10 x 10 in my hands yesterday and walked out of the store without buying it when we hadn’t yet decided that was the one we wanted.

p.p.s. The price of shade? Apparently more than I could ever earn in this lifetime.

spectating?

We just got home from the Title of Liberty Walk that is held every year the Saturday before Independence Day and it was wonderful as usual (in spite of Fisher showing up for the 2 mile walk without shoes!)

There were quite a few people parked on the side of the road watching us and taking pictures of all of us walking with our flags. I kept noticing them and wondered why on earth they were watching and not walking with us. As I thought about it and my reaction to them I realized something about myself (this may be obvious to the rest of the world, but it was not obvious to me until today…when I mentioned my epiphany to Richard he started laughing and saying, isn’t that clear?)

Epiphany of the day:

I am not a spectator.

I am a participant.

I am a doer.

I want to be in on all the action, not watching other people be in on it.

I don’t understand spectating (is that a word?).

My questions for the world:

Why would anyone want to watch an event, when they could be part of the event?

What sort of pleasure do people get from simply watching?

This is pretty eye-opening to me because while I realize I am involved with a lot of things, I haven’t ever known why I am involved. Is it because I can’t say no? Is it because I am getting walked on and feel I have to pick up the slack for others? Nope. It is because I like it that way. It feels incomplete to attend an event without having put any work into it, without knowing the ins and outs, without having a vested interest in its success.

I like ushering for plays. I like selling concessions. I like bringing people together for a great event. I like playing the game and stealing the ball, not cheering from the stands. I like making the tackle. I like creating events that bring families, communities, and nations together. I like doing those things. They give me life.

Blythe and Richard said “If everyone was like you, there would be no one to put plays on for, no one to cheer for the homerun, no one to clap. There have to be spectators for events to exist.” I can somewhat see their point, but I can’t really grasp it. I don’t understand spectating, I only understand participating, growing, creating, nurturing, building, and finishing. I don’t understand standing by watching other people do things. Even if I was in a wheelchair or on my death bed, I think I would still be a doer. I think I would still have been out there today using an electric device to move me down the street with my flag or organizing a team to push me or something. Anything to be involved.

Maybe I am crazy…but its who I am.

Spectating is not for me.

my thoughts exactly!

In response to the school bond defeat yesterday, Neal Larsen, a local radio host, wrote a letter to the public schools today. I like his approach and how he is trying to get his message out.

Thoughts?

crooked teeth

Let me tell you the problem with crooked teeth.

They get food stuck in them.

That so-called friends don’t tell you about.

And you walk around for hours talking to people with bright green stuff stuck in the crevices of your over-lapping teeth.

Laughing.

Smiling.

Talking.

All the while you have green stuff stuck in your crooked teeth that have never seen the miracle of braces…and YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

Then you look in a mirror and see the green stuff.

Then the mortification sets in.

Then the disbelief that your so-called friend didn’t bother to tell you.

How do I know?

I have just lived it…and I thought she was my buddy, thought she could tell me anything, but nooooo, she’s not willing to save me from embarrassment, just lets me walk around with three big hunks of pesto stuck in my teeth.

Message to all my in-real-life friends:

If you see me with food in teeth, gunk on my face, make-up not rubbed in, zipper undone, slip hanging down, or any of a million other embarrassing things, PLEASE let me know. Please, please, please.

Otherwise, I may just have to spend the rest of my life in hiding.

busy

That post from my mom wasn’t supposed to up there long at all – it should have been replaced by my Thankful Thursdays post, but surprise to no one, I got behind again. I had a busy day Thursday because of a meeting with a last minute doula client. Friday brought gym, violin, and a long awaited appointment of reckoning with the library over three lost books. Saturday was H.O.P.E. and the symphony (magnificent by the way!). My doula client went into labor on Sunday with a beautiful birth just after midnight on Monday morning. So today was a slow day spent catching up on sleep, dishes, laundry, and a little bit of snuggling with my little ones.

Tomorrow is the beginning of three-day-a-week Shakespeare rehearsals, Wednesday is our homeschool group’s trip to The Three Musketeers, Friday is gym and Keziah and Blythe’s Grand Concert for violin. Then next week, my dear Tami will be here!!!!

So, yeah, dishes, laundry, being with my children need to take priority right now. We’ll see if I get any blogging done!

I would like to share some inspiring, insightful thoughts, but they are far from me at the moment. Maybe after a good night of rest they will come flying back into my heart so I can share them with you.

Chow for now.

request from my mom

Dear all of Tracy’s friends: Please help me finish this group of phrases. Something fun and original please.

