It was Thursday night and I’m finally in bed at 1am after calculating some dire bank account problems. The Kid was watching TV and dozing off, OSM was asleep. Normally I’d hie the Kid to bed but it’s the last week of her summer vacation so I decided to leave her on the futon.

The dog and I settled in and were probably going to sleep well…but at 2:30am, OSM stormed into my room (with cane!) and insisted that I get up. The Kid was not listening to her. I stumble into the living room where the Kid was trying to watch a TV show and OSM was angrily stating that she can’t sleep with the TV on - this from the woman who burned the power board of my old flat panel TV by running it 24/7.

So I gave the Kid ten minutes to finish watching her show and told OSM to settle down. Ten minutes later the Kid popped off to bed, the TV was off, and I was wide awake. Under the circumstances I decided to catch up on blogs and email.

At 3:30am OSM started banging around in the kitchen. “Mom, what are you doing?” “You know when you’re on the computer I can’t sleep,” she replied, her voice brimming with irritation. “Would you please go to bed?”

*****

I got home from work today and the Kid had not done the dishes, had not cleaned the balcony, had not paid the $0.30 to the nice guy at 7-Eleven who caught her back when she was a little short on cash. So we had a fight. About thirty minutes later there were four police officers at our door, asking about an argument between an man and a girl in which the girl was screaming, “I need help!”

So much for astute neighbors. I’m not a guy, and what she was screaming was, “I need a hug!”

The police were chuckling when they left. The hug thing had been a first for them.

I think the Kid learned her lesson - at least I hope she did. The neighbors don’t want to hear her temper tantrums any more than I do.

*****

This year’s birthday present to myself is an Instinct from Sprint. When I ordered it I told customer service that they needed to change the contract terms on the Kid’s and my phones because they were reversed. I was assured it wouldn’t be a problem, that activating my phone on the proper number would be a snap. A snap!

The phone arrived this evening so the Kid and I (after the police incident) turned our attention to programming it. It was no snap. One and a half hours and two Sprint agents later, we finally got the right phone numbers on the right phones and the right shared minutes plan that wasn’t going to surprise me with the $300 per month billing they’d originally (and erroneously) added to my account. You have no idea how close I came to throwing the damned thing off the balcony.

*****

Took OSM and the Kid to Julian yesterday. We had a blast on the drive there, and rode a horse-drawn carriage for a tour around the tiny town. Both OSM and the Kid were thrilled. I’m now a huge fan of cinnamon ice cream.

On the drive up we marveled at the fields of dead trees from last October’s wildfires, how parts of trees were charred and streaked with gray while other parts were green and blossoming. I really loved this little trip - and not because we came home with pies! It was, in the grand scheme of things, one of our better family outings. Those two got along; I got some peace and quiet.

The scenery sort of reminded me of my life lately. I may be burning out but but there always seems to be a fresh and indefatigable blessing pushing its way up through the vexing wreckage.