Domesticity

Glass Holes

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The glass guy came yesterday and replaced my window.  Hooray, my car no longer has a gaping hole in it!  Boo, we’re out a couple hundred bucks to finance some vandalizing schmuck’s idea of a smashingly fun night out.  The auto glass repairman was a polite professional who was amusingly delighted with the bottle of Coke we gave him, although I must say that I hope we do not have cause to see him again in the future.

Now we need to figure out if there is a workable way to amend our car-parking situation so my car is off the street.  We have two cars and a one-car garage, which complicates things somewhat.  My husband, being a car enthusiast who loves his vehicle, parks in the garage with my blessing; we would be much more upset if something happened to his car than to mine.  I like my car and all, but it’s pretty much just an appliance to me, whereas my husband’s car is the sum of a lot of work and TLC over the past five years.

I definitely don’t want to start playing the car shuffle game that would need to ensue if I started parking in the driveway.  It is possible, just barely, for me to pull off to one side of the driveway and leave enough space for my husband to get in and out of the garage, but that leaves my car in the grass.  That would be less than ideal, especially since the latest issue of the neighborhood newsletter included a reminder that residents are not to park on unpaved areas of their property.  Is our only option to pave a parking area off to one side of the driveway?

Ugh.  I’d much rather be able to feel I can safely park my car in front of my own damn house without its smooth, newly replaced window glass shining like a beacon for bored teenagers inclined towards mischief.

Can We Trade Places?

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I’ve been mentally composing a letter that will never find its way to its intended recipient:

Dear Vandal(s),

While I would hesitate to advocate violence in response to your crime, I must admit that I would find it difficult to be unhappy if someone were to smash in your teeth the way you smashed in my car window.  The poetic justice of that particular revenge fantasy appeals to me on a deep and somewhat disturbing level.

Regards,
The owner of a glass-strewn and extremely well-ventilated vehicle

So, remember that relaxing Shabbat I was planning to enjoy?  The one where I was going to unplug from the world for a time and enjoy a little spiritual renewal?  It was not to be.

My day had been going quite well until my doorbell rang; I answered it to find my neighbor on my porch asking me if I’d seen my car.  Thinking she was referring to the flat tire we hadn’t yet gotten around to fixing, I said yes, thank you for pointing it out, we’re planning on getting all new tires anyway.

“No, not that!  Your window, did you see your window?”

I had not.  Nor was I, apparently, destined ever to see it in one piece again, for the glass on the driver’s side had been transformed from a functional car window into a sparkly collection of glass shards, a swath of glitter bestowed liberally on the street in front of my house and the interior of my poor car.

Most of you reading this are probably familiar with the Military Spouse Corollary to Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong while your other half is out of town.” My husband had already been away for most of the week, and at the moment my day of rest was so rudely interrupted, was living it up at an airshow and having all manner of amazing aerial experiences of which I would have been extremely envious at the best of times.

Get this: while I was making a police report and trying to sweep up a million shards of broken glass without cutting myself and taping a garbage bag over the gaping hole  in my car, that lucky so-and-so I married was getting to ride in “Fat Albert.”  You know, the C-130 in the Blue Angels?

Fat Albert

The Blue freakin’ Angels, y’all.

I’m so jealous I could just spit.

I love sharing so many interests with my husband, especially a fascination with aviation.  Sometimes, though — if I’m being totally honest — it is hard to see him get to do things that I would love to do and experience things about which I can only dream.  And when I hear about something like that when I am stuck at home having a horrendous day… well.

Please don’t misunderstand: I truly am excited for him when he is presented with these incredible opportunities, and I would never want him not to take advantage of such a chance just because I would envy him.  I love hearing the joy in his voice when he shares this or that story with me.

Yesterday, though?  You’re damn right I would have traded places with him.  When I told him as much, he understood (of course he did; he’s a pretty wonderful guy like that).  We agreed that it would be only fair if next time, I went gallivanting off to the air show and he stayed home to deal with any crap that might arise.

You don’t think his squadron will mind when I show up in his place for the next cross-country, do you?

Shabbat Shalom

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Thanks to the MilSpouse Blog Hop, I have been having fun all day bouncing from one fount of fascinating new reading material to the next.  If I owe the pleasure of your blog-reading company to Wife on the Roller Coaster’s kind introduction, welcome once again and thank you for sticking around past my blog hop bio.  To those who have been reading all along, you already know I’m fond of you!  Or if you didn’t, you do now.

