Big Box Mystery x 2

On Thursday afternoon, along with my Target shipment of cat food and coffee and stuff, this big box was delivered.

Elise brought it in, not noticing that it was a huge light fixture, probably bigger than our table and probably not ours.  

The address was correct, but the name was Robert Windham, and the package was from Home Depot with a Jefferson, GA address.  I contemplated what it all meant for a while and then called the toll-free number on the box.  It was Home Depot, but after I walked through all the options, I just got a lot of static so decided to call the other one and left a confused message.

Almost immediately, I got a call from Brenda, the wife of the Robert on the package, but that's where it got confusing.  The light fixture was ordered from a Massachusetts Home Depot for shipment to Brenda's address in Dallas who is decorating a home for  Amy who is moving from Massachusetts to Dallas.  No one can figure out how I got in the middle of it, but it allowed for a nice fun conversation with Brenda.  Even Amy called me to apologize and try to figure out what in the world happened.

Then I got a message from Brenda that our local UPS store - a block away - would accept it for return and keep me from having to ask Ryan to drive to the next town.  Still had to get it down the stairs, but I figured Ryan could do that easily.

In the meantime, this arrived this morning.

More of Amy's light fixtures!

I texted Brenda, and she took all the information, and now I had two packages to get to the UPS store.  I decided to call them first though, just to make sure, and the guy there acted like he had no idea what I was talking about and said they couldn't possibly receive and reship them but did give me the 800 number for UPS.

Called that number and woke somebody up, it sounded like.  He decided to take down the tracking numbers and have a truck pick them up - sometime - I'm not sure.  They'll call me.  

So now they sit here in the living room.  I sprayed them as well as I could and hope they'll be gone soon.  

The rest of my day?  

Made a 5 batches of my breakfast muffin - minus the blackberries and substituting walnuts for the nut butter.

It's a little work, but then I have 5 breakfasts ready to pop in the microwave, yummy ones too.  

I read some of Dark Vanessa - really slow reading, but I'm determined to finish it.  

Chatted by email, Facebook, phone, and text to various people.

Got even more unsure about whether I should be out at all.  I think going to get the mail and discovering how cold it was helped in my decision not to walk today.  We do have warm weather coming, starting tomorrow, and when it gets into the 60s and 70s, I'm going out even if I have to wear a mask.  

Doing a lot of reading about whether homemade masks are any good and what you can do to improve them.  I might decide to make one or two and get some good filters for them.  I don't know if that's the coming thing or not, whether we will be forced to wear them for a while, or if it's just a passing thing.

I really, really miss my babies, and if that's what it takes to talk to them from a distance, I'm going to do whatever it takes.  

We did a scavenger hunt through Graysen's video chat, and that was so much fun.  I had just a small list of things for them to find around the house, but they got into it and kept begging for more.  I had them running up and down the stairs and raiding the kitchen drawers, but Emily managed to get a good bit of work done while they were occupied.

Funny moment:  Graysen had to find something with the letter G but couldn't think of anything.  She was thinking and thinking and at the same time popping grapes into her mouth.  Her next object was something round, so she got two things at once.  

I have a good long complicated list ready for next time, including songs to sing and little jobs to do mixed in there.  

Yesterday I heard voices downstairs and looked out the window to see Katherine riding by on her pink bike.

They had come over to pick up some frozen ground beef that they had left in my garage freezer.

They were already arguing over who was going to take the "ground beef babies" in their baskets.

While I stood there talking, this hummingbird just flew right up beside my ear and started eating.

We made eye contact, but I was the first to look away in shame at having poured boiling water in the feeder and warping it.

Weekend is coming up.  I'm not sure what we will do.  I think I will see if Elise wants to ride up to Fall City and see the cherry trees blooming along the river.  I'll see what I can bribe her with.  Starbucks maybe?