Disappointment with a side of anger

Do you anger easily?
Sigh, this is one of my many shortcomings and although it's taken quite a long time, I am now able to see that my anger is usually a front for disappointment.  I am able to see that even more clearly when my tween carbon copy, my mini-me storms out after something not going as well as she'd hoped it would.  Hmmmm, anger?  No, disappointment.

Just this morning I had high ambitions of power washing the front of the house, despite it being a crisp 45 degrees outside.  I figured the water wasn't frozen so I might as well be productive.  I got bundled up, everything covered except my nose and mouth and headed outside.

1. Drag out the muddy tools that need to be cleaned so I can do everything at once.
2. Drag out the ladder.
3. Drag out the hose.  Upon reaching the hose reel I see the spigot on the side of the house has been dripping for quite some time.  It's closed as much as possible but still leaking; sigh, another task to add to the list.  I get it all hooked up and drag the hose out to the driveway.
4. Hook up the 2 connections for the wand, both of them want to strip and I'm willing them to screw on correctly with a few choice words under my breath.
5. Hook up the hose to the power washer.  Again, it does not want to screw on and is just begging me that Nov. 3rd is the day it will strip the plastic threads.  Who puts connections with plastic threads on a piece of power equipment, anyway?
6.  All is hooked up, trek back and turn on the water.  Gusher spraying everywhere from the spigot.  I think the neighbor may have heard my frustrating grunt that time.  I try to tighten it, no luck so I say forget it and let it spew.
7.  Get the tips in the wand.  The wand says "forget you" and won't close all the way due to being cold.  Oh, and the tip I need for soap is gone.  Oh well, I'll try to figure something out.
8.  Power washer started- holy GUSHER.  Every connection is leaking, spraying and looking downright ridiculous.  Who hooked this up, a 5 year old?!
9.  FORGET IT ALL.  I was so pissed, just down right MAD.  

I turn it all off, unhook all the connections, throw the hose off the driveway so I don't have to look at it, push the power washer into the garage and come inside.  The dog was moving slower than I wanted so I yelled at him too, just for good measure.

Looks like anger but really it's disappointment.

Going Bold

When we moved into our first house 18 months ago we painted every.single.wall over the course of about 3 months. We knew this was not a forever house for us and after painting one room we made the decision to go with a warm tan color that would be good for resale. We are not eager to paint the 58 walls again, not to mention all the wonderful closets; those were the worst. But now, after sitting in different shades of tan for 18 months I've grown a bit weary and decided it isn't all that fantastic tantastic, so lately I've decided to start finding ways to add color without turning the house into a lite brite toy; speaking of which, my kids have absolutely no idea what a lite brite is. Do the elves still make those?

So anyway, I opened the boldest paint lid yet- really teal and painted three broad stripes in our main-floor half bath. I already had the metal artwork and had been contemplating the stripes for a few months and finally made the jump. I'm not sure where I'll move to next but I do know that it will be small projects because the thought of painting 4 regular walls still hasn't won back any appeal.

Friday night lights

Police, ambulance and fire truck lights that is. While lying in bed late Friday night I heard a crack and some rumbling. I asked J if that was thunder and he said he thought so. A minute or so later I heard commotion and noticed cars in front of our house. Nope, no thunder here, just a car that mistook the house across the street for a McDonald's drive-thru. I don't think he got any fries with that but maybe the police were nice and supersized his handcuffs. The gentleman that hit our neighbors house supposedly passed out from coughing (per his wife) but he'd had enough alcohol to warrant a sobriety test right in the neighborhood street and a chauffeured trip to jail. During his short unconscious spell he drove over a 10 foot bush (starting to resemble a tree), up a slight hill and straight into the house. If he had turned the wheel the other direction he would have driven straight into our front door.

Within minutes every neighbor was in the driveway and people were calling the owner because she wasn't home. After 15 minutes or so a cop rang her doorbell and she answered the door. She slept through the whole thing! By this time there were two firetrucks, an ambulance and four police cars lining the street. What a sight to wake up to!