Though I have tried doggedly to stay caught up, the list of eighty-eight (at the time of this writing) participants is more than even this avid online content connoisseur can handle in one day.  If I haven’t yet made my way over to your blog, I will endeavor to do so over the next week.  Tonight and tomorrow until sundown, however, I will be taking a break from the blogosphere for Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath.  Some weeks I’m more successful than others, but every Friday night and Saturday, I try to unplug from the online world that can seem all-consuming during the week.  It’s nice to put down the computer and breathe for a day, and it’s also lovely to reconnect with everyone after Shabbat’s conclusion.

I just wanted to let you know that if you leave a comment or send me an email or follow me on Twitter or what-have-you sometime between this evening and tomorrow night, I will not respond right away.  I promise I’m not ignoring you.  I’ll get back to my bloggish obligations real soon.

Challah!

Nothing makes the house smell better than fresh-baked bread. Nothing in the world.

Right now, though, it’s time to light some candles, drink some wine, and enjoy some fresh, homemade challah.  Shabbat Shalom, everyone.  May you have a peaceful, restful weekend.

MilSpouse Blog Hoppin’ to the Nth Degree

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Wife on the Roller Coaster over at Riding the Roller Coaster is hosting a military spouse blog hop, so I figured I’d dust off my own personal lily pad for new visitors as they bounce from one milspouse blog to the next.  Welcome!

The Short Version: I’m a geeky Jewish Navy wife with two cats and no kids.  I like to cook, fly, read science fiction and fantasy, and drink martinis (provided that there are no pilots playing dice games involved).

My world is defined in large part by two big N’s.  N the First is the Navy: I’ve been married to my Naval Aviator for three years and change, but the Navy has been a part of our lives for much longer.  We started dating when I was sixteen (I know, I know…), and we liked each other enough that we kept at it through his four years at the Naval Academy while I completed my studies at a school other than that quaint little engineering college in Annapolis.

The subject of my studies leads nicely into N the Second: Nerdiness.  I am a great, big, proud, unabashed geek, and no one can talk to me for more than five minutes before they figure out that I was probably never one of the cool kids.  That didn’t bother me too much, as I had Star Trek, Dune, text-based online Dragonriders of Pern roleplaying games, LEGO, C.J. Cherryh, Terry Pratchett, computer programming, and Harry Potter to keep me company.  In college, I couldn’t decide which of my academic geekdoms meant more to me, so I wound up with a distinctly odd double major in Computer Science and Religion.

These days I’m involved in the Civil Air Patrol, in which I have trained to conduct search and rescue missions as a member of the aircrew.  I am hoping to begin flight training towards my own private pilot certificate this summer, so there will be a whole lot of aviation going on in this family.  Later on, some of my husband’s part of the flying equation will take place somewhere far away as we muddle through our first deployment.

If, by the end of that, you’re interested enough to stroll along with me for a while, I look forward to getting to know you.  Once again, welcome!

Ten Happy Things

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Happy 101 Award

I may go into sugar shock just looking at the wee cupcakes (or maybe I’ll be inspired to give into temptation and walk to the doughnut shop for something with sprinkles), but I still want to thank fellow Navy wife Mrs. Somarriba (of The Somarribas fame) for thinking of me when bestowing this sugary award.

As with most sweet things in life, there are still some rules attached:

  1. Thank the person you received the award from.
  2. Name 10 things that make you happy.
  3. Pass it on and contact the lucky winners!

Ten things that make me happy, huh?  Various and sundry things bring a smile to my face, and I find that being easily amused is a trait that leads to a more pleasant stroll through life.  Selected at random and in no particular order, my ten happy-making things of the day are:

  1. Cracking open a new book, especially if it’s hardcover.
  2. Baking bread, particularly challah for Shabbat.
  3. Hanging out with my younger brother, who is a pretty cool guy.
  4. Yummy-smelling handmade bar soaps, such as those here.
  5. Seeing my cats curled up on the chair next to me; bonus points if they’re entwined such that I can’t tell whose paws/tails/what-have-you are whose.
  6. Doing crosswords with my husband.
  7. Tea.  All kinds: white, green, black, spiced, herbal (yes, I know herbal “teas” aren’t actually Camellia sinensis and should rather be termed tisanes), you name it.  It’s a sad day when I can’t brew myself a cuppa.
  8. General aviation.  I love flying in small airplanes, and I look forward to proving myself competent to take the controls myself.
  9. Taking pictures at the local botanical garden.  No matter the season, there is always something to see.
  10. Building LEGO sets.  Who says you have to wait ’til you have kids to play with the cool toys again?

The eleventh thing that makes me happy is getting to chatter cheerfully with fellow MilSpouseBloggers such as the ladies linked to here.  I love reading your blogs and chatting with you on Twitter, and if you’re inclined to share ten things that bring a smile to your face, consider yourself invited to snag a little sugar for your blog and list away.