Murphy Lives at my House

First we had the window drama that is yet to be resolved.  There haven't been any days warm enough for the crew to finish the job.  It doesn't look real promising as the wind chill factor this morning was -25.  And more snow is on the way for Sunday and again on Tuesday. 

Then there have been problems with the furnace in the building.  The landlord has had repairmen out working on the problem.  This building is old - built in the late 1800's.  He told me the duct-work is a nightmare of a maze, my apartment being at the very end of this mess.  There is only so much they can do without shutting down the furnace and at the temps we have had lately, that is not a good option.  Duane's apartment next door to mine stays in the mid-70's range while mine is at 63 degrees when I wake up in the morning.  The space heater helps and I have lots of heavy sweaters and sweatshirts, so I am not exactly freezing to death, but Murphy strikes again.

My kitchen is located between my living room and bedroom.  There is one window facing a brick wall next door, so not a whole lot of light from outside comes in.  There are two florescent lights in the kitchen that provide more than adequate lighting.  Yesterday when I flipped the switch, both lights remained dark.  Murphy, you devil, you!

My landlord sent his handyman here to change the bulbs in both lights.  Nothing.  Turns out there is another part to the lights that needs replacing.  They will fix that sometime today.

When the handyman was finished, he went down to his truck to get some rags to wipe up the mess of dirt and melted snow he had dragged in.  He had been shoveling snow before coming here.  He came back a short time later, asking to use some of my paper towels, as his damp rags were now frozen solid.  All I could do was laugh.  Welcome to Minnesota in February.  And Murphy, you are an evil genius.

Here is my point with all of this foolishness.  None of it is within my control.  I have two choices.  I can get all mad and upset and raise my blood pressure to dizzying levels.  Or I can see the humor of it all and relax.  The windows will, at some point, get installed.  The furnace will get fixed.  So will my kitchen lights.  So I might as well get on with whatever I decide to do today and enjoy what I can. 

I find that my go-to meal of home canned food when either time is limited or something like a dark kitchen happens, is either vegetable beef or chicken vegetable soup canned in quart jars..  I have it as soup for lunch and then thicken it for beef stew or chicken ala king over biscuits for supper.  I have one whole chicken in the freezer.  So my grocery  order will include two more chickens, a couple of beef roasts and vegetables to make more of each, as I am getting low on both.

If nothing else, this last couple of weeks have been a lesson on how to cope when Murphy shows up and makes himself comfortable.  This is a far cry from the problems we would have should the grid go down, but it gets me to thinking about what I really need to do, just in case.

I still believe that a working sense of humor goes a long way to make life bearable.