Couldn’t sleep last night for running all the bathroom punch list items through my head. I got up just before midnight to watch TV (part 1 of Life at the Waterhole on PBS; highly recommend). There’s something soothing about watching wildlife come and go from an African watering hole, the cycle of life and death. It reminded me of my safari back in 2005 in Botswana. One of our camps had a watering hole in the center, surrounded by our platform tents. I remember taking a shower, which was outside the tent, and watching elephants spray themselves. In the morning, I saw our neighborhood foxy gal catch a chipmunk in the back yard—yay! Not that I don’t like chippys, but they’re getting a little too abundant here at Downe House.

Right on time the contractors showed up to investigate the leaky tub drain and remove a chunk of the dining room ceiling. The got it all figured out, fixed the leak, tested and tested again, then cleaned up some other things I had minor complaints about. They’ll be back next week to finish the job—I hope that’s a finish with a capital F. It rained all day, so they decided not to do the fan vent out to the roof until next week.

We’re grateful for the water; the garden loves it, as does the new sod. The straw protecting the grass seed didn’t get dragged away in yesterday’s torrential downpour. The baseball game were supposed to go to go called, so tomorrow afternoon is the rain check (Atlanta Braves vs our local Nats and World Series Champions).

Saw my spinal savoir, Dr. Joe the chiropractor, today. He warned me it wasn’t going to be “a happy visit,” which is a gentle way of saying, “I’m going to work some muscles and tendons, and you’re going to be in excruciating pain, but it’s for your own good.” Seems I’m all stove up from walking like Frankenstein with the boot—ya think? It will be several more weeks of treatment torture to make sure my body is prepared to walk normally again when my ankle is released from prison.

It’s National Making Life Beautiful Day, and that’s just what Mamacita did for me this evening. We had the nicest phone chat, catching each other up on happenings over the last few days. She keeps reminding me not to be surprised if the contractors don’t finish all the work before the end of the year, as promised. We talked about the importance of doing a job right the first time or suffering the consequences, and that’s how children should be raised, to take pride in what they do and to do it right. Well she certainly enacted that when we were growing up, and I love her to bits for teaching me that. She also taught me that people make mistakes, and so I didn’t yell or get angry at the contractors. They looked pleasantly surprised when I kindly pointed out all the things that needed correcting and thanking them for taking care of it. I don’t want to be that customer that loses her nut over something that doesn’t matter in the grander scheme. I count myself lucky that we have the luxury of installing a new bathtub! Live is generally good even it does sprain, leak, and lose some sleep at times.