THAT AWKWARD MOMENT WHEN....

It was very early Saturday morning, and the doggies and I were alone at the house – oh, and the kitten, Dora, who lives in the apartment downstairs. My son was off to work at 5 AM, the rug rats were spending their weekend with their Mom, and Fred’s little girlfriend was away with her sister. Armed with determination, I changed the cartoon station to my rock music and plugged the hose of the central vac; the house was due for a good cleaning. Oops- when the central vac didn’t come on, I remembered that it was on the same switch as the door chimes. Now what?

I had mentioned to my son the week before that I missed my chimes. They had been removed from the wall unit and I didn’t know how to re-install them. No sooner said that done, Jo had it working. What I had forgotten is that there is a short somewhere in the exterior button, and whenever it rains for a day or two, the chimes come on...and stay on. Grump, ever conscious of what good doggies do, immediately begins to bark a warning when he hears them....and keeps barking as long as they play. When Grump barks, Smooch joins in. This was the reason it had been deactivated in the first place. I was rudely reminded of that fact when the weather changed last week. Jo was not home at the time, so my only option was to throw the breaker to stop the infernal racket! Then it promptly slipped my mind; I never thought to mention the problem to Jo when he got back.

Now I was faced with a dilemma. It takes at least an hour to vacuum the house. Did I really want to endure the extra noise and get it done? Or put it off until Jo would be able to repair it? Ah, what the heck. It was just me and the animals. I decided to take care of it by turning up my music!

It presents quite the picture, doesn’t it? Door bells chiming merrily throughout the house, two excited doggies jumping around barking their heads off, Ozzy blaring from the sound system, and a pyjama clad granny wielding a roaring vacuum hose, alternating between singing along with Ozzy or yapping back at the hounds, with an occasional holler of “It’s Rock N Roll!!!”....all this at 7 AM!

While running some errands later that day, I met my closest neighbour (Louka’s master) at the Canadian Tire store.

“Housecleaning this morning?” he asked casually. I stared at him for a minute.

“Sh*t!” I said sheepishly. ‘I forgot to close the windows again, didn’t I?”

“Uh-huh. You added to the choir? I didn’t know the dogs liked Ozzy.”
I explained about the barking, and apologized. We’ve been neighbours a long time; he knows my habits pretty well. He was on his way out the door when he turned back for a parting shot.

“Hey, if you son doesn’t get around to fixing the chimes, let me know. I’ll come over and do that for you.” Then he winked and added, “And for me.”

We both SMILED.

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.