Flooded Floors and Carrot Cake

I took today off. It’s kind of a weird day for me – today is Al’s birthday. It just doesn’t feel right to be at work and just ignore what was always a day of some significance. Al was one who liked to celebrate his birthday and let others know that it’s all about him. How many times would we hear him jokingly sing “Happy birthday to me” when he’d ask someone to do something for him?  And it wouldn’t matter how we celebrated his birthday, he really just wanted those few minutes when the kids would come over to wish him a happy birthday. We’d turn out all the lights, light the candles on the cake and gather around him to sing happy birthday while he’d grin like a little kid. Gifts were never important; it was the fact that his grown children still took the time to come see him. And the words handwritten in the birthday cards, those were the things he relished the most.

When I woke this morning I closed my eyes for a moment as I imagined his face and wished him a happy birthday. Things went a little, well, strangely from there. I walked out in to the backyard and all of a sudden it started raining. It’s been sunny and warm but today of all days it rains. Yeah, yeah, the weatherman probably predicted it but it rained TODAY.  I made coffee and settled down in a chair to watch the morning news and get online. No internet. Of course. Comcast thought they’d finally figured everything out and after replacing everything they could possibly replace; my internet service appeared to be working consistently after months of extremely spotty service.

**About my internet service - I’ve been working with a local supervisor for months and have had at least 10 or 11 different technicians in my home doing work to solve my outage problems. The thing is, when they run diagnostics on other Comcast customer’s internet service that surrounds me, no one else has fluctuating service or outages. They’ll replace a cable or two inside or outside and everything is fine for a few days and then it goes out. They’ll try different modems and all is good for a couple of days and then it goes out. Several technicians have said it’s a strange electrical problem where there seems to be a lot of feedback or something. However nothing fails but the internet. And there has been no significant electrical “happening” taking place in my home that could cause this except one. My husband’s death and spiritual presence.

Ok, back to today. It’s raining. My internet is out. All morning long my cable has been losing its signal in 15-30 second intervals. Just a gray, snowy picture on all channels. Even with all the internet problems I’ve had going on, this NEVER happens.

And then the pièce de résistance...I started a load of clothes and began doing a few random things around the house before heading out to lunch with my daughters. The next thing I know there is water coming out from under the laundry room door. Yep, my washing machine drain backed up and was spilling out all over the floor.

Hello Al, happy birthday to you! Just like you to do a little turning of the screw today. Think I’ll have a little carrot cake tonight just for you. Ha! Gotcha back. I love you.