The Last Week of August, 2017

The last week of August will go down in my history as one of the best. First, my dad turned 80. It was great to go and celebrate the man I admire and love so much. He is a wealth of historical knowledge (I happened to be related to Samuel Champlain and Sacajawea's husband), a talented artist and a practical joker. Our party was a small affair, but it was so much fun.  We had family, cake and a Dad trivia game. My brothers and I (and spouses), had an after-party, sponsored by amaretto. Amaretto did well. My liver did not.

But the end of August will not only go down in history for my potential liver failure, but also because after a year and three months of madness, my pool has been fixed. The quick backstory was we paid someone to remodel the pool. They went out of business. Normally that isn't an issue, all one has to do is contact the Registrar of Contractors, wade through red tape and bureaucratic policy and voila! One gets reimbursed so the pool can be completed. Unfortunately, there is a slight hiccup to that. If the company that takes your money and then files bankruptcy and then decides to include you in the bankruptcy, there is a lot more  red tape and bureaucratic policy. There are also judges and lawyers involved. There is also some nifty document titled "stay", which I don't know exactly what it does, but we needed one so that the Registrar of Contractors would actually look at our case. We gave them that document in February. We got the pool finished last week.

Also last week a dear, dear friend--one of my favorite people, actually--and is sweet wife came to visit. They were able to squeeze us in during their marathon dash through town and on to the Pacific Northwest where they will begin the next chapter of their lives. Even though the visit was only a few hours, it kept me on a high all week.

And finally, if last week couldn't have been ducky enough of the above three events, there is a fourth. We received a letter from the courts telling us our Accidental Business is officially closed. Of course, we really aren't welcome in a particular Southern state after all this either, but I am good with that. Last time I was there was December and I wasn't willing to give them a penny of my money and insisted we fill up in gas in Pascagula and eat our dinner in Pensacola. If anyone had to go to take a pit stop, they were out of luck, I was driving and I wasn't stopping in that state.

When I got the joyous letter, I sang an impromptu song to the tune of "Bear Down Arizona", which 1) is not appropriate for mixed company and 2) astonished members of my family who had no earthly clue I knew the University of Arizona's flight song. Frankly, my words were pretty interchangeable in some places--especially if you are an Arizona State fan. Anyway, the business is closed and I think I will go for a swim to celebrate.