1. I spent the second week of June at Salkehatchie, of course. I’ve done so for the past five or six summers. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a camp affiliated with South Carolina United Methodist Churches. We spend a week fixing up homes for people who cannot afford to have them fixed, and/or are not physically able to do it themselves. This year, I worked on Miss Lizzie’s house. When we first saw the house on Saturday, It was dark, her floors were falling through, she had no running water, her roof leaked, and her bathroom looked worse than any porta-potty I’ve ever been in in my life. When we left a week later, she had a new roof, brand new floors (all the way down to the joists), painted walls and ceilings, running water, a larger kitchen and dining room, and a very pretty bathroom. (pictures) It was my second-favorite Salkehatchie (The Powells in 2004). Every year when I get back, I feel so refreshed and renewed. God is good, all the time.
2. There’s an awful lot of contention in the house right now. It all started when these little guys were born in our garage. Their mother doesn’t seem to be getting food from anyone else (she’s really thin), and so we did the only humane thing to do – we fed them. The problem with feeding stray cats is that once you start, they won’t leave. Personally, I don’t mind a mommy and five kittens living on my garage. Velcro, on the other hand, very much does. When they start mewing at the door, she’s on the other side, ruffled up, hissing and howling. She won’t let us near her sometimes… she hides. She doesn’t eat. She’s very upset about the whole thing.
So. If you want a cute cuddly kitten, please, please, please come by my house and pick one out. They’re all especially wonderful, even for kittens.
3. My car will not start. My phone is dead. I’m starting to get irritated with things that are supposed to work and don’t.
4. Now for a story. About a week ago, Mandy and I had to go run some errands before our meeting in Columbia last weekend. We returned to our house to find a white truck in our driveway. We entered our house to find a strange man sitting behind our refrigerator. Corey and Troy, who were both at the house while we were gone, told us that he had arrived earlier, inquiring “Is this 148?” “Yes,” they told him, “this is 148.” “I’m here to fix the ice maker,” he announced, and they allowed him to begin work.
Our icemaker has not worked since we moved in. Our family always casually discussed getting it fixed, so I assumed that my dad had called someone to fix it. I was slightly annoyed that he hadn’t informed me of such earlier, so that we could be sure someone would be home. Nonetheless, Mandy and I left to finish running errands for the day.
I was in the car, headed back from the shoe store, when I got a call from Corey. Apparently, after fixing our ice maker, the fellow got back into his truck, where he sat for about twenty minutes. He came back to the door to deliver the following message: “Apparently, this is the wrong house. I was supposed to fix the icemaker at 158 Cherokee Drive.” “Oh?” Corey replies. “Well, what do you want us to do?” “Well. I guess you get your icemaker fixed for free!” he declares, slamming the door as he departs.
It works very well, making and crushing ice as one would expect an icemaker to do.
song of the moment: Regina Spektor – Fidelity