Something that ends in ‘ly’

live
simply

pray
daily

?????????????
?????????????
?????????????
?????????????
?????????????
?????????????
?????????????
?????????????

breathe
deeply ?

give
muchly?

go check this out

I love reading cjane’s thoughts on life and this week her blog has guest writers…the men in her life! Today’s post from her brother-in-law about adoption is a must read.

Go ahead, it will brighten your day and restore your belief in the goodness of men.

impulsiveness

Yes, this is one of my weaknesses. Perhaps it has a good side to it as well, but today all I can see is the downside of being impulsive.

Remember the GHO? Well, it turns out the A/C condenser is broken and needs replaced. The radiator needs more work. The grill needs replaced, which means the whole front end of the suburban needs replaced. Today was the day to take it to the shop (actually, yesterday was, but I forgot all about it because of a funeral for a friend from our church) and because they will be working on it for 2-3 days we decided to get a rental car.

Mistake #1: Don’t have a policy that only pays $16.00 a day for rental coverage. Rental cars don’t cost $16 a day.

Okay, back to the story. So, I get the rental car and drive home. Right before my house, I see a hitch on the side of the road. I think “That is the hitch from my suburban, I need to get it.”

Now, is the hitch missing from my suburban? I don’t think so. Is it likely to be my hitch? I don’t think so. Hindsight is a beautiful (but painful) thing.

Mistake #2: Remove all logical thought processes from brain the second I see the hitch.

Sooo, I turn around and drive on the side of the road in my “compact rental car”. Compact is an understatement. It is tiny, low to the ground, and nothing like my suburban which can get out of pretty much anything.

Mistake #3: Drive through the 8 inches of snow we got last night to get Blythe as close as possible to the hitch. Don’t want my girlie to get her pants wet.

Blythe gets out and gets the hitch and then I try to pull on to the road, but there are a lot of cars coming, so I decide to back up. As soon as I start going backwards, the car starts sliding…and sliding…and sliding down the ditch. I am now stuck. Way stuck.

Mistake #4: Trying to solve the problem instead of just waiting till the snow melted, which it did approximately 4 hours later.

A farmer stops by with his big work truck full of tools and says “I’ll pull you out in a jiffy.” What could a stranded girl want more than a rugged, older gentleman with a heap of tools? He got out his chain, hooked it up to his beefy truck and dug out the snow enough to hook it onto the rental car. He says “I’ll just pull you up real gentle to the side of the road.” “Sure thing, buddy,” I think to myself. Next thing I know, the grill flies into the air and an awful tugging sound comes from the front of the car. My car hasn’t budged, but something on it most certainly has.

The support brace underneath the car is bent out at a 90 degree angle from the car and is twisted into some shape that will no longer allow it to fulfill its duty.

Mistake #5: Letting someone hook a chain to the car I am legally responsible for.

After a phone call to my trusty insurance agent who has heard more from me in the past six weeks than he has in the past six years, I learn that my deductible is $500 and I will need to pay it to the rental car company today. FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for an impulsive act to save the hitch that probably isn’t ours anyway!

What happened to my other life? The life that didn’t have a car accident, a collision with a GHO, and an imcompetent Good Samaritan all in the course of a few short weeks.

What happened to my other brain? The one that could think logically, assess a situation, and make a good decision?

I want those things back.

Now.

I can’t afford to be impulsive for another minute.

broken

How many things can break in my life? Richard says I shouldn’t ask that question, shouldn’t put those words out to the universe, shouldn’t give them life. He is probably right. And yet…I have to wonder?

Last night at Winco, I dropped my barely clinging to life cell phone and it broke into two pieces…complete with wires hanging out. I put it back together, but it didn’t work. It is officially toast. So, don’t call me on it – you won’t get me.

Right after I dropped the phone I felt something hanging around my legs. I thought it must be the completely-stretched-out-waistband-slip I was wearing and tried to hike it back up in some semblance of a ladylike manner while standing in the back corner of the bulk section. I kept pulling it up over and over and short story is, whatever was hanging around my legs was still there. Turns out it was my very stretched out pantyhose.

Something is terribly wrong with my suburban. More than one thing. I have been telling Richard this all week long, but he has been beset with his own car troubles and hasn’t been able to pay attention to mine. Well, last night he drove it and said, “What is that noise? That is just not right.” I think it is the U-joints and something with the air system. Who knows?

Richard’s car broke down in Idaho Falls on Friday night. I had to go rescue him right after I finally got home from gym.

When he went to go work on his car on Saturday he drove his little red project car and something blew. Hopefully a cheap gasket, but who knows.

