Home Away from Home

Riverside's flag's a flyin'!

After an excruciatingly long drive, we finally arrived at our home-away-from-home yesterday afternoon. The thought of the drive home already has me sweatin'! I guess because that seems to be all I have been doing lately--driving--it just seemed like an unusually long drive. Ooooof.

The kids inspected the nice pressure-washed dock (no chemicals used); and although the guy still hadn't replaced the steps, he did cover the holes that were just asking for an accident to happen. Of course as soon as we arrived, he has the audacity to call me and ask for more money. Yes, this is the project that started in March which has barely been touched. I have sworn myself to not work with contractors any longer since our kitchen fiasco (which we will be going to court on in September, believe it or not). But with the hub in Asia and me here, I had no choice. "Welcome home, now deal with some sh*@#." The guy gives me the heebie jeebies; and while he does very good work, it's just more of the same. It's done only when he shows up about one day a month, obviously. I had hoped to have it all done before the summer season, but it will be drawn out all summer long and into the fall, it seems. Anyhoo, reeeeeeee-rrrrrrrr hisssssss.

The hub had left the air condition on in the 80s so it wouldn't be quite the oven we normally arrive to. But, the master bedroom ac wasn't working. It was in the 90s up there. Joy. At least we have two and one seems to always work. Yay. We had the main floor bust last year; but we just moved everything up to the bedroom and had pizza and played games there until they were able to come and fix it. It was kind of like camping. So, until Monday, when the service people come, I will be sleeping down here on the sofa. Hey, as long as I have my linens and pillow, I can sleep just about anywhere with air conditioning. It's actually comfy. I spent a few days on it when mom came down and I was afraid she may do something crazy because she was so confused. It works. So there sits the "Zen" room, hot and dark until Monday. Sigh.

Last night we had our share of critters peeking in to say "welcome home" including this huge spider by the back door that caught one of our lovely dragonflies in its web. Ew. Poor little dragonfly. It was fascinating to watch though. Kinda like United Kingdom on the porch!

The ants were still coming in, this time on the table this morning. Yuk! I wasn't able to follow their "line" but I'm keeping an eye out today, little buggers.

And such is life on the river. It's all worth it. Do I sound like I have a care in the world? I really don't when I'm here even as the world keeps on turning and throws me a zinger every now and again. Life is always good. Especially at Riverside.