Rise and Shine Girl Blog

Okay, I must confess.  My reasons for going into the social work field aren’t all completely altruistic.  I made the connection that getting bachelors and masters in social work would keep me far away from the math department.  The only class I had to take to was probability and statistics and that is the one math course that makes sense, I can apply it to everyday life.  With that said, what I’m really saying is that I’m not much of a numbers person and unfortunately this flows over into how I pay our household bills.  I won’t bore you with my system, but let’s just say it isn’t full proof as to always paying the bills on time.  I think I’m still in the range of normal on bills missed with exception of our gas bill.  That clicking you may hear isn’t my fingers typing away it is my teeth chattering as my house is sitting at 65 degrees this morning, because somehow forgot to pay the gas bill for 4 months!  Frankly, I think it is the gas companies fault as I pay the bills I receive and I must not have received a bill for months.  I know I’m not taking responsibility here.  Anyway, they shut off our gas!

I spent 30 minutes last night trying to figure out why my stovetop wasn’t working.  I came to the conclusion that I finally burned it out with all the overflowing pots that somehow manage to find their way on my stove.  Later, I came home to a cold house.  The thermostat registered a few degrees lower than normal, so I came to the conclusion it needed new batteries.  I changed the batteries, no change in the thermostat.  Putting my thinking cap on, I went to the fireplace, turned on the gas and tried to lite it.  Nothing!  At that moment I knew, I would never hear the end of it!

I went into Cole’s room where he was waiting for me to tuck him in and gave him and Charles the news.  They looked at me and said, “No biggie, we can pay it and get it turned back on tomorrow.”  Then I decided to connect the dots for them and mentioned we get hot water as a result of having gas.  They looked at each other and said, “I guess we will just be brushing our teeth tomorrow!”

**Okay, I began this blog post Friday, yesterday morning, and then my day blew up so I’m now picking this up again.  When I’m referring to today it was really yesterday so at this point everyone has showered and we can stop spraying room freshener**

I then went on to say, it also means we won’t have heat for the night.  At that point I looked over at Ares our new reptilian addition to the family.  Yes, this is Ares the reason why I was on search for crickets in my last blog.  Anyway, Ares needs a warm environment to survive, hence he has a special heat lamp, but I was concerned that may not be enough for the night. Upon realizing this I recruited Charles to help me figure out how to keep Ares warm for the night.  Moments later we were wrapping a quilt around the tank.  Mind you it is about 10:30pm on a school night.  While being the good grandparents to Ares and caring about his wellbeing, Cole says, “Do you mind keeping it down…I’m trying to sleep.” 

It was at that point, my filter was gone for the day and words just flowed from my mouth.  “Wait a minute…Ares is yours…you can’t decide when you want to take care of him.  He is like having a baby, he needs you.  You are lucky he has grandparents who trying to make sure he doesn’t freeze tonight.  Do you know how many times in your lifetime I have been up with you while the bed was calling my name…?”  I probably went on for a few more minutes.  After I was worded out, Cole said he got my point and asked if he could go to sleep.  In all fairness, Cole has done an outstanding job taking care of Ares so far.  Wait true story, as I was just typing this Cole came up from downstairs and said, “Mom can you change my lizard light?”  “You’re asking me?” I say.  Cole, “Be a dear…”  It is 7am on a Saturday morning…Grandma M’s lizard light changing duties call…

Okay, I’m back.  I will admit this here.  I just love that little lizard!  He is so cute!  There is something about looking into a living creature’s eyes when you make a connection with them.  Yes, I’m saying that I have bonded with this lizard.  Cole would probably state too much seeing as I texted a picture of Ares’ first poop to Cole when he was at school.  Cole thought that was disgusting and I was wacked out. 

Well obviously Ares survived the night, but we humans unfortunately didn’t wake up to an 80 degree environment in the morning.  After the morning of getting the kiddos off to school I hit the gym.

**OMG!  Cole just yelled at the dog, Yoshi peed in the guest room and now I just finished a debate on why Cole should clean up his mess.   Yes, I used the card that I just changed the lizard light for him.  See Karma does exist!**

Arriving home I had about an hour before I needed to be at a lunch meeting.  The previous night after insulating Ares, I went on-line and paid the gas bill, but now I needed to call to have them turn our gas back on.  I placed the call and after several computer prompts and getting to a human I was told I would be schedule to have the gas turned back on for Monday.  The customer service rep went on to say that they do not do same day hook-ups.  Mind you, it was Friday when I placed the call.  I have to admit my blood starting boiling a bit, which actually warmed me up, but then I tapped into my Zen zone and very calmly asked to speak with a supervisor.

This is what I said, “Thank you for taking my call and let me just say that I know it is my fault that my gas was shut off, I take full responsibility.  I was told Atmos doesn’t have same day hook-ups and I understand that is the policy and I can accept that.  What I have a difficult time accepting is that Atmos chose to shut my gas off on a Thursday not knowing when I would realize it was shut off.  I didn’t realize we were without gas until after hours which then led me to make the call today.  Since it is Atmos’ policy not to do same day hook-ups, I’m now in a position where I have to go through the weekend without gas and it is expected to be one of the coldest weekends of the winter so far.  I wish Atmos would have thought through the consequences of turning off a household’s gas on a Thursday.”

The supervisor then offered to call the local office and squeezed me in for Friday.  I think I was successful because I took responsibility for my mistake, I channeled my disappointment towards Atmos not the supervisor I was talking with, and most importantly I think I had a good point.  Not to mention I had Ares to think about!

Gracious and thankful for the supervisor’s work I rushed to jump in the shower and then made the realization that it would probably be a cold one.  Luckily, there was hot or rather  warm water available, but it was bound to turn to cold at some point.  I tried to take a shower as quickly as I could with a constant fear that the cold water would be arriving any minute.  Ladies, it is that feeling you have while waiting for the next contraction during childbirth, best description I can think of.  Fortunately the cold water didn’t show up because it was bad enough stepping out of a warm shower into a 65 degree house.  Off to my lunch meeting I went while waiting for the 30 minute heads-up call from Atmos.

Needless to say I received the call that the technician would be at my house in 30 minutes just as I was sitting down at my lunch meeting.  Where at that point I needed to explain to the group of people the fiasco I created for myself by not paying the gas bill which then explained why I was dressed like it was 40 degrees out while it was actually 70 degrees.  My nose looked like Rudolph and my hands felt like ice cubes! 

I really didn’t want to leave the meeting because it was an instrumental one in regards to a fundraiser I’m working on.  So, I called my sweet neighbor who came over and helped the Atmos technician go throughout my house, which then led to my neighbor calling me freaking out about the fact that Cole has a lizard in his room.  She said, “We have so many lizards in our neighborhood, why can’t he just look out the window instead of keeping one in his room?”  Little does she know I used that same line of reasoning for a while and it worked until Cole approached me on a day when I was enjoying the feeling of Hydrocodone!

The last 24 hours have taught or reconfirmed several things to  me:

1. When you take responsibility for your own wrong doings people are more than likely to be willing to help you.
2. Check you SPAM box often because there could be a slew of electronic bills hanging out in there.
3. When dealing with customer service reps remember they are not the ones making the policies, so don’t take your frustrations out on them.  Point your level of frustration at the company at hand.
4. Maybe most importantly from a comfort standpoint, one of my water heaters is actually electric!
5. Finally, I’m in love with Ares!

RISE AND SHINE!