We now have three barely running vehicles, one totaled vehicle that we are waiting for the measly insurance payment on, and one hasn’t-been-started-in-years vehicle that Richard is hoping to take apart and sell parts off of.

All I want are two dependable vehicles. I don’t care what they look like. I just want them to get me from here to there on a regular basis.

My round brush that I blow dry my hair with came completely apart. No surprise since my hair could win the contest for World’s Thickest Hair. Think it doesn’t look that thick? Well, it takes a LOT of work to make it not look thick. Once when I got a perm, it took 6 hours, three wrappers, three sets of rods and three bags on my head to cover up all the rods. Insanity I say.

My adorable green table that I love got broken yesterday when I dropped the couch on it (well, actually, I was in between the couch and the table quite concerned that I would by squished until I was bereft of all oxygen in my body. No one could help me because Blythe was on the other end of the couch and couldn’t get to me except by climbing on the couch and pushing it even further into my lungs and none of our other children are strong enough or tall enough to lift a couch that is 4 ft. in the air and slowing killing their mother). I had the couch above my head to try to get it out of the living room and into the dining room so we could make our Passover table when I tripped and dropped it on top of me. As the last gasps of air were escaping I mustered all my strength and heaved it up again.

My dishwasher is broken, my vacuum isn’t working so hot, my sewing machine is temperamental. My upstairs shower has been broken for over a year. My iron fell of the ironing board yesterday and broke a piece off of it – I think I fixed that though.

Surely, we have had enough! Surely we are going to start having things go right.

Surely?

so frustrated i could scream

AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

That is my scream.

Can you hear it?

I am frustrated with so many things.

I am oh so frustrated with Viking Insurance of Wisconsin. That is the company of the guy who caused the car accident. They rate ZERO on customer service. Here is the timeline:

Tuesday – accident

Wednesday – Richard, in pain and needing to either be asleep or getting his body put back together, on the phone for TWO hours with them giving them information they could get off the accident report if they just picked it up and read it! They told him they can’t tell him anything about rental cars or discuss anything with him, the adjuster will have to do that and will be calling in 1-2 days.

Thursday – nothing

Friday – nothing

Saturday – nothing

Sunday – nothing

Monday afternoon – adjuster calls and says they don’t know if they will be paying anything, not sure if it is their guys fault or not…HELLOOOOOO! The guy fully admitted fault, the police report pins it on him 100% and on Richard 0%. Also says we need to get the car towed out of the storage place it is at and they will not pay for a rental car past Friday.

Tuesday – nothing

Wednesday – nothing

Thursday – The adjuster calls and says “Your car is totaled, I am no longer your adjuster. A total adjuster will call you in the next 1-2 days.

Friday – Adjuster leaves a message. Richard calls right back and can’t get her.

Saturday – nothing

Sunday – nothing

Monday – Richard calls several times, gets voice mail every dang time.

Tuesday – Richard calls every single hour all day long and gets voice mail again and again and again…then at 3:00 the voice mail is changed to say she will be out of the office until the 15th! He calls the office and is told they will reassign a different total adjuster to his case and s/he will be calling in the next 1-2 days!

It has been two weeks and we have yet to even have a conversation with our adjuster…how much sense does that make?????????? Then, they had the gall to say “We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

Ya think?!?!

The other thing I am frustrated about is Richard took time off yesterday to go to a job interview. This company was advertising $22/hour for an IBI professional, which is what Richard is. The owner told him on the phone that she had a part time position of 20 hours and a full time position.

She has NO hours…NONE! She doesn’t have a single child approved for IBI hours. She also doesn’t want to pay him $22/hour. She would rather start him at $18/hour and reward him each year with a $1/hour raise. She doesn’t want him to work more than 30 hours for her and not work for anyone else, it makes her uncomfortable to think he might do that. Then she says “30 hours a week at $22/hour, 52 weeks of the year is $34,000, what more could you want?”

Um, excuse me…$34,000????

Before taxes.

And only if he actually got his 30 hours a week and worked 52 weeks of the year…never gonna happen. Kids cancel all the time…they get sick, they have appointments, they forget.

How about enough money to support a family of six?

I am angry that she wasted his time by advertising for a position that doesn’t exist and that she doesn’t want to pay for even if it did exist. I am angry she didn’t value his time enough to be honest during their phone call. I am angry that he cancelled client hours and lost money to go to a completely worthless interview.

I am angry that our partners closed our business three years ago. I am angry that I get to see my husband for such a smidgeon of time each day.

I am angry that I am angry.